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- Convenors:
-
Katja Rieck
(Orient-Institut Istanbul)
Patrick Desplat (University of Göttingen)
Send message to Convenors
- Discussant:
-
Susanne Schröter
- Formats:
- Workshops
- Location:
- V305
- Sessions:
- Thursday 12 July, -, -, Friday 13 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Paris
Short Abstract:
For this workshop we invite papers that explore the various ways experiences of uncertainty and disquiet play into the religious lives of Muslim actors and the significance this has for Muslim subjectivities.
Long Abstract:
Al-Islam, huwwa al-hall!, "Islam is the solution!", is a popular slogan among revivalist movements across the globe. On the face of it, the claim for absoluteness in Islam provides Muslims with certainty and reduces contingency in everyday life as well as in specific moments of crisis. Here, the Qur'an and Sunna, the religious guidance of experts, as well as mystical traditions provide practical guidance and a clear cut framework through which to see the world and impart it with meaning.
And yet, rather paradoxically, one cannot help but notice that the everyday lives of many pious Muslims stand in stark contrast to the promise of a life comfortably settled in the folds of an Islamically determined life. The proliferation of books on Islamic living, Islamic TV shows or online fatwa sites is just one indication of the uncertainty and disquiet experienced by many Muslims in going about their daily lives. But there is also great disquiet about potential threats to the integrity of the Muslim community as a whole: concerns over creeping cultural influences from the West, from un-Islamic religious/cultural traditions, from the demands (and temptations) of a capitalist economy and from socio-economic transformations that reconfigure gender roles and relationships. The experience of uncertainty and disquiet is therefore a prominent, but understudied, aspect of religious experience. For this workshop we invite papers that explore the various ways experiences of uncertainty and disquiet play into the religious lives of Muslim actors and the significance this has for Muslim subjectivities.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 12 July, 2012, -Paper short abstract:
Saying duawu (Muslim informal prayers) is an important part of everyday life for Bozo women in Mali. It is shaped by the many uncertainties of life. Although they are certain that Allah hears their duawu, uncertainty remains about whether and how he will answer their duawu.
Paper long abstract:
Due to dwindling fish stocks, the livelihood of the Bozo in Mali, whose main occupation is fishing, is full of uncertainty. The burden of making ends meet weighs heavily on the Bozo women. Their greatest worry is that their husbands catch enough fish. Having children, protection from shame, living in harmony with in-laws, and other preoccupations add to their burden. All these worries are expressed through duawu (Muslim informal prayers) to Allah.
Duawu are an important part of Malian cultures and Islamic religious practice. People usually translate it as bénédiction. Consequently, outsiders may think that duawu refer only to interpersonal wishes. Through my research I discovered that duawu have the less visible and private function of informal prayers.
Due to the heavy workload, most Bozo women spend a minimum of time fulfilling religious obligations and often have a limited understanding of Islam. On the one hand, all my interviewees expressed certainty that Allah hears their duawu. On the other hand, very few could give examples of how Allah answered their duawu.
This paper aims to show how Bozo women live in a field of tension between certainty and uncertainty - the uncertainties of everyday life, the certainty that Allah hears their supplications, and the uncertainty about whether and how Allah will answer their duawu.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I explore the way in which a ritual named salat istikhara is deployed in times of relational indecision. Focusing upon fieldwork amongst Cairene Muslims, I consider the view that this ritual offers the pious a means of acquiring clarity and confidence in the midst of anxiety and uncertainty.
Paper long abstract:
Salat istikhara refers to a specific form of Islamic prayer in which God's direction is sought when one is uncertain about two permissible courses of action. This prayer can be performed for any kind of decision but is frequently associated with marriage. Focusing upon fieldwork amongst Cairene Muslims in a period of economic and political instability, I consider the role of this ritual during times of relational uncertainty. I describe how some of my informants undertook this prayer at points in their relational trajectory when human judgement alone was deemed insufficient.
My informants' descriptions of God's response to this prayer ranged from elaborate stories about dreams of pigeons to more subdued comments about waking with a sense of clarity of purpose. A perception that God had responded to one's enquiries and had led one to the correct course of action helped to alleviate uncertainty. However, many believed that one's ability to access, understand and submit to God's guidance was contingent upon one's religiousness. This was particularly apparent if a person felt they were not worthy enough to perform istikhara, and in cases when a person performed istikhara and God seemed to have failed to respond or to provide comprehensible advice. I argue that in such cases, the divine reassurance generated by this ritual was regarded as the privilege of the pious. And only those who acquired the right kind of subjectivity were seen to be able to access the kind of escape from uncertainty that this ritual is seen to provide.
