Nebulösa islamiska studier?

Peer-reviewed journal article · Forthcoming

Complete citation

Emin Poljarević. “Nebulösa islamiska studier?” Scandinavian Journal of Islamic Studies 19, no. 1 (forthcoming).

Publication status and type

Forthcoming; Peer-reviewed journal article.

Overview

This article examines conceptual uncertainty in the academic study of Islam, particularly the tendency to blur distinctions between Islamic religious traditions, lived Muslim experience, and identities attributed to Muslims by external actors. It argues that analytical categories must distinguish Islam as a normative and interpretive tradition from broader social formations and from externally imposed constructions of Muslimness. The discussion connects debates on lived Islam, phenomenology, and the sociology of religion with questions of scholarly positionality and interpretation. Particular attention is given to how institutions and public discourse classify practices or persons as Muslim, even when those classifications do not arise from participants’ own religious self-understanding. The article contributes a more differentiated vocabulary for studying Islam and Muslimness without collapsing theological meaning, everyday practice, and processes of social attribution into a single category.

Research question or central concern

How can Islamic Studies distinguish between Islam as a religious tradition, lived Muslim experience, and externally attributed forms of Muslimness without conflating these analytical levels?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The article combines conceptual analysis, phenomenological reflection, and sociology of religion to distinguish internally articulated Islamic meanings from identities and practices classified as Muslim by external actors. Its contribution is a clearer methodological vocabulary for studying lived Islam, Muslimness, and social attribution.

Keywords

Islamic studies; Muslimness; methodology; lived Islam; religious studies; Sweden.