The current state of Bangladesh, which mediates between Islamic and non-Islamic cultures, serves as a touchstone for understanding the diverse trends of South Asian Muslim societies undergoing drastic social change. Understanding the situation in Bangladesh can help us to clarify the background of diverse religious issues and reveal the conditions that facilitate harmonious coexistence. This session offers a framework for analyzing these issues through various recent case studies, including (1) secularizing and/or consumerization trends in Muslim societies under the neoliberal economy, (2) Islamization and/or secularization trends in the public sphere, and (3) globalization and/or post-Islamism trends in the secular age. Using the three axes of opposition, we will clarify the process of formation of a bipolar rivalry—regarded as a factor of dividing people—and examine the possibility of overcoming the bipolar opposition in social, cultural, and political arenas.
Specifically, various examples from Bangladesh are examined with a focus on three contentious issues. The first is the secularization/consumerization trends in Muslim societies, seen through case studies of halal markets, Islamic tourism, Islamic NGOs, and the representation of nation and Islam in popular culture. The second is the relationships between Islamization and secularization in the public sphere, demonstrated through case studies of Islamic education in school, religious and secular images in mass media, and writing religion and nationality in history textbooks. The third is the possibilities of post-Islamism in the secular age, seen in various cases of the rise and transition of Islamist parties, the impact of the spread of madrasas on civil society, and the trends of social and political movements led by religious leaders, etc. Through these case studies, we discuss the public sphere and the potential of post-Islamist movements in the secular era.
