The Mālikī School and Contemporary Morocco, July 1, 2015

Jul 17

This is the text of the Presidential Lecture I gave two years ago at Akhawayn University in Morocco. It addresses the current attempts of the Moroccan government to enlist historical conceptions of Sunni orthodoxy along the three dimensions of the legal (Malikism), theology (Ash’ari) and mystical (Sufism) to help resist the allure of Jihadi-Salafism, and the challenges Salafism in general poses to historical Sunnism, but why historical Sunnism, despite these challenges, offers important resources for establishing a democratic Morocco. To take advantage of those resources, however, there must be a sincere commitment to those principles. A cynical attempt to deploy  those resources to resist Salafism while failing to reform the foundations of the public order, however, risks increasing the attractiveness of heterodox religious movements, including, but not limited to, Jihadi-Salafism.

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Qaradawi Criticizes the Salafis

Apr 04

Al-Masry al-Youm (English) is reporting that Qaradawi has come out with strong criticisms of the Egyptian salafis.  Particularly important, I believe, is his criticism of their literalism in understanding Islamic texts and their opportunism in trying to exploit a revolution that they refused to participate in, and indeed, condemned as a kind of rebellion.  It is a bit ironic, now that the revolution has succeeded, that they see no obligation to obey the law, nor do they deem violent confrontation of those whom they condemn as engaging in immorality (taghyir al-munkar bi-l-yad) as rebellion, even though Islamic law condemns vigilantism as iftiyat.  Apparently, the salafis only seem to believe there is an obligation to obey the law of tyrants!

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