If secularism is regarded as a political ideology the aim of which is to remove religion from public political life, then secularism does not fare well in the Arab countries in the early twenty-first century. Political parties and movements, which only a few decades ago publicly advocated a firm separation between religion and state, dīn and dawla, now keep a low profile in such matters, or have lost their political influence. But if secularism is understood as the process by which “religion” is perceived as separate and different from “non-religion,…