A genealogy of moderate Islam : a critical examination of the wasatiyya movement -

Abstract

Reform in the Muslim world, Islam and modernity and the politics of Islamic movements are increasingly being debated in discussed especially in the post Arab Spring context. Much of the more recent and critical literature produced has dealt with the idea of “moderate Islam” as a U.S.-backed program of religion-building and the ways in which the desire to create a modern Muslim subject is intertwined with the generative powers of the Secular State. However, little has been written about the ways in which the idea of a moderate Muslim subject was debated within the Muslim world. This thesis seeks to contribute to this burgeoning body of literature through a critical intervention and examine the genealogy of wasaṭiyya – or Islamic centrism. What did a ‘moderate’ Muslim or movement mean for Muslim scholars and thinkers? To explore the genealogy of this concept, this thesis will cover a wide historical period, beginning with premodern scholars like Shāfi'ī (d 820) to modern scholars like the Egyptian jurist Yusuf al-Qaradawi. In explicating the differing moral vocabulary, problem-space and historical imagination(s) that informed the genealogy of wasaṭiyya, this thesis will demonstrate that the concept is a modern neologism and critically engage with the politics which the wasaṭiyya movement reproduces.