On the Discursive and Methodological Categorisation of Islam and Muslims in the West: Ontological and Epistemological Considerations

This article reflects on the ethical and epistemological challenges facing researchers engaged in contemporary studies of Islam and Muslims in the West. Particularly, it focuses on the impact of the constructions and categorisations of Muslims and Islam in research. To do this, it considers the entw...

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Auteur principal: Mansouri, Fethi 1967- (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: MDPI [2020]
Dans: Religions
Année: 2020, Volume: 11, Numéro: 10
Sujets non-standardisés:B Muslim Migrants
B social categorisation
B representing Islam / reporting
B methodological reductionism
B epistemological bias
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Résumé:This article reflects on the ethical and epistemological challenges facing researchers engaged in contemporary studies of Islam and Muslims in the West. Particularly, it focuses on the impact of the constructions and categorisations of Muslims and Islam in research. To do this, it considers the entwinement of public discourses and the development of research agendas and projects. To examine this complex and enmeshed process, this article explores ideological, discursive and epistemological approaches that it argues researchers need to consider. In invoking these three approaches alongside an analysis of a collection of recent research, this article contends that questions of race, religion and politics have been deployed to reinforce, rather than challenge, certain essentialist/orientalist representations of Islam and Muslims in the West in research. As this article shows, this practice is increasingly threatening to compromise, in a Habermasian communicative sense (i.e., the opportunity to speak and be heard for all concerned), the ethical and epistemological underpinnings of social science research with its emphasis on inclusion and respect.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contient:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel11100501