Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2018 Mediating desire: Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and the circulation of norms on gender sexuality in the transnational Muslim public Hamid, Amir Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-144829 Dissertation Published Version Originally published at: Hamid, Amir. Mediating desire: Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and the circulation of norms on gender sexuality in the transnational Muslim public. 2018, University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts. Mediating Desire YŪSUF AL-QARAḌĀWĪ AND THE CIRCULATION OF NORMS ON GENDER & SEXUALITY IN THE TRANSNATIONAL MUSLIM PUBLIC Thesis presented to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Amir Hamid Accepted in the fall semester 2017 on the recommendation of the doctoral committee: Prof. Dr Andreas Kaplony (main supervisor) PD Dr Rainer Brunner Prof. Dr Ulrich Rudolph Zurich, 2018 Picture Credit: “Nisāʾ”, 15 June 2008. Table of Contents Acknowledgements 3! Prologue 5! 1.! Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6! 2.! Al-Qaraḍāwī and Academic Scholarship Revisited ............................................................ 24! 3.! The Condition of Exile ............................................................................................................ 43! I. The Production of Norms 48! 1.! The Subject of Desire .............................................................................................................. 49! 2.! The Subject of Knowledge ..................................................................................................... 55! 3.! The Materiality of Knowledge .............................................................................................. 61! II. The Circulation of Norms 66! 1.! Reimagining the Muslim Reader .......................................................................................... 67! 2.! Revisiting the Subject of Desire ............................................................................................ 78! 3.! The Beauty of the Question ................................................................................................... 86! 4.! The Conscious Muslim Viewer ........................................................................................... 104! III. The Normative Force of Reality 113! 1.! Mediating Reality .................................................................................................................. 114! 2.! The Two Jāhiliyyas ................................................................................................................. 123! 3.! Human Nature (Fiṭra) and Divine Revelation - A Perfect Harmony ............................. 127! 4.! “Filling the Void” – Reinscribing Fiqh into the Public Sphere ....................................... 144! 5.! Revisiting the Subject of Desire: Female Circumcision & the Right to Pleasure ........ 156! Conclusion and Epilogue 177! Bibliography 181! Publications by al-Qaraḍāwī ........................................................................................................ 182! Other Literature ............................................................................................................................. 190! 2 Acknowledgements When submitting a thesis at the University of Zurich, each PhD candidate is required to sign a declaration that he has written his dissertation without any illegal assistance. Despite spending my short academic life in tedious innocence and unspoiled integrity, I have to admit that I would not have been able to begin, let alone complete, this book without … … my “Doktorvater” Professor Andreas Kaplony and his ongoing moral and intellectual support, his patience and persistent encouragement to write this work – despite my profound doubts until the end; … Professor Ulrich Rudolph, who awakened my interest in the profound historicity of Muslim thought; … Professor Bettina Dennerlein and her indispensable inputs on how to interweave the fine thread of philology with the larger texture of theory; ... PD Dr Rainer Brunner and his vigilant eye on the boundaries of the discipline; … Dr Johannes Thomann, who guided me through the arcane labyrinth of an impeccable Orientalist library; … Dr James Weaver, who shared with me his profound fascination and expertise on the intellectual history of Muslim thought; … Dr Tobias Heinzelmann and his intellectual sensibility for the materiality of the text; … Dr Philipp Hetmanzic, who shared the ordeals of “PhD-ing”; 3 … Professor Ralph Weber who introduced me to the methods and ideas of comparative thinking; … Dr Alexandre