Table Of Contenti
Politicizing Islam
ii
RELIGION AND GLOBAL POLITICS
SERIES EDITOR
John L. Esposito
University Professor and Director
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-C hristian Understanding
Georgetown University
ISLAMIC LEVIATHAN THE HEADSCARF CONTROVERSY
Islam and the Making of State Power Secularism and Freedom of Religion
Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr Hilal Elver
RACHID GHANNOUCHI THE HOUSE OF SERVICE
A Democrat Within Islamism The Gülen Movement and Islam’s Third Way
Azzam S. Tamimi David Tittensor
BALKAN IDOLS MAPPING THE LEGAL BOUNDARIES
Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States OF BELONGING
Vjekoslav Perica Religion and Multiculturalism from Israel
to Canada
ISLAMIC POLITICAL IDENTITY
Edited by René Provost
IN TURKEY
M. Hakan Yavuz RELIGIOUS SECULARITY
A Theological Challenge to the Islamic State
RELIGION AND POLITICS
Naser Ghobadzadeh
IN POST- COMMUNIST ROMANIA
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu THE MIDDLE PATH OF MODERATION
IN ISLAM
PIETY AND POLITICS
The Qur’ānic Principle of Wasaṭiyyah
Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Joseph Chinyong Liow
CONTAINING BALKAN NATIONALISM
TERROR IN THE LAND OF THE
Imperial Russia and Ottoman Christians
HOLY SPIRIT
(1856– 1914)
Guatemala under General Efrain Rios Montt,
Denis Vovchenko
1982– 1983
Virginia Garrard- Burnett INSIDE THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Religion, Identity, and Politics
IN THE HOUSE OF WAR
Khalil al- Anani
Dutch Islam Observed
Sam Cherribi POLITICIZING ISLAM
The Islamic Revival in France and India
BEING YOUNG AND MUSLIM
Z. Fareen Parvez
New Cultural Politics in the Global South
and North
Asef Bayat and Linda Herrera
CHURCH, STATE, AND DEMOCRACY
IN EXPANDING EUROPE
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu
iii
Politicizing Islam
The Islamic Revival
in France and India
z
Z. FAREEN PARVEZ
1
iv
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Parvez, Z. Fareen, author.
Title: Politicizing Islam : the Islamic revival in France and India / Z.
Fareen Parvez.
Description: Oxford University Press : New York, NY, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016034017 (print) | LCCN 2016035305 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190225247 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190225254 (updf) |
ISBN 9780190225261 (oso) | ISBN 9780190651176 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Islamic renewal—France. | Islamic renewal—India. |
Islam—France. | Islam—India. | Islam and politics.
Classification: LCC BP60 .P37 2017 (print) | LCC BP60 (ebook) |
DDC 305.6/970944—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016034017
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
Sections of chapters 5 and 6 are revisions of material that appeared in “Recognition and
Antipolitics among Muslims in France: Representing ‘Islam of the Banlieues’” (in Muslim
Political Participation in Europe, ed. Jørgen S. Nielsen, Edinburgh University Press, 2013)
and “Debating the Burqa in France: The Antipolitics of Islamic Revival” (Qualitative
Sociology 34, no. 2 [2011]: 287–312).
v
For my parents, Zaheer and Kausar Parvez,
who made the journey
vi
Study me as much as you like, you will not know me, for
I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be.
Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself, for
I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see.
jalal al- din muhammad Rumi
vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
1. Politicizing Islam Across North and South 1
2. Secularism and Muslim Marginality 35
3. Politics of Redistribution 63
4. Political Community in the Slums of Hyderabad 94
5. Politics of Recognition 123
6. Antipolitics in the Banlieues of Lyon 150
7. Conclusion: Democracy, Feminism, and the War on Terror 181
Appendix A: Between the “Logic of Logic” and the “Logic of God” 193
Appendix B: Interviews 211
Notes 213
Glossary 235
References 239
Index 259
viii
ix
Acknowledgments
i begin my acknowledgments by thanking the men and women in Lyon
and Hyderabad who, by welcoming me into their lives and communities,
made this book possible. For their generosity and open hearts, I thank
the women in Hyderabad’s training centers who brought me into their
worlds and shared with me their stories, dreams, and disappointments.
For confidentiality, I have changed most of these names. I offer my heart-
felt shukriya to Rahman and Anwar in Shanthi Colony and the activists in
Zohra Bagh whose courageous work is to me the highest vision of public
sociology. Many individuals in Hyderabad may think I forgot them. In
truth, I have carried our memories and conversations with me all this time.
This includes my time with Dr. Hasanuddin Ahmed, who shared many
afternoons, analyses, and a wealth of insights into Hyderabad’s Muslim
history. I am indebted to Mr. Haq, Kulsoom apa, and to Mirza Mustafa
Khan, whose generosity remains a source of awe. My aunt Naveed Haq
passed away at the end of my fieldwork. From her unconditional love to
delicious tiffins, her support in Hyderabad made all things seem possible.
Her memory remains with me.
The women of Mosquée Hasan in Vénissieux altered my path in impor-
tant ways, and it is their words that give life to sections of this book. In
keeping with their pious practice they would not want me to thank them.
I acknowledge Yassin and Mounir, with a full heart, and the Mosquée Hijra
community for their trust and kindness. Several friends in Lyon over time
made this city feel like home: Rachid Kssiouar, Sabrina Rieu, Giovanni
D’Andrea, Laurent Chignier, Shubhra Chakravarty, Taysir Rekaya, and
Sylvain Lagrand.
It gives me great pleasure to thank Michael Burawoy, who nurtured this
book since its inception as a dissertation in the Department of Sociology
at the University of California, Berkeley. Michael did not join the chorus
of voices back then that discouraged the comparative angle of the research
