Only (A) God Can Save Us

In most philosophical discussions about the “death of God” that may take place within Westernized universities, there is often a curious absence of consideration for how this passing of divinity might impact nomoi beyond those of particular forms of Christian or post-Christian societies and cultures. Confronted with this absence, there is a temptation to try and decolonise the “death of God,” but such an undertaking would only involve inserting the Rest into the time that unfolds between the advent of a Palestinian and his return or moving beyond Palestine as the site of the final battle where the world comes to a rapturous end. Rather than decolonise or globalise the “death of God,” there are those who would consider the present to be defined by la revanche de Dieu. God may have died among the well-heeled and well-read, but remains alive and well among the dispossessed of the world. In the world today, a world constituted by secularity that emanates from the “death of God,” Muslimness has become the symbol of radical dispossession. In a world like this, Islam is a scandal—not only because of the institution of Islamophobia as the grammar of the international order but also because its persistence is uncanny. In this talk, I want to experiment with Critical Muslim Studies and investigate the relationship between Muslimness and the political in the space between the revenge of God and the “death of God.”

Salman Sayyid reads world history and writes political theory. He is based at the University of Leeds, where he holds a Chair in Decolonial Thought and Social Theory. Sayyid has held academic positions in London, Manchester, and Adelaide. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages. Some of his major publications include A Fundamental Fear (a book that, despite being banned by the Malaysian government, is now in its third edition), Thinking Through Islamophobia (co-edited with Abdoolkarim Vakil), and Recalling The Caliphate. Sayyid leads the interdisciplinary research programme of Critical Muslim Studies. He is the founding editor of the academic journal ReOrient and produces the Radio ReOrient podcasts.