Contemporary Movements and Trends in Islam

The common dichotomized classification of Islam in the Caucasus (“traditional” versus “fundamentalist”) does not take into account all major processes taking place in the region. The Sufi-Wahhabi discourse simplifies the social interactions between Muslims and suggests homogeneity of each of these categories. In this paper I would show how the term “Wahhabi” has been employed by the local community of Muslims who live in the Georgian Pankisi gorge  (Chechen Kists) to express their resistance towards new and radical ideas and practices. In this social conflict, Sufi brotherhoods assume the role of the defenders of traditional order, while the reformists attempt at changing not only religious but also social structures.

This introduction, first, lays out the major themes in the study of Islamic authority and, second, explains how a study focused on female Islamic authority can contribute significantly to scholarship on Islam and Muslim women. 

It presents an alternative to Weberian approaches to the study of authority, one that focuses on the paths and processes that would-be leaders follow to obtain and consolidate their authority, looking in particular at knowledge -- the sort of knowledge of Islam a leader claims, how he or she acquired this knowledge, and how he or she performatively demonstrates mastery of it in front of various audiences.

How do ‘new’ and ’old’ Islamic actors in contemporary Albania define religious legitimacy, the nation and religious otherness? This chapter uses Olivier Roy’s analytical distinction between accommodationism and neo-fundamentalism as a compass to navigate through Albania’s complex religious landscape by exploring different sets of beliefs promulgated by a selection of Islamic groups (2010).  These are the Muslim Community of Albania, which represents ‘official Islam’ , and ‘mainstream’ Sunni Muslims, who are typically accommodationist. I also analyse a Sufi subgroup thereof, which is equally accommodationist, but in a slightly different manner. As a neo-fundamentalist counterpoint, I explore the ideas of a competing organisation composed of Salafi imams.

Accommodationism means that the bond between religion and a specific territory and culture of origin is tight. In this context, ‘culture’ refers to Albanian historical tradition and the language-based, secular nation-building project engineered by modernising state elites since the early 20th century. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, is a globalised form of religion that emphasises the gap between faith and culture. As such, it represents a reformatted, exportable form of religiosity, which stands in contrast to cultural ethno-national ways of being Muslim. Neo-fundamentalist religious identity is faith-based, and seeks to ground itself solely upon explicit religious norms, at least in principle. Accordingly, these believers make their religiosity visible through a global uniform of religious markers detached from the surrounding culture.

In the Albanian Islamic context, the theoretically informed labels, neo-fundamentalist and accommodationist, roughly correspond to the ‘Albanianist’ versus the ‘Salafi’ forms of Islam. To some extent, this resonates with mainstream distinctions adopted in Albania and in the Balkans. A popular Albanian term for Muslims associated with neo-fundamentalist forms of Islam is ‘fanatic’ (fanatik). Accommodationism is commonly related to ‘old’ forms of Islam, which many be deemed as local, rooted, and European as well as tolerant and moderate. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, refers to certain ‘new’ forms of Islam, i.e. those perceived to be imported, transnational, alien, ‘fanatic’ and a threat to local religious customs. This cultural distinction between what are deemed acceptable and unacceptable forms of Islam is often politicised and securitised. As I will show, the association between neo-fundamentalism and violence is not necessarily correct, and the Salafi community under scrutiny here can be defined as pacifist and purist (Wiktorowicz 2006). These two formats, moreover, clash and merge together as different local actors seek to recast and legitimize their respective positions.

