Apolitical ‘Islamisation’? On the limits of religiosity in montane Morocco

Abstract

Carey shows how in a whole variety of different domains of life, the Berbers with whom he worked in Morocco have embraced reformist Islamic teachings. Strikingly, however, it is in the exact domain of life to which so many other anthropologists and social scientists have turned to explain and analyse reformist Islam – the political – that Berber people consciously break with registers of talk, argument and morality that are explicitly Islamic. Carey suggests that an important reason for this lies not in villagers’ disinterest in ‘Islamism’ but in the in the strength of their commitment to Islam as a shared source of moral authority that is also located beyond question and debate. This opens up alternative ways of exploring the relationship between politics and religion that go beyond the frequent opposition between Fundamentalism and Secularism.