Orientalists, Islamists, and the Global Public Sphere: A Genealogy of the Modern Essentialist Image of Islam

Jung (contemporary Middle East studies, U. of Southern Denmark) investigates why so many Muslims and non-Muslims continue to represent Islam in the holistic terms of an all-encompassing socio-religious system despite all empirical evidence to the contrary. He discusses the essentialist image of Islam; Edward Said's Orientalism and his critics; observing multiple modernities; modern Europe between positivism and Christian apology; the formation of Islamic studies; and orientalist constructions, Islamic reform, and Islamist revolution.