LAUSR

Jocelyn Cesari begins What is Political Islam by referring to two seemingly extremely ambitious questions posed in recent debates about Islam and politics: Is ISIS Islamic? And is Islamic law compatible with the modern state? In the rest of the book, however, she seeks not to answer these two questions but to suggest that they misdirect our attention towards Islamist groups and normative theory. Instead, she views political Islam as “a multifaceted religious nationalism.” As in her 2014 book, The Awakening of Muslim Democracy (New York, 2014), Cesari probes what happens inside existing national states. This version of political Islam operates not on the level of social movements or abstract theory but instead through real authoritative structures, seeking to uncover how religion is molded into existing states. But while that previous book focused largely on the state, What is Political Islam also directs great attention to national cultures. Using these prisms leads Cesari a bit off the beaten path in the scholarly treatment of political Islam. The Muslim Brotherhood is mentioned—in passing. Siyasa sharʿiyya (governance in accordance with Islamic legal precepts) similarly gets a passing mention. Schoolbooks, curricula, Ministries of Education, and universities get extended treatment. Likewise, Sufi brotherhoods, toleration, and treatment of apostasy are examined at length. Cesari’s decision to concentrate on state structures and prevailing norms leads her to orient her findings around two distinct patterns in Muslim societies. The first is “hegemonic Islam” which she describes in terms of political culture but seems most clearly manifested in state structures that fold religious structures into the state so thoroughly that a religion