Is there a specifically Islamic vision of the body? Given the nuanced nature of cultural understandings of the body and Islam's own variable expressions, this question is probably unanswerable, and... Show moreIs there a specifically Islamic vision of the body? Given the nuanced nature of cultural understandings of the body and Islam's own variable expressions, this question is probably unanswerable, and indeed poorly phrased. Phrased another way, however, the question of the relationship between Islam and the body becomes more interesting: how do bodily practices in different Muslim societies articulate with different versions of lived Islam? My research among Arabs in remote northwestern Niger on the aesthetic of corpulent female bodies, and the practice of forcefeeding young girls to achieve it, speaks to this issue. Show less
There has been considerable attention for the working and significance of the Tablighi Jama'at, established in 1927, but little has been done to study the origin and rapid expansion of the more... Show moreThere has been considerable attention for the working and significance of the Tablighi Jama'at, established in 1927, but little has been done to study the origin and rapid expansion of the more recently formed Da'wat-i Islami (Invitation to Islam), whose motto is 'love for the Prophet and Medinah'. The Da'wat-i Islami was launched by Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas Qadiri in 1981.* Today, the spate of green turbans, its trademark, can be seen not only in the rural areas of Pakistan, but also in its metropolitan cities. Show less
There is a new stress on civil society. It has come in the aftermath of the Cold War, and in some sense it still perpetuates the Cold War. Equated with private property, the market, and pluralistic... Show moreThere is a new stress on civil society. It has come in the aftermath of the Cold War, and in some sense it still perpetuates the Cold War. Equated with private property, the market, and pluralistic culture - the familiar teleological mantra of neo-liberalism - civil society is trotted out as the answer to all issues of global competitiveness and national reconstruction. Show less
Today, mentioning Burundi evokes directly the conflicts which opposed Tutsis and Hutus in 1993 and 1995-6, just as in Rwanda. The Muslim community in Burundi does not exceed two to five percent of... Show moreToday, mentioning Burundi evokes directly the conflicts which opposed Tutsis and Hutus in 1993 and 1995-6, just as in Rwanda. The Muslim community in Burundi does not exceed two to five percent of the population, but their history and their behaviour in the last tragic conflicts between Hutus and Tutsis deserve to be analysed. Show less
This past year has witnessed India and Pakistan battling over an area that has known little peace since 1947. While the two states speak of 'nationalism', 'secularism' or 'Muslim unity', and... Show moreThis past year has witnessed India and Pakistan battling over an area that has known little peace since 1947. While the two states speak of 'nationalism', 'secularism' or 'Muslim unity', and various Islamist organizations call for jehad, most Kashmiris speak of 'self-determination' and 'Kashmiri identity'. The idea of self-determination as independence was first formulated in 1947 by the last Hindu Dogra Maharaja, Hari Singh. The concept of a distinct Kashmiri identity (kashmiriyat) evolved in the 1930s with a movement, explicitly involving both Muslim and Hindu intelligentsia, against feudal-cum-colonial rule. The notion of a discrete Kashmiri citizenship goes back to the 1920s, when Kashmiri Hindus, facing competition from Punjabi Hindus, pressed for a formal definition of 'state subjects'. Show less
The Working Group Modernity and Islam is a Berlin based interdisciplinary research network of scholars working at various universities and extra-university institutions on the questions of... Show moreThe Working Group Modernity and Islam is a Berlin based interdisciplinary research network of scholars working at various universities and extra-university institutions on the questions of modernity and Islam. The Working Group, hosted by the Wissenschaftskollegzu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin) is committed to fostering a deeper understanding of Muslim cultures, their histories, and their social structures with the two-fold aim of revealing their complexities and of offering deeper insights into the phenomena of ‘modernity‘ and ‘modernization’. Show less
At all four corners of the earth: the Balkans (Kosovo, Bosnia), Indonesia (Moluccas, East-Timor), Africa (Sudan), as well as the Holy Land (Nazareth), Islam and Christianity seem to be in a... Show moreAt all four corners of the earth: the Balkans (Kosovo, Bosnia), Indonesia (Moluccas, East-Timor), Africa (Sudan), as well as the Holy Land (Nazareth), Islam and Christianity seem to be in a position of mutual rejection. Hence, the representation, which currently prevails over Europe, of a perpetual conflict. However, this vision maintained by events that indeed highlight religious conflicts, remains in a state of partiality and partialness. We thus see Islam reigning undivided over the societies south of the Mediterranean, all the while forgetting that in the Arab world as well as in Turkey, religious uniformity - currently the norm - does not date back to the beginning of time. Between the 7th century, which witnessed the warriors of Islam leaving Arabia, and the preceding century, the relationship between the two religions was not just conflictual. On more than one occasion and in more than one place Christianity would come to know unexpected recoveries. Show less
