DOCSLIB.ORG

Cyber-Islamic Environments and Salafī-Ṣūfī Contestations Appropriating Digital Media and Challenges to Religious Authority

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cyber-Islamic Environments and Salafī-Ṣūfī Contestations Appropriating Digital Media and Challenges to Religious Authority Cyber-Islamic Environments and Salafī-Ṣūfī Contestations Appropriating Digital Media and Challenges to Religious Authority By Ibrahim N. Abusharif, MS Associate Professor at Northwestern University in Qatar Supervised by Prof. Gary Bunt and Prof. Sarah Lewis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the award of the degree Doctor of Philosophy University of Wales, Trinity Saint David 2019 1 DECLARATIONS This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed ................. ....... (student) Date 20 January 2019 STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Where correction services have been used the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in a footnote(s). Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed ................. ....... (student) Date 20 January 2019 STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter- library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ................. ....... (student) Date 20 January 2019 STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for deposit in the University’s digital repository. Signed ................. ....... (student) Date 20 January 2019 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to offer wholehearted gratitude and thanks to Prof. Gary Bunt for his scholarship, encouragement, and guidance throughout the dissertation process. His supervision, rigour, and scholarly insights were of invaluable help to me and this study. Thanks to Prof. Sarah Lewis for her support and encouragement over the years, and for her vote of confidence in the dissertation. I’m grateful to the Department of Theology, Religious Studies and Islamic Studies at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter. I am also appreciative of the professionalism of the staff in the Postgraduate Office. Next, I would like to acknowledge with gratitude colleagues at Northwestern University in Qatar. Prof. Mary Dedinsky, director of the Department of Journalism and Strategic Communication, has encouraged me without stint since the very beginning of this rewarding experience. I am and will remain appreciative of her support and kind words and friendship. Also, I’m grateful to Prof. Everette Dennis (Dean of NU-Q) and Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Hariclea Zengos for their support. I’m grateful also to Prof. Klaus Schoenbach, formerly Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Research at Northwestern, for reading an advanced draft of the dissertation and for his enthusiastic support of the study. Also, I’d like to express my gratitude to Prof. Zachary Wright for his encouragement of the research proposal and the process throughout. And thanks to Prof. John Pavlik of Rutgers University for his encouragement with the study. Finally, but never last, I express my deepest gratitude and indebtedness to my wife, Nadia, who has always been a light for me and has unreservedly encouraged me with all important decisions of mine, like the one to seek a doctorate at UWTSD. To Nadia, I dedicate this study. And, from the beginning and to the end, I am grateful to the All-Merciful. Wa’l-Hamdulillah. 3 TRANSLITERATION Arabic Letter Transliteration Ā/ā أ ’ ء B/b ب T/t ت Th/th ث J/j ج Ḥ/ ḥ ح Kh/kh خ Dh/dh ذ D/d د R/r ر Z/z ز S/s س Sh/sh ش Ṣ/ṣ ص Ḍ/ ḍ ض Ṭ/ ṭ ط Ẓ/ẓ ظ F/f ف ʿ ع Gh/gh غ Q/q ق K/k ك L/l ل M/m م N/N ن H/h ه Ū/ ū و Ī/ ī ي Vowels: ◌ُ ◌ِ ◌َ u/i/a (iyya (as in Ibn Taymiyya- : ّي Doubled vowels Note: For spellings and transliterations of quoted sources and formal names of institutions and websites, the rendition of the authors and institutions will be maintained. For example, ‘Salafi Sounds’ does not transliterate its formal name. Thus, it will be rendered as ‘Salafi Sounds’, with no transliteration. 4 ABSTRACT The present study focuses on significant online intra-Islamic ideological contestations with particular focus on the schisms between Salafism and Sufism. The main attention is on the content and strategies of Salafī contestations with Sufism and, to a lesser extent, with certain creedal schools of thought. The study addresses a gap in Cyber-Islamic Environments studies and raises thesis questions addressed through a research design (case study), analytical framework (religious authority), and methodology (qualitative ideological analyses). The purpose is to contribute to a greater understanding of the role of digital media in understudied and yet far-reaching online contestations within Islam—those that seek to define orthodoxy in contemporary Islam. First, the study locates and examines significant loci of Salafī contestations with Sufism, namely, the mawlid (celebrating the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday), grave visitation, and tawassul (seeking intercession through the Prophet and past saints or spiritual masters). Second, the study unpacks and analyses recurring themes and vocabulary that occur in Salafī polemics against Sufism. The arguments against Sufism rely on the strategic usage of well-known judicial-ethical and creedal terminologies of Islamic scriptural sources and intellectual traditions that are now used to challenge the very orthodoxy and orthopraxy of Sufism. These terms have pre-modern roots in Muslim scholarship. However, the terms are repurposed in Salafī discourse to create idioms that cast aspersions upon non-Salafī ideologies in Islam. Third, the study analyses the strategic value of these loci of dispute and terminologies through the analytical framework of religious authority, and, toward that effort, the study proffers a methodology of examining online content and the key arguments and support terminologies that speak to authority in what is essentially transnational and de-territorialized discourses. This dissertation thus seeks to contribute original research that helps to fill a lacuna in the study of consequential online intra-Islamic contestations. 