By way of retracing the 1935 Shahidganj mosque dispute, this article explores how Indian Muslims transformed their vision of community from one seeking moral legitimacy within colonial law to a... Show moreBy way of retracing the 1935 Shahidganj mosque dispute, this article explores how Indian Muslims transformed their vision of community from one seeking moral legitimacy within colonial law to a vision geared towards political action outside of the colonial legal order. This represented a radical departure from Muslim politics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century where liberalism—while circulating around ideas of mysticism and moral community – remained largely the domain of polite petititoning. By piecing together the legal micro-his-tory of the Shahidganj mosque dispute and by mapping native responses to colonial law, I show how Indian Muslims, under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, located and shaped their political identity by moving beyond colonial prescriptions of legal pacts based on interests. Show less
This thesis uses a language perspective to examine the complex relationship between Muslims and Christians in post-Soviet Russia, as well as their attitudes vis-à-vis the state. An important... Show moreThis thesis uses a language perspective to examine the complex relationship between Muslims and Christians in post-Soviet Russia, as well as their attitudes vis-à-vis the state. An important conclusion of this thesis is that a religious language variant does not only signal a speaker's religious identity. By opting for a particular language, by using or avoiding specific religious vocabulary, speakers also aim to secure their belonging to desired ethnic, national and political groups. Therefore, along with Orthodox Christians, also Russia’s Muslims instrumentalise the religious variant of the Russian language to gain political influence and social recognition. This process, in turn, affects the prestige of Islamic vernaculars spoken in the country, as the thesis demonstrates through the example of the Tatar language. These sociolinguistic changes, in fact, reflect significant developments within Russia's Islam and Orthodox Christianity. The study reveals that the official institutions of these two religions undergo the process of convergence. Namely, they develop similar views on Russia’s domestic and foreign politics, as well as comparable doctrinal lines of defence against the challenges of modernity, and both of them interpret and protect societal moral norms along the same conservative principles. Show less
This article provides an ethnographic exploration of a new religious movement in Nigeria that often goes by the name ‘Chrislam’. With a particular focus on the Ogbomoso Society of Chrislam, the... Show moreThis article provides an ethnographic exploration of a new religious movement in Nigeria that often goes by the name ‘Chrislam’. With a particular focus on the Ogbomoso Society of Chrislam, the article documents the group’s origins and practices, as well as its public reception. Founded on a claimed vision from God in 2005, the group teaches that Christianity, Islam and African Indigenous Religions come from the same source and should be reunited into a single religious movement. Core to their understanding is what they call ‘a spirit of accommodation’, which provides a divine directive to exceed mere tolerance or coexistence and combine these religions under one roof. With their mission of pursuing unity and commonality while dispelling differences, the group manages to creatively embed multiple complex religious traditions into their belief structures, liturgical practices and ritual ceremonies, in what can be described as a religious bricolage. Despite the group’s intention to promote peace and unity and act as a counterpoint to violent movements such as Boko Haram, the Ogbomoso Society of Chrislam finds itself at the centre of an ongoing debate about the politics of religious bricolage and the resulting cultural limits of acceptable forms of religious entanglements. Show less
This dissertation explores the causation of mass conversions to Islam in Bolaang-Mongondow and to Protestant Christianity in Sangir-Talaud and Minahasa (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) in the eighteenth... Show moreThis dissertation explores the causation of mass conversions to Islam in Bolaang-Mongondow and to Protestant Christianity in Sangir-Talaud and Minahasa (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It demonstrates that despite deviations in particularities, the mass conversions to world religions in these regions broadly shared similar causations. It places emphasis on particular periods in the nineteenth-century when the Dutch colonial state centralized political authority and imposed census-based monetary taxation with the aim of commercializing the economy. It points to these reforms as the immediate triggers that enabled both Dutch apical rulers and especially indigenous apical rulers to weaken the authority of subaltern chiefs. It illustrates that these reforms were weaved into the religious conversion agenda of rulers as a strategy to further consolidate authority by depriving the subaltern chiefs of their functionally undifferentiated and socially embedded authority. As such, this dissertation shows that the apical rulers could expand their political and economic reach while paving the way for their claimed subjects to access prestigious religious identities, which had hitherto been exclusive to the ruling elite. Show less
