Review of Nur Amali Ibrahim, Improvisational Islam: Indonesian Youth in a Time of Possibility .

The American prophetic tradition and social justice activism among Muslims in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Abstract This article responds to recent research calling for more nuanced discussions of Muslim political and social activist subjectivities (Ahmed 2011; Maira 2016; Mansouri et al. 2016; Nagel and Staeheli 2011). We analyze community and social justice activism among Muslims in Milwaukee through the lens of the American prophetic tradition. We argue that Muslim leaders in Milwaukee represent their activism as part of this tradition, and that they draw upon a complex of religious, social and political discourses and social practices. These include American civil rights activism, Islamically inspired social action, and a desire to engage in placemaking that responds to the specific conditions of Milwaukee, a city that features intense racial segregation, dense pockets of poverty, and increased immigration from the Arabo-Islamic world. Thus, we see a pluralization of Muslim social activist subjectivity: social justice activism which is religiously based, related to the civil rights tradition, and which is also highly attuned to the specific ways in which Muslims may practice a politics of belonging in this Midwestern city.

Marriage “s haria style ”: everyday practices of Islamic morality in England Abstract The growing visibility of Islam in the public spaces of Western societies is often interpreted in the media as a sign of Muslim radicalisation. This article questions this postulate by examining the flourishing Muslim marriage industry in the UK. It argues that these ‘halal’ services, increasingly popular among the young generation of British Muslims, reflect the semantic shifting of categories away from the repertoire of Islamic jurisprudence to cultural and identity labels visible in public space. Informed by long-term ethnographic fieldwork in the British field of Islamic law, this article examines a Muslim speed-dating event, which took place in central London in 2013. It investigates how Islamic morality is maintained and negotiated in everyday social interactions rather than cultivated via discipline and the pursuit of virtuous dispositions. Using Goffman’s “frame analysis” and his interpretation of the social as a space of “performances” as well as recent anthropological reflections on “ordinary ethics” (Lambek) and “everyday Islam” (Schielke, Osella and Soares), it examines the potential for such practices to define the contours of a new public culture where difference is celebrated as a form of distinction.

Digitalizing Islamic lectures: Islamic apps and religious engagement in contemporary Indonesia Abstract Contemporary mobile phone technology has brought millions of apps into the pockets of users, including a wide variety oriented towards religious concerns. Such apps appear to be creating new forms of religious engagement, a process that is particularly visible within Indonesia. This paper will examine the so-called ‘Aa Gym’ app, one of the Islamic apps launched by the Indonesian popular preacher, Abdullah Gymnastiar, an early adopter of mobile technology for religious purposes. The paper argues that the Aa Gym app illustrates how the mediatization of religion inherent in mobile technologies is reshaping the way that Indonesians engage with Islamic teachings. First, ‘Aa Gym’ app has created new forms of religious engagement through an extension of religious interaction and communication in a media landscape. Second, ‘Aa Gym’ app has described that media has become a new site for the discovery of religious meanings as a result of the spread of religious authority. Thirdly, ‘Aa Gym’ app is a kind of embodiment of accommodation of media logic performed by the religious figure in order to remain accessible to the public which is increasingly media-saturated.

Reviving “A forgotten Sunna:” Hijamah (cupping therapy), prophetic medicine, and the re-Islamization of Unani medicine in contemporary India Abstract Officially recognized as an Indigenous System of Medicine in India, Unani has been intimately connected to Muslim culture in South Asia. However, this connection has been downplayed by the government of India, which stressed the secular character of Unani and its Greek origins. Hijamah, or cupping therapy, is considered to be part of the regimental therapies of Unani medicine. Because hijamah has been mentioned in several Hadiths, it is also considered prophetic medicine. After what seems to be a long neglect of hijamah in the practice of Unani medicine, various hakims (Unani practitioners) are now promoting this therapy as a “forgotten Sunna.” This paper attends to the revival of hijamah in India at the intersections of Unani and prophetic medicine through an examination of clinical practices and advertisements. It argues that this revival is contributing to a re-Islamization of Unani medicine. The article suggests that this development is not just the product of an interest among Muslims in India to live according to the Sunna, but it is also influenced by the global market of Complementary and Alternative Medicine which the government of India seeks to lead.

Reading and remembering Saba Mahmood: Islam, ethics, and the hermeneutics of tradition Abstract Saba Mahmood's untimely passing on March 10, 2018 was a tragic loss for family, friends, and colleagues, as well as for cultural anthropologists inspired by her scholarship over the past two decades. Her influence has been no less far-reaching in contemporary Islamic and gender studies, as well as the anthropology of ethics. It is against the backdrop of her legacy that this essay seeks to pay homage to and critically reflect on Mahmood's scholarship. It focuses on and assesses Mahmood's contributions as an anthropologist of Islam, subjectivity, and ethics, paying particular attention to the debates that have emerged in the wake of her scholarship on the ethics of piety, the ambivalent nature of subjectivity, and the meanings of freedom and tradition. The assessment suggests that there is an unresolved tension between Mahmood's experience-near reflections on the ethical care of the pious self, on one hand, and her more sweeping critiques of freedom and the liberal project. The essay concludes with some thoughts on where the anthropology of Islam is moving with regard to ethics, plurality, and the ambivalence of subjectivity.

