Workshop Programme“Religion and Secularism as Problem Space in Postcolonial Occidentalist Discourses
within the MENA Region”
Leipzig University, 3–4 November 2022

Religion and Secularism as Problem Space in Postcolonial Occidentalist
Discourses within the MENA Region
International Workshop at the Centre for Advanced Studies“Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities”, Leipzig University
3–4 November 2022
Hybrid event format, on-site event at Leipzig University and online via Zoom.
Convenors: Housamedden Darwish (Leipzig University), Markus Dreßler (Leipzig University)
Sponsored by: Academics in Solidarity, Centre for Advanced Studies “Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West,Beyond Modernities” at Leipzig University, and Institute for the Study of Religions at Leipzig University
Approach
The workshop aims to discuss the question of religion and secularity/secularism in (postcolonial) Occidentalist
discourses and their critiques in the MENA region. The question of religion plays a pivotal role in both the Orientalist
view of the “Orient” and the Occidentalist view of the “Occident”. While the Orientalist view is indebted to a binary
perspective on religion and the secular, with stereotypical essentializations of the religious dimensions of the “Orient”,
the Occidentalist view oscillates between two apparently contradictory reductions, which present the “Occident”
alternatively as Christian or as secular. Furthermore, dominant Occidentalist discourses in the MENA region self-identify
with Islam in a way that overlaps with Orientalist imaginaries of an essentially Islamic Orient.
The workshop intents to explore the trajectories of postcolonial Occidentalist discourses in the MENA region. It
aims to reflect on their various genealogies, forms, and contents. Postcolonial Occidentalism draws heavily on Edward
Said’s Orientalism (1978), and Hassan Hanafi’s Introduction to the Science of Occidentalism (1991). Critical stances of
postcolonial Occidentalist discourses towards the “West/Orient” are thereby often entangled with academic critiquesof secularism (e.g. Asad, and Mahmood), democracy and liberalism (e.g. Massed), the modern state (e.g. Hallaq), as well
as modernity and civilisation (e.g. Abdel-Rahman and El-Messiri).
This workshop endeavours to bring together empirical case studies on particular Occidentalist debates, including
their historical trajectories with theoretical reflections on Occidentalism and Orientalism in the MENA region. The
guiding research questions of the workshop are:•

What role does the question of religion and the secular as a problem space of modernity play in MENA-region
Occidentalist discourses as well as critiques directed against them?

•What are the characteristics of Islamic postcolonial Occidentalism, compared to other forms of Occidentalism?

•To what extent and how do postcolonial Occidentalist discourses in the MENA region relate to postcolonial
theories and (the critique of) Orientalism?

•What is the role of Occidentalist and Orientalist imaginaries in the formation and contestation of cultural, social,religious and political identities in the MENA region?

•What role do Occidentalist discourses and their critiques play in political projects in the MENA-region (within
national contexts, regionally, within international Islamic publics, as well as in the political relations of MENAregion states to Europe)?

The workshop will take place as a hybrid event. The corresponding connection data will be made available toall registered participants shortly beforehand. If you wish to attend the workshop, please send a short inquiry tohousamedden.darwish@uni-leipzig.de.

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Workshop Programme“Religion and Secularism as Problem Space in Postcolonial Occidentalist Discourses
within the MENA Region”
Leipzig University, 3–4 November 2022

Schedule
Thursday, 3 November 2022
09:00–09:30

Opening Session

09:30–11:00

Panel 1Chair and Discussant: Yee Lak Elliot Lee

09:30–10:00

Housamedden Darwish“A New Wave of Arab-Islamic Occidentalism(s) in Post-Arab Uprisings Era”

10:00–10:30

Buket Öztaş
“Contested Secularities in the Era of Islamism and Post-Islamism”

10:30–11:00

Johanna Montanari“Curating secularism in a curated public sphere: transnational news practices in Jordan“

11:00–11:30

Coffee Break

11:30–13:00

Panel 1 – Discussion

13:00–14:30

Lunch Break

14:30–16:00

Panel 2Chair and Discussant: Liudmila Nikanorova

14:30–15:00

Gökçen Beyinli“’Christmas of Muslims’ or a Symbol of Religious Freedom: Mevlid in the History of Turkey as an
Occidentalist Debate”

15:00–15:30

Gamze Tosun“Revisiting a Proposal for Islamic Appropriation of European-Style Theatre: Occidentalism inKısakürek's Theatre and Its Effect”

15:30–16:00

İlbey C. N. Özdemirci“Escape from the Orient: An Analysis of Orientalist and Occidentalist Impacts on Secularization
Processes in Early Republican Turkey“

16:00–16:30

Coffee Break

16:30–18:00

Panel 2 – Discussion

19:00

Dinner2/3

Workshop Programme“Religion and Secularism as Problem Space in Postcolonial Occidentalist Discourses
within the MENA Region”
Leipzig University, 3–4 November 2022

Friday, 4 November 2022
10:00–11:00

Panel 3Chair and Discussant: Nil Mutluer

10:00–10:30

Gamze Canlı“Occidentalist Imaginaries as the Elements of Power Relations in Educational Policies of the AKP inTurkey”

10:30–11:00

Çiğdem Buğdaycı“The problem of religion and secularism in Alafranga and Alaturka in Turkey”

11:00–12:30

Panel 3 – Discussion and Closing Remarks

Sponsored by:Academics in Solidarity, the Centre for Advanced Studies “Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities”
at Leipzig University, and Institute for the Study of Religions at Leipzig University

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