Pub Date : 2022-11-21DOI: 10.1163/21540993-20220001
M. Kaag
This contribution aims to approach the theme of a traveling Islam by starting from moving people and considering how their religious “luggage”—in terms of beliefs, ideas, and practices—travels with them and what this means for the circulation of religious ideas in Africa and beyond. The paper focuses particularly on Senegalese migrants of the Murid Sufi order residing in Italy and the Netherlands; it investigates how their religious luggage is important to them in the migration context and may circulate further from there. In addition, it explores how their religious luggage is moulded in, and through, their migration experiences: for instance, its meaning may change, or another layer may be added. Finally, ideas on (the force of) the Muridiyya may travel back to Senegal, adding other layers to the meaning of religion there as well.
{"title":"Faithful Journeys: Unpacking the Religious Luggage of Senegalese Murid Migrants in Europe","authors":"M. Kaag","doi":"10.1163/21540993-20220001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-20220001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This contribution aims to approach the theme of a traveling Islam by starting from moving people and considering how their religious “luggage”—in terms of beliefs, ideas, and practices—travels with them and what this means for the circulation of religious ideas in Africa and beyond. The paper focuses particularly on Senegalese migrants of the Murid Sufi order residing in Italy and the Netherlands; it investigates how their religious luggage is important to them in the migration context and may circulate further from there. In addition, it explores how their religious luggage is moulded in, and through, their migration experiences: for instance, its meaning may change, or another layer may be added. Finally, ideas on (the force of) the Muridiyya may travel back to Senegal, adding other layers to the meaning of religion there as well.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87310234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-06DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01202004
Frédérick Madore
In Benin, the general furor surrounding the 2019 legislative elections held without opposition parties caused many to overlook the fact that Ibrahim Ousmane, a well-known imam from Cotonou, was ultimately elected to the National Assembly. His decision to run in the elections had sparked intense debates over political participation, the criteria used to select the community’s “legitimate” representatives, and, more broadly, the nature of Islamic religious authority in a minority context. In this article, I use the controversy that erupted in 2019 as a starting point for exploring disputes within Benin’s Muslim community and the dilemmas of Muslim minority politics. These disputes center on how its members can engage with national politics to promote their collective interests and maintain their political autonomy from the state. The crisis can also be understood in terms of a “generational” struggle for religious authority, in a context where there are competing sources of legitimacy.
{"title":"A Beninese Imam’s Controversial 2019 Election Campaign: Muslim Leadership and Political Engagement in a Minority Context","authors":"Frédérick Madore","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01202004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01202004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In Benin, the general furor surrounding the 2019 legislative elections held without opposition parties caused many to overlook the fact that Ibrahim Ousmane, a well-known imam from Cotonou, was ultimately elected to the National Assembly. His decision to run in the elections had sparked intense debates over political participation, the criteria used to select the community’s “legitimate” representatives, and, more broadly, the nature of Islamic religious authority in a minority context. In this article, I use the controversy that erupted in 2019 as a starting point for exploring disputes within Benin’s Muslim community and the dilemmas of Muslim minority politics. These disputes center on how its members can engage with national politics to promote their collective interests and maintain their political autonomy from the state. The crisis can also be understood in terms of a “generational” struggle for religious authority, in a context where there are competing sources of legitimacy.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"138 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77469651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-06DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01202003
Nelly Mwale
Using media representations, this article explores how the media presents Islamic charity in a multi-religious but Christian-dominated context of Zambia. It shows that representations of local Muslim associations’ acts of charity ranged from rendering support to the vulnerable (in the form of donations of assorted items to communities, schools, hospitals and prisons), to undertaking community development programmes, to building and renovating infrastructure in selected areas countrywide. This representation signified a shift in media coverage of Islam in the 2000s. While the mediatised acts of charity were centred on Muslim social responsibility, the article advances that the representations of Muslim charity revealed not only the significant place of Muslims in the Zambian society, evidenced by the recognition by both state and non-Muslims as key players in public life, but also their ability to unite as a religious minority.
