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From the cleric-led Iranian revolution to the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, many people have been surprised by what they see as the modern reemergence of an antimodern phenomenon. This book helps account for the increasingly visible public role of traditionally educated Muslim religious scholars (the `ulama) across contemporary Muslim societies. Muhammad Qasim Zaman describes the transformations the centuries-old culture and tradition of the `ulama have undergone in the modern era--transformations that underlie the new religious and political activism of these scholars. In doing so, it provides a new foundation for the comparative study of Islam, politics, and religious change in the contemporary world. While focusing primarily on Pakistan, Zaman takes a broad approach that considers the Taliban and the `ulama of Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and the southern Philippines. He shows how their religious and political discourses have evolved in often unexpected but mutually reinforcing ways to redefine and enlarge the roles the `ulama play in society. Their discourses are informed by a longstanding religious tradition, of which they see themselves as the custodians. But these discourses are equally shaped by--and contribute in significant ways to--contemporary debates in the Muslim public sphere. This book offers the first sustained comparative perspective on the `ulama and their increasingly crucial religious and political activism. It shows how issues of religious authority are debated in contemporary Islam, how Islamic law and tradition are continuously negotiated in a rapidly changing world, and how the `ulama both react to and shape larger Islamic social trends. Introducing previously unexamined facets of religious and political thought in modern Islam, it clarifies the complex processes of religious change unfolding in the contemporary Muslim world and goes a long way toward explaining their vast social and political ramifications.

Engaging an ethnohistorical approach, this essay examines how the Qutb Shahi sultans represented themselves locally and regionally through the use of built space, sponsorship of ritual and innovation of material practices that enabled diverse constituents of the realm to participate in and remember the martyrdom of the third Shi'i Imam Husain at the battle of Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE in ways that made Shiʿism an Indian religion. I use a case study engaging material culture and built space in imperial Hyderabad to demonstrate how the Qutb Shahi sultans became Deccani, using Shiʿism as both an expression of their identity and a polyvalent religio-cultural mediation with the Hindu majority communities over which they ruled. The essay examines the Charminar of the fifth sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (r. 1580–1612), the monumental gateway to the new city of Hyderabad, as a polyvalent symbol of their status as Shi'i upholders of dharmic kingship.

Säkularismus (al-'almaniyya) ist ein zentrales und umstrittenes Thema des Islam in arabischen Gesellschaften.Die Studie rekonstruiert damit verbundene gesellschaftliche Probleme anhand neuerer ägyptischer Publikationen und illustrativer Fallbeispiele.

Cairo, 26 July: Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu-al-Ghayt congratulated late Monday [26 July] the family of Egyptian diplomat Muhammad Mamduh Qutb who was released earlier this evening in Iraq. Abu-al-Ghayt said he was reassured about Qutb's health condition, adding the diplomat is currently inside the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Baghdad.

Baghdad, 26 July: Head of Egypt's diplomatic mission in Baghdad Councillor Karim Sharaf welcomed on Monday [26 July] the release of Egyptian diplomat Muhammad Mamdouh Qutb.

Baghdad, 24 July: An official in charge of the Egyptian interests section conducted a series of intensive calls with Iraqi officials to secure the release of Egyptian diplomat Muhammad Mamduh Qutb, who was abducted Friday [23 July]. Counsellor Karim Sharaf, in statements to MENA in Baghdad, said that the Egyptian interests section in Iraq is practising the task of maintaining Egyptians' interests there and furthering ties between the Egyptian and Iraqi peoples. An armed group self-styled Lions of Allah in Iraq had kidnapped the Egyptian diplomat in the Iraqi capital.

Qutb's narrative offered a glimpse into what it was like at least for one hostage to be held captive by Iraq's inchoate, terrifying insurgency. Hostage taking has emerged as a popular, powerful and often-deadly tactic of the resistance, yielding instant publicity for the captors and formidable political setbacks for the Iraqi government and its U.S.-led supporters. The leader accused Egypt of aiding a puppet U.S. government, Qutb said, and spoke critically of U.S. involvement in Iraq and of the country's interim government. The kidnappers were particularly exercised about the prospect of Egypt's sending troops to Iraq, something the interim Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, as well as the White House, has asked for. Qutb said he repeatedly assured him that Egypt had no intention of doing so anytime soon. Egypt told Allawi last week that it would help train Iraqi security forces.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, traveling in Syria, said his interim government was doing everything possible to secure Qutb's release, but he also strongly urged Egyptian authorities not to make any concessions to the kidnappers. Qutb's kidnappers, who said they were holding him hostage somewhere in Iraq, have demanded that Egypt not provide Iraq with security assistance. Allawi visited Cairo this week and discussed the use of Egyptian troops to train Iraqi forces, but Egyptian officials said no agreement was reached. During Allawi's trip to Syria on a regional tour, the prime minister and Syrian officials agreed to form a committee to improve security along their 375-mile border, which U.S. and Iraqi officials say has been a crossing point for foreign fighters entering Iraq.

During its years of rivalry with Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt, the Saudi government nurtured leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood which President Nasser had forced underground after an attempt on his life in 1954. Those exiled from Egypt included Muhammad Qutb, the brother of Sayyid Qutb - the Brotherhood's leading intellectual. His writings have helped to inspire a wave of terror attacks, from the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 to the more recent attacks on New York, Madrid and London. The Wahhabi tribesmen who in 1924 conquered the Hijaz, the western part of what is now Saudi Arabia, were merciless. \"I have seen them hurl themselves on their enemies, utterly fearless of death, not caring how many fall, advancing rank upon rank with only one desire: the defeat and annihilation of the enemy,\" wrote one Arab witness. \"They normally give no quarter, sparing neither boys nor old men, veritable messengers of death from whose grasp no one escapes.\" Wahhabi and Salafist ideas are spread throughout the world through online fatwas (legal rulings) issued by Wahhabi sheikhs, conferences and lectures, television stations or cheap booklets. According to the distinguished French scholar Olivier Roy, these products are \"an important part of the curriculum of worldwide Muslim institutions\" subsidised by Saudi and Gulf petrodollars.

During its years of rivalry with Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt, the Saudi government nurtured leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood which President Nasser had forced underground after an attempt on his life in 1954. Those exiled from Egypt included Muhammad Qutb, the brother of Sayyid Qutb - the Brotherhood's leading intellectual. His writings have helped to inspire a wave of terror attacks, from the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 to the more recent attacks on New York, Madrid and London. The Wahhabi tribesmen who in 1924 conquered the Hijaz, the western part of what is now Saudi Arabia, were merciless. \"I have seen them hurl themselves on their enemies, utterly fearless of death, not caring how many fall, advancing rank upon rank with only one desire: the defeat and annihilation of the enemy,\" wrote one Arab witness. \"They normally give no quarter, sparing neither boys nor old men, veritable messengers of death from whose grasp no one escapes.\" Wahhabi and Salafist ideas are spread throughout the world through online fatwas (legal rulings) issued by Wahhabi sheikhs, conferences and lectures, television stations or cheap booklets. According to the distinguished French scholar Olivier Roy, these products are \"an important part of the curriculum of worldwide Muslim institutions\" subsidised by Saudi and Gulf petrodollars.