Conservative Islam: A Cultural Anthropology

617 Pages·2012·2.18 MB·English

by  Erich Kolig

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to many Muslims and non-Muslims who in one
way or another over many years have been helpful in shaping
my views on Islam and stimulated my interest in how people
live guided by this fascinating religion. They brought to life the
rather dry matter published in books, journals, newspapers, on
the web and in blog sites. But they are not responsible of course
for my interpretations and for the views that inform my analysis
and description. Any shortcomings and errors in this study
cannot be blamed on them. There are too many people to name
them all. In many cases I do not know their names, but their
kindness or their views, sparking my interest, have remained in
my memory. (Muslims would be less than human though—and
my ability to remember would be rather deficient—if some of
them would not have left rather negative impressions. But even
being threatened with a knife in the holy city of Qom by a
fanatic who did not want my infidel feet to touch sacred ground
was instructive and valuable in a way.)
Through my research in Afghanistan and Indonesia and the
travels in the traditional Islamic world (in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan,
Kashmir/India, Malaysia, Morocco, Egypt, and the United Arab
Emirates) I could become acquainted with the many faces of
Islam. In Austria and New Zealand I received interesting insights
into Muslims as a religious minority and how the diaspora in a
Western secularised liberal democracy influences the lives of
the devout. This has always been the angle of my interest in
Islam: as an anthropologist my approach focuses on the social
aspect rather than the purely theological one.
I could repeat much of the litany of gratitude expressed in
my previous book New Zealand’s Muslims and Multiculturalism
(Brill, 2010), but I will refrain from doing so. Instead I want to
acknowledge a much wider circle of people. Conversations,
seminars, lectures and research projects of my colleagues,
research assistants and associates, and graduate students at
Otago University, in New Zealand, over many years have been
invaluable in stimulating my interests and deepening my
insights into Islam and Muslim cultures. From among them, I like
to thank Professor Rex Ahdar, professor of law, for focusing my
interest on the sharia, Dr. Joko Susilo for his ever cheerful
guidance around the not-so-harmless cliffs of Indonesian radical
Islam, Drs Najib Lafraie and William Shepard for helpful
suggestions from their font of knowledge of Islam, and Professor
Paul Trebilco of the Theology Department at Otago University,
for providing me with some logistic support in his capacity as
director of the Centre for Studies of Islam and Muslim Cultures.
My (late) friend Dr Assadullah Baha has taught me much about
Afghanistan and pashtunwala. Abdullah Drury, a Muslim
convert, has supplied me with information about Islam in New
Zealand, my home for the last forty years. I also thank the
Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology at Vienna
University, my alma mater, which provided me with several
appointments as Visiting Professor and thus allowed me to
observe first-hand the growing Muslim diaspora in Europe and
reactions to it. (My teaching duties were in the area of
indigenous politics, theory of religion and Australian Aboriginal
studies, but unofficially I could engage in my “hobby” of
“Muslim studies,” observing multiculturalism and culture
politics.) In this context I owe Professor Em. Karl Wernhart, as
(former) Rector of Vienna University, a debt of gratitude.
My fieldwork in Afghanistan as a graduate student at Vienna
University (my thanks go to the Anthropology Department at
Kabul University) and later in Indonesia intermittently over the
last fifteen years (my thanks to Universitas Kristen Satya
Wacana, and Badeni) were profoundly important to my
professional interests. Perhaps somewhat unusual for
Islamology, I am also drawing on my research experience
among Australian Aborigines over a period of thirty years (a
special thanks to Ron and Catherine Berndt who initially gave
me the big chance) and experiences collected in several other
places (in Melanesia, Polynesia, Europe, Asia, etc.). For these
experiences gathered over a period of forty years I owe so much
to hundreds of people. I cannot even begin to name them. I can
to hundreds of people. I cannot even begin to name them. I can
only silently encompass them in my acknowledgements for the
kindness they have shown me.
Last but not least, I thank my wife Nicole for her
understanding and forbearance when I was preoccupied with
this work.
***
I am not an Arabic speaker. For that reason and to avoid
getting into an argument about the correct rendering of terms
of that language,[1] unapologetically I place the emphasis on
simplicity and ease. Arabic words are presented therefore in the
simplest or most commonly employed English rendering, and
without using the letters hamza and ayn, usually shown as
upper case inverted commas. Thus it is simply Quran and not
Qur’an, sharia and not shari’a, etc. However I will retain, for
instance, Shi’i or Shi’a as this is in common use.
References to the Quran are made using the official Saudi
version and translation The Noble Qur’an, produced in Madinah.
Its English is not necessarily always the most elegant rendition,
but it has the official stamp of approval of the authorities most
closely associated with world Islam.
