Nativism and the Politics of Gender in Catholicism and Islam

In his contribution to the edited volume Gendering Religion and Politics: Untangling Modernities (eds. Hanna Herzog and Ann Braude), José Casanova juxtaposes contemporary discourse on Islam as fundamentalist and antimodern with strikingly similar treatments of Catholicism in the 19th century, with particular emphasis on the role of gender. Casanova begins by presenting an account of 19th and early 20th century Catholicism and anti-Catholic nativism in the United States. He then examines contemporary discussions of Islam and anti-Muslim sentiment in the West in light of these earlier developments. In the third section, he focuses on the challenges posed by modern gender equality for both Catholicism and Islam.