BRAEFORD'SMUSLIM COMMUNITIESAND THE EEPR[EOCTICN AND BEPAES ATICN CF ISLAM PHILIP JCHN LWS "Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy" ""The'University of Leeds"- Department of Theology and Religious Studies June 1993 }ý,, ý"4ý"ý}i; This thesis studies the creation of Bradford's Muslim communities, in particular the impact of migration on Islamic identity. To this end it begins by mapping the contours of Islamic expression in South Asia, especially the development of distinct maslak, discrete schools of Islamic thought and practice. These were, in part, a response to the imposition of British imperialism in India. The settlers from South Asia also came from a variety of areas, with their own histories, regional languages and cultures. The ethos and character of Islam, which is shared by different sects, is studied unself- consciously at work in the establishment of Muslim communities in Bradford, generating separate residential zones and a network of businesses and institutions, religious and cultural, developed to service their specific needs. The leadership, resources and ethos which the different maslak could draw on, and the institutions they created to reproduce the Islamic tradition in the city are explored and the extent to which these connect with the new cultural and linguistic world of young British Muslims. Attention is then focused on the education, status, functions and influence of the 'ulama, critical carriers of the Islamic tradition in this new context. The role of the Bradford Council for Mosques is examined both as a bearer of the Islamic impulse to unity, transcending the regional, linguistic and sectarian differences, and as an emerging authority, locally and nationally. The study concludes by exploring the challenges facing Muslims - youth, gender, intellectual tradition, and da'wa, invitation to Islam - as British'-expressions of Islam struggle to birth. TABLE CF CONln1TTS INTRO=ION 1 1. ISLAM IN SOUTHASIA 1.1 Institutional sufism 9 1.2 Muslim reponses to colonialism 13 1.2.1 The Deobandis 14 1.2.2 Tablighi Jamaat 16 1.2.3 The Barelwis 18 1.2.4 The Jamaat-i-Islami 19 1.2.5 Islamic modernism, 22 1.3 Conclusion 26 2. THE FORMATIONOF BRADFORD'SMUSLIM CQVMUNITIES 2.1 Migration, the nation-state and Islamic law 28 2.2 Migration, settlement and the mosques 35 2.3 The articulation of religious and cultural autonomy 2.3.1 Economics and the creation of a distinct cultural world 45 2.3.2 Community organisation, state-funding and cultural integrity 52 2.3.3 Multiple identities and the criss-crossing of regional, sectarian and caste loyalties 57 3. THE REPRO=ION OF ISLAMIC INSTITUTIONS IN BRADFORD 3.1 Between orality and literacy: the dilenma for the Muslim educator 60 3.2 Pir Maroof and Barelwi initiatives 66 3.3 Deobandi and Tablighi Jamaat 75 3.4 The U. K Islamic Mission and the struggle to establish a viable youth movement 88 3.5 Retrospect and prospect 99 4. FUNCTION, EDUCATIONAND INFLUENCE OF THE 'ULAMA 101 4.1 The world of the imam and mufti 102 4.2 Economic and contractual insecurity 110 4.3 Occidentalism and the challenge of living in two cultures 114 4.4 Curriculum and change in the dar al 'ulum 119 4.5 Supplementary schools: a continuing cause of concern 129 5. BEYONDSECTARIANISM: THE ROLE OF THE COUNCIL FOR MOSQUES 132 5.1 The Council for Mosques: a vehicle for local unity 133 5.2 The Satanic Verses and an elusive national unity 5.2.1 The Council for Mosques and local protests 143 5.2.2 The national and international dimensions of the campaign 150 5.3 After the Gulf crisis: who speaks for Muslims? 5.3.1 The Council for Mosques and the Gulf crisis 154 5.3.2 Muslim businessmen and professionals find their voice 160 6. LOOKING FORWARD:MIJSLIM CCM JNITIES IN THE 1990'S 164 6.1 A Muslim or Islamic identity for, the young?,,, 169" 6.2 Muslim women: a place in the public domain? 175 6.3 Renewing the intellectual tradition: the task ahead 181, 6.4 Inviting others to Islam: promise and predicament 190 6.5 195., seminary E CCNCLUSICN 197 NOrTES 204 GLOSSARY 221 BIBLIOGRAPHY {' `A `2M 1 INI'RC=I(XV AIMS AND OBJECTIVES This thesis is a contribution to the Community Religions: Project= (CRP)-conductedunder the auspices of the Department of Theology and l Religious Studies at the University of Leeds. The CRP proved a congenial-and-appropriate context fora thesis concerned to explore the contours of Islamic identity°as they were emerging within the consolidating Muslim communities of Bradford. This-involved a; consideration of the In-pact-of-migration, both asa precipitant. of cormmnity formation and as generating a new problematictof= reproducing the Islamic tradition in an alien environment. -=The,ri- enormity of the-task facingýMuslims can be realised when}it'is -;. " remembered that, the majority of settlers were possessed of-, little -, formal education and came'fran rural areas in South Asia where Islam