In most cases in which news items and current affairs have
been referred to I have not listed the media source where I
obtained this information. Important news are reported world
wide in many different languages and in various media
(internet, newspaper, television, radio etc.) and not always
exactly at the same time and in identical detail. Such
information is usually retrievable through Google or other
search engines and can easily be checked this way. Similarly, I
have been sparing with my references to the anthropological
literature, confining myself only to the most outstanding literary
contributions. Otherwise the footnotes would easily have
swollen to double the volume.
NOTES
1. For a very recent and brief explication see William Shepard, Introducing Islam.
London, New York: Routledge, 2009; p. xvi-xviii.
Introduction
Islam has become an object of fascination in the Western
world, inspiring hundreds of new studies, books and learned
articles every year. This is the harvest of a continuous and
tireless re-thinking and re-interpreting of Islam from the point of
view of Western scientific analysis trying to capture the essence
of Islam. This religion and its manifold expressions have been in
the limelight of academic and journalistic enterprise for years,
but especially since the beginning of the twenty-first century.
The reasons for this—above all the attack of 9/11 and the
growing Muslim diaspora especially in Western Europe—are too
well known to require belabouring. Leaving aside the prolific
literature produced by Muslim theologians and jurist-scholars
exploring “their” Islam and its intricacies, this religion is being
theologically-analytically dissected, examined and probed by
scores of non-Muslims who have no interest in converting or
confirming their personal faith. Very important in this enterprise
is that many Muslim intellectuals are working now in the
Western academic tradition in universities, research institutions
and publishing houses.[1] If Edward Said’s classical complaint[2]
of the bias of Western Islamic studies ever had justification, the
picture has been more than balanced now through the heavy
involvement of Muslims.
The deeper reason for this heated intellectual production,
above all, is because Islam socio-politically is of immense
relevance in the modern world and its various and not always
very pleasant, expressions are of enormous topicality. Many big
ideological battles—from the most extreme “socialist” to the
most fascist and also the most unfettered, rapacious capitalist
ones—have been fought and then the combatants were
consigned to the scrap heap of history. They were found to be
cul de sacs, to bring no major improvement in the human
condition or were rejected for other reasons. Yet it seems
humanity cannot steer itself into ideologically calmer waters
and turn to more pragmatic pursuits to ease and secure its
and turn to more pragmatic pursuits to ease and secure its
existence on earth. As transcontinental, indeed global, problems
loom affecting the physical wellbeing, even survival, of our
species—or so it seems at least—radicalised Islam, the ugly
proboscis in the face of this world-religion, emerges as an
unwelcome distraction.
Much attention is directed towards the current radical
ideology Islam inspires and which seems to sprout militant and
extremist action. What some claim to be a religion of peace is
convulsed by ideological ructions of regressive conservatism,
uncompromising rejection of the West and its modernity,
political fanaticism, religious fascism and bloodthirsty terrorism.
Needless to say that in no small measure this has been
responsible for the suspicion under which Muslims and Islam sui
generis suffer in the West. Humankind always seems to have
had a fascination with the bizarre, the cruel and the bloody and
so unsurprisingly the violence Islam is seen to be spawning
provokes the study of these phenomena with an intensity
ranging from clinical detachment to morbid fascination.
Undoubtedly, studies abound of Islam and Muslims in the
modern world. The vast majority seems preoccupied with the
political or ideological conflict discourses in which this religion
and those who profess to it are embroiled. Probably among the
most influential frames of reference is Samuel Huntington’s, by
now, famous (or infamous) oevre The Clash of Civilizations and
the Re-Making of World Order.[3] Its significance as an
intellectual milestone, both in a positive and negative sense, is
too well known to make an explanation necessary here. For
many it has become the baseline from which they view Islam as
an antagonistic force hostile to the West. What is undoubtedly
true even from a moderate viewpoint is that as both sides are
being forced now into ever closer proximity through
globalisation, significant problems arise.
Extremism and violence aside, Islam is being studied, above
all, in relation to world politics, globalisation, distribution of
global power, human rights, gender relations, resistance to
secularisation[4] and democratic governance. It has extensively
been discussed for its mysterious ideational relationship with
modernity and postmodernity and in relation to humanity’s
epistemological, social and ethical progression in general. In a
paradigmatic fashion these analytical concepts are treated
heuristically as causative givens, as a kind of agens movens
with the same degree of reality as the moon or the weather, but
their effects on Islam remain enigmatic. Whether globalisation
with its cultural, epistemological and ideological pressures has
evoked Islamic fundamentalisation and whether the
radicalisation of Islam is to be seen as a response to, or a
consequence of, globalisation are indeed interesting, even
pressing questions.[5] Has the weakening of the Western
hegemon[6] and the West’s global decentring invited a
strengthening of an oppositional Islamic identity; does
fundamentalisation represent a “cultural closure” against global
homogenisation;[7] and has postmodernity with its
epistemological liberation brought about the re-indigenisation of
knowledge? Does this encourage Islam, in an act of self-
preservation, to stand up against the globalising
universalisation through rationalism and secularisation? Is it the
last hurrah of religious conservatism against processual
epistemology—the endless evolution of knowledge—that rejects
final truths revealed by supernatural intervention? These are
some of the fascinating questions to be asked. Few conclusive
answers have been provided, in particular with regard to
reasons for the violence that seems to sweep the Islamic world.
