Islam and Modernity Flashcards
True or False: In pre-modern Islam, there were individuals who initiated change and reform in society.
True
In the Islamic tradition, what are there that anticipate reform and renewal?
Hadith
What are the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal dynasties examples of?
Dynasties that emerged after the Crusades to become great Muslim states and empires.
What happened around the time the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal dynasties emerged?
The early European explorers began to establish technology, military skills,a nd superior economic organizations that would culminate in A european monopoly on long-distance trade.
When did the European expansion to the Muslim world begin?
Began with the Portuguese and Dutch expeditions to the East Indies in the seventeenth century. Around the same period, the British East India company began to set foothold in India and control trades in the region.
Who arrived in Egypt in 1798 and controlled the sea routes to the East from the British?
Napolean
Describe “colonialism” of the muslim world
With all the military and economic skills, the European swept almost the entire Middle East and North Africa, South, and Southeast Asia.
True or False: Before their encounters with the Europeans, Muslim societies also experienced the gradual development of new social, political,and economic structures.
True
Why were Muslim development of new social, political, and economic structures not allowed to develop like they did in European societies?
Because Modernity in the muslim world was aborted by the aggressive intrusion of the European military power and superior economic organizations, aka ‘colonialism’.
How was Enlightenment posed on Muslims?
From above not below. In Europe, the people made these modern experiences themselves. In the Muslim world, they were imposed from top down.
Describe Napolean’s “civilizing mission.”
Once in Egypt, Napoleon and his official began to establish a new social and cultural engineering by settling up new hospitals, scientific laboratories, modern administrative structures. Similar policies were found practically in all European colonial territories in the Muslim world; the European introduced new technology, industrial and organizational skills.
- They were on a “civilizing mission” to save Muslims, “rationalizing” them from their intellectual stagnancy.
Why did the Europeans manage to maintain order over the Muslims?
- Due to their knowledge of “oriental society” commonly known in contemporary academia as “Orientalism”
- Knowledge produced in order to control; knowledge meant to control others.
What did top down European modernization policy in the Muslim world create?
dual societies
What were the two dual societies European modernization policy created in the Muslim world?
1) The first are the prosperous mercantile and professional class that benefit from colonial policies and Westernization
2) The second are the ‘traditional’ class, the impoverished rural and urban population that had lost their sources of income and were unable to find their place in the new social and economic order. Many of the ‘traditional’ are the ulama, who lost their independence and were no longer in the position to play their role as intermediaries between the government and common people.
What was the military ‘jihad’ responses to modernization?
Responding to the widening gap in Muslim societies, there were a series of rebellions against Europeans. These rebellions were often waged in the name of defensive “jihad.” All rebellions were crushed by the Europeans.
What was the state of the Muslim world by the turn of the twentieth century?
The majority of the Muslim world were unable to compete with the Europeans. Instead of modernizing their societies, Muslim states were under direct control of the Europeans.
What were the Muslim intellectual responses to modernization?
As Muslim rulers were desperately catching up with the European ascendancy in economy and military aspects, Muslim scholars began to critically examine their intellectual traditions.
What were the Muslim “modernists’…what did they argue?
- One group of Muslims, called the ‘modernists,’ argued that Islam could not be blamed for the current plight of Muslims.
- As Muslims failed and were humiliated by the Europeans, it was necessary to either restore Islam to its original purity or to bring it in line with the demands of modern ages. - They also lamented the lack of creative thinking among recent generation of Muslims, which prevented them from successfully meeting the challenge posed by the West.
What are the two Muslim intellectual responses to modernization who advocated for it?
1) Modernists
2) Secularists
What did the secularists argue?
- the secularists advocated a drastic restructuring of Islamic societies in accordance with Western values, institutions,a d laws.
- according to this group, since Western ways of doing things had proved to be superior to the traditional Islamic ones, they should eb adopted by Muslim societies wholesale, as it were.
Which group argued that Muslims should adopt the European concept of the modern nation state? Did they adopt it?
- Secularists
- Yes they did
Who are the traditionalists?