The Plaza cinema squats on the edge of the Old City of Kano, Nigeria. Outside women sell bean cakes, men hawk cassettes, cigarettes, and oranges. Buses stop and taxis unload, disgorging passengers... Show moreThe Plaza cinema squats on the edge of the Old City of Kano, Nigeria. Outside women sell bean cakes, men hawk cassettes, cigarettes, and oranges. Buses stop and taxis unload, disgorging passengers who hurry on to catch other buses, different taxis. 'Drop me at the Plaza.' 'Meet me at the El Dorado.' These quotidian directions are uttered by urbanites who have little interest in going to the cinema but who have internalized the fact that cinema theatres, along with mosques, the post office, banks, and other institutions of the post-colony, architecturally punctuate the city. Their built forms create an abstract skeletal structure around which the city's nervous system circulates. Show less
Muslim modernism in Central Asia at the turn of the twentieth century remains virtually unknown to scholars of Muslim cultural history. What little we know comes through a thick prism of... Show moreMuslim modernism in Central Asia at the turn of the twentieth century remains virtually unknown to scholars of Muslim cultural history. What little we know comes through a thick prism of nationalist or Soviet historiography that loses the Islamic dimension of the movement. Yet, approaching Jadidism, as this movement is usually called, as a Muslim movement allows us to broaden our understanding of the Muslim world’s encounter with modernity, and to reconsider many of the categories we habitually invoke in studying the Muslim world. Show less
May God give him a long life. May God give force to his mother's milk. May God make him strong so he will join our ranks. May God let him lead the live of a Muslim. May God give him a good life... Show moreMay God give him a long life. May God give force to his mother's milk. May God make him strong so he will join our ranks. May God let him lead the live of a Muslim. May God give him a good life when he will stay in our town and may He give him a good life when he will settle elsewhere.' When seven days old, a baby is blessed by a Qur'anic teacher. After he has first announced the name of the newborn child, the marabout asks God to give it a long life, health and strength. Show less
The 4th International Summer Academy of the Berlinbased Working Group Modernity and Islam (see ISIM Newsletter 2) took place from 13-25 September 1999 at the Fondation du Roi Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud... Show moreThe 4th International Summer Academy of the Berlinbased Working Group Modernity and Islam (see ISIM Newsletter 2) took place from 13-25 September 1999 at the Fondation du Roi Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud pour les Etudes Islamiques et les Sciences Humaines in Casablanca, Morocco. About 30 junior and senior scholars from various disciplines and geographical backgrounds discussed questions relating to 'Notions of Law and Order in Muslim Societies' at one of the major research institutions in the Muslim world. The Summer Academy was directed by Professor Gudrun Kramer from the Institute of Islamic Studies of the Free University of Berlin. Show less
The enchanting coral archipelago known as Lakshadweep comprises ten inhabited and seventeen uninhabited islands, which lie about 200 to 400 kilometres off the Indian west coast in the Arabian Sea.... Show moreThe enchanting coral archipelago known as Lakshadweep comprises ten inhabited and seventeen uninhabited islands, which lie about 200 to 400 kilometres off the Indian west coast in the Arabian Sea. The islands span from north to south for approximately 350 kilometres. The inhabitants of all the islands are ethnically very similar and speak a dialect of Malayalam, the language of the neighbouring Indian state of Kerala. The population numbering 50,000 is almost entirely Muslim, mainly Sunnites, apart from a smattering of Wahabis and Ahamadiyyas who are not very popular with the other population. Show less
Andree Feillard toured Java last March to give lectures in four cities for the launching of her book on the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest traditionalist Muslim organization. She also visited... Show moreAndree Feillard toured Java last March to give lectures in four cities for the launching of her book on the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest traditionalist Muslim organization. She also visited several ulama, politicians, and student groups in East Java. She gives here a short account of her journey in the troubled province where 254 people were mysteriously murdered from September to November 1998. At the time of her trip, interreligious and interethnic violence was high in Ambon. Show less