This study focuses on the issue of a “moral crisis” which was a widely discussed topic among the Ottoman intelligentsia. Moving on from the common view that the “moral crisis” reached a peak... Show moreThis study focuses on the issue of a “moral crisis” which was a widely discussed topic among the Ottoman intelligentsia. Moving on from the common view that the “moral crisis” reached a peak during the First World War, this study investigates how morality was related to the war and the preconditions that created the perception of a crisis in morality. The study argues that morality was a contested space among the intellectuals and explains how rival ideologies set forth their political positions depending on differing understandings of morality. For the state, on the other hand, moral decline became a matter of national security during the war. The study demonstrates how wartime rivalries were reflected in the cultural sphere through morality discourses. In public opinion and political circles, immorality was generally considered a social problem that had been imported from European countries. At the social level, the study focuses on family, women, and morality related crimes with an emphasis on the impact of war on traditional family order. The dissertation sheds a light on the place of morality in lawmaking processes, the ideas of reform and progress, and plans for a new society. Show less
Al sinds de oprichting in 1988 is het islamitisch basisonderwijs in Nederland een bron van discussie. De ontwikkeling ervan heeft de afgelopen dertig jaar niet stilgestaan en geeft aanleiding tot... Show moreAl sinds de oprichting in 1988 is het islamitisch basisonderwijs in Nederland een bron van discussie. De ontwikkeling ervan heeft de afgelopen dertig jaar niet stilgestaan en geeft aanleiding tot nieuwe inzichten. Toch worden in de discussie al jarenlang dezelfde argumenten gebruikt.Hoe geven de verschillende islamitische basisscholen vandaag de dag vorm aan hun identiteit? En hoe wegen zij de verschillende maatschappelijkedebatten over de islam daarin af?Dit boek laat – met een focus op de identiteitsvorming - de leerkrachten en directieleden zelf aan het woord en probeert de verschillen in waarden, normen en gewoonten van binnenuit te duiden.Islamitische basisscholen blijken steeds meer aandacht te hebben voor de maatschappelijke context. Ook wordt inzichtelijk dat islamitische basisscholen zich van andere basisscholen onderscheiden vanwege hun interne diversiteit en de continue dialoog met die maatschappelijke context.Dit boek is een pleidooi voor genuanceerder denken over en handelen rond het islamitisch basisonderwijs in Nederland. Show less
This article introduces the special issue ‘Online Publics in Muslim Southeast Asia: In Between Religious Politics and Popular Pious Practices’ by discussing prominent ap- proaches in the study... Show moreThis article introduces the special issue ‘Online Publics in Muslim Southeast Asia: In Between Religious Politics and Popular Pious Practices’ by discussing prominent ap- proaches in the study of media and the public sphere in light of the specific history of digital media’s rise in Muslim Southeast Asia. It focuses on earlier and current expres- sions of mobile and Islamic modernity as well as on changing moralities and forms of Islamic authority. Referencing the other contributions to this special issue, it particu- larly emphasizes the (discursive and visual) contestations and social dramas that take place in the region’s media spaces providing for a variety of Islamic forms, practices, and socialities that can best be grasped, the authors argue, by considering politics, the pious, and the popular not as separate, but as mutually constitutive domains. Show less
