Matt Sheedy’s Owning the Secular: Religious Symbols, Culture Wars, Western Fragility uses a case study approach to examine how secularism, nationalism, and multiculturalism are understood by various groups as they engage in contestation over who belongs, socially and politically. Sheedy investigates the way "the secular" is imagined in two public controversies over the veil in Canada—at the federal level and in the province of Québec—and also in the case of an ex-Muslim podcaster seeking to place herself in a congenial atheist identity category in an era when contestation over Islam and Muslims plays a major role in culture wars.
The methods that Sheedy uses to examine these cases are discourse analysis and ideology critique. Social media and other modes of online culture have a significant impact on how ideas are transmitted and how we constitute ourselves as groups in relation to other groups today. Hence Sheedy’s study focuses in particular on frameworks that groups use to understand themselves and others in the digital age. The polymorphous character of the secular makes it an especially superb means of persuasion. The same can said of religion. Sheedy defines religion in this way: “religion is best understood as a contested concept that is shaped by a variety of political, cultural, and economic variables that enable certain modes of religious identification to prevail over others” (7). Dispensing with essentialist definitions of these terms enables Sheedy to make astute observations about how these categories are deployed by various stakeholders in ways that conform to their own interests
What makes the case studies valuable is the use of theoretical frames that bring insight to the data. For example, chapter 2 looks at veiling bans in Europe and Canada. The Québec case is an especially well-chosen example of how the secular is employed as a means of state power. Ban supporters raise questions of gender equality and other liberal ideals that are ultimately subordinate to the larger goal of managing difference. In this chapter, Sheedy examines the rhetoric around veiling as a matter of choice that has animated commentators weighing in on proposed or actual hijab bans in Canada and in Europe. Echoing Saba Mahbood, Sheedy shows how the idea of choice, drawn on either to affirm or deny the legitimacy of Islamic veiling practices, fails to acknowledge the complexity of agency. It oversimplifies the reality of what it means to exercise personal agency and flattens complex decision-making processes.
Sheedy’s second case study explores ex-Muslims and the quandaries about identity and affiliation that they often experience. They often reject identification with the left, whom they tend to view as too wary of critiquing questionable Muslim practices. Many identify with movement atheism (as Sheedy calls it), but recently some ex-Muslims have become wary of the tendency of this movement toward an ethnocentric, clash-of-civilization type attitude toward Islam, and even white supremacy. Sheedy’s analysis focuses on such shifts, offering reflection on how shaky a foundation movement atheism can be for ex-Muslims.
Owning the Secular contributes significantly to secular studies scholarship. It analyzes an interesting set of examples that shed light on the various ways that the concept of secular is deployed by a variety of different groups
I do have some quibbles with the way the book was put together. There are quite a few typos in some sections of the book. And I’m puzzled by the inclusion of a section called “An Interlude on the Idea of Western Civilization.” It deals with critiques of Edward Said’s book Orientalism (Vintage, 1978) and the question of whether western culture is a transhistorical phenomenon. The section has relevance to Sheedy’s overall discussion of how various groups attempt to "own" or master the secular in order to address cultural differences, develop group identity, and express values thought to have continuity with the western past. But Sheedy doesn’t make any attempt to establish its connection to the larger narrative of the book. Nor does he detail the section’s connection to the cases he analyzes. In addition, this section feels off balance. In it, Sheedy offers too much detail in his critique of Said.
Liz Wilson is a professor of comparative religion at Miami University (Ohio).
Liz Wilson
Date Of Review:
October 11, 2022