Sunni Muslim Religiosity in the UK Muslim Diaspora: Mosques in Leeds Compared
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Sunni Muslim Religiosity in the UK Muslim Diaspora: Mosques in Leeds compared Aydın Bayram Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds The School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science January 2013 1 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his/her own, except where work which has formed part of jointly-authored publications has been included. The contribution of the candidate and the other authors to this work has been explicitly indicated below. The candidate confirms that appropriate credit has been given within the thesis where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Aydın Bayram to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2013 The University of Leeds and Aydın Bayram 2 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank the Ministry of Education in Turkey for providing me with this opportunity to do postgraduate research abroad and for funding both tuition fees and life expenses during my stay in Britain. For reasons of anonymity, I refrain from mentioning the names of my informants. However, the friendly response of all the imams and fellow Muslims who hosted me in the selected mosques (Leeds Islamic Centre, Leeds Grand Mosque, Leeds Iqra Centre, and Leeds Makkah Masjid) needs to be acknowledged with thanks here. I am very grateful to all those who voluntarily participated in this research project and gave of their time to help me. I would like to thank Dr. Sean McLoughlin for his excellent supervision and direction from the beginning of my PhD to the end. I owe to him a lot in guiding my research on Sunni Muslim communities in Britain during my first year; his availability whenever I needed to consult him and his empathy understanding my circumstances; and also teaching me the subtleties of ethnographic research. I thank my wife, Derya, for her endless support and motivation, and my son, Furkan Efe, for his patience when I could spend only limited time with him. Finally, I would like to thank my father and mother-in-law, Necmettin and Fatma Akdag, for their efforts in helping me and my wife all the time we were in Britain, and especially my mother, Fatma, for her help before and after the birth of my daughter, Zeynep Bilge, during the final stages of writing-up my thesis. 3 Abstract In modernity traditional Islam has been challenged by a separation from various spheres of life, first under colonial powers and then independent nation-states. Traditional patterns of religious authority have further been undermined by individualism and the pluralisation of sources of knowledge in an age of new media. In the context of migration to the West, some scholars have argued that modern Muslim identities are becoming more secularised and individualised. However, in a local case study of Sunni religiosity in the UK, I show that, overall, this is not the case in the city of Leeds. In Chapter 1 I examine a three-part typology of Muslim responses to modernity dwelling on the orientations of reformists and (neo)traditionalists. In Chapter 2 I outline the migrations which have seen South Asian and Middle Eastern Muslims and their associated (neo)traditional and reformist movements established in the UK. Chapter 3 offers an account of the qualitative methodology I used in researching the views of around 40 imams, scholars and members of the congregation across four different Sunni mosques in Leeds. In Chapter 4 I locate these mosques and their history, unpacking key ethnic and religious differences. Chapter 5 underlines the difficulty of establishing Muslim unity through case studies of the celebration of ‘Eid al-Adha and the work of Leeds Muslim Forum. Chapter 6 argues that although not always the most expert in terms of authority, mosque imams are the key providers of religious advice to their congregations. Chapter 7 suggests that while most Sunni Muslims and religious experts in Leeds assert the importance of following a school of law (taqlid), they also affirm the desirability of use of ijtihad (independent reasoning) by a mujtahid (one 4 qualified to exercise ijtihad) in the specific contexts of the UK. Overall, Sunni Muslim religiosity in Leeds remains deeply influenced by tradition, something reinforced by ethnicity and sect. 5 List of figures and tables Figure 1: A map of Mosque Distribution in Leeds (mosques signalled here by letters are identified in Table 1) .........................................................................................91 Figure 2: A Picture of Leeds Islamic Centre .......................................................... 102 Figure 3: A picture of Leeds Grand Mosque .......................................................... 105 Figure 4: A picture of Leeds Iqra Centre ............................................................... 108 Figure 5: A picture of Leeds Makkah Masjid ........................................................ 111 Table 1: Mosque list in Leeds .................................................................................92 Table 2: Sources of religious authority for Sunni Muslims in Leeds as a response to an interview question: Who/what do you consult when you come across any problem regarding faith and practice? ................................................................................. 169 Table 3: A comparison of attitudes towards taqlid and ijtihad ................................ 209 6 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. 2 Abstract ................................................................................................................... 3 List of figures and tables .......................................................................................... 5 Introduction ............................................................................................................11 Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................23 Islam and Modernity: Mapping Modernist, Reformist and Traditionalist Responses 23 1.1. Modernity and the transformation of the Muslim world: ...............................25 1.2. Muslim responses to modernity: ...................................................................29 1.2.1. Modernist discourse (Islamic modernists and secularists): .....................30 1.2.2. Islamist discourse (revivalist or fundamentalist): ...................................35 1.2.3. Traditionalist discourse: .........................................................................41 1.4. Conclusion: ..................................................................................................47 Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................48 The Muslim Diaspora in Britain ..............................................................................48 2.1. Muslim migration to Britain and the process of settlement:...........................49 2.2. The Institutionalisation of Islam in Britain:...................................................53 7 2.3. The Construction of religious identity: Sunni Muslim religious movements in Britain .................................................................................................................56 2.4. National-level representation and intra-Muslim interactions: who speaks for British Muslims? .................................................................................................66 2.5. Conclusion: ..................................................................................................70 Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................72 Methodological reflections on studying Sunni Muslim communities in Leeds .........72 3.1. Research Locations and Methods, Reflexivity and Challenges: .....................73 3.1.1. Participant observation: .........................................................................75 3.1.2. Qualitative interviewing: .......................................................................81 3.1.3. Collection of ephemeral material: ..........................................................83 3.2. The process of data analysis and reflexivity of the fieldwork research: .........84 3.3. Conclusion: ..................................................................................................86 Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................88 Religious diversity and difference among Sunni Muslims in Leeds .........................88 4.1. Muslims on a local scale: Muslim diversity in Leeds ....................................89 4.2. The history of the Muslim presence in Leeds: ...............................................94 4.3. Mosques in Leeds: ........................................................................................98 8 4.3.1. Leeds Islamic Centre (LIC): ................................................................ 100 4.3.2. Leeds Grand Mosque (LGM): .............................................................. 104 4.3.3. Leeds Iqra Centre (IC): .......................................................................