PhD thesis,  BGU, 2015.
Modern daʿwa (the “call” or “invitation” to Islam) comprises a wide range of activities and manifests itself in various contexts. Salafi daʿwa in Germany established in the early 2000s as a key activity of a new social religious movement known as the German Salafi movement. From early on, Salafi activists set themselves the ambitious goals of “bringing Islam into every house in Germany” and bringing German Muslims back to the “pure Islam,” and they engaged intensely in daʿwa. Initially comprising a small number of imāms and their followers and located in a few cities, the Salafi movement has rapidly grown and spread across Germany during the last fifteen years. It is considered to be the fastest growing Islamist movement in Germany and a very successful agent in the conversion of Germans to Islam.
The present study represents a systematic attempt to identify the characteristics of Salafi daʿwa in Germany, explore its origins, and show how and to what extent daʿwa has been adapted by German Salafi preachers to the German context. It is based on an analysis of several hundred Salafi publications and lectures, interviews with German Salafi duʿāt, and fieldwork conducted in a Salafi mosque in Berlin. The study examines how German Salafi daʿwa is shaped by various factors, including references to daʿwa in the Qurʾān and the Sunna, daʿwa strategies developed by Salafi ʿulamāʾ from Arab countries (especially from Saudi Arabia) and by global Salafi preachers, classical and modern daʿwa motifs that were previously applied by non-Salafi preachers, and strategies and motifs that have been developed by German Salafi preachers as a result of their interactions with their specific socio-political environment and target groups.
In order to grasp the Salafi daʿwa phenomenon in its complexity and diversity, it is studied from different perspectives. The first chapter provides an introduction to the history, doctrine and concept of contemporary Salafism and its three main strains (purist or quietist Salafism, political Salafism and jihād-Salafism) as well as a distinct quadripartite typology of the German Salafi movement, which I have developed during my research. Next is a chapter on the German Salafi daʿwa movement. It describes and analyzes the history, anatomy, sociology and logistical dimensions of this social-religious movement. Chapter three explores Salafis’ definitions of daʿwa and the main aims, means, methods and target groups of German Salafi daʿwa. The first section of chapter four elaborates on the styles and content Salafi preachers recommend for daʿwa to German Muslims and non-Muslims. The second section discusses recurrent motifs in Salafi daʿwa to non-Muslims in Germany. Chapter five is based on fieldwork in the al-Nur Mosque in Berlin. It describes and examines the theories and practices of Salafi dāʿiyāt (fem. pl. of dāʿī) and duʿāt in the specific setting of this mosque.                                                       
This study reveals the complex, changing and heterogeneous nature of Salafi daʿwa in Germany and shows that daʿwa is a key aspect of German Salafi thought and action. It is demonstrated that Salafi daʿwa is characterized both by pragmatic opinions and doctrinal rigidity, and by a tightrope walk between openness and courtesy towards “the other”, a target group of daʿwa, and dissociation from the “infidel” and “misguided” environment. Moreover,  it is shown that each tendency and each preacher of the German Salafi movement reacts differently to the challenges of preaching Islam in the German minority context and develops different daʿwa theories and practices.

tanggapan untuk Prof. Mitsuo Nakamura Martin van Bruinessen [Kompas, Jum'at, 7 Desember 2012, hal. 7] Buku klasik Mitsuo Nakamura, The Crescent Arises over the Banyan Tree (Bulan Sabit Muncul dari Balik Pohon Beringin), merupakan kajian antropologi penting dan rujukan wajib bagi setiap peneliti yang ingin memahami fenomena Muhammadiyah. Tahun ini, Professor Nakamura sempat meluncurkan edisi perbaikan buku lama, yang dilengkapi dengan pengamatan dan analisanya tentang perkembangan Muhammadiyah di Kota Gede selama empat dasawarsa setelah penelitian aslinya. Tambahan tersebut sebetulnya setebal buku awal dan layak dianggap sebagai The Crescent jilid kedua, tak kurang menarik daripada jilid pertama. Sebagai pengamat setia Muhammadiyah yang paling senior, dalam kerjasamanya dengan para cendekiawan muda Muhammadiyah, Pak Nakamura juga yang memelopori konferensi ilmiah tentang ormas yang telah berumur satu abad, di Malang akhir pekan ini. Tulisan sederhana ini merupakan tanggapan terhadap tulisan beliau yang dimuat di Kompas pada tanggal 23 November.

The contemporary era of the Islamic world is characterized by a passion for building its own life. This spirit faces a number of new problems at both internal and external levels. Hence the variations of Islamic progressive thought and movement emerged to provide solutions to these problems. This variation exhibits its distinctive character and can be shaped into a general pattern of structures composed of five aspects and fourteen components. The ideotheological aspect base consists of the principal sources and joints of Islam and prophethood. The methodological spectrum aspect consists of the legacy of Islamic tradition, law, and methodology. The aspect of ideality concept consists of the concepts of Islam and Muslims and the concepts of comparison of Islam and its treasures. The aspects of action zone consist of behavior, science and technology, politics, and social interaction. The aspects of reality and solutions consist of the reality of Islam and Muslims, the problems of Muslims, and progressive solutions. All these aspects and components move in a hierarchical and circular manner. Hierarchical motion shows the vertical-interactive relation from the highest level to the lowest level. Circular motion shows the referential relation of the lowest level that seeks to trace its sources at the highest level for the fulfillment of progressive solutions with reinterpretative and historical approaches.