{"title":"Media Representations of Local Muslim Associations’ Acts of Charity in Zambia’s Multi-Religious but Christian-Dominated Context since the 2010s","authors":"Nelly Mwale","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01202003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01202003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Using media representations, this article explores how the media presents Islamic charity in a multi-religious but Christian-dominated context of Zambia. It shows that representations of local Muslim associations’ acts of charity ranged from rendering support to the vulnerable (in the form of donations of assorted items to communities, schools, hospitals and prisons), to undertaking community development programmes, to building and renovating infrastructure in selected areas countrywide. This representation signified a shift in media coverage of Islam in the 2000s. While the mediatised acts of charity were centred on Muslim social responsibility, the article advances that the representations of Muslim charity revealed not only the significant place of Muslims in the Zambian society, evidenced by the recognition by both state and non-Muslims as key players in public life, but also their ability to unite as a religious minority.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74580426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-06DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01202001
A. Leinweber
The history of the Congolese Muslim minority was one of marginalization. Islam arrived in the Maniema province of eastern Congo in the pre-colonial period with Swahili-Arab traders in search of ivory and slaves. Congolese Muslims experienced intense repression during Belgian colonial rule, resulting in detachment from politics and the state. In addition, deep internal divisions at local, provincial, and national levels riddled the community for decades. Surprisingly, in the post-war period the Muslim minority became increasingly active, as evidenced by a proliferation of Islamic associations. This article analyzes the Muslim minority in Maniema by focusing on their survival during historic marginalization from the state, their cohesion to overcome internal divisions, and their search for a voice to engage in social and political life. It argues that while the Congolese Muslim minority was successful at survival, the quest to form a cohesive community able to speak with one voice has remained mostly elusive.
{"title":"The Quest for Survival, Cohesion and Voice for the Muslim Minority in Maniema, dr Congo","authors":"A. Leinweber","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01202001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01202001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The history of the Congolese Muslim minority was one of marginalization. Islam arrived in the Maniema province of eastern Congo in the pre-colonial period with Swahili-Arab traders in search of ivory and slaves. Congolese Muslims experienced intense repression during Belgian colonial rule, resulting in detachment from politics and the state. In addition, deep internal divisions at local, provincial, and national levels riddled the community for decades. Surprisingly, in the post-war period the Muslim minority became increasingly active, as evidenced by a proliferation of Islamic associations. This article analyzes the Muslim minority in Maniema by focusing on their survival during historic marginalization from the state, their cohesion to overcome internal divisions, and their search for a voice to engage in social and political life. It argues that while the Congolese Muslim minority was successful at survival, the quest to form a cohesive community able to speak with one voice has remained mostly elusive.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85111351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-06DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01202007
Nadeem Mahomed
The principal issue which this paper addresses is the identity and status of the minority Ahmadi community within the larger majoritarian Sunni Muslim community in Cape Town (itself a minority in the country), which was characterised by hostility, violence and exclusion perpetrated against the Ahmadi community. By examining archival material, local Muslim publications and interviews regarding events that transpired during the 1960s, I will argue that the tools of public avowal and socio-economic boycotts were wielded as weapons to buttress the authority of a Sunni clerical leadership as custodians of an orthodox Islamic heritage and a Sunni iteration of Islamic theology and Muslim life against what was considered to be a heretical manifestation in the form of Ahmadiyyat.
{"title":"The Ahmadis of Cape Town and the Spectre of Heresy: Polemics, Apostates and Boycotts","authors":"Nadeem Mahomed","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01202007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01202007","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The principal issue which this paper addresses is the identity and status of the minority Ahmadi community within the larger majoritarian Sunni Muslim community in Cape Town (itself a minority in the country), which was characterised by hostility, violence and exclusion perpetrated against the Ahmadi community. By examining archival material, local Muslim publications and interviews regarding events that transpired during the 1960s, I will argue that the tools of public avowal and socio-economic boycotts were wielded as weapons to buttress the authority of a Sunni clerical leadership as custodians of an orthodox Islamic heritage and a Sunni iteration of Islamic theology and Muslim life against what was considered to be a heretical manifestation in the form of Ahmadiyyat.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80531030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-06DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01301001
G. Vahed
This article charts the contours of Sunni-Shia relations in South Africa, with a particular focus on the period since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which was received positively by many Muslims in a context of American hegemony globally and heightened anti-apartheid political activism locally. The growth of Saudi Arabian funded religious organisations within the Sunni majority community, and similar investment by Iran in emerging and existing Shia communities have fuelled relations between Sunni and Shia globally. This article considers the increasing tensions between Shias and mainstream Sunni Ulema in South Africa. The period has been witness to growing anti-Shia discourse, a physical attack against worshippers in a Shia mosque and a failed attempt at a truce. The growth in broadcast and social media and religious transnationalism have exacerbated historic fissures and antagonism, and these tensions seem destined to deepen and spread in the period ahead.
