Review of Naveeda Khan, Muslim Becoming: Aspiration and Skepticism in Pakistan

Excerpt

Muslim Becoming is a fascinating work which combines unique anthropological insights from the field with a keen and creative interest in the conversation texts of modern Islam can have with Western philosophy. In this book, Naveeda Khan tackles the critique, leveled by policy analysts and academics alike against Pakistan, that the country, more than 65 years after its inception, has failed to develop a consistent relationship to Islam. Khan confronts such allegations by arguing that Pakistan inherited and nurtured a history of ‘striving’, a version of Islam ‘with an open future and the possibility of experimentation’ (p. 7). Revisiting debates in the constitutional assemblies, later parliamentary sessions, court reports and the writings of Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Asad and Abu 'l-A'la Mawdudi, Khan argues that the Pakistani state did not satisfy itself with providing a conducive Muslim environment for its population to explore the possibilities of their religion (as manifested, for example, by the famous Objectives Resolution). Rather, the book holds, the state also embarked on such exploratory initiatives on its own. …