5 CONTENTS Acknowledgments iii Transliteration iv Abstract v 1. Introduction 1 2. Literature Review 25 3. Defining Terminologies 57 4. Analytical Framework: Religious Authority and Mediatisation 96 5. Methodology: Background and Approach 130 6. Data Collection: Salafī Digital Content 149 7. Findings and Analyses 217 8. Summary, Limitations, Forward Research, and Concluding Remarks 256 9. Bibliography 270 Appendix: Glossary of Terms 292 6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Society not only continues to exist by transmission, by communication, but it may fairly be said to exist in transmission, in communication. — John Dewey1 1.1 Introduction The study of new media and religion is a field of research that has attracted increased attention in the last two decades—perhaps more so than most other fields of study during that timeframe.2 Research into the media–religion ‘interface’ in the digital age has become not only a growing academic discipline but a distinctive one that has roots in two legacy fields—media studies and religious studies—and has also attracted allied disciplines within the humanities and social sciences.3 Thus, the diverse relationships between media and religion—their mutual influences, negotiations, and ruptures—continue to invite original and merged approaches that seek out and analyse how contemporary media increasingly exercise ‘transformative power potential for religions’ and their followers today.4 The field also pursues a better understanding of interpretative frameworks that address how ‘communication technology is influencing’ the very practice, materiality, and profile of religion in personal and public spaces.5 As such, methodologies and frameworks from previously disparate fields have seemingly merged into interdisciplinary syntheses that are now needed to effectively examine what is arguably an inseparable and progressively consequential bond between 1 John Dewey, Democracy and Education (New York: McMillan, 1916), at 4. 2 Daniel A. Stout, Media and Religion: Foundations of an Emerging Field (London: Routledge, 2013), at 1. 3 Knut Lundby, ‘Theoretical Frameworks for Approaching Religion and New Media’. in Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds, ed. Heidi Campbell (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2012), 25–37, at 25–26. 4 Gary R. Bunt, ‘Religion and the Internet’, in The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, ed. Peter Clarke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 705–22, at 705, 711. 5 Heidi Campbell, ed., Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds (New York: Routledge, 2012), at 1. 1 two mighty forces of modernity: contemporary media systems and expanding spaces of religion. Digital platforms have decentralized religious content, praxis, and authority, and are ‘now crucial’ in the fragmented affairs, discourses, and performances of religion online: so much so that they are studied together in order to ‘understand contemporary religious issues’ and what stirs these issues in the online realms and, quite often, how the online realm affects the real world.6 A researcher cannot presume to comprehensively examine aspects of religion today ‘without understanding the traits of religious practice online and how they reflect larger trends in religious beliefs and practices offline’.7 Bunt, for example, asserts that studying contemporary religion and its close association with digital media is vital ‘for the understanding of contemporary religious
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Rituals of Islamic Spirituality: a Study of Majlis Dhikr Groups
    Rituals of Islamic Spirituality A STUDY OF MAJLIS DHIKR GROUPS IN EAST JAVA Rituals of Islamic Spirituality A STUDY OF MAJLIS DHIKR GROUPS IN EAST JAVA Arif Zamhari THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY E P R E S S E P R E S S Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/islamic_citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Zamhari, Arif. Title: Rituals of Islamic spirituality: a study of Majlis Dhikr groups in East Java / Arif Zamhari. ISBN: 9781921666247 (pbk) 9781921666254 (pdf) Series: Islam in Southeast Asia. Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: Islam--Rituals. Islam Doctrines. Islamic sects--Indonesia--Jawa Timur. Sufism--Indonesia--Jawa Timur. Dewey Number: 297.359598 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU E Press Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2010 ANU E Press Islam in Southeast Asia Series Theses at The Australian National University are assessed by external examiners and students are expected to take into account the advice of their examiners before they submit to the University Library the final versions of their theses. For this series, this final version of the thesis has been used as the basis for publication, taking into account other changesthat the author may have decided to undertake.