{"title":"Between the Local and the Global: The Iranian Revolution and Sunni-Shia Relations in South Africa","authors":"G. Vahed","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01301001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01301001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article charts the contours of Sunni-Shia relations in South Africa, with a particular focus on the period since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which was received positively by many Muslims in a context of American hegemony globally and heightened anti-apartheid political activism locally. The growth of Saudi Arabian funded religious organisations within the Sunni majority community, and similar investment by Iran in emerging and existing Shia communities have fuelled relations between Sunni and Shia globally. This article considers the increasing tensions between Shias and mainstream Sunni Ulema in South Africa. The period has been witness to growing anti-Shia discourse, a physical attack against worshippers in a Shia mosque and a failed attempt at a truce. The growth in broadcast and social media and religious transnationalism have exacerbated historic fissures and antagonism, and these tensions seem destined to deepen and spread in the period ahead.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78830147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01202002
Laura Collins, Gino Vlavonou
This article examines how existing in a larger socio-political environment of contested national belonging shapes Muslims’ experiences in the Central African Republic (car). We draw on data gathered between 2017 and 2019 from various archival sources and in-depth interviews with Muslim religious leaders and non-Muslims in car’s capital, Bangui. We argue that through claims to autochthony a dual logic of exclusion co-occurs which shapes how Muslims experience their minority status. First, national level autochthony debates frame Muslim minority exclusion from the Central African national imagination. Second, at the Muslim intra-communal level, and particularly among religious leaders, autochthony encapsulates debates over “authentic” Muslimhood – fuelled not by contestation over Islamic practice and interpretation, but rather historical contestation based on ethnic exclusion. Specifically, we show that claims to “proper” Central African Muslimhood are premised on autochthony embedded in a dominant myth of primary settlement advanced by certain Muslim leaders.
{"title":"A State of (Dis)unity and Uncertain Belonging: The Central African Republic and its Muslim Minority","authors":"Laura Collins, Gino Vlavonou","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01202002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01202002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines how existing in a larger socio-political environment of contested national belonging shapes Muslims’ experiences in the Central African Republic (car). We draw on data gathered between 2017 and 2019 from various archival sources and in-depth interviews with Muslim religious leaders and non-Muslims in car’s capital, Bangui. We argue that through claims to autochthony a dual logic of exclusion co-occurs which shapes how Muslims experience their minority status. First, national level autochthony debates frame Muslim minority exclusion from the Central African national imagination. Second, at the Muslim intra-communal level, and particularly among religious leaders, autochthony encapsulates debates over “authentic” Muslimhood – fuelled not by contestation over Islamic practice and interpretation, but rather historical contestation based on ethnic exclusion. Specifically, we show that claims to “proper” Central African Muslimhood are premised on autochthony embedded in a dominant myth of primary settlement advanced by certain Muslim leaders.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90616369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01202009
Kristina Mashimi
This article examines the ambiguous positionings of the Gülen Movement (gm) in the religiously mixed setting of urban Tanzania, particularly in education. It argues that the gm has capitalised on its identity as a not-explicitly-Muslim minority group within the privatised educational market in Tanzania, making its schools an option for Muslim and Christian families alike. Against the backdrop of Tanzania’s larger histories of religious inequalities and sentiments of injustice among the Muslim population, gm schools fill a significant gap through their elite orientation and inclination towards Islam. The article further argues that the moral education offered by gm schools binds them to the broader ideological mission of the movement. Foregrounding the experiences of female students, it shows that moral education at gm schools is a highly gendered and open-ended process that entails the embodiment of different and at times contradictory understandings of femininity, modesty, and shame.