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores how the Tijani Mbororo of Cameroon conceptualise the possession trance occurring during their worship. The focus is on the uncertainty about religious authenticity, as disquiet is involved in people's thinking of the possible spiritual agencies behind the trances they witness.
Paper long abstract:
The paper explores the cultural understanding of different possession trance forms among the Mbororo Fulani of Cameroon, nowadays devoted to the Islamic Tijaniyya Sufi order. It looks at how the Tijani Mbororo conceptualize the trance occurring in the course of zikiri (dhikr), a worship practice in which men - or women - dance and sing religious songs in a circle. The main focus is on the ideas revolving round the authenticity, or the falseness, of the individual zikiri trance states, as much uncertainty is involved in people's thinking of the possible sources of the trances they witness. Whereas the trance occurring during the zikiri is understood as a state in which people are "possessed by God", there are other possession forms, connected e.g. to traditional healing practices (boori) or attacks caused by witchcraft, in which people behave in a resembling manner, but are believed to be possessed by other spiritual entities or powers. The paper explores how a difference is made, and certain analogies are drawn, between the "divine" trance belonging to the Islamic worship and the other possession related behaviors. I argue that although the highly appreciated, and often pursued, state of being possessed by God is semantically set apart from possessions caused by various spirit agencies, in concrete situations the boundary between these differently contextualized possession forms is not so clear, and the way the Mbororo assess individual trance performances in zikiri gatherings often reveal certain disquiet about the actual, possibly non-Islamic, source of the possession behavior.
Paper short abstract:
Understudied feeling of uncertainty is a prominent aspect of everyday Muslim experience. Using BDS campaign as my case in point, I argue that the feeling is expressed through not only the proliferation of new Muslim media, but also the understanding of what Islam is and who speaks on its behalf.
Paper long abstract:
This is a study of religious experience in the global age. It argues that Islam, while offering an emotional bond that links local Muslim communities around the world to an "imagined Ummah", has been increasingly rethought of, redressed and reformed in the global age.
Media and information technologies (IT) have played an important role in the creation of new public spheres in which multiple forms of authority and "authentic" Islam can emerge; ready to articulate their specific visions, interests and concerns. The proliferation of new Muslim media and the changing Muslim understandings of what Islam is and who holds the ability to speak on its behalf are both indicators of anxiety and ambiguity of present-day Muslim experience. Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign is my point of entry into this understudied feeling of uncertainty, a prominent aspect of Muslim experience.
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses the notion of ‚nostalgia' as a starting point to examine how selective acts of remembrance are framed in the construction of ‚place' and 'religious order' in Muslim urban Harar (Ethiopia).
Paper long abstract:
Harar is considered an important Islamic centre in the Horn of Africa, due to its historical role during the jihad in the 16th century, as a locus of religious education as well as walled urban civilisation and historical trading centre between the Red Sea ports and the hinterland of Ethiopia. Currently, most Hararis, one of the many ethno-linguistic groups in town, are continuously lamenting about the loss of a historical 'golden age', blaming former Ethiopian governments, modernity and themselves for losing their track of being a 'good' Muslim. The inherent plea for continuity is mostly framed in religious terms as well as in perceptions of place: Harar as ideal type of Islamic order.
I take the notion of ‚nostalgia' as a starting point to examine how selective acts of remembrance affect the construction of ‚place' in Muslim urban Harar. With this focus, my paper is situated at the juncture of two recent discussions in contemporary anthropology. On the one hand, I am interested in the means through which a group marks their perceived sentimental loss of social unity, moral coherence and territoriality. On the other hand, I seek to engage with discussions of place-making, the social practices of people who imbue the physical structure of a locality with specific meanings and functions.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the experiences of young, 'practising' Somali women in London, who often complain of feelings of 'low iman' (faith), as a way of articulating, discussing and ultimately finding solutions to moments of uncertainty and a lack of commitment to Islamic norms and practice.
Paper long abstract:
Newly 'practising' Muslims frequently feel uncertain about aspects of their selves, which they seek to alter to become fully 'practising.' These moments of anxiety arise from everyday contradictory experiences of seeking to conform to a coherent model of a pious self in a context of multiple, often contrasting moral frameworks. This paper, which is based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork amongst young Somali women in London, explores the ways in which young 'practising' women often complained about 'low iman' (low faith). This idiom is used to denote a moment of 'disconnection' from God, and employed to articulate, discuss, and address a moment of hesitation, lack of commitment to Islamic norms and practices, or an experience of ambivalence. It also works as a heuristic device to interpret feelings of uncertainty and to share inconsistencies and failures with others. By investigating their somatic experiences of hesitation, this paper unravels the ways in which Islamic pedagogies were employed creatively, to overcome these contradictions and to set up horizons of hope. Young newly 'practising' women felt they were never fully able to transform themselves into a coherent religious subject. Although these moments of doubt temporarily steered them away from faith, they also served as a means of addressing and coping with the pushes and pulls of a fragmentary self, allowing them to think of themselves as multi-constituted subjects.
