One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds: Spirituality, Identity, and Resistance across Islamic Lands

393 Pages·2015·2.32 MB·English

by  Baker

One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds
RELIGION AND GLOBAL POLITICS
SERIES EDITOR
John L. Esposito
University Professor and Director
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
Georgetown University
RACHID GHANNOUCHI
A Democrat Within Islamism
Azzam S. Tamimi
BALKAN IDOLS
Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States
Vjekoslav Perica
ISLAMIC POLITICAL IDENTITY IN TURKEY
M. Hakan Yavuz
RELIGION AND POLITICS IN POST-COMMUNIST ROMANIA
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu
PIETY AND POLITICS
Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia
Joseph Chinyong Liow
TERROR IN THE LAND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Guatemala under General Efrain Rios Montt, 1982–1983
Virginia Garrard-Burnett
IN THE HOUSE OF WAR
Dutch Islam Observed
Sam Cherribi
BEING YOUNG AND MUSLIM
New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North
Asef Bayat and Linda Herrera
CHURCH, STATE, AND DEMOCRACY IN EXPANDING EUROPE
Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu
THE HEADSCARF CONTROVERSY
Secularism and Freedom of Religion
Hilal Elver
THE HOUSE OF SERVICE
The Gülen Movement and Islam’s Third Way
David Tittensor
MAPPING THE LEGAL BOUNDARIES OF BELONGING
Religion and Multiculturalism from Israel to Canada
Edited by René Provost
RELIGIOUS SECULARITY
A Theological Challenge to the Islamic State
Naser Ghobadzadeh
THE MIDDLE PATH OF MODERATION IN ISLAM
The Qur’ānic Principle of Wasaṭiyyah
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
ONE ISLAM, MANY MUSLIM WORLDS
Spirituality, Identity, and Resistance across Islamic Lands
Raymond William Baker
One Islam, Many
Muslim Worlds
Spirituality, Identity, and Resistance
across Islamic Lands
z
RAYMOND WILLIAM BAKER
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baker, Raymond William, 1942–
One Islam, many Muslim worlds : spirituality, identity, and resistance
across Islamic lands / Raymond William Baker.
p. cm. — (Religion and global politics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–984647–4 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Islam—21st century. 2. Muslims.
3. Islamic sociology. 4. Islam and politics—21st century. I. Title.
BP161.3.B344 2015
297.09’051—dc23
2014048242
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Typeset in Scala Pro
Printed on 45# Glatt offset 400 ppi
Printed by Edwards Brothers, North Carolina
To Laila, Suad, Muhammad, and the numerous other ordinary
Muslims encountered in Islamic lands who somehow create small
miracles of kindness and courage, as they wage everyday battles to
live good and productive lives in often extraordinary and, far too
often, cruel circumstances.
How splendid is the wisdom of God in revealing the
nature of Islam. Islam appeared as a River of Life,
welling up in the barren desert of Arabia.
muhammad abduh
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Style and Conventions xii
1. The Mystery of Islam’s Strength 1
2. Oases of Resistance and Reform 28
3. Guidance from the Center 61
4. Heralds of Renewal 94
5. Medieval Pathways and Ibn Battuta 134
6. Contemporary Networks and Fahmi Huwaidi 165
7. God’s “Signs” and Democracy in Islam 203
8. The Islamist Imaginary 238
9. The Epochal Story of Islam and the Common People 269
10. The “River of Life” 297
Glossary 333
Notes 337
Index 363

Acknowledgments
Two circles of special people have made this book possible. The first
arose from decades of interaction with friends, colleagues, and a mul-
titude of strangers in the Islamic lands where I have lived and traveled
for some four decades. Always to my great delight, they have very often
been more than willing to share with an American student of their reli-
gion, culture, and political life their experiences and their feelings—not
to mention whatever they were eating or drinking as I passed by. End-
less acts of generosity have marked those encounters. Relationships of all
kinds emerged, and those relationships inform the observations offered
here. The second circle has taken shape from the generations of students,
especially in Egypt and the United States, who have struggled with me
to better understand and appreciate one of the world’s great civilizations
and the astonishingly diverse personal and collective lives it has made
possible.
Only living in communities of Muslims can provide the indispensable
experiential grounding for an interpretive essay on contemporary Islam
like this one. Islam is about acting in the world. For believers, faith is
very much about the struggle to live personally and in community as God
intended for his creations. I am grateful for the wonderful opportunities
I have received from the Muslims among whom I have lived to share joys
and sorrows through the years. Without my designation as a Carnegie
Islam Scholar and the generous support from the Carnegie Corporation
of New York that came with it, travel to these far-flung places to meet and
discuss with scholars, public intellectuals, and ordinary people would not
have been possible, although Carnegie bears no responsibility for what I
imagined I learned from those encounters.
Academic colleagues across the disciplines and around the globe,
most notably those in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Tunisia, and
Iraq as well as the United States, have reacted continuously to my earlier