Progressive Islam is the new interpretation
and practice of Islam in forms that address the current needs of Muslim people.
Progressive Islam is inclusive for all those who identify themselves as Muslims,
religiously or culturally. Progressive Islam would make it possible for Islam
to live and grow creatively and become associated to the universal human rights
concepts that are the core of any modern society. Progressive Islam considers
the current status of the socio-political structure in most of the so called
Islamic States against the spirit of Islam as it was originally known. Gender
inequality and oppressed minorities (including ethnic, racial, religious,
sexual, culture, etc) are against the justice idea that Islam was built on.
This presentation will discuss the concept of Progressive Islam and in particular
the separation between the religious and political roles that the Prophet
Mohamed had played during his 23 years of preaching Islam in
Kim
Maurice Searcy
Loyola University, USA
The death of the Mahdi on June 22, 1885 CE/Ramadan 8, 1302
A.H. ushered in a new era for the Mahdiyya. The revolution had succeeded
in ending the Turkiyya's occupation of the Sudan except for a few isolated
regions. The Mahdi claimed to have been guided by the Prophet Muhammad to
found an Islamic community reminiscent of the nascent Muslim community at
Medina in the seventh century C.E. However, the Mahdi died before he could
witness his vision of an Islamic state come to fruition. The task of building
this state fell upon his second-in-command the Khalifa Abdallahi.
In this paper I argue that in succeeding the Mahdi, the original charismatic
leader, the Khalifa used similar symbolic, rhetorical and political strategies
to establish his legitimacy and bolster his authority. Although he appropriated
many symbols of the Sufi brotherhoods and the Funj and Fur Sultanates, the
Mahdi's authority was not primarily bolstered by ritual and ceremony, rather
his authority was charismatic in nature and it was derived from the belief
of many that the Mahdi was in possession of Baraka, or Divine benediction.
However, with the death of the Mahdi, ceremony came to play an ever increasingly
greater role in affirming the Khalifa's authority. As the Mahdi assumed
a position analogous to that of the Prophet Muhammad, the Khalifa assumed
one analogous to the first of the Orthodox Caliphs, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq.
In this paper I explore the manner in which charisma may be transmitted
along the path of routinization in the context of the Mahdi ostensibly transferring
his charisma to the Khalifa. In addition, I treat the ceremonial idiom in
relationship to the Khalifa's rule, his use of insignias of authority, and
the creation of what Paul Connerton designates as a "mythic concordance,"
between not solely himself and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, but the Mahdi as well.
Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban
Rhode Isand College
Islamic law, Shari`a, is no longer the central issue in the Sudanese conflict
between north and south after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
(CPA). However, its symbolic status is still important, and its future,
"final status" in the promised "new Sudan" is still
as yet uncertain. The CPA represented an historic turning point and the
failure of its policies of Arabization and Islamization by various governments
of Sudan since 1956. The signing of the peace accords officially ended the
national status of Shari`a as a comprehensive state system of law. In the
CPA Shari`a law was officially withdrawn from the south, but the issue of
its final status in the capital city of Khartoum was left as ambiguous.
A central compromise leading to the signing of the CPA was the agreement
that the south would be secular and the north would be retain its religious
base, with Shari`a as its source of law, thus creating "two systems"
within one state. Built into the CPA is the possibility of the separation
and independence of the south, to be determined by popular referendum in
six years time in 2011. However, national and international confidence in
the Peace Accords was muted by the long shadow cast by the related conflict
and humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
The 'final status' of Shari`a is to be resolved in the new permanent Constitution,
currently in draft, and set to be implemented in 2005. There is agreement
that Shari`a law will not apply to Christian citizens, but it is unclear
whether animists residing in the north are likewise excluded. An outstanding
issue is how Shari`a is to be applied in metropolitan Khartoum, a city of
perhaps 6-7 million as much as a third of whom are southern and non-Muslim.
It is clear there will no formal withdrawal of Shari`a from Khartoum, however
quiet withdrawal of its application upon southerners has already occurred.
Southern politicians and elites adamantly state that neither Shari`a nor
the Arabic language are central issues any longer.