Against what is perceived as a tacit agreement between Russia’s ‘traditional’ religions (Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism) not to engage in missionary work among each other’s faith... Show moreAgainst what is perceived as a tacit agreement between Russia’s ‘traditional’ religions (Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism) not to engage in missionary work among each other’s faith communities, Priest Daniil Sysoev (1974–2009) conducted assertive evangelism among Muslims. This article analyses Sysoev’s confrontational discourse on Islam, and his strategies for missionary work. The most important of these strategies were his use of Islamic vernaculars for Orthodox Christian preaching among Muslims, and his active engagement of Islamic authorities in public theological debates. The article argues that, in these strategies, he followed the model of the Kazan Theological Seminary in the nineteenth century, which conducted missionary work among Muslim Tatars; and, also like the Kazan missionaries, Sysoev developed a focus on the Kriashens (Christian Tatars), and even played a role in the elaboration of Tatar Christian terminologies. Sysoev’s assassination in 2009 raises many questions, including how far he was aiming at becoming a martyr. While his parish continues to call for Sysoev’s canonization, the official Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been ambiguous about his rigorous and confrontational mission, although the sweeping political Orthodox activism of Sysoev’s followers seems to converge with the ROC’s aim to strengthen its position in Russian society. Show less
Er zijn vijf modellen voor de relatie tussen staat en religie. Deze zijn: 1) Politieke atheïsme; 2) Politieke agnosticisme; 3) Multiculturalisme; 4) Staatskerk en 5) Theocratie. Het model van het... Show moreEr zijn vijf modellen voor de relatie tussen staat en religie. Deze zijn: 1) Politieke atheïsme; 2) Politieke agnosticisme; 3) Multiculturalisme; 4) Staatskerk en 5) Theocratie. Het model van het politieke agnosticisme staat voor de behandeling van - of negeren van - alle religies en niet-religies op gelijke voet: de staat neemt uit principe geen standpunt in vóór of tegen religie en (on)gelovigen. Multiculturalisme, daarentegen, richt zich op een positieve behandeling van minderheden. Het proefschrift richt zich op het tweede model, multiculturalisme, en op het vijfde model, theocratie. De onderzoeksvraag is: wat zijn de implicaties van de politieke ideologieën van het multiculturalisme en Islamitisch fundamentalisme? En, meer in het bijzonder, wat is de verhouding tussen deze ideologieën als het gaat om het debat over de legitimiteit van Shariaraden in het Verenigd Koninkrijk? Show less
In central sudanic Africa, the seventeenth century was a period of upheaval and major social change. Relations of power shifted, as did trade-routes and the meaning of Islam for ruling elites.... Show moreIn central sudanic Africa, the seventeenth century was a period of upheaval and major social change. Relations of power shifted, as did trade-routes and the meaning of Islam for ruling elites. Islam spread from royal courts to rural communities, leading to new identities, new boundaries and new tasks for experts of the religion. In theology two movements stand out: one that gave priority to a return to scriptural sources and the verification of knowledge, another of the increasing importance in the region of Sufism. In this context, the Bornu scholar Muḥammad al-Wālī acquired an exceptional reputation because his work addressed issues that were apparently important to his audience. Combining approaches from intellectual history, philology and the study of Arabic manuscripts, this study places al-Wālī within his intellectual environment on the one hand, and it portrays him as someone who responded to the concerns of ordinary Muslims around him on the other. It shows that scholars like al-Wālī, on the geographical margins of the Muslim world, participated in the theological debates in the metropolitan centres of Muslim learning of the time, but did so on their own terms. At the same time, al-Wālī’s work sheds additional light on a century in the Islamic history of West Africa that has received little scholarly attention. Show less
As a result of increasing globalisation the public sphere has expanded over the recent decades. Consequently Qur'an translations exhibit a highly pluralised concept of religious authority,... Show moreAs a result of increasing globalisation the public sphere has expanded over the recent decades. Consequently Qur'an translations exhibit a highly pluralised concept of religious authority, demonstrating an eclectic use of sources as authors respond simultaneously to local and global discourses. This paper shows how the commentary in a popularising Swahili tafsir by the preacher Said Moosa al-Kindy on two particular Qur'an verses, Q. 2:185 and Q. 2:189, cannot be understood as the outcome of theological and linguistic considerations only, but rather as a multi-epistemic, socially embedded product. Q. 2:185 and Q. 2:189 are often used to endorse particular viewpoints in East African moon sighting debates. This discourse revolves about the question of whether to accept a crescent sighting report from anywhere in the world to determine the beginning of the lunar month or to wait for a visible moon from a more restricted locality. This paper situates al-Kindy's translation within the wider field of Swahili Qur'an commentaries, and compares his treatment of these verses to that in two scholarly products from outside the established genre of tafsir. One is the polemical discourse on this subject by an Ibadi intellectual writing in Swahili and the second is the lunar calendar and website produced by a Tanzanian book trader. In all three of these works Qur'anic authority is paramount, but if we want to understand the diverse mediations of the Qur'anic message in a specific milieu we should not only look at the influence of exegetical traditions but also focus on social actors and their very personal, localised experiences. Show less