    [Show full text]
  • In Their Own Words: Voices of Jihad
    THE ARTS This PDF document was made available from www.rand.org as CHILD POLICY a public service of the RAND Corporation. CIVIL JUSTICE EDUCATION Jump down to document ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT 6 HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research NATIONAL SECURITY POPULATION AND AGING organization providing objective analysis and PUBLIC SAFETY effective solutions that address the challenges facing SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY the public and private sectors around the world. SUBSTANCE ABUSE TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY Support RAND TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE Purchase this document WORKFORCE AND WORKPLACE Browse Books & Publications Make a charitable contribution For More Information Visit RAND at www.rand.org Learn more about the RAND Corporation View document details Limited Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law as indicated in a notice appearing later in this work. This electronic representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for non-commercial use only. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of our research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please see RAND Permissions. This product is part of the RAND Corporation monograph series. RAND monographs present major research findings that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND monographs undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity. in their own words Voices of Jihad compilation and commentary David Aaron Approved for public release; distribution unlimited C O R P O R A T I O N This book results from the RAND Corporation's continuing program of self-initiated research.
    [Show full text]
  • Framing Islam at the World of Islam Festival, London, 1976
    Journal of Muslims in Europe 7 (2018) 73-93 brill.com/jome Framing Islam at the World of Islam Festival, London, 1976 Klas Grinell Dep. of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, Gothenburg University, Sweden [email protected] Abstract This article focuses on a neglected historical example where contemporary museo- logical framings of Islam in Europe were established—the World of Islam Festival in London, 1976. The material consulted consists of the publications and materials from the Festival Trust, media coverage and academic discussions of the Festival. These are analyzed from a frame theory perspective. The Festival is situated in a very specific historical period after the advent of Gulf oil money, but before the resurgence of Islam and the Iranian revolution. It was framed by the traditionalist perspective of Frithjof Schuon and Seyyed Hossein Nasr and in large part funded by the United Arab Emirates. It is argued that what might at first appear to be a festival celebrating the presence of Muslims in modern Britain acted to stabilize a dichotomy between Islam and moder- nity that is still dominant in museological framings of Islam in Europe. Keywords World of Islam Festival – museums – Islamic art – cultural heritage – traditionalism – 1970s 1 Aims and Introduction The 1976 World of Islam Festival in Britain is certain to be regarded in retrospect as an important milestone in the relations between Islam and Christianity. The effect that it has had in awakening Europeans to the sig- nificance of Islamic civilization is already apparent. © Klas GrinelL, 2018 | doi 10.1163/22117954-12341365 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing CC-BY-NC license at the time of publication.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Ethics in Australian Muslim Everyday Life: a Shi’Ite Perspective Mohamad Younes
    Islamic Ethics in Australian Muslim Everyday Life: A Shi’ite Perspective Mohamad Younes Master’s Thesis in Sociology Spring Term 2017 Humanities and Communication Arts Western Sydney University 1 17481784 Mohamad Younes 2 17481784 Mohamad Younes ABSTRACT Despite the strong emphasis on ethics within the Islamic tradition, Islamic ethics itself is scarcely represented as a discipline within academic scholarship (Ansari 1989). Even within this area, Islamic ethics have predominantly been studied from Sunni perspectives, with little attention being paid to Shi’ite or other minority understandings. This thesis will, therefore, use qualitative data collection methods of semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups, to sociologically study the perceptions, understandings, and applications of Islamic ethics in Australian Shi’ite Muslim everyday living. It will investigate the overarching understanding of Islamic ethics and its specific application in Australian Shi’ite Muslim context. The project's objective, therefore, is twofold: one to strengthen Islamic ethics as an independent discipline; and two to address the scant attention Shi’ite Islamic ethics has received in Islamic ethics scholarship generally. Conceptually, this project will contribute to the understanding of Islamic ethics through a particular analysis of Shi’ite Islamic ethics in an Australian Shi’ite context. This is significant as specific understandings of Islamic ethics in certain contexts help to explain how minority groups such as Shi’ite Muslims develop their own ethical standards to shape social relations in society. In addition, this thesis argues for Shi’ite Islamic ethics to be highly Imamate based; that is, very reliant on the actions and sayings of 12 divinely guided Imams (leaders).
