Blindspot!
From Issue: 987 [Read full issue]
Religious Authority
The highly politicized nature of the role of the "Islamic tradition" is rooted in a post-colonial historical and social context. Many Muslim scholars see the colonial experience and loss of empire as a punishment for Muslims. Muslims lost God's favour because they had gone astray, neglecting their religious duties. Some Muslim scholars have called for a return to a pre-colonial Islam in order to reconnect with God and to restore the glory of Muslims past by reclaiming their political sovereignty. As the myth of an uncorrupted, pristine pre-colonial past began to emerge, the "Islamic tradition"—which came to mean the legal and exegetical disciplines—took on an overblown authoritative status. The details of the Islamic tradition that scholars spoke of and continue to speak of are necessarily hazy and unfocused. The authority of this tradition is disconnected from its content. The myth of a pure Islamic tradition projects back expectations of what post-colonial scholars hope for from the Islamic tradition; it is not about actually adhering to this tradition. In this context, authority in Muslim communities is often granted to those whose voices seem rooted in the "Islamic tradition."
Meanwhile, scholars who offer new and innovative religious approaches lose religious authority on two counts: by cutting themselves off from the authoritative tradition and by appearing to be influenced by modernity, which is Western and therefore presumptively colonial. For a large portion of the Muslim world, the traumatic experience of colonialism and loss of empire after a glorious history of global expansion and leadership coincided with their encounter with modernity and enlightenment. Modern ideals and ideas thus came to represent the degrading and humiliating experience of colonialism. Moreover, since colonialists disingenuously justified their economic, political, and military conquests through the language of women's emancipation, feminism is often viewed by Muslims as part of a dangerous colonialist or neo-colonialist agenda. In this political context, calls for feminism and gender-egalitarianism can be tantamount to betraying one's community and collaborating with colonialists.
Compiled From:
"Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition" - Ayesha S. Chaudhry