The question what causes this extraordinary flowering of
violence that seems to emanate from Islam has been framed in
the way that it may be “a plea to reinstate the religious
narrative in a world increasingly seen as secular, disenchanted,
and lacking moral values.”[8] Other answers blame the
interventionism of the West, from twentieth century colonialism
to the most recent militaristic adventures, which causes anomie
and provokes a counter-push by the less powerful who cannot
resist on equal terms. Subterfuge and terrorism must be their
answers. All these paradigms presuppose the existence of
orderly and universal causal chains, which admit to objective
assessment. And of course there is also an intricate web of
contemporary contexts of a political, economic and ideological
kind that also exert their influence. A valid explanatory
perspective must attempt to encompass much of that, even if
this goes at the expense of methodological purity. And of
course, one has to bear in mind that in trying to grasp this
complexity, inevitably ideological viewpoints, values, and
aesthetics of the observer colour and govern the perception and
evaluation of the observed.
In this book I look for characteristics of today’s Islam and
the Muslim life world, to relate them where possible to what
may be referred to as behavioural and epistemic universals, but
also, equally importantly, to trace them to ancient cultural and
social peculiarities and symbols extant at the time of Islam’s
emergence. Cultural phenomena have a communicative aspect,
symbols carry a message, but exactly that semiotic function can
lead to misunderstandings. The encrypted meaning may be
enduring, but as it fades with the passage of time lack of
comprehension, derision and rejection may result. Over time the
reason for the emergence of ideas, and the symbolic values of
thought and action, once self-evident and precious, may be lost
and their original message misinterpreted. In a new context—
such as that provided by globalisation—they may come to seem
out of place, adversarial and hostile.
Popular (Western) perception sees Islamic culture as a
cohesive, characteristic entity, or, more carelessly, as a grab-
bag category into which everything to do with Islam can be put.
In this regard, this perception meets with the Muslims” who
also, glossing over differences, see themselves as a seamless
and global class of people adhering to one particular faith
across and beyond nationality, ethnicity and race. Not many
anthropological studies, however, elevate the global uniformity
of Islam to prime importance.[9] Attempts are rare to analyse
Islam simply as a specific “culture” with a specific set of
symbols and shared meanings—a culture which unifies the
Muslim umma, the community of believers, in a coherent world-
wide “society” with specific features and characteristic
interaction patterns, valid irrespective of national or ethnic
boundaries. Even fewer studies do so with the tools of
traditional anthropology, bestriding the path of how in the
traditional discipline of anthropology a tribal society and a tribal
culture would have been scrutinised, analysed and
comprehended. Here I try to address this manko by
unashamedly using a traditional anthropological,
methodologically “conservative” angle. This harbours a danger.
Taking recourse to a “traditional-type” anthropology and its
methods provokes the hackneyed notion that an academic tool
employed in the study of so-called “primitive” or “tribal”
cultures and societies is being used. It needs to be pointed out,
therefore, that if it ever was true that anthropology studied only
“primitive” societies it certainly is so no longer. And anyway,
using a “traditional” anthropological approach is by no means
meant to imply that Islam is a “tribal” religion and that its study
would require methods and perspectives different from those
applied to Western society and culture.
To subject all of Islam and its cultural patterns to a closer
inspection, or to try to encompass all of Muslim society, would
be too ambitious a project. Instead this study is confined to a
selection of patterns and features; namely those considered by
the contemporary West to be characteristic, remarkable or
controversial; and to symbols, which—at least to an outsider—
appear to have iconic status or some elevated significance.
(They may not necessarily be regarded the most important ones
from a Muslim perspective.) Admittedly, here we run into the
problem of stereotyping and essentialising. Trying to elicit the
essential Islam or the typicality of Muslim society from among
the many variants in which they appear, is fraught with many
pitfalls. Avoiding them is a daunting task. Naturally, given my
self-imposed task, my focus is on “conservative” expressions of
Islam, and not so much on the very extremes of radical
modernism or militant regressivism.
Islam of course exists in several versions, from the radically
modernist to the ultra-conservative, “mediaevalist.” By
concentrating on patterns that appear to be characteristic for
the conservative version of Islam, we may gain a better
understanding of the matrix from which Islamic radicalism