My research is based on transculturalism in the works of Iranian authors living in France since the 1980’s. Referring to the cultural interbreeding, transculturalism constitutes a field of research... Show moreMy research is based on transculturalism in the works of Iranian authors living in France since the 1980’s. Referring to the cultural interbreeding, transculturalism constitutes a field of research, which is becoming increasingly important in numerous countries. In literature this concept concerns hybrid works, i.e. works emanating from two or more different cultures. In French-Persian creations it shows the mixture between a Western tradition of novel and the dominating place of lyricism and poetry in the Eastern writing. It may open also to an interesting course of reflection in the cultural and social domain of multiculturalism and transculturalism more in general. It aims at current issues seen from a double perspective: the interdependency of the different cultures and a new type of literature from the perspective of writing. Those creations are intermediary between the artist in exile and the receiving society. They transmit values of interculturalism, permitting interaction between cultures. But also represent transculturalism, which transcends the simple ‘dialogue’ between two cultures to reach an original synthesis. My goal was to search hybrid factors in these works and to see how they are carried out concretely in the texts. Then we see who these works might be qualified as transcultural. Show less
This study presents a re-evaluation of Malay adventure stories. These narratives were found in a large part of Southeast Asia for at least three centuries until the beginning of the twentieth... Show moreThis study presents a re-evaluation of Malay adventure stories. These narratives were found in a large part of Southeast Asia for at least three centuries until the beginning of the twentieth century. By adopting a cross-disciplinary approach, it aims to show that Malay adventure stories were not the meaningless fairy tales that Western collectors and scholars have previously held them for. It is argued that instead, they were greatly connected, in various ways, to the socieyt they have sprung from. The second part of the study comprises an annotated edition and translation of the Malay adventure story, 'Story of Bahram Syah' Show less
Dit proefschrift onderzoekt de juridische, religieuze en praktische mogelijkheden voor moslims om begraven te worden in Nederland en België. Het behandelt nationale regelgevingen, opvattingen van... Show moreDit proefschrift onderzoekt de juridische, religieuze en praktische mogelijkheden voor moslims om begraven te worden in Nederland en België. Het behandelt nationale regelgevingen, opvattingen van islamitische schriftgeleerden en de ideeën en wensen van moslims in Nederland en België met betrekking tot islamitisch begraven en de keuze voor begraaflocatie. Show less
The 2011-2014 controversies between the Ethiopian Government and Muslim communities on the role of Islam in Ethiopia have highlighted the precarious nature of religious relations in Ethiopia.... Show moreThe 2011-2014 controversies between the Ethiopian Government and Muslim communities on the role of Islam in Ethiopia have highlighted the precarious nature of religious relations in Ethiopia. Statements by public figures and religious leaders recently have drawn attention to the nature and scope of the Ethiopian secular state order. This paper describes the recent Muslim protest movement and the response to it by the government in the light of the secular state model. While the challenges to it also extend to the large Christian community in Ethiopia, the problems became prominent mainly in the case of the Muslims, who contest perceived 'government interference' in their community life and self-organization. I present an overview of key recent events and of factors inducing conflict between state and religion. The discussion makes reference to more general debates on the 'secular model' in Ethiopia and to the familiar though somewhat worn-out paradigm of 'identity politics'. State repression of Muslim civic protest in Ethiopia revealed insecurities of the state: rather than an instance of the process of 'othering' a religious community, we see a case of political crisis, and a search for new modes of governance of diversity and communal religiosity in Ethiopia. As a result of the contestations, however, the secular order of the country will not be threatened, but modified. Show less
