Swat in the eye of the storm: Interview with Akbar Ahmed

Posted on October 2nd, 2009 by martijn.
Categories: Important Publications, International Terrorism.

The new issue of Anthropology Today is out. This issue features an interview with Akbar Ahmad, who holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at the American University in Washington, DC, and was the first Chair of Middle East/Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy. His new book is Journey into America: The challenge of Islam, Brookings Institution Press (2010 forthcoming). He has just completed the film Journey into America, an anthropological study of American identity as seen through the eyes of Americans – both Muslim and non-Muslim (for a review see pp. 23–24 of this issue).

In this interview, Akbar Ahmed looks at the latest developments among the Swat Pathan, a people who have been the subject of classic ethnographies in anthropology for many years, but who are now at the centre of a bigger battle for control of this key geo-political region. What, if anything, can anthropologists contribute to understand and ameliorate the conflicts that rage in this region?

You can download the whole article for free:
Swat in the eye of the storm: Interview with Akbar Ahmed

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A Purist Jihadi-Salafi: The Ideology of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi

Posted on October 2nd, 2009 by martijn.
Categories: Important Publications, ISIM/RU Research.

In the past I have written about Abu Muhammad al-Maqddisi here before. My colleague Joas Wagemakers is writing a PhD thesis about him and his work. Recently he has published a very interesting article about the three major themes in his work: al-wala’ wa-l-bara’, kufr and jihad:

Abstract
This article deals with the prominent contemporary Jihadi-Salafi ideologue Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi. In what follows, three major tenets of his ideology (al-walamacr? wa-l-baramacr?, kufr and jihad) are discussed. These concepts show that al-Maqdisi more or less transcends the boundaries of Quintan Wiktorowicz’s division of Salafis into purists, politicos and jihadis. I contend that al-Maqdisi is relatively close to purist Salafism and can thus be seen as a ‘purist Jihadi-Salafi’. This implies that his ideas may resonate more easily with purists than the rhetoric of the likes of Osama bin Laden. At the same time, jihadis may take him more seriously because of his religious authority based on his close adherence to the purist creed. Although this article does not focus on explaining al-Maqdisi’s popularity, it seems obvious that his specific combination of purist and jihadi Salafism may account for at least some of his standing among Salafis.

A Purist Jihadi-Salafi: The Ideology of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi – British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Author: Joas Wagemakers –
DOI: 10.1080/13530190903007327
Publication Frequency: 3 issues per year
Published in: journal British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 36, Issue 2 August 2009 , pages 281 – 297

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