was the majority, religion. Thirty years later, their children and grandchildren-are British,: urban and educated in a context where they are a religious minority. The task of transmission and appropriation of a religious tradition in such a context, a dynamic process involving change and continuity, is the focus of the thesis. While this task conforms to two of the three declared aims of CRP I hope that it-will incidentally contribute an illuminating-case-study to clarify 'the relationship between religion and ethnicity', the third concern of the project, (Knott, 1984, p. 6). Here 'religious: studies' as a discrete field of"study, albeit multidisciplinary drawing on the humanities and increasingly the social sciences, has a particular contribution to make (&nart, 1990, Knott, 1992). -'It can complement the works of social scientists who traditionally, in-their studies of Bradford either focus on one 'ethnic' cornnunity, -usually the Mirpuris, or use categories of nationality - Pakistan i-. as¶an organising principle (Dahya, 1974, Khan, 1977). Such works have 'failed to provide plausible accounts of the role and significance of religions In-the lives of-the groups they have described', ... _(Knott, 1992, pp. -4-5). A 'religious studies' perspective is more alert to the commonalities across ethnic boundaries generated by a shared, faith. Such solidarities are often given organisational and 2 institutional expression,, locally,. nationally and internationally. These networks°and. trans-national links can often escape the- focusing attention of the sociologist and social anthropologist when on one ethnic minority. This is particularly-'the case in social science disciplines which are still inclined to view 'religion as the passive'instrument of ethnic identity' (ibid., p. 12). My own interest in Islam in South Asia and the challenge facing Muslim cormwnities in Bradford is rooted in two facts. Firstly, I spent>six enjoyable years inTakistan at the Christian Studies Centre,, an ecumenical institute committed to improving Christian- Muslim relations in a country where Christians number"three-. or four per cent of the population. For three-years as a; research student and then a further three years as a, member of'staff I had the-opportunity to study Islamic belief and practice variously expressed in a modern Muslim state. The focus of my research was contemporary, }lived Islam. This experience has confirmed for me the contention that 'nobody-can now write with meaning about the world of Islam if; he does not bring. to it'some sense of a living relationship-with those. of whom he writes' (Hourani, 1991, p. 4). I also began to-understand-the feelings and anxieties of a religious minority,,,, in. this case Pakistani Christians. -'I., Ir The second fact is that after-leaving the Christian Study Centre I, began working for the Anglican diocese of'Bradford in 1985. As an Adviser on Inter-faith Issues L was able to develop my interest in( Christian-Muslim relations 'in the city, - a situation where. Muslims'are in the minority and share many of the-fears and anxieties of Christians in Pakistan. The research for this thesis was formally undertaken between1988 and 1992. This period represents. a watershed in the developing identity of the Muslim communities locally and nationally. It, includes both The Satanic Verses affair and the Gulf crisis-when Muslims became the focus of unprecedented media interest and suspicion. My, hope Is that this thesis, by documenting the diversity and debate within the Muslim communities in Bradford, will to contribute exploding the myth of the-supposed existence of a., monolithic, undifferentiated 'fundamentalist' Islam. In this way I 3 will begin to discharge my debt, to, Muslim_friendsý, in, ýthe city°without;. whose active co-operation-I could not-have written the--thesis., ME UROLOGY AND PERSPECTIVES INFORMING RESEARCH Religious studies remains eclectic in its methodologynand ethos. Each researcher inevitably borrows from a variety of, disciplines. in: sodfar as they promise to illuminate the chosen field of study. I have drawn particularly on history, Islamics and social sciences., A, ý. distinguished historian of Islam has stressed the importance of studying societies in terms ofatheir institutional systems'since 'an institution encompasses at once an activity, a pattern of, rsocial relationships, and a set of mental constructs' (Lapidus,, 1988,, The bears preface). thesis clearly the impress , of, this advice. -, Iý frontier from One exciting which I have learned much Is-that of. .. Islamic. studies and anthropology; its focus on the study of Islam in- local has (Martin, contexts generated many useful perspectives 1982). - This formulation seeks to marry the horizon of textual studies, dear to historians and philologists, with that of=ethnographic. istudiesýof localised expressions of Islam produced by.