Dhimmi Citizens: Non-Muslims in the New Islamist Discourse

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Dhimmi Citizens: Non-Muslims in the New Islamist Discourse

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Author(s): Ovamir Anjum

Publication date (Print): Autumn 2016

Journal: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: dhimmis, citizenship, Islamists, Islamic law, Egypt, reformists, Huwaydi, Qaradawi

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Abstract

Accounts of modern Islamic reformist currents offered by recent studies take for granted that Islamists have embraced the modern nation-state, and, relatedly, that there is consequently a rupture in Islamic discursive tradition. This article seeks to nuance these notions by examining “the new Islamist” discourse on the poignant question of non-Muslim belonging in an Islamic state. Not all Islamists have embraced the nation-state and its majoritarian and secular logics in quite the same way. Those who remain committed to making ijtihad from within the Islamic tradition, such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi, continue to offer a fundamentally different view of political authority than those republican Islamists, such as Fahmi Huwaydi and Tariq al-Bishri, who treat Islamic tradition as a mine of wisdom and source of republican values and inspiration rather than a coherent system of norm production. This difference can be detected even when they appear to substantially agree on a number of policies and aspirations, such as the accommodation of non-Muslims as not only tolerated but as nearly equal citizens in an Islamic state.

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Ovamir Anjum

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): reorient

Title: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 20555601

ISSN (Electronic): 2055561X

Publication date (Print): Autumn 2016

Volume: 2

Issue: 1

Pages: 31-50

Affiliations

Imam Khattab Chair of Islamic Studies, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Affiliated Faculty, Department of History, University of Toledo.

Article

Publisher ID: reorient.2.1.0031

DOI: 10.13169/reorient.2.1.0031

SO-VID: 21580b06-19db-4ee3-aa0d-0d78d5b9c365

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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References

Agrama, H. A. (2012) Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Modern Egypt . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Al-Dawoody, Ahmed (2011) The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Anjum, Ovamir (2016a) Political metaphors and concepts in the writings of an eleventh-century Sunni Scholar, Abū al-Ma'ālī al-Juwaynī (419–478/1028–1085). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society . 26 (1–2), 7–18.
Anjum, Ovamir (2016b) Salafis and democracy: Doctrine and context. Muslim World . 106 (3), 448–73.
Asad, Talal (2003) Formations of the Secular . Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Awa, M. S. al- (1987) al-Aqbāṭ wa al-Islām . Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq.
Baker, R. W. (2003) Islam without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bishri, Tariq al- (1998) Bayna al-Jāmiʿa al-Dīniyya wa al-Jāmiʿa al-Waṭaniyya – fī al-mas'alat al-islāmiyya al-muʿāṣira . Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq.
Browers, M. (2016) Rethinking moderation, attending to the liminal. Project on Middle East Political Science . Available at: http://pomeps.org/2016/02/25/rethinking-moderation-attending-to-the-liminal/ (accessed 22 April 2016).
Buṭī, Said Ramadan, al- (2003–04) Commentary on “The Aphorisms of Ibn Ataillah.” Available at: http://www.naseemalsham.com/en/Pages.php?page=readLesson&pg_id=9741&page1=1 (accessed 4 October 2016).
Crane, Robert (2010) The Natural Law of Compassionate Justice . N.p.: Read 1 Communications. Available at: http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/compassionate_justice_part_5/0014051 (accessed 6 May 2016).
Fadel, Mohammad (2016) Islamic law and constitution-making: The authoritarian temptation and the Arab spring. Osgoode Hall Law Journal . 53 (2). Available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2711859 (accessed 9 November 2016).
Ghazali, Muhammad al- (2005) Ḥaqiqat al-Qaymiyya al-ʿArabiyya wa Usṭūrat al-Baʿth al-ʿArabī . Al-Qāhira: Nahḍat Miṣr.
Hallaq, Wael (2012) The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity's Moral Predicament . New York: Columbia University Press.
Huwaydi, F. (2005) Muwāṭinūn la Dhimmiyyūn: Mawqiʿ Ghayr al-Muslimīn fī Mujtamaʿ al-Muslimīn . 4th ed. Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq.
Huwayrīnī, Walīd b. ʿAbd Allāh al- (2013) ʿAṣr al-Islāmiyyīn al-Judud: ru'ya li abʿād al-maʿrika al-fikriyya wa al-siyāsiyya fī ḥuqba al-thawrāt al-ʿarabiyya (The Era of the New Islamists: A perspective on the intellectual and political struggles in the era of the Arab revolutions). n.p.: Dār ʿAlam al-Kutub, 42.
Iqtidar, H. (2011) Secularizing Islamists? Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Urban Pakistan . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Levy-Rubin, Milka (2011) Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MacIntyre, Alasdair (1989) Whose Justice, Which Rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Mahmood, S. (2014) Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report . Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Qaradawi, Y. al- (1977) Ghayr al-Muslimīn fi Mujtamaʿ al-Muslimīn . Cairo: Maktaba Wahba.
Qaradawi, Y. al- (1981) al-Ṣaḥwa al-Islamiyya bayna al-juḥūd wa'l-taṭarruf (Islamic Awakening Between Rejection and Extremism) . Doha: Riyāsat al-Mahākim al-Sharʿiyya wa'l-Sunnah al-Dīniyya fī Dawlat Qatar.
Qaradawi, Y. al- (2004 [1996]) State in Islam: Min fiqh al-dawla fi al-Islām . Al-Falah Foundation. Cairo.
Qaradawi, Y. al- (2006) al-Dīn wa al-Siyāsa . Dublin: Min Iṣdārāt al-Majlis al-Urubbī Li'l-Iftā' wa'l-Buḥūth. Available at: http://www.qaradawi.net/new/Book-3 (accessed 17 May 2016).
Scott, R. (2010) The Challenge of Political Islam: Non-Muslims and the Egyptian State . Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Tritton, A. S. (1930) The Caliphs and their Non-Muslim Subjects: A Critical Study of the Covenant of 'Umar . London: Oxford University Press.
Yack, B. (2001) Popular sovereignty and nationalism. Political Theory . 29 (4), 517–36.

