“Muslim Intellectual”?

FOCUS 35 tices of earlier generations of believers. In the public perception, the term salafī has What Makes a “Muslim Intellectual”? become representative of someone who, On the Pros and Cons of a Category on religious grounds, rejects all values upon which the overwhelming majority of contemporary societies are based (lib- eral, democratic, secular, etc.). This rather woolly notion of salafī has now entered the academic context without, in most cases, Jan-Peter Hartung being subjected to thorough scholarly scrutiny.2 This is regrettable for several rea- At its core, this essay contains a substanti- These days, numerous terms, concepts, sons. Firstly, such a lack of conceptual clar- ated plea for bringing about conceptual and labels bustle about in the popu- ity lumps those reform-inclined Muslims clarity to the notion of “Muslim intellec- lar media, impacting not just the com- in Egypt and the Levant at the turn of the tual,” which the frequent and highly ideo- mon mind, but also academic discourse. twentieth century, who have explicitly la- logically charged public usage of this term This development is quite alarming, as beled themselves as “salafiyya”, alongside seems to distort. In search for a sound it causes widely accepted rules of aca- various contemporary groups and person- analytical concept of “intellectual” first, demic speech (e.g. Popper 1, 16-9, 22-5) to alities that range from the state-supportive relevant sociological and philosophical become infested with heavily value-laden religious establishment in Saudi Arabia to deliberations are highlighted, indicating and pithily used terms. This seems to be militant manifestations such as al-Qāʿida. that both of their notions differ to such an even more the case in the current highly Secondly, the absence of a clearly defined extent that their applicability to academic emotionally charged media coverage of analytical term will render every deduc- pursuit must be doubted. Yet, by discuss- Islam- and Middle East-related develop- tion on this basis at least problematic, if ing some considerations by a study of ments in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist not void. Islam open to the approaches of the so- attacks, which were justified on the basis A similar label originating perhaps more cial sciences a possible framework for an of religion. To illustrate this rather troubling in popular speech is that of the “Muslim analytically meaningful concept of “Mus- situation: intellectual,” the subject of the present pa- lim intellectual” is presented. At the same Recently, the terms salafī, salafiyya, Salaf- per. Hardly ever properly defined, this tag time, however, arguments are presented ist, and Salafism have been flying around appears to be ascribed to those Muslims for why those contemporary Muslim think- the media, labeling a quite heteroge- who, by emphasizing rationality over slav- ers who are usually credited with being neous group of Muslims who stand out ishly adhering to a textual tradition, sup- “Muslim intellectuals” would hardly fit the visibly in their attempts to strictly adhere port the general compatibility of Western analytical criteria for such label. 1 to the beliefs and, beyond that, the prac- and Islamic social and political values. In Middle East – Topics & Arguments #01–2 013 FOCUS 36 short, the badges “salafis” and “intellectu- realities—seeks to attain a rational justifica- those who wield power in the polity … als” represent the “bad guys” and “good tion of normative frameworks. Although it the intellectuals, as we shall tentatively guys,” respectively, from a perspective appears that both perspectives are mutu- call those who usurp leadership in a Kul- clearly shaped in a Western normative ally exclusive and would, therefore, require turgemeinschaft (that is, within a group framework. us to decide which of the two we are going of people who by virtue of their pecu- In this paper I will attempt to abstain from to follow, both indeed have something to liarity, have access to certain products this popular notion of intellectual, instead offer to our quest—especially with regard that are considered “culture goods”) … considering it as an analytical term that has to the question of whether it makes sense (Weber 530 [transl. Talcott Parsons; ital- some explanatory force in academic pur- to place intellectualism within an authori- ics in the original]) suit. In doing so, I will generally challenge tatively grounded setting. In other words, What can be extracted from this most gen- the idea of religiously connoted intellectu- it may help us to consider the usefulness eral definition of “intellectuals” is inner- alism, but conclude that the concept—pro- of a category Muslim intellectual, as dis- worldliness, or the assumption of public vided it has been usefully defined—might tinct from Christian intellectual, Buddhist responsibilities, as a decisive criterion (see be analytically effective for understanding intellectual, Marxist intellectual, liberalist Shils, “Intellectuals and Powers”; Tradition social and intellectual