Caner Dagli
Caner K. Dagli is an associate professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
Caner K. Dagli is an associate professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
Caner K. Dagli is an associate professor of religious studies at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.
“We, that is to say, we modern academics, we consider that we're doing something that's essentially universal. It's a kind of a ‘view from nowhere.’ [The thinking is] [w]e're not bound by the particularities of tradition. We're not bound by dogma. We're not encumbered by our devotion to these kinds of irrational or dogmatic power structures. The deep underlying fissure is that we [academics] believe we are inhabiting a kind of ultimate reality that is not bound and particularized in the same way that the Muslim reality is bound and particularized. So what that means ultimately, and very often people don't think this consciously, is that we are in a better position to conceptualize what Muslims are doing and what Islam is, than the Muslims are themselves.” —Caner Dagli on the problem with academia
Who is better placed to say what Islam is: the academic from the “outside” or the practitioner from “within”? In this episode of the Renovatio podcast, Ubaydullah Evans interviews Caner Dagli, scholar of Islamic Studies, to explore the surprisingly elusive answer to the question: “Who gets to define Islam?” As an academic, Dagli critiques the approach the academy has historically taken in defining Islam within certain predetermined frameworks. They explore the tension among scholars in their attempts to define Islam, the tug between whether to hold the practice of Muslim laity or the pronouncements of Muslim scholars with greater authority, and the tension between unity and diversity in the practice and belief of Muslims worldwide. We encourage you to read Caner Dagli’s article, “Islam as One Thing, Anything, or Nothing: What the Western Academy Gets Wrong.”
Can Religion Be Studied Impartially?, Caner Dagli, Renovatio Podcast
What the Hadith Tradition Reveals About Religion in Academia, Jonathan Brown, Renovatio Podcast
Introduction 00:00
Dagli’s Article 01:00
Discussing the origins of the article, “Islam as One Thing, Anything, or Nothing,” its connection to his recent book, and the objectives of this area of his research and writing.
Defining Islam in the Academy 02:00
Exploration of how academics define Islam and the implications of academic perspectives on who is best situated to define Islam.
Imbalance in Defining Islam and Its Implications 10:00
Examination of how academics determine what falls inside and outside the scope of Islam.
The Inevitability of Assumptions When Conceptualizing Islam 21:00
Discussing the logical need to start with some organizing principle to define Islam and the roles of various academics like Marshall Hodgson, Kevin Reinhart, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and Shehab Ahmed, and their influential works.
Islam or Culture? 34:00
Closing thoughts on the challenges of distinguishing Islam from culture and who holds the power to make that and other determinations