Caeiro, who drank a cup of coffee with me in Doha; … Shaykh Dr Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and his staff and their warm reception and kind support of my research; … the intellectual and financial support and the impeccable reception by the University Research Priority Program (URPP) Asia and Europe at the University Zurich; … the most generous financial support of the Humer Foundation for Academic Talent. Finally, I would like to thank my friends, who kept taking me for strolls on the sunny and the wild side of life, and my beloved Sarah, my son Arun and my family, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart for being there. Zurich/Munich, 10 November 2017 4 Prologue 5 1. Introduction { ْ)' ِﺪﻧَﺎ ﱢ#ﻟﺼ َﺮ َ#" ْ,ﻟ ُﻤ ْﺴﺘَﻘِ"ﻢ} {Guide us in the straight path} AL-FĀTIḤA, Q 1: 6 It is Sunday evening, 5 November 2006, 10.15 p.m. local time in Mecca. A camera captures the panorama of a city from the edge of a bridge under which a broad river flows. The silhouettes of red house roofs and a pointed church tower stand out on the horizon of the opposite bank. Then the images depicts a long drawn arch, until the church tower finally moves into focus. A male voice starts off-screen. ﻓﻲ ﻣﺪ#ﻨﺔ ﺑ#ﺮ! *ﻻﺳﻜﺘﻠﻨﺪ"ﺔ #ﺬ! #"! 'ﻟﻤﻨﺎ"ﺮ 'ﻟﺴﺎﺣﺮ! ﺣﻂ &ﻟﺮﺣﺎ! ﺑﺎﻟﺪﻛﺘﻮ! ﻋﻤﺎ! #ﻟﺴﻌﺪ#"! &%ﺳﺮﺗ! ﻗﺒﻞ $ﻛﺜﺮ ﻣﻦ ﻋﺸﺮ ﺳﻨﻮ"! ﻟ$ﻌ$ﺸﻮ! ﻓﻲ ﺑ#ﺌﺔ ﻟ#ﺴﺖ ﺑﺒ%ﺌﺘ"ﻢ 'ﻹﺳﻼﻣ"ﺔ In this Scottish town, Perth, endowed with enchanting views, Dr ʿImād al-Saʿdāwī and his family settled down more than ten years ago to live in an environment that is not their Islamic environment. For a moment, the church gable appears in the image close-up. This is followed by a jump cut to the profile of a man sitting at the wheel of a car. Whitewashed facades of houses pass behind green bushes along the edge of the road. The next shot is the river again, this time in close-up. Waves and whirlpools curl its surface. ﻛﺎﻧﺖ #ﻟﺒﺪ#"ﺔ ﺻﻌﺒﺔ ﻓﺎﻟﻤﺨﺎ"! 'ﻧﺘﺎﺑﺘ"ﻢ ﻣﻦ ﻛﻞ ﺟ"ﺔ &%ﻟﻘﻠﻖ ﺳﺎ$#"ﻢ ﺑﺸﺄ! ﺗﻨﺸﺌﺔ 'ﺑﻨﺎﺋ"ﻢ )'ﻟﺘﻮﻓ"ﻖ ﺑ"ﻦ &ﻟﺘﻤﺴﻚ ﺑﺜﻘﺎﻓﺘ"ﻢ )'ﻟﺘﻌﺎ"ﺶ ﻣﻊ &ﻟﻤﺠﺘﻤﻊ &ﻟﻐﺮﺑﻲ The beginning was hard. Fears afflicted them from every side, and concerns assaulted them about the education of their children and the compromise between adherence to their culture and coexistence with Western society. Dr al-Saʿdāwī gets out of his car. A boy hurries towards him and stretches out his hand. The doctor gently pulls him to him, bends down and kisses him on the cheek: a picture of family intimacy. 6 و.Y\X. ? 9 [R أ ن وc#ت أ<0ة ا.#F*Gر D-?د n9?!05 : ; ?V*.?m ا.6B80Z وا.o)?ة ا.Pي أ!?ر ا.80p_ أV9?9?. However, it was not long before the family of Dr ʿImād al-Saʿdāwī found the object of their long-cherished desire (ḍālla) in the programme al-Sharīʿa wa-l-ḥayāt, which illuminated the way (ṭarīq) before them. Global flows of persons, objects, images and ideas have unsettled and reconfigured many of the intimate ties that bound society to territory, culture to place and religion to region in a now distant – and presumedly more sedentary – past.1 At the same time, new scapes of ideology, technology, finance and media have emerged, and have established novel territories, collective identities and individual desires that cut across the imaginary boundaries of postcolonial nation–states.2 The visible appearance of Muslim actors in these transnational territories has not only disturbed prior sensibilities and understandings of Islam and Muslim identity, as some scholars have pointedly remarKed.3 It has also brought into question many supposedly unquestionable ideas, profound convictions and teleological narratives of secularism, modernity and the liberal public in so-called “Western” societies.4 The female body, gendered identities, sexuality, marriage and the 1 Academic research on the different dimensions of globalization has multiplied since the 1990s (Steger et al. 2014). A central analytical contribution, on which my introductory statement draws, has been made by Arjun Appadurai (1996) and his notion of scapes as cultural and deterritorialized spaces that enable the global exchange of persons, objects and ideas. For a lucid overview on the genealogy of globalization and the career of the concept, see the essay by James and Steger (2014) published in the journal Globalizations, as well as their subsequent interviews with some major contributors to the debate, including Appadurai (2014), Roland Robertson (2014), David Held (2014), SasKia Sassen (2014), Joseph E. Stiglitz (2014) and Jonathan Friedman (2014). For an early and much referenced study on the effects of globalization on Islam, see Roy 2002. 2 Appadurai 1996. 3 See e.g. Göle 2002; Roy 2002. 4 The inverted commas indicate the problematization of the “West” as an ontological category that is naturally