Las revueltas árabes que estallaron en diciembre de 2010 provocaron las caídas de los regímenes de Ben Ali en Túnez, Mubarak en Egipto, Gaddafi en Libia y Saleh en Yemen. También abrieron el proceso de transición en Siria y cambios constitucionales en Marruecos. En la mayoría de los casos, estas revueltas han sido protagonizadas por jóvenes que espontáneamente tomaron las plazas y también por sindicatos obreros, allí donde su implantación es significativa. Sin embargo, en Túnez y en Egipto los mayores réditos de la caída de los regímenes los han recogido los grupos islamistas en forma de victorias electorales. La emergencia de gobiernos dominados por los islamistas en estos países ha provocado un cambio radical en la política árabe. El islam político ha vuelto al primer plano de la política árabe e internacional, lo que obliga a realizar nuevos análisis, ya que el islamismo ha evolucionado desde los años ochenta y noventa del siglo pasado. Este libro hace un recorrido por los distintos grupos islamistas mayoritarios en la región del Mediterráneo sur, desde el AKP turco hasta el islamismo mauritano.

This article begins to fill a gap in recent discussions of the future of Islamic studies with an account of the nature and significance of Anthropological and Ethnographic contributions to the study of Islam and Muslims. Drawing attention to both the problem of essence in Orientalism and the dissolution
of Islam’s significance for Muslims in Said’s (1978) anti-Orientalism, the article examines how shifts between essence and silence have been played out in the short history of Anthropology, from colonial ethnography through functionalism to the relationship between so-called Great and
Little Traditions, the fresh impetus of Geertz’s (1968) Islam Observed and subsequent debates about Islam and plural islams. My account culminates with discussion of an increasingly specialised and interdisciplinary body of work on the reproduction and transmission of Islamic discursive traditions published mainly in American Anthropology since the 1970s and 1980s. I contend that such literature suggests a theoretical starting point for ‘Muslim studies’ which allows for the configuring power of social structure and the efficacy of history/tradition as Muslim habitus, as well as the contextual improvisations of human agents with diverse social positions and cultural capitals. Ultimately, my argument is that although this concern for structure, tradition and agency can be combined and emphasized in different ways, attentiveness to both similarity and difference, continuity and change, suggests one way forward beyond the essence/silence impasse in Orientalist/anti-Orientalist thinking about Muslim cultures and societies.

“Kurdish Islam” – what is that? The adjective is derived from a noun that names a people and their languages living in Eastern Anatolia, Northeastern Syria, Northern Iraq, and Northwestern Iran. However, here it refers to only Iraqi Kurdistan. The noun refers to a religion. What a religion is and what Islam means is a much larger debate, which unfortunately cannot be covered here. For the purposes of this chapter “Islam in Kurdistan” actually refers to Muslim Kurdish society going back to the Tanzimat, an Ottoman set of legal reforms, which organized communities along religious divides. In particular, this article will examine what practices are considered outside of the scope of Islam and why. What constitutes the boundary? Unfortunately, a more detailed discussion of intra-Islamic discourses is beyond the scope of this chapter. Instead, it will focus on communal boundaries, social structures as they relate to religious institutions and authority, shifting  alliances and their influences on religious beliefs and practices, and, finally, popular practices.

This book chapter offers an overview of challenges and opportunities for Tunisian women's rights before and after Tunisia's 2011 revolution. From Nouri Gana’s introduction: “Monica Marks deftly weaves together the ways in which the issue of women’s rights has been used and abused by Bourguiba and Ben Ali to maintain their hold on power. Counter-revolutionary forces, along with a host of opposition parties, have similarly wheeled out the issue of women’s rights in order to show how bad Ennadha would be for women despite Ennahda’s endorsement of the Personal Status Code of 1957 and of a new constitution that does not include Sharia law. What has muddled the waters even further, however, is the rise to prominence of Salafism, one of the most mediatized phenomena in postrevolutionary Tunisia, especially insofar as it directly affects women’s rights.”

Turkey has witnessed remarkable sociocultural change under the regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), particularly regarding its religious communities. As individuals with pious identities have increasingly gained access to state power and accumulated economic influence, so religious appearances and practices have become more visible in Turkey's `secular' public spaces. More than this, consumption practices have changed and new Islamic and Islamist identities have emerged.
This book investigates three of the most widespread faith-inspired communities in Turkey: the Gulen, Suleymanli and the Menzil. Nazli Alimen compares these communities, looking at their diverse interpretations of Islamic rules related to the body and dress, and how these different groups compete for power and control in Turkey. In tracing what motivates consumption practices, the book adds to the growing interest in the commercial aspects of modest and Islamic fashion. It also highlights the importance of clothing and bodily rituals (such as veiling, grooming and food choices) for the formation of community identities. Based on ethnographic research, Alimen analyses the relationship between the marketplace and religion, and shows how different communities interact with each other and state institutions. Of particular note are the varied expressions of Islamic masculinities and femininities at play. Appealing to a cross-disciplinary readership, the book will be relevant for scholars within Turkish Studies, Gender Studies, Islamic Studies, Fashion, Consumption Studies, Sociology of Religion and Middle Eastern Studies.

