Legitimising Power through Islamic Law in Identity Politics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65586/insani.v1i2.78Keywords:
Identity politics, Islamic law, Legitimacy of power, Muslim population, Political modernityAbstract
The legitimisation of power through Islamic law in identity politics represents a fundamental paradox of Muslim political modernity, whereby divine norms intended to liberate humans ethically are instead rearticulated as a language of power that structures obedience, normalises the moral domination of the majority, and reduces citizenship to symbolic compliance. The purpose of this study is to comprehensively analyse the relationship between Islamic law, the legitimisation of power, and identity politics in the context of modern politics. This study uses a qualitative approach with a library research design integrated with legal-political discourse analysis. The results state that the legitimacy of power through Islamic law in identity politics is not merely an expression of collective piety, but a battleground that determines the direction of democracy, the limits of citizenship, and the future of pluralism. Sharia, which was originally understood as a religious normative guideline, can shift into a language of power that disciplines the body, regulates social space, and produces a moral hierarchy between more legitimate citizens and stigmatised citizens, so that piety changes from spiritual ethics into political capital that is traded in the market of support. The main problem is not sharia as a value, but rather the mechanism of instrumentalisation that turns religion into a tool of social control and covert moral majoritarianism. The constructive implication is that policy design must uphold religious aspirations without sacrificing civil rights, while also allowing for criticism so that the law does not become a tool of exclusion.
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