Journal of the Contemporary Study of Islam

Islam and Secularism within the Legal Framework of the European Union

Tatia Tavkhelidze — 2024-04-04

This article aims to rekindle the longstanding debates surrounding the relationship between Islam and secularism in the contemporary context, particularly within the legal framework of the European Union (EU). It delves into how EU law sets the standards for Member States in navigating the interaction between the principle of freedom of Islamic thoughts and practice and the tenets of secularism. Examining the EU legal landscape, the article suggests that secularism dominates various aspects of social life in European societies, as mandated by EU law. Consequently, traditional religious practices, including those of Muslims, are increasingly marginalized from everyday life. While freedom of religion and non-discrimination remain fundamental principles, the prevailing secularist paradigm often shapes the accommodation of religious practices. By shedding light on this complex issue, the article contributes to a nuanced understanding of the delicate balance between the right to religious freedom and the dominant force of secularism within the EU legal context.

Quo Vadis Islamic Renewal in The Post-COVID-19 Era

Muhammad Ghifari — 2024-04-04

The existence of the impact of COVID-19 last year has brought quite significant changes to the order of human life throughout the world. These changes or transformations are very important to pay attention to. On the other hand, the existence of values in Islam believed by its adherents is considered capable of overcoming the problems of the impact of COVID-19. There is a popular adage about Islam as a religion of mercy for the entire universe (rahmatan lil al‑‘ālamīn) and always relevant to all developments in the temporal and local context (al‑Shālih li kulli al‑Zamān wa al‑Makān) often used as the theological foundation of Muslim society in their lives. In this context, is it true that Islam can overcome the impact of COVID-19? Then how should Islam itself be realized? Therefore this research offers the concept of Islamic renewal to be realized in the post-COVID-19 era. This research also uses a philosophical approach and a method of critical analysis of certain concepts in Islamic studies. The results of this study indicate that there are demands for change and innovation in the theory of Islamic thought compatible with the spirit of changing times. More than that, this innovation is then formulated by presenting the idea of “Islamic Science” as a model for dealing with the current impact of COVID-19.

Muhammad Asad

John Mayberry — 2024-04-04

This review will consider Muhammad Asad’s approach to Islam through an assessment of his published works. The role of the Qur’an and the Sunnah in his understanding of Shari‘ah and its place in modern day life will be viewed through his translations, including that of Bukhari as well as his early work, Islam at the Crossroads. Through an analysis of such publications his position as a Traditionalist or Modernist and Reformer will be assessed.

His early role in the Middle East, his disillusion with Zionism and gradual acceptance of Islam will be briefly considered before reviewing his work on the early years of Islam through his translation of Bukhari. It was at this time that he became concerned by the rigidity of earlier scholars and conceived that ijtihād was of particular relevance in modern society. He was already acquainted with the writings of Ibn Hazm and saw in them a parallel to his own thinking.

He applied this learning to his translation of the Qur’an, to which traditionalists objected, leading to a delay in its publication. His use of reason, scientific knowledge and ijtihād were amongst the causes for their opposition, although the personal animosity of Abu’l A’la Maududi is likely to have played a significant part.

The consequences of such thinking led Asad to seek renewal of the Ummah and, in Islam at the Crossroads, he called for a return to those values which had driven and enlivened the first generation of Muslims and to reject the ideas and concepts that had accompanied colonialism and were now embedded in Westernisation. Only through rejection of a stagnated and out-dated legalistic “Islam” could Muslims live and practice true Islam. The consequences of such a change would lead to the emergence of Islamic states where ijtihād could ensure appropriate laws were made to deal with contemporary issues with their constitution based on the Qur’an, the Sunnah and a slimmed down Shari‘ah. Sadly, this vision was to be rejected by Pakistan.

So, Asad was neither a Traditionalist nor a Modernist. He was both and, perhaps, his position is best described as being in the Community of the Middle Way.

The Shadow of Islam in the Enlightenment Discourse of Oriental Despotism

Garry W. Trompf — 2024-04-04

Within the history of Orientalizing texts of Western literature and scholarship, it repays to reconsider the first European monograph on “Oriental Despotism,” by Nicolas Antoine Boulanger (1722–59). This article attempts to establish that Boulanger’s text, which is basically about how the world’s religions become distorted by the worship or over-veneration of monarchical rulers, usefully points backwards and forwards to the way modern Western thinkers (Isaac Newton, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Georg Hegel, etc.) have connected Islam to rules by decadent potentates, and to oppressive political control and tyranny.

Ramadan, Lived Religion, and the Celebration of Ambiguity

Laura Jones — 2024-04-04

In this paper, I demonstrate how the lived practice of Ramadan in the UK signifies a tolerance and celebration of ambiguity in everyday life. I position my work against Bauer’s (2021) argument that Muslims have become increasingly unaccepting of ambiguity and that this “intolerance of ambiguity in modern Islam is a phenomenon of modernity” (29). Rather, my participants tolerated seemingly contradictory ideas, embracing subjectivity and contrasting a post-Enlightenment emphasis on certainty and objective truth.
I demonstrate these subjective and ambiguous attitudes and practices through several examples. Firstly, participants displayed an ambiguous approach to sacred times. This is explored in the context of variant methods of moonsighting – to determine the start and end of Islamic months – and the perceived unknowability of one of the most sacred times of the year, Laylatu-l-qadr (The Night of Power). Secondly, participants expressed paradoxical attitudes towards food, simultaneously shunning and rejoicing in bodily desires.

My paper contributes to several contemporary understandings of Islam – including the works of Thomas Bauer (2021) and Shahab Ahmed (2016) – which tend towards the idea that Muslims today have become increasingly intolerant of ambiguity and subjectivity instead adopting more rigid and binary positions. I contrast such arguments, displaying particularly how the everyday, often domestic, practice of Islam is more nuanced and complex than public discourses might reveal. Furthermore, I argue that studies of everyday, mundane aspects of religion are vital in illuminating our understanding of Islam in the modern world.

Shaped by the pantheistic ideology of the founders, Türkiye has used its national education curriculum as an instrument of social engineering

Ismail Haskara — 2024-04-04

Despite centuries of conservative ideology inspired by Islam, the rapid economic development and consecutive millitary victories of the West had caused within the ranks of the Ottoman elite an inferiority complex generating a wave of admiration resulting in the emulation of European values. Emerging with reinforced positivist doctrines after being deeply influenced by the French revolution, this admiration turned into an irreligious political ideology creating a decentralizing effect on the ruling sultanate of the Ottoman state. After the Republic was founded in 1923, the Kemalist state ideology was imposed onto Turkish society in the form of an aggregation of materialism, social Darwinism, positivism, secularism, and Turkish nationalism. To socially engineer a modern, secular, temporal and materially prosperous nation, this ideology would in most ways carry manifestations of the very character and lifestyles of the Republic’s founders. To maintain this ideology, assertive secularism was adopted as a security measure to prevent both the re-emergence of Islamic conservatism and any other nationalist or political ideology. While the visual aspects of Islamic society were transformed into a uniform Western society through mandatory reforms, the intellectual shift from East to West was realised by means of social engineering and religious inculturation through the education curriculum. This article will portray how the founders’ belligerent belief towards Eastern-Islamic tradition motivated them towards a new Western looking secular order and how these ideas have been imposed through school textbooks.