Winner of Iran’s 31st World Book of the Year Prize

From the publisher:

“Sculpting the Self is a masterpiece. It is among the finest explorations of selfhood and subjectivity in contemporary philosophical literature. Muhammad Faruque’s approach is breathtakingly erudite, analytically precise, and extraordinarily synoptic. He draws effectively on a wide range of Western philosophical literature-classical, modern, and contemporary; on classical and recent Indian philosophy; on contemporary cognitive science; and especially, and with great nuance, on a great swath of the Islamic tradition from the medieval period through the work of Muhammad Iqbal. Each of these many threads is spun with great care. But most impressive is the skill with which they are woven into a profoundly illuminating tapestry. Sculpting the Self is not only a superb exploration of selfhood, but a master class in the practice of cross-cultural philosophy.”
—Jay L. Garfield, Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities, Smith College and Visiting Professor of Buddhist Philosophy, Harvard Divinity School

"Philosophically dense but yet eminently accessible, this book is a landmark publication in the fields of Islamic Studies and the study of religion more broadly."
—New Books Network in Religious Studies

“Sculpting the Self is a rare but essential treat that presents a creative analysis of major thinkers in Islam, and demonstrates how one might fruitfully read their work to move towards a truly global study of selfhood and philosophy.”
—Sajjad Rizvi, University of Exeter

“Sculpting the Self is an impressive book. Situated at the crossroads between Western and Islamic philosophies of the self, both modern and non-modern, it offers a new way forward: a ‘multidimensional’ model that is richer, more expansive, and more inclusive than most theories available today. Smart, deeply informed, and engaging, Faruque’s book will be a cornerstone for future thinking about the elusive entity we call the self.”
—James I. Porter, Irving Stone Professor of Literature, Departments of Rhetoric and Classics, UC Berkeley

“In Sculpting the Self we are guided along the maze of the concept of the self in Islamic philosophy by one of the most promising, young global philosophers writing today. Muhammad Faruque’s breadth in this work is extraordinary, bringing many key pre-modern and modern Muslim philosophers from Iran and India into conversation with various currents in philosophy, consciousness studies, evolutionary theory, and neuroscience. The result is nothing less than a sophisticated, first of its kind account of Islamic philosophical conceptions of selfhood, personhood, and identity.”
—Mohammed Rustom, author of Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of 'Ayn al-Qudat

“Faruque has delivered a tour de force study of selfhood across time and tradition. His expertise in Islamic thought, together with his facility with a wide range of sources and approaches, succeeds in bringing the self’s full spectrum into view. The ambition of his project is as rare as it is refreshing.”
—Charles M. Stang, Professor of Early Christian Thought and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School

“Faruque’s book is a welcome attempt to engage the various strands of Islamic philosophical psychology with contemporary work on subjectivity and selfhood in the philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences. The approach is novel and should initiate a vigorous discussion concerning the contemporary relevance of the history of Islamic thought.”
—Jari Kaukua, University of Jyväskylä

“The variety of voices and sources, both Western and non-Western, bring to life the model of a multidimensional self especially in contrast to the reductionist models that Faruque critiques.”
—Sayeh Meisami, University of Dayton

“. . . a great survey on the study of self. Faruque develops a unique perspective in combining neuroscience and philosophy and offers a great conversation between Western, Islamic, and Eastern philosophers.”
—Ramazan Kilinc, University of Nebraska at Omaha

"This cross-cultural analysis of human identity or the self provides a brilliant and wide-spanning philosophical understanding of the current epistemological challenges in understanding selfhood. Faruque has amassed an extraordinary amount of source material in several European and Islamic languages by bringing the Islamic tradition into dialogue with the metaphysics of the East and West, including modern disciplines such as cognitive science, consciousness studies, evolutionary theory, and neuroscience—that offer a remarkable study of selfhood... This work will be important for mental health professionals seeking to better understand human identity as it is informed by the diverse cultures and their knowledge systems."
—The Humanistic Psychologist

"Explaining theories and conceptions of selfhood and subjectivity across Western, Islamic and Indian sources is no easy task; it is even more difficult to do so clearly, cogently and in a manner comprehensible to non-experts. ...Yet this is what Muhammad Faruque does in Sculpting the Self."
—Islam and Christian-Musim Relations

