Sects and Politics Mark Sedgwick ABSTRACT: Responding to the articles ofJeffKenney, Amira Sonbol, and William Shepard, Mark Sedgwick first modifies his original typol- ogy to include William Shepard's proposed category of "establish- ment. " While applauding many of Jeff Kenney's points, Sedgwick defends the use of typologies of Western origin, such as his own, when discussing Islamic sects. Although he accepts Amira Sonbol's call for deeper analysis than is provided by the sociological classification of sects, Sedgwick argues for keeping the study of the origins and nature of a sect separate from the investigation of the reasons for the presence or absence of wide support for a sect. He finally examines al-Qa'ida, showing that in terms of his own typology it is an "outward-oriented" sect. He suggests that al-Qa'ida is closer to an "interest group" than to any other category generally accepted in political science. I appreciate the responses byJefFKenney, Amira Sonbol, and William Shepard to my article on "Sects in the Islamic World." 1 Their com- ments add most usefully to several ongoing discussions. In the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, Kenney and Sonbol discuss the rela- tionship between Islamic sects and politics, a relationship that I only touched on in passing in my original article. Amira Sonbol welcomes my slightly modified version of a standard sociological typology for exam- ining different types of religious bodies as a step away from "exception- alism," from Westerners seeing the Islamic world as fundamentally dif- ferent from the West, a view that generally leads to hostility and even hostilities rather than to accurate understanding. Jeff Kenney, on the other hand, warns of the difficulty of attempting to apply categories of Western origin to Islamic religious and political phenomena. In con- trast, William Shepard is not concerned with politics, but engages in detail with my typology, and proposes a number of modifications. 2 In this article I will defend the use of typologies of Western origin, Nova Religio: TheJournal ofAlternative and Emergent Religions, Volume 6, Issue 1, pages 165-173, ISSN 1092-6690 (print), 1541-8480 (electronic). © 2002 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University of California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center Street, Suite 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223. 165