Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

10-2023

Abstract

This article argues that the secular should be understood as a partial construct that is selectively deployed by individuals to structure everyday encounters with difference. The partiality of the secular is pronounced in Muslim minority contexts, in which Muslims must negotiate varying degrees of ontological incompatibility between their religious and nonreligious selves. How religious and secular understandings of “model” citizenship are negotiated throughout the spaces and aspirations of everyday life can provide insight into the partiality of the secular, and how such partiality can create difference where there might otherwise be unity. We illustrate these ideas through an empirical exploration of Singapore’s Muslim minorities. In Singapore, the Muslim population is primarily Malay, but includes non-Malay cohorts as well. Bangladeshi migrant workers form an important minority, as their visa status precludes them from becoming Singapore citizens, and thus removes them from the direct secular structuring of the state. In the mosque, the interfacing of Singaporean Muslims on the one hand, and Bangladeshi Muslims on the other, yields important insights into the assertions of citizenship, and the negotiation of selfhood, that occurs at the religious margins of a state-defined secular society.

Keywords

margins, model citizenship, Muslim minorities, partial secularisms, Singapore

Discipline

Asian Studies | Religion | Sociology of Culture

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

Volume

113

Issue

3

First Page

616

Last Page

634

ISSN

2469-4452

Identifier

10.1080/24694452.2022.2124146

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2022.2124146

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