Deislamizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of removing Islamic cultural, religious, or social characteristics from a person, place, or institution; transforming a context to diminish Islamic influence; altering traditions to exclude Islamic elements
2. Changing or converting something to reduce or eliminate its Islamic identity or practices; the act of secularizing or distancing from Islam’s cultural norms; reforming viewpoints or environments away from Islamic foundations
3. The act of stripping or disentangling Islamic attributes from societies or individuals; modifying customs or systems to oppose Islamic principles; reorienting beliefs or settings to lessen Islamic presence or impact

Etymology: "Deislamizing" is formed from "Islamize" with the privative prefix "de-", meaning to undo or remove. "Islamize" itself comes from "Islam," which derives from the Arabic "islām," meaning "submission" to God, from the root "s-l-m" associated with peace and wholeness. English gained "Islamize" by adding the suffix "-ize," which turns a noun into a verb meaning to make something conform to a given character or system. The form follows a familiar pattern in English, where "de-" attaches to verbs such as "decolonize," "demilitarize," and "deregulate" to mean reversing or stripping away the thing named in the base. "Deislamizing" therefore describes the process of removing Islamic religious or cultural influence from a place, institution, or practice, and it is most often used in historical or political writing about specific campaigns of that kind.

Synonyms: secularizing, modernizing, westernizing

Antonyms: islamizing, muslimizing