Muslims who preferred status quo and rejected the necessity of a radical reform of their society
What is the Wahhabi an example of?
A traditionalist movement
What was the Wahhabi movement triggered by?
Local customs in Muslim religious practices and the demand to restore Islam to its original purity.
What is an example of un-Islamic practices opposed by the Wahhabi?
Visiting and worshipping tombs of local saint in hopes of securing their blessings and intercession. This practice is unknown in Islam.
What was the goal of the Wahhabi?
Demanded Muslims renounce their obedience to rulers and religious authority. Their leader preached a strictly egalitarian Islam based solely on a direct relationship between the worshipper and God.
Who is Ibn And al-Wahhab?
The leader of the Wahhabi
Which group challenged practices that were not considered Islamic by their standards?
Wahhabi
What is the Wahhabi Movement similar to?
Christian Protestant Reformation and lutheran movement.
In which case is the Wahhabi movement labelled as “fundamentalism” in Islam?
In the sense that Muslims must follow God’s rulings as articulated in the Qur’an and the Sunna, without necessarily adhering to the teaching of ulama or religious scholars, which are dismissed as imperfect human product.
True or False: The Wahhabi movement is still alive today.
True
What has become the ideological foundation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and have possibly influenced a number of extremist groups (al-qaeda) to have transformed the internal struggle to “purify” Islam into war against all perceived enemies, Muslim and non-Muslim alike?
Wahhabi
What are the images of Wahhabism?
In post 9/11 Wahhabism has been identified by government, political analysts, and the media as the major “Islami threat” facing Western civilization.
What is described as extremist, radical, puritanical, and militant in nature, along with being targeted as the most intolerant of all interpretation about Islam?
Wahhabism
Who is considered “the godfather of modern terrorism and Islamic militants”?
Ibn Abd al-Wahhab
Which group is called “the most retrograde expression of Islam,” and “one of the most xenophobuos radical Islamic movement that can be”?
Wahhabism
What must the Muslim world do in order to liberate itself from foreign dependence, according to jamal al-Din al-Afghani?
The Muslim world had to develop the technology and skills to compete with the West, without sacrificing the foundations of its faith and culture.
What is Islam, for Jamal al-Din al-Afghani?
- Islam is a religion of reason that encourage scientific inquiry and artistic creativity.
- Hence, if interpreted correctly, it is by no means an obstacle to progress.
- This Islam, however, is nether Islam as practiced by the masses, nor one that is practiced by the conservative ulama.
- Rather, it is Islam that produced medieval Muslim philosophers such as al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Ibn Rushd.
What did Sayyid Ahmad Khan disagree with other Muslim intellectuals on?
He disagreed with those who voiced resistance against European imperialism.
What did Sayyid Ahmad Khan believe the solution to the problem of Muslim weakness was?
- not to resist imperialism, but to embrace the ways of the conqueror
- Muslims need to develop a new interpretation of the Qur’an that is free from the constrain of tradition
What did Sayyid Ahmad Khan establish to realize his reform idea. Describe.
- Established ‘Aligarh College, which is devoted to educating the Muslim elite of British India
- Students at ‘Aligarh learned to play cricket, eat and dress like the British
Did Sayyid Ahmad succeed in imposing his modernist idea?
no
What is considered the most controversial movement in South Asia?
A messianic moment against the decline of Muslims, the Ahmadiyya
What did Mirza Ghulam Ahmad found in the town of Qadian, Punjab?
The Ahmidiyya
What is behind the Ahmadiyya?
- Around 1898, Ghulam Ahmad made a claim to Prophet hood, in direct contravention to the Orthodox Islam position that prophet Muhammad was the last messenger.
- Other than the claim of Prophethood, the Ahmadis generally adhere to a fairly conventional expression of Sunni Islam
What happened in 1971 with the Ahmadis?
They were declared to be non-Muslim by amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan.
What group is the Ahmadis very similar to in Christianity?
Mormon
How is jihad different with the Ahmadis?
- Has to be intellectual jihad, not physical jihad (actual physical struggle against Europeans). They oppose violence.
