Civic Insights
A SWOT Analysis of a Family-Wahhabi Nationalism: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gadi Hitman
This paper considers a new book written to analyze the religious-national quest of KSA through a SWOT model. The analysis discusses issues of oil, regional alliances, international position, instability of the royal family fragile demography, terror threats and Sunni-Shi'a rivalry. All of it relates to the formatting of a Wahhabi-family nationalism. The book is a Bernard Lewis prize winner for 2022.
Can Mysticism Contribute to Inter-religious Relations?: Some Reflections
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Patrick Laude
Mysticism is a broad field of study that conjures up images of sublime states and arcane teachings. History shows, however, that mystical forms of religion have had, in addition to their esoteric aspects, a deep and lasting influence on entire societies and civilizations. They have also contributed, historically, to inter-religious relationships and have built bridges between civilizations. This paper articulates a few reflections on the opportunities and challenges presented by mystical discourse and practice in the sphere of contemporary multicultural public settings.
‘Based on Your Source…’: The Ba'alawi of the Malay World's Legitimizing Sunnism, Shiism, and Salafism Through the Utilization of Each Other's Belief Systems
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sharifah Huseinah Madihid
The Ba’alawi, descendants of Prophet Muhammad through his daughter and son-in-law, have secured a comfortable position as religious leaders in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia or the Malay world. They are purported to have brought their brand of Sufi Islam known as the Tariqah Alawiyya (Alawiyya Sufi path) successfully through trade and intermarriages with local sultans even prior to Western colonization. This has resulted in much of the Malay world espousing Sunni-Sufi Islam as reflected in the Ba’alawi diasporic homeland of Hadramaut, Yemen. Much sociological and historical studies have thus discussed the Ba’alawi through their roles as adherents of a Sunni-Sufi tradition who have successfully carved a name for themselves in the social, political and religious realms of power with the most popular having supporters that number millions. However, while some of the leaders have participated in establishing a definition of Islam in the Malay world as Sunni-Sufi, other members of the Ba'alawi have embraced other forms of Islam such as Shiism and Salafism. As such, the Ba’alawi are involved in creating a competitive Islamic marketplace in the Malay world in which different forms of Islam try to gain adherents through claiming legitimacy whilst delegitimizing the other. Through in-depth, unstructured interviews with 40 Shiite, Salafi and Sufi Ba’alawi leaders from the Malay world I argue that Ba'alawi Shiites, Salafis and Sufis tap into each others’ embodied, national, institutional, textual and histórico-narrative legacies in order to portray their form of Islam as the most legitimate whilst rendering the other not legitimate.