    [Show full text]
  • 1 TRS 152 Islam: Beliefs and Practices Fall 2014 MWF 8:00 Am
    1 TRS 152 Islam: Beliefs and Practices Fall 2014 MWF 8:00 am – 9:05 am, Dante 113. Instructor: Ali Ataie, MA, PhD student, GTU. Office hours: Wednesdays 9:15­11:15am (Galileo 207D) [email protected] Course Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce undergraduate students to the basic tenets of the Islamic faith tradition. We will read and discuss the biography (sirah) of the Prophet Muhammad according to the earliest historical sources as well as analyze various sciences (‘ulum) of the Qur’an and hadith (prophetic traditions), and how these two primary Islamic sources influenced the codification of Islamic law (shari’a), creedal literature (‘aqidah), and Islamic mysticism (Sufism [tasawwuf]). We will also examine the intellectual contributions of classical and contemporary Muslim theologians, philosophers, mystics, and metaphysicians as well as examine both the history and work of the Western Academy’s critical engagement with Islam. This course will explore the fundamental religious beliefs held by Muslims for over 1400 years by covering the three dimensions of Islam as outlined in the famous hadith of Gabriel: practice (Islam), faith (Iman), and spirituality (Ihsan). In addition, we will look at various contemporary understandings and manifestations of the global phenomenon of Islam and how these understandings are shaped by various historical, societal, literary, and cultural factors. Course Objectives: 1. To inform and educate future religious, academic, and community leaders about the normative understandings of traditional Islam by Muslim scholars of the past and present as well as analyze critical responses to those understandings by scholars of Western Academy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Syiah Turmoil in a Sharia Soil: an Anthropological Study of Hidden Syiah Minority Entity in Contemporary Aceh
    International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE) ISSN: 2277-3878, Volume-7, Issue-6S5, April 2019 The Syiah Turmoil in a Sharia Soil: An Anthropological Study of Hidden Syiah Minority Entity in Contemporary Aceh Al Chaidar Abdurrahman Puteh, Abidin Nurdin, T. Nazaruddin , Alfian Lukman Abstract: Syiah had ever been a major Islamic Researches on the history of Syiah in Indonesia - and denomination in Aceh for centuries. This research is not only especially in Aceh -has been done by Hilmy Bakar about how much classical Sharia rules can be a reference to Almascaty (2013) and Fakhriati (2014) and Rabbani (2013) resolve political problems of majority and minority division, but also Dhuhri (2016). Previously, a similar study also also to examine the power of sharia in protecting and concerns the history that comes first in reference to the marginalizing Syiah. Based mainly on classical Snouck Hurgronje ethnography, this study elaborate the the former history of Syiah and its spaces investigated by Thabathaba'i sharia as a living law in old Aceh and comparing it with recent and Husayn (1989), Azmi (1989), Abdul Hadi (2002), and legal pluralism of Aceh nowadays. With a spectacular growing T. Iskandar (2011). Almascaty's study looked more at of traditional Dayah (conservative Sunnism) in present politics, Persian civilization and its influence on customs in Aceh and the transnational Salafi Wahabism intrusion into Aceh, the [1]. Similarly, Wan Hussein Azmi concluded that in the position of Syiah is at the most tip of the edge in society. 10th century AD migration of the most Persians to the Achenese Syiah are now facing hardest situation in this Syafii- archipelago Leran, Gresik, Siak (Inderapura, Riau), and to dominated land and hardened with the rage of Wahabism.