{"title":"Ambiguous Positionings: The Politics and Experiences of Moral Learning at Gülen Movement Schools in Urban Tanzania","authors":"Kristina Mashimi","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01202009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01202009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines the ambiguous positionings of the Gülen Movement (gm) in the religiously mixed setting of urban Tanzania, particularly in education. It argues that the gm has capitalised on its identity as a not-explicitly-Muslim minority group within the privatised educational market in Tanzania, making its schools an option for Muslim and Christian families alike. Against the backdrop of Tanzania’s larger histories of religious inequalities and sentiments of injustice among the Muslim population, gm schools fill a significant gap through their elite orientation and inclination towards Islam. The article further argues that the moral education offered by gm schools binds them to the broader ideological mission of the movement. Foregrounding the experiences of female students, it shows that moral education at gm schools is a highly gendered and open-ended process that entails the embodiment of different and at times contradictory understandings of femininity, modesty, and shame.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82922423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01202006
Katrin Langewiesche
The minority status of the Ahmadiyya is linked to the doctrine of this movement, described by some as heterodox, by others as non-Islamic, but also in connection to their minority demographics, whether in Burkina Faso, the country under scrutiny here, or within the overall Muslim population. The article examines the special case of the Ahmadiyya to answer general issues regarding the transnational expansion of Muslim minorities and their use of media in the struggle for recognition and participation in national public spheres. The description of the iconographic aesthetics of this Muslim missionary minority, in particular the use of the portraits of the charismatic leaders, is used to analyse the challenges of its self-representation towards the Muslim majority worldwide. The analysis of Ahmadiyya’s iconographic discourse highlights that the charismatic aesthetics makes individuals sense the power of the caliphate in their intimacy. It also emphasises the tensions related to their mediatised selfrepresentation.
{"title":"A Muslim Minority and the Use of Media: Charismatic Aesthetics of the Ahmadiyya in West Africa","authors":"Katrin Langewiesche","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01202006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01202006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The minority status of the Ahmadiyya is linked to the doctrine of this movement, described by some as heterodox, by others as non-Islamic, but also in connection to their minority demographics, whether in Burkina Faso, the country under scrutiny here, or within the overall Muslim population. The article examines the special case of the Ahmadiyya to answer general issues regarding the transnational expansion of Muslim minorities and their use of media in the struggle for recognition and participation in national public spheres. The description of the iconographic aesthetics of this Muslim missionary minority, in particular the use of the portraits of the charismatic leaders, is used to analyse the challenges of its self-representation towards the Muslim majority worldwide. The analysis of Ahmadiyya’s iconographic discourse highlights that the charismatic aesthetics makes individuals sense the power of the caliphate in their intimacy. It also emphasises the tensions related to their mediatised selfrepresentation.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"115 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79024177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-20DOI: 10.1163/21540993-01202008
D. Schulz
The introduction to the special issue on Muslim minorities in Subsaharan Africa argues that a focus on the circumstances and challenges faced by them opens up productive lines of inquiry into forms of religious coexistence and plurality, in Subsaharan Africa and elsewhere. Starting from a conceptual reflection on different forms of religious plurality, the article enters a plea for more a sustained reflection on the effects of state regulation of religious coexistence and how it is lived in everyday life. To this effect, the introduction invites readers to take the different case studies of the special issue as a way to assess and compare the genealogies and legacies of state regimes of religious governance in Subsaharan Africa.
{"title":"Studying Muslim Minorities in Subsaharan Africa: Preliminary Remarks","authors":"D. Schulz","doi":"10.1163/21540993-01202008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01202008","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The introduction to the special issue on Muslim minorities in Subsaharan Africa argues that a focus on the circumstances and challenges faced by them opens up productive lines of inquiry into forms of religious coexistence and plurality, in Subsaharan Africa and elsewhere. Starting from a conceptual reflection on different forms of religious plurality, the article enters a plea for more a sustained reflection on the effects of state regulation of religious coexistence and how it is lived in everyday life. To this effect, the introduction invites readers to take the different case studies of the special issue as a way to assess and compare the genealogies and legacies of state regimes of religious governance in Subsaharan Africa.","PeriodicalId":41507,"journal":{"name":"Islamic Africa","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87554008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}