Transcript Chapter 15 powerpoint

(10.1) Chapter 15
Modern Challenges: Imperialism and
Response
The main features and effects of Western
imperialism;
Traditionalism, modernism,secularism,
and Islamism as responses, illustrated
especially from India and Pakistan.
“The fundamental malaise of modern Islam is a
sense that something has gone wrong with
Islamic history. The fundamental problem of
modern Muslims is how to rehabilitate that
history: to set it going again in full vigour, so
that Islamic society may once again flourish as a
divinely-guided society should and must. The
fundamental spiritual crisis of Islam in the
twentieth century stems from an awareness that
something is awry between the religion which
God has appointed and the historical
development of the world which He controls.”
(Smith 47)
“You are the best umma ever brought forth to
humankind, enjoining right conduct, forbidding
indecency and having faith in God” (Qur’an 3.110)
“Power and glory belong to God and to His
Messenger and to the believers” (Qur’an 63:8).
Until c. 1600 the pre-eminence promised by these
verses was visible.
• Muslim arms were usually victorious, their
political systems stronger and their cultures
more impressive
• The Europeans learned from the Musims
Since c. 1700 the promised pre-eminence cannot
be seen.
• Western arms are usually victorious, their
political systems stronger and their cultures
more impressive
• The Muslims learn from the Europeans
Sometimes referred to as the “great reversal”
How has this happened?
• Internal weakness
• Assault (ghazwa) from outside, viz. Western
Imperialism
Internal weakness (corruption, superstition, division,
weak faith)
• Responses: pre-modern reform movements, esp.:
• Wahhabis (Muwaḥḥidūn, controlled Mecca 18031818):
• Strict interpretation of Qur’an and Sunna,
• Ijtihad
• Opposed bid‘a, (esp. Sufi practice)
• Shah Waliullah (1701-1762):
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Sufi but opposed “non-Islamic” practices,
Ijtihad,
Economic reforms,
Heal divisions in umma
• Neither was responding to the West, but both
influenced those who later would
• The decline they experienced could be seen as a
cyclical phenomenon, had happened before
Western Imperialism
• Political/Military
• Economic
• Cultural
Political
• Beginnings of European intrusion: 17c-18c, e.g.:
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1699 Treaty of Carlowitz
1774 Ottomans lose Crimea to Russia
1798-1801 French in Egypt
1757- British play increasing role in India
• Europeans dominate most of the Muslim world 19c–
early 20c. e.g.:
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c1818 British firmly establish rule in India
1825-1910 Dutch establish control of Indonesia
Ottoman retreat before Russia, in Balkans
1830- French in North Africa; 1882- British occupy
Egypt
▫ After WW1, British/French mandates in parts of Arab
world
• European Retreat:
▫ 1920-60s Most Muslim countries gain formal
independence
▫ 1991 Ex-Soviet Muslim republics gain formal
independence
• But: Continued European presence/influence
▫ State of Israel founded in 1948
▫ 1990s-2000s Western intervention in Bosnia, Iraq,
Afghanistan
Economic
• Practical integration in the World –wide
(Western) system
• Egypt, Ottoman empire, Iran cannot pay debts,
lose some control of their tariffs, etc.
• Cash crops (e.g. Egyptian cotton) for European
manufacture
• Oil for Western industry, transport
▫ 1970s Oil exporters get a better deal, but within
the Western system
Cultural
• Technology: military, industrial, medical, public health,
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Administrative methods
Education
Printing, newspapers, mass media
Clothes
Turban>fez>hat; unveiling
Entertainment
New professions: journalists, lawyers, engineers, doctors
New classes: “effendis”
• Ideological justifications:
▫ Spreading “civilization”
▫ Myth/doctrine of progress
Three faces of social change in modern times:
Modernization / development:
• Technological development: better food, roads,
medicine, radios etc; i.e. increasing control over the
physical environment
• Social development, education, government
• Attitudes that support these: e.g. belief in progress,
openness to change; work ethic, punctuality
Westernization:
• Commonly seen as involving the same things, since
they come from the West, along with clothing styles,
fashions in entertainment, etc.
• Some say simply: modernization is Westernization.
