The Exit from a Westphalian Framing of Political Space and the Emergence of a Transnational Islamic Public

The present article is in response to Nancy Fraser's article included in this issue, Transnationalizing the Public Sphere. On the Legitimacy and Efficacy of Public Opinion in a Post-Westphalian World, about a public sphere based on transnational ethics that operates without national borders, opposing neoliberal capitalistic injustices globally. The author start by focusing on Habermas' notion of the public sphere as a contribution to normative theories on democracy, and, later on, its theoretical deepening in the theory of communicative action, mentioning both post-national flourishing and transnational opening of the public sphere (acting, arguing and deliberating in common in ways legitimated though rational pursuit of collective interest). The Islamic maslaha (common good or public interest, in both jurisprudential and theological way) seeks the implementation of standards of justice and participation beyond and beneath the national level, drawing on a pre-modern, pre-colonial, and pre-Westphalian background, nurtured by post-Westphalian transformations, and based on the global network of the Islamic transcivilizational ecumene. References. O. van Zijl