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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:(Re)turning to proper Muslim practice: Islamic moral renewal and women's conflicting assertions of Sunni identity in urban Mali
Author:Schulz, Dorothea E.ISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:Africa Today
Volume:54
Issue:4
Pages:21-43
Language:English
Geographic term:Mali
Subjects:Islamic movements
ethics
women
External link:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/v054/54.4.schulz.pdf
Abstract:This article explores competing discourses and understandings of proper Muslim practice in urban Mali as they are reflected in controversies among female supporters of Islamic moral renewal, and between them and Muslims who do not consider themselves part of the movement. Supporters of Islamic moral renewal highlight the primacy of deeds, such as proper behaviour and correct ritual performance, as ways to validate their newly adopted religious identity. Their emphasis on proper action, and their dismissal of talking about religiosity, stand in tension with their own tendency to construct elaborate narratives about their decision to embrace what they consider a more authentic form of Islam. The importance they attribute to the embodied performance of virtue leaves many supporters of Islamic renewal in a double bind: despite their claim to unity, their conception of the relationship between individual ethics and the common good, combined with the tendency among supporters of Islamic moral renewal to set themselves apart from 'other Muslims', reinforces trends of differentiation among Muslims who aspire to a new moral community. The article is based on data collected in the towns of San and Segu, and in the capital, Bamako, between July 1998 and August 2006. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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