Has Mahmood Mamdani written about religion, Islam, or secularism in his work?
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Executive summary
Mahmood Mamdani has written extensively and explicitly about religion, Islam, and secularism across books, essays, and interviews; his work reframes questions about political Islam as products of modern political history—especially the Cold War—and critiques simplifications that treat Islam as a cultural essence rather than a political category [1] [2] [3]. He situates religion within debates about state formation, colonialism, and secular governance and is frequently cited for coining and critiquing the “good Muslim / bad Muslim” binary that emerged after 9/11 [1] [2] [4].
1. Mamdani’s core claim: Islam as political, not primordial
Mamdani’s landmark book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim argues that the familiar split between “good” (secular, assimilated) and “bad” (premodern, fanatical) Muslims is a political construct produced by modern history—especially U.S. Cold War policies—and not an inevitable outcome of religious doctrine, a thesis summarized in publisher and academic descriptions of the book [1] [2]. He critiques “cultural talk” that essentializes Islam and instead treats the labels assigned to Muslim identities as functions of state power and geopolitical strategy [2] [4].
2. Historical method: Cold War, proxy wars, and the remaking of religion
Across essays and interviews Mamdani traces how Cold War strategies—where external powers cultivated militant movements as proxies—reshaped political movements into religiously framed ones, thereby changing the terrain of what later gets labeled “Islamic terrorism,” a line he develops in both Good Muslim, Bad Muslim and related essays [1] [5]. He links U.S. policy choices (e.g., support for fighters against Soviet-aligned regimes) to the rise of militant formations that were later racialized and religiousized in Western discourse [1] [5].
3. Secularism as contested history, not a neutral backdrop
Mamdani problematizes standard narratives of secular modernity by showing how the separation of religion and state has different histories in Europe and the Muslim world; he notes that issues central to Western secularism—like institutional relations between church and state—were historically less salient in many Muslim contexts until events like Iran’s revolution forced new constitutional mixes of religion and state [3] [6]. In interviews he calls attention to the colonial roots of modern state apparatuses and argues that debates about secularity must account for those postcolonial legacies [7].
4. Scholarly reach: essays, interviews, and public intellectual work
Mamdani’s interventions appear across formats: a public Asia Society lecture and profile that situates political Christianity and Islamic political movements in postwar history [3], a Foreign Affairs piece analyzing political Islam and secularization processes [6], and numerous interviews and symposia in which he links political modernity, sovereignty, and religion [7]. Academic and publisher descriptions repeatedly present him as a central voice on how religion and secularism are debated in contemporary politics [1] [8].
5. Reception, debates, and limits of available reporting
Scholars and reviewers routinely cite Mamdani’s work to critique Islamophobia and to challenge culturalist explanations of terrorism—points visible in academic summaries and secondary citations of his thesis [5] [4]. Alternative readings exist: some scholars argue for stronger attention to theological or grassroots religious dynamics rather than primarily geopolitical explanations, but the provided sources emphasize Mamdani’s political-historical frame [6] [4]. The current set of sources documents many of his major claims and publications but does not provide a complete bibliography; reporting here is constrained to the sampled pieces and summaries [1] [2] [3].