    [Show full text]
  • The Izala Movement in Nigeria Genesis, Fragmentation and Revival
    n the basis on solid fieldwork in northern Nigeria including participant observation, 18 Göttingen Series in Ointerviews with Izala, Sufis, and religion experts, and collection of unpublished Social and Cultural Anthropology material related to Izala, three aspects of the development of Izala past and present are analysed: its split, its relationship to Sufis, and its perception of sharīʿa re-implementation. “Field Theory” of Pierre Bourdieu, “Religious Market Theory” of Rodney Start, and “Modes Ramzi Ben Amara of Religiosity Theory” of Harvey Whitehouse are theoretical tools of understanding the religious landscape of northern Nigeria and the dynamics of Islamic movements and groups. The Izala Movement in Nigeria Genesis, Fragmentation and Revival Since October 2015 Ramzi Ben Amara is assistant professor (maître-assistant) at the Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Sousse, Tunisia. Since 2014 he was coordinator of the DAAD-projects “Tunisia in Transition”, “The Maghreb in Transition”, and “Inception of an MA in African Studies”. Furthermore, he is teaching Anthropology and African Studies at the Centre of Anthropology of the same institution. His research interests include in Nigeria The Izala Movement Islam in Africa, Sufism, Reform movements, Religious Activism, and Islamic law. Ramzi Ben Amara Ben Amara Ramzi ISBN: 978-3-86395-460-4 Göttingen University Press Göttingen University Press ISSN: 2199-5346 Ramzi Ben Amara The Izala Movement in Nigeria This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Published in 2020 by Göttingen University Press as volume 18 in “Göttingen Series in Social and Cultural Anthropology” This series is a continuation of “Göttinger Beiträge zur Ethnologie”.
    [Show full text]
  • Pathways to an Inner Islam
    Chapter One INTRODUCTION The spiritual, mystical, and esoteric doctrines and practices of Islam, which may be conveniently, if not quite satisfactorily, labeled as Sufi sm, have been among the main avenues of the understanding of this religion in Western aca- demic circles, and possibly among Western audiences in general. This stems from a number of reasons, not the least of which is a diff use sense that Sufi sm has provided irreplaceable keys for reaching the core of Muslim identity over the centuries, while providing the most adequate responses to contemporary disfi gurements of the Islamic tradition. It is in this context that we propose, in the current book, to show how the works of those whom Pierre Lory has called the “mystical ambassadors of Islam”1 may shed light on the oft-neglected availability of a profound and integral apprehension of Islam, thereby helping to dispel some problematic assumptions feeding many misconceptions of it. The four authors whom we propose to study have introduced Islam to the West through the perspective of the spiritual dimension that they themselves unveiled in the Islamic tradition. These authors were mystical “ambassadors” of Islam in the sense that their scholarly work was intimately connected to an inner call for the spiritual depth of Islam, the latter enabling them to intro- duce that religion to Western audiences in a fresh and substantive way. It may be helpful to add, in order to dispel any possible oversimplifi cations, that these authors should not be considered as representatives of Islam in the literal sense of one who has converted to that religion and become one of its spokesmen.2 None of these four “ambassadors” was in fact Muslim in the conventional, external, and exclusive sense of the word, even though two of them did attach themselves formally to the Islamic tradition in view of an affi liation to Sufi sm, in Arabic tasawwuf.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Digital Cultures: Perspectives from South Asia
    Revised Pages Global Digital Cultures Revised Pages Revised Pages Global Digital Cultures Perspectives from South Asia ASWIN PUNATHAMBEKAR AND SRIRAM MOHAN, EDITORS UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS • ANN ARBOR Revised Pages Copyright © 2019 by Aswin Punathambekar and Sriram Mohan All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by the University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America Printed on acid- free paper First published June 2019 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication data has been applied for. ISBN: 978- 0- 472- 13140- 2 (Hardcover : alk paper) ISBN: 978- 0- 472- 12531- 9 (ebook) Revised Pages Acknowledgments The idea for this book emerged from conversations that took place among some of the authors at a conference on “Digital South Asia” at the Univer- sity of Michigan’s Center for South Asian Studies. At the conference, there was a collective recognition of the unfolding impact of digitalization on various aspects of social, cultural, and political life in South Asia. We had a keen sense of how much things had changed in the South Asian mediascape since the introduction of cable and satellite television in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We were also aware of the growing interest in media studies within South Asian studies, and hoped that the conference would resonate with scholars from various disciplines across the humanities and social sci- ences.
