The fragmented sovereignty of the ummah: A response to Sidaway's manifesto

Abstract

In this commentary, I engage with Sidaway's manifesto by exploring the implications of the spatiality of the ummah for political geography and what this could mean for future research agendas. I argue that feminist geographical contributions offer an important pathway to discuss the spatial implications in Muslim geographies, because they are useful in critically approaching the political dimension of Muslim geographies, particularly the question of sovereignty. Building on my own research on Muslim family law in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, I highlight the centrality of the concept of sovereignty as well as the question of positionality for a decolonial research agenda of Muslim geographies.