Quick question

[triskellian]

The religion of Muslims is Islam. The religion of Christians is Christianity. You can talk about 'John Smith's Christianity', but can you talk about (for example) 'Salman Rushdie's Islam'? It doesn't quite scan right to me. I want it to have an '-ism' or something at the end. Can anyone help?

Comments

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

It doesn't sound right because it's an Arabic word, but I'm not sure what you can do about that. "Rushdie's Islamic faith", perhaps?

Was that a generic John Smith, by the way, or the Labour Party leader?

[triskellian]

Rushdie's Islamic faith
Yeah, that was the best I could come up with, too. Trouble is, it makes it sound more like an actively practised, central-to-his-being kinda religion, rather than part of his cultural identity, which is what I wanted. <sigh>

It was a generic John Smith. I don't usually use them, for obvious reasons, but Joe Bloggs doesn't work as well with a possessive, so I changed him ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I declare that the word you want is "Islamitude", and think we should all keep using it til it catches on.

:)

[wimble.livejournal.com]

We do have Islamism:

    The religious system of the Muslims; Muhammadanism.

 

  1747 Gentl. Mag. 373 Never since the rise of Islamism [note So the Mahometans call their own religion] has our worship once varied. 1754 Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 755 Before the introduction of Islamism into Arabia. 1827 SCOTT Napoleon IV. 85 ‘There is no god but God, and Mahommed is his prophet’a confession of faith which is in itself a declaration of Islamism. 1855 MILMAN Lat. Chr. IV. ii. (1864) II. 212 Syria..became a province of Islamism.
 

    So Islamist, an orthodox Muslim; Islamistic a., Islamic; Islamize v., to convert or conform to Islam; also intr.

 

  1846 E. E. SALISBURY in WORCESTER, Islamize. 1851 F. HALL in Benares Mag. V. 28 Our author's conversion of several unfortunate Musalmáns into mere Islamized Hindús. 1855 MILMAN Lat. Chr. XIV. iii. (1864) IX. 108 Caliphs who were, at least no longer, rigid Islamists. 1893 Miss. Herald (Boston) Feb. 50 Saying that ‘the Western World is waiting to be Islamized’. 1893 in Barrows Parlt. Relig. II. 995 The decadence of the Islâmistic power in Spain. 1895 19th Cent. Nov. 785 Judgment should not be pronounced against Islâm and Islâmists on rancorous and partizan statements.
 


Also, Islam, Islamic, a. Islamism, Islamite, n. (a.), Islamitic, a., Islamitish, a.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I don't think you should really be using terms that old. Normally you'll be fine, but there's some risk that terms like "Muhammadanism" will cause offence.

I don't know whether "Islamism" in place of "Islam" carries the same risk - hence I wouldn't use it in an academic paper...

True

[wimble.livejournal.com]

We also have a reference from the 1976 Time Literary Supplement to "Islamist" (as in "person who studies Islam", which might do here.

An English translation ... has been prepared by the American writer and Islamist, Herbert Mason.

Re: True

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Except that lately "Islamist" has mostly been used in its meaning of "one who advocates the concept of a single orthodox Islamic state".

Re: True

[wimble.livejournal.com]

And further to that, we've actually got references to Islamism from 2002. But from about 1995 onwards, this seems to be fundementalism, and is used in the same sentences as fascism. So that's probably not a word to misapply.

[metame.livejournal.com]

Made me think about the fact that Muslims explicitly reject the idea that a person should be venerated as a route to Allah. They really aren't keen on any kind of personality cult which is in complete contrast to Christianity's dedication of churches to saints.

As such, I think we hear a lot about 'the Pope's Christianity', 'Henry V's Christianity' etc but we're completely unused to the idea of individual's Islamic faith.

More practically, I might stick with talking about Rushdie's beliefs, or Rushdie's faith (a lot of which will obviously be Islamic in nature).