    [Show full text]
  • Eye on the East – the Yemen Review
    The JUNE 2021 Yemen Review EYE ON THE EAST The Yemen Review The Yemen Review Launched in June 2016, The Yemen Review – formerly known as Yemen at the UN – is a monthly publication produced by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies. It aims to identify and assess current diplomatic, economic, political, military, security, humanitarian and human rights developments related to Yemen. In producing The Yemen Review, Sana’a Center staff throughout Yemen and around the world gather information, conduct research, hold private meetings with local, regional, and international stakeholders, and analyze the domestic and international context surrounding developments in and regarding Yemen. This monthly series is designed to provide readers with a contextualized insight into the country’s most important ongoing issues. COVER PHOTO: Wadi Hadibo on Socotra island, April 2021 // Sana’a Center photo by Quentin Müller The Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies is an independent think-tank that seeks to foster change through knowledge production with a focus on Yemen and the surrounding region. The Center’s publications and programs, offered in both Arabic and English, cover political, social, economic and security related developments, aiming to impact policy locally, regionally, and internationally. Copyright © Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies 2021 CONTENTS The Sana’a Center Editorial 4 The Urgency to Protect Yemen’s Minorities 4 June at a Glance 6 The Political Arena 6 Developments in Government-Controlled Territory 6 Developments in Houthi-Controlled
    [Show full text]
  • Denis Micheal Rohan Ushering in the Apocalypse Contents
    Denis Micheal Rohan Ushering in the Apocalypse Contents 1 Denis Michael Rohan 1 1.1 Motives .................................................. 1 1.2 Response ................................................. 2 1.2.1 Israeli Chief Rabbinate response ................................. 2 1.2.2 Arab/Muslim reactions ...................................... 2 1.3 See also .................................................. 3 1.4 References ................................................. 3 1.5 External links ............................................... 3 2 Mosque 4 2.1 Etymology ................................................. 5 2.2 History .................................................. 5 2.2.1 Diffusion and evolution ...................................... 6 2.2.2 Conversion of places of worship ................................. 9 2.3 Religious functions ............................................ 10 2.3.1 Prayers .............................................. 11 2.3.2 Ramadan events .......................................... 11 2.3.3 Charity .............................................. 12 2.4 Contemporary political roles ....................................... 12 2.4.1 Advocacy ............................................. 13 2.4.2 Social conflict ........................................... 14 2.4.3 Saudi influence .......................................... 14 2.5 Architecture ................................................ 15 2.5.1 Styles ............................................... 15 2.5.2 Minarets .............................................
    [Show full text]
  • TAWASSUL in the LIGHT of the ISLAMIC TENET of SOLE AUTHORITY of GOD | CIMS 17Th March 2018
    The Centre for Intra-Muslim Studies (CIMS) cims.almahdi.edu TAWASSUL IN THE LIGHT OF THE ISLAMIC TENET OF SOLE AUTHORITY OF GOD | CIMS 17th March 2018 Tawassul, the act of seeking an intermediary to God is a belief not bereft of controversy, as it may be perceived as contravening the belief in oneness of God (tawḥīd). This issue was discussed by the Centre for Intra-Muslim Studies (CIMS) on the 17th of March 2018 with a Sunni perspective presented by Dr Khurram Bashir – Spokesperson of Greenlane Mosque & member of Islamic Sharia council, and a Shia perspective presented by Shaykh Arif Abdulhussain – Director and Senior lecturer Al-Mahdi Institute. Dr Khurram’s main premise was that tawassul is not a permissible act as the Prophet never practiced it and is in contradiction with the Quranic injunction on not calling other than God.1 He was clear that the view he presented could be considered by some as a puritanical understanding of Islam and may differ from the popular Sunni view. Explaining the different types of tawhid as a basis for his presentation, he went on to outline the Prophetic practice which entailed calling out only to Allah in times of difficulty2. Therefore, any act therefore not practiced by the Prophet should be rejected, which would mean according to him rejecting the practice of tawassul. Referencing Ibn Taymiyya’s view on tawassul, Dr Khurram also pointed out that certain practices, including tawassul, carried out by some Shia and Sunnis contradicted his understanding of tawḥīd, and deemed their actions as misguided. Shaykh Arif divided tawassul into two types: a permissible form and an impermissible one.
    [Show full text]