Abdulkader Tayob Religion and LifeTrajectories: Islamists Against Self and Other* Abstract: Life trajectories capture the dynamic natureofreligious traditions and phenomena. They can complement and challengewhat we know about religions based on rituals, myths and beliefs.Lifetrajectories bring out the individual ex- periences of the latter,intheir embodiment over aperiod of time. This essayap- plies this insight to Islamists who joined and participated in religious activism in South Africa over several decades. It shows that Islamist journeys wereprone to be challenging, giventhat Islamists often rejected established religious leaders and were confronted by political and religious challenges. The journeys were marked by the adoption of adistinctivechoice made within the largerlanguage of Islam. Islam was framed as an ideology, worldview or cause which the indi- vidual felt compelled to adopt.But the life of an individual was often confronted by subtle and not toosubtle differences within this language. Islamists were forced to navigate adeep sectarianism, but the choice for Islamism was often not between good and evil, but between competingperceptions of good. Identity was akey feature of Islamist journeys,wherein what counted as the Other varied from group to group, and individual to individual. The journeys of manyIslam- ists led to both expectedand unexpecteddestinations. The essayconcludes with an interpretive framework for these journeys derivedfrom the history of exegesis of the Qur’an. It suggests that the journeys of Islamists are marked quite oftenby rebukeand admonishment (lawwāma),directed at self and others. Keywords: Islamism, political Islam,biography, life trajectories,psychologyof religion, religion in South Africa, African religions, method and theory In afascinating autobiography, Muntassar Zayyat shares some interesting per- sonal experiencesasamember of Islamic Communities (al-Jama’at Islamiyya) in Egypt,which plannedand carried out the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat in 1981. Immediatelyafter this fateful event,Zayyat tells us that he and his as- sociates anguished over what to do next.They wereconfronted by ateacher * This work is based on the research supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Referencenumber (UID) ). The opinions,findings and conclusions or rec- ommendations expressed arethose of the author,and the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard. DOI 10.1515/9783110450934-009, © 2017 Abdulkader Tayob, Published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 156 Abdulkader Tayob who believed that the assassination was completelywrong and unjustified. Zayyat tells us that he and his associatestook avote and decided to suspend anyfurther activity.This was one of manymoments of doubt and bewilderment shared by Zayyat of his involvement in Islamism. Former British Islamist Ed Hu- sain alsowroteofhis journey that began as ayoungboy reciting songsofpraise for the Prophet Muhammad, followed by afive-year roller coaster ride among the recruiters and peddlers of Islamic radicalism in London. Abdal-Munʿim Abual- Futūḥ,who was acandidate for the Egyptian Presidencyagainst Morsi in 2011, wroteofhis earlylife in the samecommunities as Zayyat in the 1970s; he later joined the moderate Muslim Brothers,but resigned after the Egyptian up- rising.These and other recent autobiographies of Islamists provide aglimpse of the motivations,inspiration, challenges and sometimes frustrations of living alife of Islamic activism. Theselife trajectories deservegreater recognition and greater attention in the study of religious changeand dynamism. They de- servegreater attentioninwhat they tell us about the complex and changingphe- nomenon of Islamism. Studies on the life trajectories of Islamists of very different persuasions are not unknown. The most eminent leaders of Islamism, likeHasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb,Yusuf al-Qardawi, Osamah ben Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, have receivedextensive scholarlyattention (Musallam 1990;Akhavi 1997; Stern 2003;Gerges2006;Gräf, Skovgaard-Petersen 2009;Scheuer 2011). But most of this attention focuses on how they developed and adopted Islamist political and religious ideas, how much of athreat they represent to the world in general and the Western world in particular, and their socio-political impacts. Relatively few studies have been devoted to life trajectories thatinclude what Aishima and Salvatore have called the ‘trials and tribulations’ of religious activism in apost- colonial context (Aishima, Salvatore 2009,42).The complex journeys that consti- tute Islamism have not been carefullyand systematicallyexamined, even though they offer greater insight into this