This paper explores the agency of two reformist thinkers, namely Abdolkarim Soroush (1945- ) and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1943-2010), in negotiating their space within the “western” discourse on Islam. The last three decades, indeed, have witnessed a spark in the literature on reformist Muslim scholars in the Anglophone academia. Authors such as Abdolkarim Soroush, Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Fatima Mernissi, Amina Wadud have emerged in the English scholarship as authoritative voices in contemporary debates within Islam. While a broad literature has discussed these thinkers as reflective of an emerging phenomenon within the Muslim world, other authors have underlined the political dimension of “Western” attention to them. In her prominent article “Secularism, Hermeneutics, and Empire: The Politics of Islamic Reformation,” Saba Mahmood untangled the political structure underpinning American discourse on Islam, seeing the support for these figures as linked to foreign policy and security interests. This research sets itself in dialogue with Mahmood’s position: while recognizing the rise in funding on “moderate Islam” often associated with a security dimension, the study investigates the agency of Soroush and Abu Zayd—two figures discussed by Mahmood—in navigating these platforms. The paper explores their discourses and practices in negotiating attention they received by political actors in Europe and North America. The study argues that these scholars were aware of the risks of instrumentalization and adopted a double criticism addressed to both the Muslim world and the “West.” This narrative translated into three modes of engagement: refusal, acceptance with criticism, and collaboration. In this process, Abu Zayd and Soroush wavered between engagement with political actors in an attempt to shape policies and refusing any association as both a matter of principle and legitimacy within the Muslim community. Through the examination of archival material, reports and interviews, this study brings reformist thinkers’ perspective in the analysis of the socio-political mechanisms underpinning the production of knowledge on Islam in the “West.”