Common sense is not so common: integration and perceptions of ‘traditional Islam’ in Russia’s Volga-Ural region Abstract To what extent does the official state rhetoric about ‘traditional Islam’ reflect the lay understanding of the concept by practicing Muslims in Russia’s Volga-Ural region? Research and commentaries on contemporary Islam in Russia show that ‘traditional Islam’ in the country has lately become a contentious term with state officials, intellectuals, Muslim clergy, general public, and most importantly local and migrant practicing Muslims emphasizing different senses of the concept (Benussi 2018a, Di Puppo 2018a, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 27(1), 99–104, 2018b, Di Puppo and Schmoller 2019). Yet few studies attempt to examine the reason why some Muslims endorse state-approved interpretations of ‘traditional Islam’ while others consciously assess the term and express their religious beliefs and practices differently. This article aims to contribute to this lacuna in the literature. I advance the argument that the meaning of ‘traditional Islam’ for many practicing Muslims residing in Russia depends on the level of (social) integration of those believers into society. Socially well-integrated individuals often take special care to ensure that long-established local customs and lifestyles are preserved and reflected in their religious practices. Less-integrated and marginalized individuals commonly tend to refer to stereotypical essentialist narrative that often disavow time-honored local ancestral beliefs and cultural practices and largely disregard the authority of the local established clergy. While the first category of believers and religious communities that they form enjoy support of the state, individuals with “divergent” thinking patterns are often limited in their ability to act as a group and are further cut off from the public sphere. In a qualitative analysis of several Muslim communities in the Republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia, employing interview and ethnographic methods, I examine perspectives of practicing Muslims on the notion of “traditional Islam” and contrast them with the secular rhetoric of state officials. Most interviewees agree that Islam as a religion satisfies a desire which the material world leaves unfulfilled. However, they disagree on how ‘traditional Islam’ reflects culture, values and history.

Living a piety-led life beyond Muharram: becoming or being a South Asian Shia Muslim in the UK Abstract Reformist British South Asian Twelver Shia Muslims emphasise practising Shia Islam in daily life beyond the month of Muharram by living a piety-led life; they encourage their followers to ‘become’ a Shia Muslim rather than just ‘being’ one. The reformist British South Asian Shia ulama, mostly trained in Shia seminaries based in Qom and Najaf, advocate the adoption of an Islamic life-style compatible with the economic, political and social challenges British Muslims face. Many British South Asian Shia Muslims view these piety narratives with contempt. They consider that the narratives on living a piety-led life privilege Islamic lifestyle like praying and reciting the Qur’an daily over Muharram ritual commemorations. These Shia Muslims see the growing popularity of piety-narrative as an apologetic response by Shia reformists to the growing influence of Salafis and the Tablighi Jamaat in Sunni Muslim public spheres. This paper is based on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork among British South Asian Twelver Shia Muslims in London, Birmingham and Bradford. The centrality of commemorating Muharram rituals in Shia Islam becomes contested when reformist Shia Muslims extend the piety-led lifestyle beyond the month of Muharram. This article revisits the anthropological lens of iltizam (commitment) in available studies on piety among Muslim communities. Thus, iltizam for the reformists and religiously upwardly mobile Shia Muslims means subscribing to a globally standardised interpretation of practising Shia Islam that compliments the aspirations of Iran-based Shia religious establishment. For other Shia Muslims, iltizam with Shia Islam is in (i) reenacting the continuity of South Asian ways of commemorating Muharram ritual in Britain and, (ii) opposing the Wahhabi trends in Shia Islam that are endorsed and encouraged by reformist British South Asian Shia Muslims.

Review of Julie McBrien, From Belonging to Belief: Modern Secularisms and the Construction of Religion in Kyrgyzstan .

“What good are all these divisions in Islam?”. Everyday Islam and normative discourses in Daghestan Abstract Republic of Daghestan is the most multiethnic and troublesome region in the Russian Federation. The social, religious and political landscape of this republic has radically changed over the last two decades. Daghestan appears in academic and analytical papers mostly in relation to terrorism or security issues. The everyday religiosity is, for the most part, out of the picture. This paper aims to fill the gap by focusing on everyday Islam in this republic. It is intended as a contribution to the anthropology of Islam and post-Soviet area studies. What can we learn about the social changes in the given setting if we re-focus our attention from religious figures, organizations and institutions and drift towards the everyday perceptions and experiences of ordinary Muslims, towards religiosity as embedded in everyday life but not within a clearly identifiable group? Religious life in Daghestan is usually viewed through official categories of “traditional Islam” and “non-traditional Islam”, the former equated with “Sufism”, the latter with “Wahhabism”. As will be clear from this paper these theology driven qualifiers are usually used in a secular sense, with no clear religious content attached to them. However, as a part of powerful discourses they affect religious life of ordinary Muslims. How do they relate to these categories? In my paper I show how attitudes towards Salafi-oriented Muslims changed in Daghestan between 2007 and 2017: they drifted from being informed by official categories to being informed by everyday experiences. I will also show how and in what contexts Daghestani Muslims engaged and played with the categories, bringing in some comparisons with late-Socialism. Eventually, I will engage with the concept of “everyday Islam”, its potentials and limitations as an analytical category used for the analysis of social life in the North Caucasus where an organized religious and political activity is limited and where the clearly identifiable groups are not those that are behind the most vital social changes. The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2007 and 2017 among Daghestani Muslims in Makhachkala and beyond.