Fallacies of Foundational Principles: Rawls's Political Liberalism and Islamophobia

Abstract

The philosophy of John Rawls forms a critical cornerstone in modern liberalism, especially with its two concomitant and defining components: the existence of a society that will easily reach a consensus, as a collection of reasonable people, on political matters, as distinguished from religious and other similarly broad social constructs; and that reasonable peoples will organically privilege and prioritize the political over the religious when the two are in conflict with one another. These tenets also inform Rawls's ideas on justice and those who have agency in its definition. Yet, implicit within these tenets is an exclusion of religiously oriented peoples for whom faith systems supersede the political, particularly a political model of which they had no participatory role to develop. The exclusion of Muslims from this process and model facilitates the emergence of Islamophobia in a society that perceives itself as imbued with Rawlsian liberalism and without contradiction. This article explores Rawlsian liberalism and the central role it plays in modern, Western philosophy. It will offer a critique of his beliefs and delineate the internal flaws within Rawlsian liberalism. In addition, it will assess the fundamental architecture of Rawls's liberalism as a model lacking in practical applicability even from a normative reading. Finally, this article will demonstrate how such constructions of liberalism exclude Muslims from agency within a Rawlsian liberal society and contribute to the development and institutionalization of Islamophobia in such societies.