Authority,Governance,Legitimacy,Representation: Some Thoughts from the Muslim Margins

Abstract

The study of political theology has never been a neutral exercise in excavating the theoretical origins of sovereignty. The political contexts in which questions arise are instructive. In this paper, I argue that the very language of representation and legitimacy articulated for Muslims in the contemporary world may occlude the political challenges that obviate their possibility. Biopolitics, the construction of tradition, the possibility of a ‘philosophical religion’ and the challenge of rationality, and the incompleteness of the critique of political theology make the actuality of a critical and theoretical encounter with representation difficult at best, elusive at worst.