Sunday, June 22, 2008

[vinnomot] Fw: Review: Jihad for peace

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Sent: Saturday, 21 June, 2008 4:56:26 PM
Subject: Review: Jihad for peace

Review: Jihad for peace

Kamila Shamsie enjoys Ayesha Jalal's study of Islam and politics in south Asia, Partisans of Allah

Saturday June 21, 2008
The Guardian

Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia
by Ayesha Jalal
400pp, Harvard, £19.95

We are four-fifths of the way into Partisans of Allah before we come to events in recent history, and even then Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida merit only passing mention. This is not a book that takes the view that the war on terror must be placed squarely at the forefront when considering jihad. Instead, Ayesha Jalal chronicles the shifting discourse on jihad in south Asia over three centuries - placing poets, politicians, educationalists, mystics and warriors all within the frame. Central to Jalal's work is the belief that most writing about jihad post-9/11 has contributed to a one-dimensional view of a concept "that historically has been deployed to justify peace with nonbelievers quite as often as it has been to justify war".

While discussion of Islam tends to focus on the Arab world, Jalal makes a compelling case for paying attention to south Asia, where a Muslim minority has had a long and complex relationship with other communities - each period of history seeing a shift in ideas of jihad. While Muslim rulers held sway in India, the Wajudi view was in the ascendant, stressing the unity of creation and encouraging interaction with non-Muslims. But as Muslim rule faltered, than collapsed entirely, other voices clamoured for attention.

One thing that Partisans of Allah makes clear is that religious discourse within Islam fluctuates widely, and is entwined with geopolitics. During colonial rule, in the post-1857 period, discussion of jihad was shaped around the need for Indian Muslims to prove their status as loyal citizens. Significant attention was paid to the injunction that it could only be fought when Muslims were prevented from freely practising their religion. But in the 20th century's early years, jihad was redefined to take its place within anti-colonial nationalism. The two leading figures who took up its banner during this period were vastly different: Abul Kalam Azad was a member of Gandhi and Nehru's secular Indian National Congress, while Maulana Mawdudi was the founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami, which went on to play an important role in Pakistan's political history.

It's particularly fascinating to read how Mawdudi's hardline ideas developed from his notion that Islam had been maligned as a "religion of the sword" by an increasingly influential and militaristic western world which controlled the production of knowledge. Those who view him as just a step or two away from the militants of today miss one crucial distinction - Mawdudi believed it was the duty of the state, not the individual, to declare jihad. The interpretation of contemporary radicals, in declaring it a matter of individual conscience, is "without parallel in the Islamic tradition". But the drawback of a book with such a wide scope is the limited opportunity for delving deeply into any one character - it settles instead for a broader but shallower look at a number of key players.

Partisans of Allah is a dense read, and it certainly helps to have some background in south Asian history and Islamic thought before embarking on it. But while it has some frustrating omissions and elisions, it remains an erudite and thought-provoking study of the interplay of religion and politics, with some particularly interesting things to say about the history of south Asian Muslims' focus on the "outer husk" of religion, often to the detriment of "inner faith".

· Kamila Shamsie's most recent novel is Broken Verses (Bloomsbury)

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