Paper short abstract:
In contemporary Dutch society, the quest for personal piety among young reformist Muslims entails constant struggle, making it an inherently insecure endeavor. Comparison with similar challenges among Christians, helps to see how this struggle itself gives shape to what it means to be pious.
Paper long abstract:
Many young Dutch Muslims explicitly aspire to strict piety, defined as everyday personal dedication to moral reform rather than mere religious heritage. This objective is encouraged by revivalist movements, especially Salafism in the Dutch context. Personal piety is understood to bring 'peace', both in this life and in the afterlife. In practice, however, the quest for piety involves constant struggle. It is structurally undermined by the regimes of modern capitalism (study, work, achievement), secularism and pluralism. Moreover, while the emphasis on critical self-reflection among reformist Muslims facilitates self-conscious religious dedication, it also complicates the ambition of surrender of the (reflexive) self. For these reasons, the project of achieving strict piety never succeeds completely. This results in intrinsic insecurity in young Muslims' lives. Their response is a constant moral vigilance of their selves, while reformist preachers' respond by persistently criticizing the state of the Islamic community. Still, this is not the exclusive problem of a Muslim minority in secular Europe. Young pious Christians face almost exactly the same problems. Just as Muslims keep on struggling to become better Muslims, Christians keep on struggling to become better Christians. This suggests that this very struggle might actually define what it means to be a Muslim (or Christian), especially in a dominantly secular context. The quest for piety is never accomplished, indeed, should never be accomplished, since it is precisely the everyday struggle to become a better Muslim that gives shape to what it means to be pious.
Paper short abstract:
Biographic narrations of Muslims in Tajikistan show that experiences of uncertainty promote Islam as powerful resource for individuals in their everyday struggles to find guidance in life, restore self-esteem, create a moral Muslim self and develop alternative paths to failed secular careers.
Paper long abstract:
During my fieldwork on Islam in Tajikistan I was confronted with emotional and insistent references on what is called "true Islam" and interpreted as result of an intensive quest for meaning and guidance in life. Biographic narratives of Muslims in Tajikistan show that processes of religious awakening are intertwined with personal crisis, biographical disruptions or disillusions caused by traumatic experiences of civil war in 1992-97, socio-economic deprivation, lacking future options and a general loss of trust in state institutions and religious authorities.
Such experiences of uncertainty promote Islam as powerful resource for the individual in its everyday struggles to find guidance in life, restore self-esteem and create a moral Muslim self. In the context of urban migration, alienation from urban life or frustrations about lacking integration is often channeled in religious terms, i.e. the lack of Muslim morality. Here, the imagination of a "true Islam" links family traditions and local religious practices (veneration of shrines or local saints) with a strong claim for moral superiority. Biographies of graduates of the Islamic university in Dushanbe and returnees from studying Islam abroad show that Islamic education offers an alternative or 'last option' for those who failed in their secular careers. The decision for an Islamic career is often explained retrospectively by evocations of a "true Islam". This image combines a scriptural interpretation of Islam with a rejection of local Islamic practices and offers an alternative road to gain social status and respect through strict Islamic lifestyle and performances of public piety.
Paper short abstract:
This paper considers the attempt by the Ahmadi Muslim community to construct a model of education for girls that is simultaneously Islamic and progressive and the inadvertent social consequences of this programme, including higher divorce rates and the anxiety of solitary lives for women.
Paper long abstract:
This paper considers the much discussed issue of the education of Muslim girls in colonial India and in a contemporary British diasporic Muslim community in comparative perspective. The Ahmadi Muslims have, from their earliest years, championed the education of women as both a progressive and profoundly Islamic practice. Yet, one possible unintended outcome of education for girls today in the diaspora includes rising divorce rates and the prospect of future lives without the opportunity for remarriage.
The uncertainty and disquiet failed marriages produce for a community which considers the family as central to its social and religious identity revolve, in part, around the conservative requirements and interpretations of Islam the group holds. The responses to such everyday anxieties include pre-marital counseling for young women and men, organized and delivered by senior community members, as well as seminars for the parents of teenagers in an attempt to guide them in planning the marriages of their children in a 21st century British context. However, a complex set of tensions (educational, gendered, religious) remains unresolved. The recent highly politicized debates on the educational needs and Islamic injunctions relating to girls provides a further complication for the Ahmadis when seeking to locate themselves as a Muslim community in relation both to the mainstream British culture and other Muslim groups. This paper is based on ethno-historical research and ethnographic fieldwork.