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[1] Agrama, H. A. (2012) Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Modern Egypt . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

[2] Al-Dawoody, Ahmed (2011) The Islamic Law of War: Justifications and Regulations . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[3] Anjum, Ovamir (2016a) Political metaphors and concepts in the writings of an eleventh-century Sunni Scholar, Abū al-Ma'ālī al-Juwaynī (419–478/1028–1085). Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society . 26 (1–2), 7–18.

[4] Anjum, Ovamir (2016b) Salafis and democracy: Doctrine and context. Muslim World . 106 (3), 448–73.

[5] Asad, Talal (2003) Formations of the Secular . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

[6] Awa, M. S. al- (1987) al-Aqbāṭ wa al-Islām . Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq.

[7] Baker, R. W. (2003) Islam without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[8] Bishri, Tariq al- (1998) Bayna al-Jāmiʿa al-Dīniyya wa al-Jāmiʿa al-Waṭaniyya – fī al-mas'alat al-islāmiyya al-muʿāṣira . Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq.

[9] Browers, M. (2016) Rethinking moderation, attending to the liminal. Project on Middle East Political Science . Available at: http://pomeps.org/2016/02/25/rethinking-moderation-attending-to-the-liminal/ (accessed 22 April 2016).

[10] Buṭī, Said Ramadan, al- (2003–04) Commentary on “The Aphorisms of Ibn Ataillah.” Available at: http://www.naseemalsham.com/en/Pages.php?page=readLesson&pg_id=9741&page1=1 (accessed 4 October 2016).

[11] Crane, Robert (2010) The Natural Law of Compassionate Justice . N.p.: Read 1 Communications. Available at: http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/compassionate_justice_part_5/0014051 (accessed 6 May 2016).

[12] Fadel, Mohammad (2016) Islamic law and constitution-making: The authoritarian temptation and the Arab spring. Osgoode Hall Law Journal . 53 (2). Available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2711859 (accessed 9 November 2016).

[13] Ghazali, Muhammad al- (2005) Ḥaqiqat al-Qaymiyya al-ʿArabiyya wa Usṭūrat al-Baʿth al-ʿArabī . Al-Qāhira: Nahḍat Miṣr.

[14] Hallaq, Wael (2012) The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity's Moral Predicament . New York: Columbia University Press.

[15] Huwaydi, F. (2005) Muwāṭinūn la Dhimmiyyūn: Mawqiʿ Ghayr al-Muslimīn fī Mujtamaʿ al-Muslimīn . 4th ed. Cairo: Dār al-Shurūq.

[16] Huwayrīnī, Walīd b. ʿAbd Allāh al- (2013) ʿAṣr al-Islāmiyyīn al-Judud: ru'ya li abʿād al-maʿrika al-fikriyya wa al-siyāsiyya fī ḥuqba al-thawrāt al-ʿarabiyya (The Era of the New Islamists: A perspective on the intellectual and political struggles in the era of the Arab revolutions). n.p.: Dār ʿAlam al-Kutub, 42.

[17] Iqtidar, H. (2011) Secularizing Islamists? Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Urban Pakistan . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

[18] Levy-Rubin, Milka (2011) Non-Muslims in the Early Islamic Empire: From Surrender to Coexistence . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[19] MacIntyre, Alasdair (1989) Whose Justice, Which Rationality? Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.

[20] Mahmood, S. (2014) Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report . Princeton: Princeton University Press.

[21] Qaradawi, Y. al- (1977) Ghayr al-Muslimīn fi Mujtamaʿ al-Muslimīn . Cairo: Maktaba Wahba.

[22] Qaradawi, Y. al- (1981) al-Ṣaḥwa al-Islamiyya bayna al-juḥūd wa'l-taṭarruf (Islamic Awakening Between Rejection and Extremism) . Doha: Riyāsat al-Mahākim al-Sharʿiyya wa'l-Sunnah al-Dīniyya fī Dawlat Qatar.

[23] Qaradawi, Y. al- (2004 [1996]) State in Islam: Min fiqh al-dawla fi al-Islām . Al-Falah Foundation. Cairo.

[24] Qaradawi, Y. al- (2006) al-Dīn wa al-Siyāsa . Dublin: Min Iṣdārāt al-Majlis al-Urubbī Li'l-Iftā' wa'l-Buḥūth. Available at: http://www.qaradawi.net/new/Book-3 (accessed 17 May 2016).

[25] Scott, R. (2010) The Challenge of Political Islam: Non-Muslims and the Egyptian State . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

[26] Tritton, A. S. (1930) The Caliphs and their Non-Muslim Subjects: A Critical Study of the Covenant of 'Umar . London: Oxford University Press.

[27] Yack, B. (2001) Popular sovereignty and nationalism. Political Theory . 29 (4), 517–36.

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