* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Are all Muslims the same?
The Jewel of Medina wikipedia , lookup
Islamofascism wikipedia , lookup
Reception of Islam in Early Modern Europe wikipedia , lookup
LGBT in Islam wikipedia , lookup
Criticism of Islamism wikipedia , lookup
Soviet Orientalist studies in Islam wikipedia , lookup
International reactions to Fitna wikipedia , lookup
Islam and Mormonism wikipedia , lookup
Islam and violence wikipedia , lookup
Islamic extremism in the 20th-century Egypt wikipedia , lookup
Islam in South Africa wikipedia , lookup
Spread of Islam wikipedia , lookup
Islam and secularism wikipedia , lookup
Islam in the United Kingdom wikipedia , lookup
Islam in Afghanistan wikipedia , lookup
Islam in Somalia wikipedia , lookup
Islam and war wikipedia , lookup
Islam and modernity wikipedia , lookup
Schools of Islamic theology wikipedia , lookup
Islamic missionary activity wikipedia , lookup
Islam and Sikhism wikipedia , lookup
Islam in Egypt wikipedia , lookup
Islamic culture wikipedia , lookup
Hindu–Islamic relations wikipedia , lookup
War against Islam wikipedia , lookup
Islamic schools and branches wikipedia , lookup
AKC 7 General – Spring Term 2007 – Religion in the contemporary world: social scientific perspectives 26/02/07 AKC 7 – 26 FEBRUARY 2007 ARE ALL MUSLIMS THE SAME? PROFESSOR MADAWI AL-RASHEED, DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES This lecture covers substantial foundations that unite Muslims and the cultural diversity of contexts in which Islam is a living experience. Part I: Unity among Muslims 1. As a world religion, Islam is found in many social contexts that may or may not have any cultural, linguistic, or ethnic common grounds. However, Muslims all over the world are united by a set of beliefs and ritual practices. Unity among Muslims derives from the basic five pillars of Islam: declaration of faith (shahada), five daily prayers (salat), fasting (sawm), almsgiving (zakat) and pilgrimage (hajj). The majority of Muslims are Sunnis with a small minority of Shia. The main difference pertains to early disputes over the leadership of the Muslim community (known as the Caliphate) after the death of the Prophet, Muhammad (571-632 AD). The majority of Muslims accepted the leadership of the four Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman and Ali) but a small minority wanted the Caliphate to remain in the family of the Prophet and his descendents (known as Ahl al-Bayt). Those were later known as the Shia. 2. Islam grew in urban centres and flourished as a result of the work of the guardians and interpreters of the Islamic tradition, mainly religious scholars who developed opinions to deal with urgent practical issues relating to the rule of law, management of family life, economic transactions, relations with non-Muslims, and other matters that accompanied the development of Muslim civilisation and expansion. 3. Observers of Muslim societies around the world cannot fail to notice the diversity of practices, rituals and experiences among living Muslims. These practices are often the result of the assimilation of local cultural traditions and the survival of these traditions against the background of homogenising scriptures. This led some academics to argue that there are many Islams that we can empirically observe in the specific social contexts of the Muslim world. Part II: Explaining Muslim Societies 1. Many Western scholars devoted time and energy to explaining the observed reality of Muslim societies. Anthropologist Ernest Gellner developed a theory of Muslim society. He argued that there are two types of Islam. The first is a tradition associated with scholars of religion. This is called high Islam. It is based on literacy, minimal rituals and festivals, sobriety, seeking a direct relation with the divine God, through the scriptures (the revealed Quran and the tradition of the Prophet, known as Sunnah). A second different type of Islam flourishes among people who seek a mediated relation with God through holy saints, festivities, and excessive rituals. This is called folk Islam. The history of Muslim societies involves a certain tension between the literate tradition and the folk practices. Islam, however, generates itself through constant attempts made by the guardians of the tradition, the literate classes, to bring the folk Islam of the masses to the standards of those literate scholars. In contemporary society, mass education, literacy, and rural-urban migration allowed the urban literate tradition to assume greater presence among Muslims all over the world, without being able to successfully eradicate the folk practices and traditions that continue to survive. 2. In his book, Saints of the Atlas, Ernest Gellner explains the dominance of folk Islam among the Berbers of the High Atlas mountains (Morocco). He proposes a sociological explanation that interprets the dominance of the tradition of holy men in terms of its relevance to the rural and tribal Moroccan context. He argues that holy men play an important mediating role not only between God and the believers but also between different sections of this rural Muslim society. Holy men and their shrines are neutral territories where tribal groups often met to trade and communicate. Such men played an important social role as they provided an independent sphere where people sought blessing (baraka). 3. Studies of Islam in urban contexts also document the prevalence of folk practices and charismatic leadership. Michael Gilsenan studied Muslims practices among the urban population of Cairo (Egypt). He found that rural urban migration brought thousands of people to the capital of Egypt to seek employment and education. Such groups lost the rural networks of support they had enjoyed in their villages. However, it only took a short time for those immigrants to congregate in neighbourhoods where they looked for a mediated kind of Islam through membership in religious orders. One order was called the Hamidiya Shadhiliyya Sufi circle. This movement started with a charismatic civil servant, Salama ibn Hassan (1867-1939), who was known to be pious and capable of performing miracles, both granted him respect and admiration. His movement grew and began to attract an increasing number of new migrants to the city. Gilsenan explains the flourishing of this tradition in sociological terms, which draw our attention to the needs of Muslims in different environments and how religion can be one of the areas providing a matrix for mobilisation, social organisation and networks. These networks are often mobilised for very practical purposes, for example communication, finding employment and simply knowing about opportunities in the city. Adherence to this religious order allowed Muslims to resolve frustrations and contradictions they encountered in their daily lives. Further reading Gellner, E. (1983) Muslim Society Cambridge University Press Gellner, E. (1969) Saints of the Atlas London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, University of Chicago Press Gilsenan, M. (1973) Saints and Sufis in Modern Egypt Marsden, M. (2005) Living Islam Muslim religious Experience in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ahmed, A. and Donnan, H. (eds.) (1994) Islam, Globalization and Postmodernity London: Roputledge Fisher, M. and Abedi, M. (1990) Debating Muslims Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. Eickelman, D. (1998) The Middle East and Central Asia: an Anthropological Approach Third edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall Full details about the AKC course, including copies of the handouts, can be found on the AKC website at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/akc. Please join in the Discussion Board and leave your comments. If you have any queries please contact the AKC Course Administrator on ext 2333 or via email at [email protected]. Please note the AKC Exam is on Friday 23 March 2007 between 14.30 and 16.30. EXAM REGISTRATION is now open. To register please reply to the email from the Dean’s Office giving your full name and student ID number. The deadline of registration is 9 March 2007.