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- Convenors:
-
Eva Spies
(University of Bayreuth)
Mahamane Tidjani Alou (Université Abdou Moumouni/LASDEL)
Paula Schrode (University of Bayreuth)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Streams:
- Religion (x) Futures (y)
- Location:
- Philosophikum, S85
- Sessions:
- Saturday 3 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
The panel discusses projects of future-making that actively refer to religious resources and at the same time reconfigure religious traditions. How do such projects of transformation shape and produce a social and religious otherwise? Is the concept of religious engineering a helpful tool?
Long Abstract:
We propose the concept of “religious engineering” to analyse those active and conscious attempts to work on the future shape of society where the engineering practices refer to religious resources. Religious engineering alludes to cases of making and shaping “alternative” social and political worlds with and through “religion” and to transformative practices which at the same time reconfigure the religious traditions and self-understandings they refer to. Seeing such projects of changing or improving society as ways to build an otherwise, we want to explore epistemologies, practices, and moralities of transformative activism and thereby question the boundaries between non-religious and religious aspects of future-making.
Processes of religious engineering can be found in diverse fields: be it in international development and the work of so-called faith-based-organisations; Turkish interventions in African countries that are framed as acts of Muslim solidarity supposed to reunite the ummah; African Pentecostal universities aspiring to raise tomorrow’s African leaders; or European domestic policies deployed to create peaceful and secular Euro-Islam.
We invite presentations of empirical cases that could be understood as religious engineering, and/or critical reflections on this concept or on other ways to study epistemologies, practices, and moralities of transformative activism and future-making which overcome the religious/secular boundary.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Saturday 3 June, 2023, -Hamissou Rhissa Achaffert (University of Bayreuth)
Paper long abstract:
This presentation examines the transformative practices of the Islamic association Ihyaous Sunnah in Niger. It shows the importance of the Sunnah in the design and implementation of their activities, and the way they mobilise Sunnah as epistemic and ethical frame of reference that informs activities which aim at the trans-/re-formation of the moral and social order in Niger.
The central moral voice of the association – the Council of Ulemas – has made it its mission to promote Tarbiyya as an educational tool rooted in the Sunnah and as the foundation of a new moral and social order. With the concept of Tarbiyya, the Council denounces and challenges forms of (moral) education, which are promoted by practices and discourses of international development actors (through NGOs, development projects and programmes). I understand their mobilisation of religious epistemologies and ethics as a way to contest foreign interventions and the moral and social order they try to implement directly or indirectly. With Tarbiyya the association suggests an alternative to what is usually discussed as “development”, the “relevant learning outcomes” (SDG 4) and the necessary knowledges and skills.
The paper analyses what the president of the association calls "Tabarbarewar Tarbiyya Matasa" (in Hausa “degradation of youth education”) and explains how his diagnosis leads him to certain measures regarding youth education and the implementation of a (new) moral and social order.
Seyni Mamoudou Ibrahim (Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies)
Paper short abstract:
Based on empirical data produced between March 2020 and September 2022, this reflection aims to demonstrate the complexity of the collaboration between secular structures (EU, Niger State) and religious organisations (CDIR) in social transformation programmes.
Paper long abstract:
The present reflection attempts to propose an analysis of the emergence of religious engineering deployed by a certain number of donors, particularly the European Union through the intermediary of the State of Niger via the HACP (Haute Autorité à la Consolidation de la Paix) and the Ministry of the Interior, in order to reconstitute the category of religion to better regulate the conduct of religious activities on the one hand, and on the other, to promote religious pluralism that excludes any forms of extremism. To do so, it explores the way in which the CDIR (Comité de Dialogue Intra et Inter Religieux), an interreligious dialogue association, was mobilised as a resource for this transformation, and how this involvement was used by CDIR actors to better position themselves in the religious sphere. Indeed, in the present case of religious engineering, beyond the reshaping of religious traditions, the empirical data reveals the instrumentalisation of this collaboration by the religious actors involved in order to confront their religious opponents.
Zheyuan Deng (University of Florida)
Paper short abstract:
Based on three cases over the last century, this paper utilizes the concept of "religious engineering" to analyze Ahmadi Muslims' efforts to provide education for Muslims in Nigeria and argues for the importance of historical perspective in religious engineering.
Paper long abstract:
Based on archival and ethnographical research, this paper utilizes the concept of "religious engineering" to analyze Ahmadi Muslims' active and conscious attempts to provide education for Muslims throughout their over-100-years presence in Nigeria. Since the introduction of Ahmadiyya into Nigeria in 1916, Ahmadi Muslims have engaged in the education sector in various ways, but their contributions and implications have not attracted much academic attention. This paper focuses on three cases of religious engineering in education: Ahmadi Muslims in Lagos invited South Asian missionary Abdul Rahim Nayyar to establish the "first Muslim school" in 1921; Hazrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad, the third Khalifat of the global Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, initiated the "Nusrat Jehan Project" (Service to Humanity) in 1970 to establish Ahmadiyya schools and hospitals in West Africa; in recent decades, Ahmadi entrepreneurs established private schools in local communities. These engineering projects by the individual or communal agents exploited different religious resources according to contingent social and economic conditions. Similarly, they challenge the boundaries between secular and Muslim education and aim to cultivate generations of ethnical and knowledgeable Ahmadi and non-Ahmadi Muslims who can contribute to Nigerian society and sustain the Ahmadiyya community in the future. Adopting a historical perspective, this paper reminds us of the interconnectedness between the past, present, and future: these "engineered" schools in the past had shaped the present of Ahmadiyya and Islam more generally in Nigeria; present projects also learn from past experience to better engineer an envisioned future.
Sekou Sala TIMBELY (FLSH Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey (Niger))
Paper short abstract:
La présente communication porte sur le « curriculum social », une offre de formation religieuse, académique et pratique portée par les mouvements religieux estudiantins afin de compléter le curriculum académique universitaire des étudiants maliens pour la vie active.
Paper long abstract:
Les études sur le religieux en milieu universitaire, abordent rarement de façon systématique la question relative au projet éducatif des mouvements religieux estudiantins (Y. Lebeau, 1997 ; M. Somé et K. Kaboré, 2020 ; E.H.M.S Camara et M. Bodian, 2016 ; M.L. Dembélé et M. Ballo, 2020). Contrairement à ces travaux, A. Sounaye (2020) au Niger, aborde la question selon une approche plus systématique. Il considère les formations offertes par les groupes religieux sur le campus de l’UAM comme des composantes d’un « curriculum social » en complément de celui académique. À sa suite, V. Favier (2022) s’intéresse au projet éducatif de l’AEMN sur le même campus. Il montre comment l’association s’active à intégrer des valeurs éducatives islamiques à la formation académique. Au Mali, S.S. Timbely (2021) traite des espaces du religieux sur le campus de Badalabougou. Il retient que le campus est un espace de pluri socialisation, formant dans les domaines du religieux, de l’économie familiale et du développement personnel.
La présente proposition s’inscrit dans le prolongement de ces travaux. Nous ré analysons les espaces du religieux sous l’angle conceptuel du « curriculum social » à même d’intégrer les espaces éducatifs animés par les différents groupes. La recherche qui s’étend sur un second campus, a été menée selon une méthode qualitative. Elle montre en quoi l’introduction du « curriculum social » contribue à l’africanisation de l’université ? Elle analyse l’impact des apprentissages sur la vie des acteurs et tente de comprendre la perception des acteurs vis-à-vis de ce programme.