Religiously Grounded: Muslim Legal Subjectivity in the “Navigating Differences” Letter

ABSTRACT This article argues that the “Navigating Differences” letter, in which North American Muslim leaders denounced homosexuality as incompatible with Islam, mark a defining moment of shift and fracture in Muslim legal subjectivity. Over the past twenty-five years, American Muslim organizations oriented themselves around war on terror legal activism. In this period, which I call the juridical epoch of American Islam, Muslims became steeped in a progressive civil rights tradition. In a historical turning point, some legally minded American Muslims now utilize the rhetorical tactics of conservative Christian lawyers in the letter. Using the writings of Saba Mahmood on secular hermeneutics, I reimagine what politics the Navigating Differences letter propounds. Much of Mahmood’s work focuses on liberal Muslim figures, yet her arguments assist as well perceiving how more conservative political operations emerge from secular hermeneutics. Understanding the letter’s rhetoric teaches scholars about shifting conversations about law and Islam.