Islam Mondaine: Anthropological Theory on Studying Islam

Whether the object of study is the formal politics of state intervention or the everyday politics of ritual performance, Soares and Osella propose in their essay, “Islam, Politics, and Anthropology,” that anthropologists should acknowledge the intersection of multiple levels of politics in religion and the generative power of their interaction. 

Soares and Osella make the case for a revised approach to the anthropological study of Islam and politics in Muslim contexts. In past anthropological theories, Islam was often represented as incompatible with or a hybrid version of Western modernity and its associations, such as rationalization and democratic participation[1]. In contrast, Soares and Osella assert that modernity is “necessarily singular and global, always instantiated locally…within wider configurations of…power and historically specific trajectories” – whether located in the West or elsewhere. They label this perspective with the French term Islam mondaine, or “Islam in the present world[3],” where Muslims are constantly responding and evaluating the complex spheres they are a part of everyday. 

Soares and Osella argue that not only does islam mondaine emphasize “the study of the actual world in which Muslims find themselves,” but also that employing islam mondaine exposes nuanced forms of political participation that formalist analyses overlook. This framework is useful to understanding Muslim communities because the nature of Islam is not ahistorical but very much responsive to modern shifts of power, just as Muslims themselves have multiple orientations beyond just Islam as their religion. Islam mondaine as articulated in Mombasa and Houston demonstrates the concept's adeptness at analyzing the multiple levels of politics that Muslim communities and individuals inhabit.

The Ismaili community in Houston is one of countless Ismaili communities dispersed around the world whose dual allegiance to religious authority and to the nation state embodies the complimentary nature of Islam and modernity. According to the Ismaili Constitution, Ismailis are required to respect both spiritual allegiance to the Imam and the secular laws of the nation-states to which they belong [5]. The ambiguity between authorities can be clarified in the context of islam mondaine, which emphasizes that religious value, and ethical self-fashioning does not exclude worldly aspirations. Acknowledging that Islam operates as more than a religion will open studies of Muslim communities to their full scope of agency as human being.

In another example, the strong tradition of volunteerism among Ismailis deepens both their religious connection with God as well as their engagement with the community in which they reside, whether or not that community shares their beliefs. In fact, “as a religious duty…Ismailis must be loyal citizens of whatever country [they choose to live in].[6]” In such a way, Ismaili volunteerism could be seen as accomplishing goals similar to those of traditional Western civil society, such as philanthropy and charity. Through engagement with civil society and the world around them, Ismailis are able to better understand and serve creation as described in the ethics of Islam. 

The Ismaili belief in dual-allegiance and volunteerism demonstrates the extent to which the study of Muslim identities and politics would be incomplete if it is limited to the religious dimension. According to Soares and Osella, people lead their everyday lives in “complex cultural, religious, and political environments, evaluating and responding to competing local and global messages.[4]” Acknowledging that a full understanding of Islam requires more than a simple characterization of its religious teachings, but also their interactions with society, provides a more complete picture of the politics within Muslim communities.

Soares and Osella also propose an integrated examination of both religion and politics, since the two cannot be separated as each influence each other's creation, embodying a generative power.  In Mombasa, the Mombasa Muslims exemplify the self-fashioning and self-generating model that islam mondaine seeks to characterize.

The Kenyan coastal Muslims of Mombasa are situated outside both the Kenyan postcolonial state as well as the wider Muslim world. Their doubly peripheral status relative to the formal political state and the religious community (umma) had a deep impact on the development of the economy of knowledge. In Mombasa, knowledge provides guidance and is involved in granting as well as challenging authority. Writers of pamphlets meant to educate and Islamize Mombasa Muslims from more mainstream Islamic countries view the Mombasa community “as lesser Muslims who can be ‘saved’ by the right doctrine from the Islamic heartland. Under the guise of missionaries, writers of these pamphlets can encourage and take advantage of the feelings of insecurity amongst Muslims located in the cultural and doctrinal periphery. The more this picture becomes “part of their self-perception, the more peripheral coastal Muslims may think they are, and eventually might become.[7]”  In both the national and religious realms, Kenyan coastal communities have submitted to these influences negating their way of life. But through their challenging position of constant antagonism, Mombasa Muslims have become independent-minded and “adept at negotiating different demands [8].” 

Not only do multiple forms of politics inform each other, neglecting non-formalistic politics hinders anthropological study of sociological groups. Kresse gives the example of Saidi, a local man whose weekly radio show creates a virtual space to “mediate[s] and negotiate[s] public disputes, common opinions, and private convictions within a group of listeners and participants that are part of a dynamic discursive community[9].” Saidi’s radio show and public forum are excellent examples of public spheres outside the conventional deliberative practices “that many hail as the hallmarks of rational political debate.[10]” The case of Mombasa shows that “generating debates about the value or morality of social action” in everyday politics also allows for participation and contestation of broader politics. Though “civil society is often assumed to be the only space for democratic civic engagement[11],” a study of the Muslim community in Mombasa demonstrates that there exist forms of political process outside of the narrow Eurocentric definitions of civil society.

As seen in Mombasa and Houston, islam mondaine is a useful concept with which to guide analysis of the multiple levels of politics with which Muslim communities engage.  Soares and Osella argue not only that islam mondaine emphasizes the study of the actual contemporary world in which Muslims inhabit, as shown in Ismaili volunteerism, but also that employing Islam mondaine exposes nuanced forms of political participation that formalist analyses overlook, like in Mombasa. Muslim practices are connected to political and social issues of the broader world but are specific to local contexts. Without considering the concepts of Islam mondaine, ethnography of Muslim communities would be incomplete and inaccurately totalizing.

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[1] Benjamin Soares and Filippo Osella. “Islam, politics, anthropology.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. (2009) Vol. 23, No. 1, S8
[2] Ibid, S5
[3] Ibid, S11
[4] Ibid
[5] Zahra Jamal, "Muslim Communities in International Contexts" course presentation, “Islam and Culture,” Feb. 2014
[6] Zahra Jamal, “Works no Words,” Working Draft, 90
[7] Kai Kresse, “Muslim politics in post-colonial Kenya.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. (2009) Vol. 23, No. 1, S89
[8] Soares and Osella, S11
[9] Ibid, S90
[10] Ibid
[11] Ibid