"In the perusal of contemporary philosophical literature, one rarely comes upon a work that engages in an analytic penetration of a philosophical topic with such erudition and cosmopolitanism. Faruque’s study draws on primary philosophical work from English, German, French, ancient Greek, Persian, Arabic, Urdu sources and then supplements them with the latest and most cutting-edge scientific and historical studies; this is all done in an elegant and inclusive manner. Indeed, this study is not only a comprehensive philosophical treatment of selfhood, but it is also a blueprint for an exemplary philosophical analysis which is not cramped by scholarly parochialism endemic to the run-of-the-mill academic essays."
—Comparative Philosophy

The rising number of non-status migrants is one of the central political issues of our time. This essay argues that if we want to understand the political and philosophical importance of this phenomenon, the contributions of Alain Badiou, his militant group L'Organisation politique (OP), and the struggle of the sans-papiers movement in France are absolutely crucial. This is the case because, I will argue, Badiou, the OP, and the sans-papiers created a new kind of migrant justice struggle in the mid-1990s that in many ways remains at the practical and theoretical roots of much of non-status migrant organizing today. However, this essay also argues that Badiou's theoretical and political work with the sans-papiers also needs to be revised and updated in light of certain developments in more recent migrant justice struggles.

The anthropology of Islam aims to examine the ways in which religious, ethical, and theological teachings are instituted and work within the social world. For example, how these teachings are negotiated by Muslims within networks of social relationships and how these negotiations affect the peculiarities of everyday life and vice versa. In order to provide a better grasp of the relevance of anthropology for the study of Islam, it is prudent to gain first a thorough understanding of the methods and concepts utilized in social and cultural anthropology. This introductory essay outlines the theoretical and disciplinary foundations for the anthropology of Islam by exploring the following questions: What is distinctive about anthropological research? What can anthropology contribute to the study of Islam? How can the reading of anthropological texts enhance the understanding of Islam? How can reading ethnographic accounts help refine the methods of anthropological fieldwork? This conceptual framework allows an outline of this Reader’s design and explains how its contributions are arranged.

Murad’s Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions is a rare and profound book. It consists of 100 pithy aphorisms - termed "contentions" - on a diverse array of topics ranging through ethics, cosmology, metaphysics, theology, law and history. Each contention is a terse distillation of Murad's often exquisitely crafted ruminations on a given matter followed by his own compressed elucidation (the commentary).  Though sometimes abstruse and esoteric, the book weaves itself into a dense, multi-faceted tapestry of insights into a range of contemporary issues that concern the religious mind.

Da’wa (literally, "call") refers not only to missionary work (i.e., spreading the message of Islam to nonbelievers). It also means reinforcing
greater piety on the part of Muslims, appealing to Muslims to renew their religious commitment. Influenced by Muslim scholar Isma’il al-Faruqi,
contemporary da’wa activity in the American context has underscored that the role of the da’i (the one who calls) is to invite "reversion" to
one's natural or innate state of being in relationship with the divine. Islam was readopted by many twentieth-century African Americans due to
da’wa work of the Ahmadis, the Nation of Islam, and others. Digital da’wa, using new social media and the Internet, and visual da’wa (e.g.,
satellite television and YouTube videos) add innovative means to propagating the faith and increasing Islamic literacy. Published in Yvonne Y. Haddad and Jane I. Smith, editors, Oxford Handbook of American Islam (2014).

In this masterful treatise of Sufi spirituality and metaphysics, Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari maps out the mystical journey to God as an initiatic progression through seven degrees of realization, or readings, of the divine Name Allāh. These seven degrees encapsulate what it means to read in the Name of the Lord, letter by letter, syllable by syllable, until the Hu, Lahu, Lillāh, ilāh, Allāh, Alif, and the Treasure-Dot are inwardly realized in the heart of the wayfarer. The Shaykh guides the reader from secret to secret, or reading to reading, devoting ten subchapters to each degree of the divine Name. Written with both metaphysical rigor and poetic elegance, the book comprises seventy short chapters that correspond to the seventy veils of Light and darkness between God and creation. Throughout the book, he emphasizes the centrality of directly witnessing the Divine Light, the indispensability of a living spiritual master, the dynamic between transcendence and immanence, the purification of the heart, and wholehearted commitment to practicing the Sunna and continuous invocation as a means of attaining direct knowledge of God.

