Habermas, Islam, and theorizing the “Other”

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, Jürgen Habermas has been at the forefront of debates involving religion in the public sphere. In the wake of 9/11 he has responded to the problems of terrorism, “radical Islam,” and the so-called Muslim question in Europe, attempting to align these issue with his broader theories of deliberative democracy and postsecularism. Although Habermas aims for an inclusive model of deliberation in the public sphere, I argue that his reliance on macro theories of secularization and modernization reproduce an ideal of secular liberal democracy as the standard by which to think about various “Others,” including Muslims. As a result, I claim that he ends up reproducing a soft variety of the “clash of civilizations” thesis by failing to account for the complexity of Muslim identities. In conclusion, I look at alternative models that are better able to historicize and contextualize “Islam” in the past and present, and point to significant gaps that must be filled if his proposals are to be taken seriously.

Sistem dan Dunia-Kehidupan Menurut Jurgen Habermas

“…Sintesis antara tradisi negara hukum liberal dan tradisi negara sejahtera di mana negara dan hukum harus didasarkan pada diskursus publik (Wattimena, 2005), teori kritis (Atabik, 2013;Irfaan, 2009;Iwan, 2014;Putri & Perguna, 2021;Sholahudin, 2020;Tjahyadi, 2003;Ulumuddin, 2006), tindakan komunikatif (Nuris, 2016). Refleksi masyarakat post-sekuler mengenai rasio moralitas dan fondasi demokrasi (Eggemeier, 2011), agama dalam ruang publik dan masyarakat modern (Gunawan & Bangun, 2019;Junaedi, 2020;Prihatanto, 2007), etika emansipatoris (Safrudin, 2004), penyingkapan yang sosial dalam teori transformasi (Fleming, 2000), Islam dan penteorisasian (Sheedy, 2018), masyarakat sipil dan kasus Filipina (Hermida, 2013), kritik atas rasionalisasi dan materialisme sejarah (Darmaji, 1999), klasifikasi epistemologi Habermas (Saidi, 2015), praksis pendidikan (Wisarja & Sudarsana, 2017), rekonstruksi pemikiran Habermas di era digital (Pembayun, 2017), pemikiran teologi Mazhab Frankfut (Tukan, 2013), terorisme (Fatih, 2020), patriotisme konstitusional dan pembangkangan sipil (Çıdam, 2017), rasio publik dan agama (Colosi, 2016), penerapan teori kritis Axel Honneth pada penelitian akuntansi (Tweedie, 2018), mengkaji kembali sistem liberal (Pugh, 2015), demokrasi di era kaum kapitalis (Selk & Jörke, 2020), moralitas, etika, dan fondasi normatif (King, 2009), distorsi sumber empiris Habermas dalam pendidikan makhuk bermoral (Huhtala & Holma, 2019), kritik ekonomi politik (Dorahy, 2021), fungsi teraupetik bahasa Habermas (Pezdek et al, 2020), rasionalitas menurut Habermas 3 (Blau, 2019), integrasi sesudah totalitarianis...…”