Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

H i s to r i cal Introduction and Overv i e w 3 5arrested on trumped-up charges of corruption and sexual misconduct, effectivelymoving the political contestation out of the public and into the personalsphere.For many today, however, the example of Muslim politics that most immediatelycomes to mind is that of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Although the imagesof bearded men and burqa-clad women lead some to see the Taliban as aharkening back to the Middle Ages, upon closer investigation, one finds verylittle about them that can be seen as “traditional.” Indeed, many scholars ofreligion characterize “fundamentalism” as a distinctly modern development.Fundamentalism, a particular configuration of ideology and organizationalresources, originated in Protestant Christianity and shares a number of characteristicsacross confessional divisions in the modern period (Almond, Appleby,and Sivan 2003, 14). One group of contemporary scholars has coinedthe term “strong religion” to refer to the shared characteristics of comparativefundamentalisms across different religious traditions ranging from Judaismto Hinduism. These include emphasis on conceptions of “purity,” selectivereadings of their respective religious traditions, and a concern withbolstering the authority of the contemporary guardians of the faith (ibid.,17–21).The immediate origins of the Taliban as an Islamic fundamentalist movementwere in the depressingly modern setting of refugee camps on the Pakistaniborder, which were fertile recruiting grounds for radical Islamists. TheTa l i b a n ’s rise to power involves issues of both modern geopolitics and Muslimpiety, for much of the Ta l i b a n ’s leadership was drawn from the ranks ofthe m u j a h i d i n ( l i t e r a l l y, “those who wage j i h ad” ) who were active inAfghanistan in the 1980s and early 1990s (Maley 2001, 15). The cause of them u j a h i d i n , framed as a battle against the godless forces of an occupying Communistarmy, caught the attention and garnered the support of a number ofparties, including wealthy adventurers like Saudi-born Osama bin Laden.The mujahidin were also actively supported and even armed by the U.S. government(Nojumi 2002, 197) and were hailed in the United States as “freedomfighters” struggling against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Bythe turn of the twenty-first century, however, many of the same individualsengaged in those campaigns had been targeted by the U.S. government asthe world’s most-wanted terrorists (Weaver 2000, 228). The foreign policiesof the United States and other Western powers have been important factorscontributing to the evolution of shifting alliances, revolutionary movements,and repressive regimes in many majority-Muslim countries in recent decades(Esposito 1999, 271). The complex dynamics of such developments are thus,some would argue, as much if not more important than any study of Islamicscripture or medieval Muslim theology for understanding current events inthe Muslim world today.