Describing the fruit of wayfaring, the Shaykh proclaims:

"[It is] a matter of sheer fruitional experience, tasted only by those who plunge the depths of the kernel of the heart...Only those who possess strong resolve may directly experience the innermost secret. They entirely orient themselves in pursuit of pure meaning, and ride upon the steed of willpower, with both a strong spiritual essence and the power of passionate love...[For] the innermost secret is not something that can be spoken of, but a realization of the presence of the Real. It is the descent of the Real toward the servant, and the ascent of the servant toward the Real. It is a state, and a direct experience through unveiling. It is a certainty that is curtained by the 'as if' (the Kāf) of 'As if you see Him.'...Now, in order to learn the innermost secret and stand at the station of its people, you must first and foremost find its wellspring. By this, I mean a Shaykh who will teach you how to reach God, and whose very sight inspires in you an understanding of the seriousness and severity of this affair. As for the seeker who cannot find the waters of realization, he is to perform the dry ablution (tayammum) with dust, in the manner of those who are too sick to use water. He must adhere to the outward levels of the revealed Law as understood by the average believer, and profess God's perfect transcendence, while surrendering to God's folk."

Preface Part 1 Conceptualising Modernity 1. Tradition and Modernity within Islamic Civilisation and the West, Armando Salvatore 2. Western Scholars of Islam on the Issue of Modernity, Muhammad Khalid Masud and Armando Salvatore Part 2 Negotiating Modernity 3. Political Modernity in the Middle East, Sami Zubaida 4. Islam, Modernity and the Politics of Gender: Perspectives from the Middle East, Central Asia and Afghanistan, Deniz Kandiyoti 5. Sufism, 'Popular' Islam and the Encounter with Modernity, Martin van Bruinessen 6. Colonialism and Islamic Law, Ebrahim Moosa Part 3 Debating Modernity 7. The Reform Project in the Emerging Public Spheres, Armando Salvatore 8. The Ulama and Contestations of Religious Authority under Modern Conditions, Muhammad Qasim Zaman 9. Islamic Modernism, Muhammad Khalid Masud 10. The Shifting Politics of Identity, Abdulkader Tayob List of Contributors.

The Tablighi Jama'at (TJ) is widely regarded as the largest movement of grassroots Islamic revival in the world yet remains significantly under-researched. This thesis examines the British branch of the movement based on sustained ethnographic fieldwork conducted over 18 months. Intensive participant observation was combined with 59 semi-structured interviews to present a detailed typology and topography of the movement's organisational structure in Britain. Further, the issue of intergenerational transmission is explored – based on an analysis of the cultural identity markers of language, clothing and food – with clear shifts identified between the first-generation 'Old Guard' and the British-born 'Avant-Garde.' The thesis argues that TJ should best be characterised as a movement in transition located within broader processes of indigenisation operative within British Islam more generally.

Theoretically, the thesis augments Berger and Luckmann's sociology of knowledge with insights derived from Bhaskar’s critical realism to propose the twin 'generative mechanisms' of secularity and spirituality from which empirically accessible social phenomena emerge. These are used to anatomise the process of 'intra-religious conversion' which emerges as a key motif of contemporary TJ experience. Turner's concept of liminality and Schutz's phenomenology of consciousness are further deployed to examine ritual and semantic dimensions of conversion that see the neophyte’s attachment to religion transition from a nominal to a passionate state. Generic theories in the sociology of religion are also consulted to explore issues of retention and post-conversion strategies of commitment-maintenance.

Finally, utilising insights from Peter Berger’s vast oeuvre, the thesis explores the intersection of 'Islamic Revival' with secularisation theory in Europe. It argues that, in the context of contemporary ‘Eurosecularity,’ the willed and conscious exercise of agency in ways which publicly affirm faith is intrinsically imbued with a disconcerting ‘debunking’ potential for those who have unthinkingly imbibed into interior consciousness the taken-for-granted suppositions of a secular nomos.

Dialog antara agama adalah perkara yang amat penting di Malaysia yang mempunyai pelbagai bangsa dan agama, dialog antara agama juga amat penting di Malaysia bagi tujuan untuk menjaga keamanan dan perpaduan di dalam masyarakat di Malaysia di samping dapat menjalankan dakwah dalam keadaan yang harmoni. Di dalam artikel ini saya ingin membincangkan mengenai seorang tokoh di dalam dialog di antara agama di Malaysia iaitu Lim Jooi Soon atau lebih dikenali dengan nama Bro Lim. Di dalam artikel ini saya ingin membincangkan mengenai pemikiran yang di bawa oleh Bro Lim dan juga metode yang telah di gunakan oleh beliau dalam membincangkan mengenai isu-isu antara agama di Malaysia. Di dalam penulisan ini penulis akan menggunakan metode pemerhatian, dan analisis visual serta melihat kepada hujah-hujah yang dilontarkan di dalam dialog beliau. Kata Kunci: Dialog antara agama, Brother Lim Jooi Soon, Metode dalam menyampaikan dakwah. PENGENALAN Penulis memilih untuk menulis artikel ini adalah disebabkan oleh penulis mendapati pada masa kini disiplin ilmu yang berkaitan dengan perbandingan diantara agama adalah merupakan suatu perkara yang amat penting untuk di fahami oleh seluruh umat Islam terutamanya bagi mereka yang ingin menceburkan diri di dalam bidang dakwah. Di dalam artikel ini penulis ingin mengkaji mengenai seorang tokoh di dalam bidang perbandingan agama dan juga merupakan pendakwah bebas di Malaysia iaitu saudara Lim Jooi Soon. Tujuan penulis memilih untuk mengkaji akan tokoh ini adalah disebabkan oleh saudara Lim Jooi Soon adalah merupakan seorang yang sebelum ini

