Mohammad Magout – Academia.edu
The Nizari Ismaili Muslim community runs two London-based institutions for postgraduate education and research in Islamic studies and social sciences: The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) and Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (ISMC). Through these two institutions the Ismaili community engages in a normative discourse on the nature of religion and its public relevance in contemporary societies. I will explain in this paper how this discourse employs the notion of culture as a mediator for religion in the public sphere. Culture serves to provide a legitimation for Islam in Western liberal societies by bridging the dualisms of modern secular discourse and Ismailism within the wider world of Islam as well as by deconstructing the essentialism of fundamentalist discourses. The following analysis is based on a review of a number of papers written by authors who are (or were at some point)affiliated with the IIS or the ISMC as researchers, faculty members, senior administrators,or in any other capacity. In addition, some promotional media from the two institutes (such as course prospectuses) have been included in the analysis.
Ismailimail 