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| Irfan Ahmad 01 August 2006 - 30 September 2008 Irfan Ahmad (Ph.D. University of Amsterdam, 2005) was Affiliated Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden (1 March 2006 - 1 June 2006). In 2006, he was awarded the Rubicon Grant by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to pursue his postdoctoral research. Along with his academic research, he also contributes to debates about Islam, social movements and contemporary South Asia in popular media. Contesting Islamism: Immanent Critique of Jamaat e-Islami of India This study deals with internal criticism by different Islamic organizations of the Jamaat-e-Islami (hereafter Jamaat), an Islamist movement founded by Maududi in India in 1941. Its objective is to examine the contention that Islam is hostile to criticism and debate. The hypothesis has two propositions. First, criticism constitutes a cardinal feature of modern Islam. Second, practices of critique are so fundamental that the invoking of ‘true’ Islam by different Islamic organizations to critique the Jamaat leads to the near dissolution of a unified, stable category called Islam. To meet the above objective, the study will analyze the critique of the Jamaat by Islamic organizations/sects such as the Deoband, the Ahl-e-sunnat-wa Jamaat, the Ahl-e-hadis as well as by former Jamaat members. In so doing, Irfan Ahmad will focus on four foundational tenets of Jamaat’s ideology: notion of ‘true’ Islam, centrality of State, characterization of India as ‘land of disbelief (darul kufr)’ and women’s role in public arena. This study draws on and extends the Ph.D. thesis on the Jamaat, From Islamism to Post-Islamism: The Transformation of the Jamaat-e-Islami in North India (Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam, 2005). The postdoctoral research will be based on a combination of archival and ethnographic data. Selected Publications (Forthcoming 2009). ‘Genealogy of the Islamic State: Reflections on Maududi’s Political Thought and Islamism’. Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute. (Forthcoming 2009). ‘The Jamaat-e-Islami Comes to Terms with Secular India’. In. Barbara D. Metcalf (ed.). Islam in Practice in South Asia. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (2008). ‘Power, Purity and the Vanguard: Educational Ideology of the Jamaat-e-Islami of India’. In. Jamal Malik (ed.). Madrasas in South Asia: Teaching Terror? London: Routledge: 142-164. (2008). ‘“Cracks in the ‘Mightiest Fortress’: Jamaat-e-Islami’s Changing Discourse on Women”. Modern Asian Studies. 42 (2&3): 549-576. (2006). ‘The State in Islamist Thought’. ISIM Review 18 (autumn): 12-13. Reproduced in WLUML Dossier 28 (December 2006): 35-39. (2005). ‘Between Moderation and Radicalization: Transnational Interactions of Jamaat-e-Islami of India’. Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs. 5(3): 279-299. (2004). ‘The Jewish Hand: The Response of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind’. In. Peter Van der Veer and Shoma Munshi (eds) Media, War and Terrorism: Responses from the Middle East and Asia. London and New York: Routledge Curzon: 137-154. |
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