Sufism across time and space has changed,
not only doctrinally but also institutionally,
and since the advent of the World Wide Web,
cyber-Sufis or Sufi cybernauts further complicate
the profile of those who pursue the Path. The current
essay looks at Sufi networks from Asia to Africa to America,
and assesses the future for Sufism within but also beyond Islam.

There is a problem of persistence of anti-Sufi image of Syed Abū al-A‘lā al-Mawdūdī owing its genesis partly to tangential engagement with key doctrinal issues of Sufism and certain ambivalence regarding it in him and, more significantly, due to Mawdūdī’ scholarship’s atomistic reading of his key statements. For addressing this key problem, this paper critiques atomistic reading and explores certain background methodological issues and reflections on definitions of Sufism besides key points in his life and work. Our analysis of his work shows he entered into a dialogue with Sufism, acknowledged his debt to it, and we better approach him a contributor to the debate on Sufism and not its simplistic denier/outsider. Evidences include, among others, his moral mysticism, his respect for major Sufi Masters and celebration of his Sufi ancestry, his attempt to visit Sufi Masters, his early poetry in Sufi vein, his involvement with (and influence from) the al-Asfār al-Arba‘a of Mulla Sadra, and his reworking/appropriation of certain key Sufi themes and Sufi organizational structure in the Jamaat-e-Islami

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) was established in January 2007 as an autonomous School within the Nanyang Technological University. RSIS' mission is to be a leading research and graduate teaching institution in strategic and international affairs in the Asia-Pacific. To accomplish this mission, RSIS will:  Provide a rigorous professional graduate education in international affairs with a strong practical and area emphasis  Conduct policy-relevant research in national security, defence and strategic studies, diplomacy and international relations  Collaborate with like-minded schools of international affairs to form a global network of excellence Graduate Training in International Affairs RSIS offers an exacting graduate education in international affairs, taught by an international faculty of leading thinkers and practitioners. The teaching programme consists of the Master of Science (MSc) degrees in Strategic Studies, International Relations, International Political Economy and Asian Studies as well as The Nanyang MBA (International Studies) offered jointly with the Nanyang Business School. The graduate teaching is distinguished by their focus on the Asia-Pacific region, the professional practice of international affairs and the cultivation of academic depth. Over 190 students, the majority from abroad, are enrolled with the School. A small and select Ph.D. programme caters to students whose interests match those of specific faculty members.

Until the emergence of influential transnational Islamic movements – active underground since the 1980s and erupting into public life after the demise of Suharto’s New Order regime – Indonesian Islam had consisted of two main streams, Reformists and Traditionalists. The former were influenced by Islamic Reformist currents in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and South Asia but also by Western models of education and organisation, whereas the latter associated themselves with the traditional culture of Arabic learning and devotional rituals that the Reformists wished to abolish in the name of return to a pristine Islam. Traditionalists long remained a rather closed and inward-looking community, only connected with the world outside through the few men who spent years studying classical fiqh texts in Mecca or Cairo. The Reformists were comparatively cosmopolitan, if only due to the Western-style education of their leaders, and in the first decades of post-colonial Independence the Islamic Reformist political party, Masyumi, adopted liberal democratic and pro-Western positions, whereas the Traditionalist NU supported Sukarno’s anti-imperialist policies and isolationist nationalism.
Under the New Order, an important segment of the Reformists re-oriented themselves increasingly towards the Middle East and especially Saudi Arabia, and constituted a channel for the dissemination of Islamist (and later Salafi) ideas. The New Order government facilitated and sponsored the flourishing of liberal versions of Reformism, deemed to be more compatible with Indonesia’s presumably tolerant and accommodating culture. The Iranian Revolution, and especially the Saudi ideological counter-offensive, resulted in a rapidly intensifying flow of ideas and funding from Gulf states towards Indonesian actors, in order to counteract the spread of Shia as well as liberal Islamic thought. Meanwhile, Traditionalists increasingly entered the national mainstream through education, and became connected with the international NGO world.
Rapid social, economic and cultural change led many to question the country’s course and to search for an authentic identity – which many committed Muslims found in a rejection of the West and a conscious adoption of Islam as a comprehensive social and political ideology. The concept of ghazwul fikri, ‘cultural invasion,’ which was central to an earlier Arab search for authenticity, became the slogan of Indonesia’s Islamist anti-globalisation sentiment. After the demise of the New Order, transnational Islamist and fundamentalist movements assumed a prominent presence in the public sphere, at the expense of the major Reformist and Traditionalist organisations. Progressive and liberal Muslim thought, eclectic in its appropriation of ideas, from Arab as well as Western sources, and generally more appreciative of local culture, no longer is patronised by the government, which makes its position precarious. Increased communications with the Middle East have, however, been crucial to the continuing development of liberal thought as well as Islamism and Salafism.

