religion and politics - Salomon, for love of the prophet Flashcards
1
Q
what does he look at
A
- looks at the everyday life of living under an Islamic state - of which little has been previously written - it takes as its interlocutors Sudanese working within the conditions of possibility provided by the state and its Islamist project - one of the first books to delve into the making of the modern Islamic state - describes a classic example of ‘religion making from above’ arising from several attempts to rid Sudan of the Mahdist regime
2
Q
intro - islam in sudan and western misunderstanding
A
• Islam in Sudan became ‘a normative framework that far exceeded the state, one that individuals inhabited regardless of their positions on the particular government in question’ 4/5
West misunderstands/does not know the ‘the kind of political culture that the Islamic State enabled’ – regime has ‘made Islam the primary source of political legitimacy’ 5 –
3
Q
intro - how political system is lived
A
• Where previous anthropological literature has separated the State and the public sphere, Salomon by looking at how this political system is lived (hence ethnography best method), views them somewhat in unity 6
4
Q
intro - why are public sphere and state often separated
A
- Reasons why State and public sphere (if we take to represent religion) are usually separated: Public sphere is seen as ‘a site of free deliberation’ and is ‘celebrated’ whilst the State is presented much more negatively – this is not specific to Sudan and has been used in the study of other countries also 6/7
- There is a uniqueness to the Islamic public sphere – exploring this can help to dishevel/recalibrate western anthropological perspectives (orientalism link) 7
- In countries like Sudan, reason is not secular or ‘private’ in the public sphere as it is in the Jacobian European frameworks, rather it is ‘practical’ and ‘sanctified by religious tradition’ 8
- Echoes with Foucault’s theory of bio-politics – supports the extension of State power into the public sphere
5
Q
intro - why Sudan is a good example
A
- Salomon says that Sudan is a good example of the merging – ‘the government came to power through a coup, the regime explicitly muddied the boundary between state and society in order to make itself seem less foreign’ whereas the ‘many civil societies’ still see the state as separate ‘in order to maintain comfortable distance from the regime’ 11/12
- Also rejects the definition of the public sphere as a site of freedom and deliberation (and thus as separate from the State) – ‘They are spaces that rely on (and reproduce) both traditional and state authority as much as they challenge them’ 12
- Wanted to create a place where the people are motivated to follow the political order by their love for the Prophet/because of their piety 13
- LANGUAGE: ‘the language of political discourse had irreversibly become an Islamic one’ 14
6
Q
intro - difficulty of study
A
- Study was difficult to conduct because of the blurred boundaries between state and public
- E.G. al-Burai (Sufi leader) – represented the people but also the State 17
- Long history of conflict since achieved independence in 1956
7
Q
1 - history - Britain
A
- British attempts to colonise Sudan (from 1898) and to secularise the state were ultimately unsuccessful 31
- British realised couldn’t separate religion from the state and so set about ‘molding and reforming religion’ as part of their ‘governing strategy’ 32 – used it as a vital tool
- Sought to establish a kind of ‘Islamic Orthodoxy’ that they perceived would be ‘civilised’ 33
- British rejecting Mahdism (political movement from 1981) and favoured ‘a new type of Sunni orthodoxy’ (35) – destroyed Mahdi’s tomb, banned their clothing, prayer meetings, prayer book etc. 35/6 among other tactics
- British did not seek to privatise religion but to form ‘new sorts of religious publics’ 37
- Feared private religions because they were difficult to monitor and so threatened the power of the state 37
- British surprised by experience of Islam in Sudan – seen in C.P. Browne’s writings 39
8
Q
1 - what did GB need and how did they do this
A
- The British needed a form of Islam that could be its ‘partner’ in colonialism – one that was disciplined and did not have an unfamiliar spirituality that might stand in opposition to their ‘civilizing project of colonialism’ 40
- To do this they used Egyptian scholars from al-Azhar University in Cairo 42 – felt that educated individuals would work better with their ‘rational principles’ 42/3
- ‘A unified body, made up of Azhar graduates, would, they hoped, be able to enforce the distinction they wanted to uphold between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, fanaticism and religion.’ 43
9
Q
1 - British control of courts and prevention of revival
A
- British changed Sharia courts and underwent a campaign of Mosque reconstruction 45
- Could not locate an Orthodox Islam so attempted to create one 46
- Promoted flexible interpretations of the Qu’aran to prevent ijtihad (untraditional) revival? 47
10
Q
1 - al-bashir rally
A
- December 2013, Qarri, north of Khartoum & east of Nile, Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir held a rally – spoke about the revival of the Islamic state and the importance of this – majority of non-Muslims had relocated to South Sudan and so North should focus on Islamic path 49-52
- Like the British, al-Bashir attempted to shape Sudan using religion – it is a place where ‘religious identity would be central to national belonging’ (52) (NATION AND POLITICS INTERTWINED)
- British attempts at colonisation/implementing new religious/political regimes have influenced Sudan’s political formation now and how it interacts with religion (if we can even view them as separate!) 54/5
11
Q
2 - focus from 2005
A
- From 2005, looks at how capitalism functioned in Sudan and how Islam interacted with multiculturalism 59/60
- Involvement of SPLM and recognition of ‘political identity of religious minorities as integral to the identity of the state’ 59
12
Q
2 - government of nation salvation
A
- Government of National Salvation tried to save the nation as it was collapsing
- NIF paralleled with British colonial attempts 62 – ‘both focused on “civilizational” reform’ 62
- Hasan al-Turabi behind salvation reform 63
- Salomon looks at relationship between movement and society it wanted to ‘reform’ 63
- ‘The Civilization Project was concerned with knowledge and the arts, religion and the body, language and literature, alongside politics and economics’ 64 rather than simply being ‘an effort at political or social reform’ 64
- Although emphasised importance of minority religions, sought to secularise these so that they did not threaten the Islamic public sphere
- Wanted to privatise these minority religions so that Islam remained the public one 66
13
Q
2 - main three aims of civilisation project
A
- 1) ‘reform Sudanese political practice in a different direction from that taken by previous Islamic political experiments in Sudan’, 2) ‘moral reform of individual citizens’, and 3) ‘reform the structure and focus of religious life and institutions in Sudan’ (see how on this page and para too) 69
- ‘This, today, remains ‘the foundation of Muslim piety in the country’ 69
- NIF ‘revitalis[ed]… sharia as a system of state law and its extension into domains from which it previously had been excluded’ 70
14
Q
2 - most successful parts of NIF
A
- ‘‘Qurʾan study groups were funded and encouraged in workplaces, television and radio took on the goal of daʿwa (proselytization), grants were given to women who wanted to start “prayer upon the Prophet” groups, and the educational curriculum at the national level took on a distinctly Islamic tone.’ 73
- They also created an ‘Islam-orientated media by dominating content on television, radio, and newspapers and while it imposed Public Order and Security of Society Laws and established a special police to administer them (to enforce, for example, the separation of the sexes at social events and modest dress for women), it also turned to religious organizations to do the legwork of social, moral, and political reform’ 75
15
Q
3 - process of islamisation
A
• This process of ‘the Islamization of academic and intellectual culture’ took place through a number of different means such as ‘the establishment of think tanks, journals, fora, and even new universities, of print and televised media, of public space through mosque construction, dress codes and billboards, and of the workplace through Islamic associations and opportunities for Islamic learning’ 97