Secularization:
• Effort to run most areas of society by
criteria/values drawn from human reason and
experience rather than divine revelation or
religious tradition
• Involves separation of religion from other areas
of life or control of religion by secular society
• Seen by many as necessary for modernization
• (assumes religion is a conservative force)
But today many Muslims would deny the
Westernization and (even more) secularization
are necessary for modernization and
development.
The “great reversal” as reflected two views of the “other”
"The peoples of the north are those for whom the sun is
distant from the Zenith.... cold and damp prevail in those
regions, and snow and ice follow one another in endless
succession. The warm humour is lacking among them;
their bodies are large, their natures gross, their manners
harsh, their understanding dull and their tongues
heavy.... their religious beliefs lack solidity.... those of
them who are farthest to the north are the most subject
to stupidity, grossness and brutishness." (Ali al-Mas'udi, d.
956 C.E., quoted by B. Lewis).
"Everyone . . . sees clearly the current inferiority of the
Muslim countries, the decadence of the states governed
by Islam, the intellectual incapacity of the races that
draw solely from this religion their culture and education
. . .” (E. Renan,1882, quoted by Hourani 120)
Why has God permitted the weakness of the
divinely favoured community?
• Inscrutability of God
• Punishment for sins
• Test of faith
• Challenge to action
• “God does not change the situation of a people
until they change what is within themselves.”(Qur’an
13:11)
• Responses: Apologetic
• Much Western science was derived from Islam
• Christianity is irrational, does not give social
guidance, church became oppressive
• Separation of religion from society was necessary
for Christians, but the price was moral decline and
materialism.
• Islam, correctly understood, is rational and has
God’s guidance for society, so religion and society
need not/should not be separated
• Thus Islam can provide all that is good in modern
civilization without the moral corruption.
• If Muslims understand this and act.
• Responses in action:
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Compliance
Resistance, violent or non-violent
Reform, “top down” or “bottom up”;
Revolution
• Ideological orientations for these
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Traditionalism/Neo-traditionalism
Islamic Modernism
Secularism
Islamism
Traditionalism/Neo-traditionalism
• Continuity with the past
• Reject change/seek gradual change
• Adhere to the form of Islam of their time and
place/or oppose it in “fundamentalist” ways (e.g. Ibn
Taymiyya, Wahhabis)
• Resistance to, or compliance/cooperation (unwilling
or willing) with imperialism/West
• Inclined to reject, where possible, Western ideas
practices or subject them to strict test. Not inclined
to major reform.
• Less likely to see imperialism as a “theological”
problem
• Examples: most Sufis and ‘ulamā’ in 19c, early
Saudis in 20c, Taleban (at first)
Neo-traditionalism (as above but):
• More open to change and western ways,
especially material technology,
• Limited ijtihād
• Concern for continuity with past may be more
self conscious
• Examples: most Sufis and ‘ulamā’ in 21c,
Nahdltul Ulama in Indonesia, many Saudis
(today), Khomeini, Taleban (today?)
Islamic Modernism
• A significant rethinking of Islamic belief and
practice (not the basics) is needed, leading to
major reforms of Muslim societies
• This involves going back to the Qur’an and
Sunna and eliminating destructive bid‘a (e.g.
superstitions, tyrannical government)
• Islamic standards should be applied to all of life,
including government.
• Absolute ijtihād must replace taqlīd; may be
done by others than ‘ulamā’.
Islamic Modernism ctd
• Many Western ideas and practices are consistent
with Islam and may or should be adopted and
adapted.
• Some Western ideologies can be adapted to Islam,
e.g Islamic socialism , Islamic democracy.
• Islamic analogues to Western institutions will be
sought (e.g. shūrā)
• Some Western ideas and practice must be avoided:
e.g. irreligion, racism, alcohol, sexual immorality,
economic injustice.
• Usually concerned for Islamic unity, Pan Islam.
• Examples: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad
‘Abduh, Muhammad Iqbal, Constitution of Pakistan
Jamal al-Din Asadabadi/“al-Afghani” (1838-97)
• Activist, agitator, Iranian by origin, ranged widely
through the Muslim world and beyond
• Charismatic, not a systematic thinker
• Saw Europe and especially Great Britain as a
danger
• Muslims must adopt and develop science and
technology
• Muslims must return to the beliefs and practices
of early Islam and practice ijtihād
• Religion is necessary for society (but was he a
believer?)
