Paper short abstract:

Pluralism is a unique lens to approach studying Islam and the Muslim world. Lebanon is a good case study, with religious pluralism enshrined its constitution. Pluralism can decolonise our thinking as anthropologists and provide a novel way to see the lived experience of Muslims in their context.

Paper long abstract:

Conceptualising Islam and the Muslim world using pluralism theories provides researchers a unique way of studying the religion through people, civilisations and worldviews. Pluralism is more than just diversity or the recognition of diversities in society. Pluralism is the active engagement of these diversities and how societies respond to these diversities. Pluralism can be an antidote to colonisation as it does not favour to rank any diversity over another. The Muslim world is resplendent with diversities in practice, laws, ethnicities, languages, geographies and interpretations. This is particularly the case in Lebanon where religious pluralism is enshrined in its constitution and is a facet that is promoted historically and the contemporary period. The challenge today is that this diversity – which could a strength and an opportunity to progress the nation – has lead to political sectarianism. Pluralism is lost a governance level which therefore has a trickle-down effect.

My paper would consider how pluralism as a theory can be applied to decolonise our thinking and our approach to studying the Muslim world. I use Lebanon as an example of a diverse and dynamic society with a high Muslim population and where Muslims are interconnected with their neighbours from other religious communities. Using my fieldwork, the focus would be legal pluralism and the implications and lived experience of the state, non-state actors and Lebanese residents. As anthropologists, we could look at our positionality within this framework and where we sit epistemologically in the data collection and analysis stages of research.