Race and the study of religion: ’West’ and ‘East’, or white and non-white?

The Religion Factor post on 28 November 2013 – Religion and International Relations (IR) Theory -posed a challenge to IR scholars to be more self-reflexive in their understanding of religion and secularism. Such self-reflexive thought challenges dominant categories of thinking in IR, like thinking of Europe as a secular space, or religion as a disruptive influence, for example. In today’s post Faiz Sheikh continues in this vein of self-reflexive thought, examining the ways in which we use race when invoking the categories of ‘East’ and ‘West’.