significant religious phenomenon. In this essay, Iexamine biographies and life trajectories as keydata for un- derstandingIslamism. Iamnot necessarilyinterested in the biographies as win- dows to the self, something that has become prominent in the studyofreligions recently. The studyofbiographies and journeys of individuals in the studyofre- ligions have almost exclusively focused on processes of individualization and self-actualization (Buitelaar,Zock 2013;Fuchs, Rüpke 2014). Such studies have added to what William James earlier and more recentlyPaulRicoeur and Charles Taylor have respectivelysaid about the journey and location of the self. James closelyexamined the conversion narrativesofevangelical Christians in the nine- teenth century,and turned attention to the different stages towardsindividual religious maturity.Hestressed the positive effects of sound religiosity – and Religion and LifeTrajectories: Islamists Against Self and Other 157 he wasinterested in showing these values in the livesand journeys of saints, mystics and converts. This teleologicaland normative framework has been adopted in the twentieth century by most psychologists of religion such as All- port,Capps,Fowler and Hutch (Fowler 1984;Hutch 1987; Capps1994). In adif- ferent scholarlytrajectory,PaulRicoeur and Charles Taylor have stressed the nar- rative framework within which the self is located. Ricoeur’swork on narrative identity has receivedwidespread support and application (Ricoeur 1980;Joy 1997; Crowly 2003). In this essay, Iwant to show that biographical trajectories are indispensable for what they tell us about Islamism, and about the dynamismofreligions and religious phenomena in themselves. In aspecial forumorganized in 2014 by Re- ligion and American Culture, AJournal of Interpretation,leading biographers of religious individuals wereinvited to share their thoughts on the value of biogra- phyfor the religious history of America. The contributions highlighted the sub- stantial place of biographyinthe studyofreligion. Most of the discussion fo- cused on the value of biographyfor bringing out the historical significance of these figures.Itdwelled on the long-standing debate on the value of movements and trends, against the experience of both extraordinary and ordinary individu- als in the flow of history.One of the participants in this forum, Matthew Avery Sutton, referredtoJill Lepore’sconcept of microhistory,which is located between biographyand history.While biographyfocuses on the unique life of an individ- ual, usually someone who made asignificant contribution to history,microhis- tory points to the significanceofalife in the light of the general religious,social or political history in question. Lepore says that microhistory places the life of an individual within ‘the cultureasawhole’ (Lepore2001, 141). Moreover,she saw the individual life as an ‘allegory’ of the whole, indicating the close connection between the specific life of the individual, and the largerculturalcanvass.The subjects of individual life trajectories are fascinating for the experience they share about themselves, and for their part in alargermovement and tradition in the culture. Thisattention to the experiences of an individual, taken allegori- cally, could be used more widelyinthe studyofreligion. Life trajectories could be added to the rituals, narratives, beliefs,performan- ces and artistic expressions that have become part of the stock data thatscholars of religions use to understand and explain the meaning and significance of re- ligions. They maycomplement or challengewhat we know about religious phe- nomena and developments basedonrituals, myths and beliefs.They deserve greater attention as data, as units of analysis,for the studyofbeliefs,rituals and narratives. Life trajectories and autobiographiescontributetoour deeper un- derstandingofreligions, and how they are livedbymen and women in apartic- ular time. 158 Abdulkader Tayob This idea will be illustratedwith asample of trajectories and journeys that I have collected over the last few years of individuals who have been involved in Islamist activism in South Africa since the 1970s. Irecorded interviews, lasting from one to twohours, and sometimes repeated, to gather informationonlife trajectories thatincluded educational backgrounds and inspirations, career choices,moments of conversion and re-conversions, fatigue, frustration, new movements, new projects,and sometimes reflective thoughts on manyyears of engagement.After some hesitation, interviewees seemed eager to present their life of engagement as narratives. Being part of Islamism meant taking aposition different from the one givenatbirth. This included journeys in space and time, from the rural to the urban, from the East to the West and back