The Surinam-Javanese community in the Netherlands is divided over the question of the prayer direction; some perform their prayers facing the East, but most turn to the West. The majority are... Show moreThe Surinam-Javanese community in the Netherlands is divided over the question of the prayer direction; some perform their prayers facing the East, but most turn to the West. The majority are kejawen, following the syncretic practices and beliefs of Java. In this community the keblat (qibla) expresses a unique diasporic experience and identity. Show less
Many Westerners, and many Muslims, consider ‘Liberal Islam’ to be a contradiction in terms. This is not the case. The term ‘liberal’ has negative connotations in much of the Islamic world, in part... Show moreMany Westerners, and many Muslims, consider ‘Liberal Islam’ to be a contradiction in terms. This is not the case. The term ‘liberal’ has negative connotations in much of the Islamic world, in part because of the hypocrisy of its introduction to the region by colonialists and imperialists who flouted the liberalism they touted. Yet the Islamic world is witnessing a thriving movement of Muslim thinkers who address ‘liberal’ concerns such as democracy, the separation of Church and State, the rights of women, the rights of minorities, freedom of thought, and the idea of human progress - hardly the only concerns that might be labeled ‘liberal’, but bedrock themes in the liberal tradition. Show less
Scientific research, especially in the social sciences, is extremely tributary to the ideas and the practices in the societies where researchers live. It is thus that studies conducted on religious... Show moreScientific research, especially in the social sciences, is extremely tributary to the ideas and the practices in the societies where researchers live. It is thus that studies conducted on religious phenomena, and notably on Islam, experienced an eclipse characteristic of the sixties and seventies. The reason for this, amongst others, was that the class of intellectuals and politicians were essentially preoccupied with struggles and a social utopia of progress without reference, and even in opposition, to the traditional religious institutions. In an inverse yet equally excessive movement, the eighties and nineties were witness to a veritable explosion of these same studies in the context of identity, political, and social re-vindication, particularly coming from the Muslim world and advocating an overtly religious ideology. Show less
On 18 September 1998, Dr Marcel Kurpershoek delivered his inaugural speech as Professor of Arabic Literature and Politics at the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Islamic Middle East at... Show moreOn 18 September 1998, Dr Marcel Kurpershoek delivered his inaugural speech as Professor of Arabic Literature and Politics at the Department of Languages and Cultures of the Islamic Middle East at Leiden University. Its title was: ‘Wie luidt de doodsklok over de Arabieren?’: Arabisme, Islam, en de Wereldbank (‘Who Rings the Death Bell on the Arabs?’: Arabism, Islam and the World Bank) and is published (in Dutch) by Leiden University. The following is a passage from his speech: Show less
The phenomenal popularization and transnational propagation of communications and information technologies (hereafter referred to as IT) in recent years has generated a wide range of important... Show moreThe phenomenal popularization and transnational propagation of communications and information technologies (hereafter referred to as IT) in recent years has generated a wide range of important questions in the context of Islam’s sociology of knowledge. How have these technologies transformed Muslim concepts of what Islam is and who possesses the authority to speak on its behalf? Moreover, how are they changing the ways in which Muslims imagine the boundaries of the umma? Show less
Current histories of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1909) frequently begin with the bastinado of three Tehrani merchants, on 11 December 1905, upon the orders of Tehran's governor.... Show moreCurrent histories of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1909) frequently begin with the bastinado of three Tehrani merchants, on 11 December 1905, upon the orders of Tehran's governor. This incident, we are told, led the two leading Tehran clerics to stage a sit-in protest, demanding dismissal of the governor and the premier, as well as calling for the institution of a House of Justice. Some months later, two men of religion were killed when government soldiers attempted to break up a protesting crowd in Tehran's Friday Mosque. This set off a chain of events that culminated in the issuance of the Constitutional decree by Muzaffar al-Din Shah on 5 August 1906. By telling a different story of these same revolutionary years, I question how these particular events have come to form Iranian collective memory of that revolution, while others have been merely forgotten. Show less