“Çağdaş İslami Akımlar Neye Tekabül Eder?”, [Ahmet Koç (ed.), İslam Düşüncesi Kılavuzu, 2. baskı, İstanbul, 2019] içinde, s.349-365.


Çağdaş dini akım, cemaat, hareket ve grupların akademik düzlemde takibini yapmak her şeyden önce İslam düşüncesinin gelişimini geçmişten bugüne bilimsel bir gözle izlemek anlamına gelmektedir. Geçmiş tecrübeler ışığında, bugünün cemaatlerinin de mezhepleşme potansiyelini daima özlerinde taşıdıkları sosyolojik bir gerçektir.
Ayrıca İslami akımlar gerçeğini anlamaya yönelik bilimsel çabaların, günümüz müslümanlarının sosyal ve siyasi, dini ve mezhebi gerçekliklerini görünür ve anlaşılır kılmaya yardımcı olması gerekir. Tanıma ve tanışmanın da ötesinde, karşılıklı önyargıları aşma; ihtilafların çözümünde ve birlik-beraberlik projelerinde sağlam bir bilgi zeminine basarak insiyatif kullanma; ümmetin çeşitliliğini, zenginliğini, güçlü yanlarını, ihtilaf ve zaaflarını göstermek suretiyle bugüne ve geleceğe ışık tutma, mevzubahis araştırmalarda gözetilen diğer hedeflerdir.

Quote as:
Salvatore, Armando, 2016. The Sociology of Islam: Knowledge, Power and Civility, Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

The Sociology of Islam provides an accessible introduction to this emerging field of inquiry, teaching and debate. The study is located at the crucial intersection between a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. It discusses the long-term dynamics of Islam as both a religion and as a social, political and cultural force.
The volume focuses on ideas of knowledge, power and civility to provide students and readers with analytic and critical thinking frameworks for understanding the complex social facets of Islamic traditions and institutions. The study of the sociology of Islam improves the understanding of Islam as a diverse force that drives a variety of social and political arrangements.
Delving into both conceptual questions and historical interpretations, The Sociology of Islam is a transdisciplinary, comparative resource for students, scholars, and policy makers seeking to understand Islam’s complex changes throughout history and its impact on the modern world.

The sociology of Islam has been a late and controversial addition to the sociology of religion. This field of research has been the principal target of the critique of Orientalism and after 9/11 the study of Islam became heavily politicized. In the first volume of what promises to be a major three volume masterpiece, Armando Salvatore steers a careful and judicious course through the various pitfalls that attend the field. The result is an academic triumph combining a sweeping historical vision of Islam with an analytical framework that is structured by the theme of knowledge-power. One waits with huge excitement for the delivery of the remaining volumes.
Bryan Turner, City University of New York

Sociologists of religion have long been awaiting a successor volume to Bryan Turner 's pathbreaking but now dated Weber and Islam (1974).  Armando Salvatore's new book provides just this update and much more.  Ranging across a host of critical case studies and theoretical issues, Salvatore provides a masterful account of religious ethics, rationalization, and civility across the breadth of the Muslim world, from early times to today.  The result is a book of deep intellectual insight, important, not just for the sociology of Islam, but for scholars and students interested in religion, ethics, and modernity in all civilizational traditions.
Robert Hefner, Boston University

A brilliant, pioneering effort to explain the cosmopolitan ethos within Islamicate civilization, The Sociology of Islam encompasses all the terminological  boldness of Marshal Hodgson, making the Persianate and Islamicate elements of civic cosmopolitanism, across the vast Afro-Eurasian ecumene, accessible to the widest possible readership in both the humanities and the social sciences.
Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Who is Allah? (2015)