change in the Mus- intellectual, and the like, or whether the and Modernity). As such, Weber expert lim world during the decades around the adherence to such a framework somehow Wolfgang Schluchter has argued, intellec- turn of the twentieth century. contradicts the very idea of intellectualism. tuals do not only have access to “cultural Finally, I will demonstrate that a study of assets,” but are decisively involved in the Three Approaches to the Target Islam which is open to the insights of the production of “cultural values”—values that, In my attempt to ascribe meaning to the social sciences and other humanities has in turn, either relate to culture and society, category intellectual in general, and Mus- something constructive to contribute to or neutralize it (Schluchter 1:122, 2:533 f). lim intellectual in particular, I will elaborate our academic discussion on the topic. “Culture-related values” are ethical values, three rather distinct approaches that have ideally explicitly shaped by pragmatic or so far contributed significantly to the dis- a) The Sociological Approach situation-depended considerations, while cussion, while at the same time not being While a distinct branch has developed “culture-neutralizing values” are those pro- necessarily in line with each other. The within sociology investigating the phe- duced by theoretical considerations and reasons for this disagreement are most nomenon of the “intellectual,”3 the indi- proclaimed as spatially and temporally in- probably of a systematic nature, rooted vidual to whom we owe the first systematic variant “truths.” In a disenchanted world, in the very self-conception of the respec- discussion on this matter was, as is so often Weber and his epigones would argue, tive academic disciplines. While sociol- the case, Max Weber. He had considered the latter values originate in the natural ogy since Weber aims at interpretatively intellectuals within his sociology of domi- sciences and are declared paradigmatic understanding actual social realities, prac- nation (Herrschaftssoziologie) by defining by modern “intellectuals” carried away by tical philosophy—though related to social them as: progress; it is this very declaration of val- Middle East – Topics & Arguments #01–2 013 FOCUS 37 ues as self-evident, i.e. free from any social “Intellectuals and Powers”; Tradition and necessity is, for Benda, a declaration of the and cultural context, that the French cul- Modernity) on the matter to overcome this bankruptcy of reason as the defining prin- tural philosopher Julien Benda (d. 1956) antagonism. ciple of intellectualism: since reason was would eventually unveil as the “betrayal subordinated to external circumstances of the intellectuals.” This will be discussed b) The Philosophical Approach that are declared inevitable, it became below. Hardly any thinkers other than afore-men- degraded to a mere tool for the affirma- However, both sets of values that, accord- tioned Frenchman Julien Benda repre- tion and aggrandizement of an existing or- ing to Schluchter, intellectuals produce sented the philosophical position toward der and preconceived developments, and in the disenchanted world have a clear intellectuals at the fin de siècle. As was hence, solely as a means of legitimizing equivalent within a pre-modern religious the case for many other educated French, dogma. According to Benda, adherence to framework as religious ethics and meta- and even more so for him as an assimilat- dogma is diametrically opposed to intel- physics. This, in turn, suggests the exis- ed Jew, the “Dreyfus Affair” of 1894 along lectual pursuit; in this point he implicitly tence of “religious intellectuals” as the pro- with the inglorious role that numerous self- re-invokes the idealist critique of empiri- ducers of these values, a fact that Weber proclaimed intellectuals played therein cism at the turn of the nineteenth century, and those in his wake are ready to concede became a catalyst for Benda’s influential which has hardly been brought more to (see Weber 304-14; Eisenstadt 29-39 et pas- view on intellectuals, presented for the the point than in the remarks of the other- sim; Schluchter 1:223, 2:178, 206-10, 450f). first time in his La Trahison des clercs in wise rather reviled Johann Gottlieb Fichte Authors like Schluchter even go so far as 1927. Benda initially set out the role of in- (d. 1814). Already in his Attempt at a New to equate “clerics” with religious intellectu- tellectuals as devoted, in an interest-free Presentation of the Science of Knowledge als, as those who “usually produce religious spirit, to guarding static universals such as from 1797/8, Fichte had defined a “dog- dogmas” (ibid. 1:223 and who are distinct “truth,” “justice,” “freedom,” and “reason,” matist” in very much the way Benda had from religiously motivated “lay intellectuals” only to unmask them as having quietly portrayed the fraudulent intellectual, when (ibid.). This notion has a number of short- abandoned their lofty claim and allowing he wrote: comings.

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