Beyond the Global Mufti: Religious Authority as Political Action
The International Union of Muslim Scholars, headquartered in Qatar, is an organisation of Muslim jurists founded in 2004 by Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and led today by Aḥmad al-Raysūnī. Despite its importance in the current religious-political discourse in the Muslim world and beyond, this organisation recei...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2022-01-01
|
| Series: | Religions |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/2/100 |
| _version_ | 1797476864230424576 |
|---|---|
| author | Abdessamad Belhaj |
| author_facet | Abdessamad Belhaj |
| author_sort | Abdessamad Belhaj |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The International Union of Muslim Scholars, headquartered in Qatar, is an organisation of Muslim jurists founded in 2004 by Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and led today by Aḥmad al-Raysūnī. Despite its importance in the current religious-political discourse in the Muslim world and beyond, this organisation received little attention from scholars, and no study to date has been dedicated to examine its claims and practices of authority. The central thesis of this paper is that the jurists of IUMS are religious and political authorities who: 1. embrace a wide range of “<i>umma</i>” issues, which allow IUMS to appear as the “authentic” and “autonomous” “guardian” of Islam; 2. play a role in international relations (ranging from Chad to China) as “supporters” of particular political actions; 3. negotiate a new type of religious authority embodied by the scholar-activist who emerged as a reaction to the deep religious and political transformations in the Sunni world. To conduct this case study, I approached IUMS from the perspective of sociology of religion (with a focus on the problem of authority) and relied on qualitative methods of analysis (contextualisation, descriptive discourse analysis, in particular), inspecting the local context of IUMS in Qatar as well the global context of <i>umma</i> politics, and using Arabic sources available on its website. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T21:09:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1730455566a44fc3803ce0c4673cb510 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T21:09:49Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj.art-1730455566a44fc3803ce0c4673cb5102023-11-23T21:51:09ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442022-01-0113210010.3390/rel13020100Beyond the Global Mufti: Religious Authority as Political ActionAbdessamad Belhaj0Religion and Society Research Institute, University of Public Service, 1083 Budapest, HungaryThe International Union of Muslim Scholars, headquartered in Qatar, is an organisation of Muslim jurists founded in 2004 by Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and led today by Aḥmad al-Raysūnī. Despite its importance in the current religious-political discourse in the Muslim world and beyond, this organisation received little attention from scholars, and no study to date has been dedicated to examine its claims and practices of authority. The central thesis of this paper is that the jurists of IUMS are religious and political authorities who: 1. embrace a wide range of “<i>umma</i>” issues, which allow IUMS to appear as the “authentic” and “autonomous” “guardian” of Islam; 2. play a role in international relations (ranging from Chad to China) as “supporters” of particular political actions; 3. negotiate a new type of religious authority embodied by the scholar-activist who emerged as a reaction to the deep religious and political transformations in the Sunni world. To conduct this case study, I approached IUMS from the perspective of sociology of religion (with a focus on the problem of authority) and relied on qualitative methods of analysis (contextualisation, descriptive discourse analysis, in particular), inspecting the local context of IUMS in Qatar as well the global context of <i>umma</i> politics, and using Arabic sources available on its website.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/2/100The International Union of Muslim Scholars<i>‘ulamā’</i><i>umma</i>authoritylegitimacy |
| spellingShingle | Abdessamad Belhaj Beyond the Global Mufti: Religious Authority as Political Action Religions The International Union of Muslim Scholars <i>‘ulamā’</i> <i>umma</i> authority legitimacy |
| title | Beyond the Global Mufti: Religious Authority as Political Action |
| title_full | Beyond the Global Mufti: Religious Authority as Political Action |
| title_fullStr | Beyond the Global Mufti: Religious Authority as Political Action |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beyond the Global Mufti: Religious Authority as Political Action |
| title_short | Beyond the Global Mufti: Religious Authority as Political Action |
| title_sort | beyond the global mufti religious authority as political action |
| topic | The International Union of Muslim Scholars <i>‘ulamā’</i> <i>umma</i> authority legitimacy |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/2/100 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT abdessamadbelhaj beyondtheglobalmuftireligiousauthorityaspoliticalaction |