Lectures
Jihad: Political Islam from the Muslim brotherhood to Islamic State
08-11-2021
Lecture 1
Robbert Woltering
Understanding what political Islam is referring to in its rhetoric and its
ideas. The more radical a movement is, the more it will speak in a specific
language. Try to understand the language. Not literally language, getting
acquainted with certain lingo.
What is political Islam?
A very problematic term. Islam made political. Islam as a religion that
enters the political field. Very often this definition means to say: Islam,
fine, as a religion, normal. And when it becomes political Islam, we
instantly have a problem.
- PI is the manifestation of Islam beyond the religious domain into the
realm of politics. Or is it?
Hirschkind: it is not that Islam has moved into a realm where it was
not before. It was the state that moved into a realm where it was not
before. Policing the way in which we dress, think and act. It was the
other way around.
- Islamism is not an ideology but a religious cultural political
framework for engagement on issues that most concern politically
engaged Muslims (Fuller, Hroub)
What is remarkable, it states what it is not. It is not an ideology. It is
a religious cultural political framework. That is vague. An ideology
would suggest that there is a coherence of thinking. Political Islam is
much too broad. It is not coherent. It is a set of buzzwords, number
of references, a way of looking at the world, culturally, politically,
and religious. For engagement? We are not dealing with an ideology.
- An interpretive framework reacting to and expressive of modernity,
claiming authority over Islam and offering its interpretation as a cure
to what is perceived as a (Muslim) world in crisis.
, reacting to and expressive of modernity. It is a modern
phenomenon. Islam is as old as the 7th century. Has always had
political meanings. But when we refer to political Islam, we refer to a
modern phenomenon. Authority is an important angle. Crisis: things
need to change.
How about Hamid & McCants?
- Rethinking what?
Mainstream Islamists: the gradualist approach to political Islam.
Muslim Brotherhood organizations or inspired by it. How do they
define it? We are going to look at the mainstream kind of it. But not
explain Islamism itself. Focused on the mainstream Islamist. That is
the Muslim brotherhood type.
Key aspects
- Modern (as are all fundamentalisms)
- Rejecting orthodoxy (rejecting the religious status quo)
- Claiming authenticity (engaging in identity politics)
- Seeking social change (ranging from mere improvement to utopia)
A phenomenon that reacts to the expanding states. It is engaging with it.
All religions have political relevance, also in premodern times. In modern
times they engage with modern phenomena. Such as the state interfering
with education. Or offering civil religion. That you have to be a good Turk.
A good American. A good Italian. That comes with characteristics. These
aspects used to be the terrain of religious authorities. But who? Often, it’s
not the traditional authorities of the religions. Religions are organized in a
hierarchical structure. Typically, it is not the Muslim equivalent
bischoppen. It is typically those with much less or no religious ruling.
Journalists playing an important role in developing the language of political
Islam. they react against orthodoxy. The orthodox structure of the religion
is the base of the structure of the religion. Look at what the world is now?
They reject the religious status quo and religious authorities. They claim
authenticity. They struggle with that. Where else would you find the true
religion? In those who simply read the sources. Read Koran, read about
the prophet Mohammed. This claim of authenticity is a revolutionary
aspect. It is a universal phenomenon in globalization. Globalization breeds
a sense of estrangement all over the world. All these things change, and
people feel the urge to find something that still belongs to them.
Something authentic. Seeking social change can be revolutionary, but also
simply making things a bit better.
,What questions do we want to pose?
How unique is Islam in being a religion that functions as a political vehicle
and an excuse for political exclusion and violence (in the modern age)?
Nations with a Christian backgrounds are the most powerful nations in the
world. Terrorism is for the weak. Next to Christianity, Islam is the only
globally religion. Therefore, its violence is a global phenomenon.
What approach?
- Historical
Historical background is important when you investigate a cultural
phenomenon
- Thematic:
Starting from the assessment that Islam as a religious tradition and
large parts of the Muslim world’s politics are in a crisis.
this crisis revolves to a large extent around the question of authority
and the quest for authenticity.
Authority is about the question: who speaks for Islam. who can
speak in Islam’s name? but also the angle of politics: who can speak
of behalf of a nation? Authenticity, the real Islam. the authentic
Islam. but also: what is the basis of our citizenship? What makes a
Saudi citizen? These 2 themes will help us in our discussions.
- Case studies
Authenticity and authority
- Identity and alterity
How are they defined? Alterity is squarely exclusion. It is related to
the notion of purity. The desire of purity. You cannot always seek
purity. In conditions of what is perceived as contamination, that
people seek purity. Feeling that society is in desserey. That things
creep in there that don’t belong there. Seeking purity in themselves
and in society. Authenticity and authority is related in the
phenomenon of imitating, that we’ve known from the beginning of
Islam. Imitating instead of being inspired by it. Copy it as much as
you can. Authority: Who commands, and what happens when
authority is no longer fit for the job? How should you relate to
authority that behaves in a way that is not square on your objectives
of religion? You need authority to establish and protect the
boundaries of Islam. but what does it essentially mean?
, - Purity of Self and society
- Salafi imitation of pristine Muslim times
- Reformist revival of original Islam
- The struggle against tradition and orthodoxy
- Estrangement in an age of globalization
- Who commands a following and why?
Islamic law did not function the way a modern legal system does. It is a
traditional legal system. In modern states, the state seeks to create
clarity, predictability. Clear laws prevent people from doing this what will
lead to conflict. You codify these laws. Islamic law was codified in one
Islamic state to another. Only a small part. The biggest part of law came
from British and French laws. Family law and the law of personhood (?) is
Islamic law. Where criminal law is applied, as part of a modern legal
system. It is in modernity where stoning becomes an Islamic legal
practice.
Modernization did not cause stoning to be banned from the Muslim
practice, it caused its emergence. critique of the binary, culturalist
approach. What is portrayed as authentically mine, need not be
particularly different from yours.
Modernist legal scholar will say: what you should do.
Pitfalls
The topic is politicized. In a context which is also polarized. People have
strong opinions. It is an abnormal topic. You have to address your
audience with its needs. When you address an audience of people who are
inclined to believe that all religions are the same, and everything banned
that is being sad in the world because the media is biased and
Islamophobic. Think about your position. It is abnormal historically
speaking. It is a modern thing. We are looking through a straw. Only
looking at a part.
We have preconceptions that distort our understanding.
Muslim world is not your world, even if you are Muslim raised in the
Netherlands.
The Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery
and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West.
Edward Said, Orientalism.