• Muslims should unite under a strong ruler
Secularism
• Islam is not to guide government nor most other
areas of social life.
• A secular (Western-derived) ideology replaces it:
usually nationalism along with capitalism,
socialism etc.; in some places communism.
• “Modern civilization” is usually an important
criterion.
• Separation of religion from government is an
ideal for some; but in fact religion is more or less
dominated by government.
Secularism ctd
• Religion as personal faith, and expressed in
some areas of society (e.g. “personal status”), is
usually acceptable, even encouraged.
Communist countries discourage it.
• A generalized Islamic/religious ethic is usually
present and seen as a helpful or necessary
“social glue”.
• Islam is usually an important part of the national
heritage.
• May be concerned for Islamic unity and PanIslam
• E.g. Atatürk in Turkey, Jinnah in Pakistan, most
current Muslim governments.
Islamism (Fundamentalism, radical Islamism)
• A reaction to modernism and secularism.
• Islam and the Sharī‘a must apply to all areas of
life, including government, law, education,
economics, morals.
• Western ideologies, nationalism, socialism,
democracy etc. are man-made substitutes for
God’s way, are shirk.
• Accepting these ideologies is defeatism & kufr.
• Something like them may be accepted if sufficiently
grounded in Islam
• Western derived moral corruption, and all moral
corruption, must be resisted.
Islamism ctd.
• Secularism is thus rejected.
• “Islamic” modernism is secularism with an Islamic
veneer.
• Western material technology, most science (not
Darwinism), some other things are acceptable within
Islamist criteria, e.g. the modern state.
• Absolute ijtihād is necessary to deal with modern
circumstances, but must be rigorously based on the
Qur’an and Sunna.
• Interested in unity transcending ethnic, national and
possibly sectarian but not ideological divisions.
• Examples: Muslim Brothers, Jama‘at-i Islami
(Mawdudi), al-Qaeda; Khomeini, but with some
characteristics of neo-traditionalism
These ideological orientations may be thought of as points
a spectrum based on the degree to which they reject or
insist on Islam as a guide for the whole of society.
Radical Sec–––Sec–––Muslim Sec–––––Isl.Mod––––Islamism–––Rad. Isl’sm
There are a number of possible intermediate positions.
Another spectrum could be based on the degree of
“modernity” (acceptance of modern technology, Western
ideologies and other attitudes) thus:
Sec’sm.–Mod.–Isl’sm-–––––-------------–Neo-Traditionalism–––––------––Traditionalism
Note that all of the orientations in the top group are
modern on this scale.
These ideological orientations relate to views and
attitudes on Islamic law, social change, the West,
Westernization, modernization, development,
secularisation:
They do not correlate closely with such issues as:
form of government, degree of government control
of society, economic system, inclination toward
violence.
e.g. All orientations are capable of violence, although
at present some forms of secularism and Islamism
perhaps more inclined to it than others.
Totalitarianism is possible with all orientations except
traditionalism.
Democracy in some form is conceivable with all;
although Islamists generally reject the term they
may have parliaments, etc.
A trajectory followed by many post-colonial states
• 1st stage: secularism (sometimes aggressive)
dominant among ruling elite; masses tend to be
(neo-) traditionalist.
• 2nd stage: secularism still dominant but with more
of an Islamic hue; secularism and modernism gain
ground at the expense of traditionalism
• 3rd stage (from c 1970): “resurgence of Islam”,
secularism with increasingly Islamic hue still the
governing ideology in most countries, a few are
Islamist; Islamism gains ground at all levels,
especially against secularism. Pure traditionalism
hardly exists.
• Western ways are still attractive; ambivalence
between West as promise and West as threat
continues.
Some reasons for the “resurgence of Islam”:
• West seemed to provide attractive models but wars,
depression, violence, moral decline (drugs, sex etc)
have made it less attractive and also diminished
Western self-confidence.
• In most Muslim countries secularists were always a
small minority and usually found among the elite.
• Secularism is seen by many to have failed,
especially since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
• The political and economic participation of the
masses has increased and they have remained
religious
• Their traditionalism has converted to neotraditionalism, modernism or Islamism.