Progressive Islam and Women’s Religious Leadership: Analysing the Emergence of New Models of Shared Authority

doi:10.1558/jasr.v29i2.30882

Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, Vol 29, No 2 (2016)

Progressive Islam and Women’s Religious Leadership: Analysing the Emergence of New Models of Shared Authority

Lisa Worthington

Issued Date: 18 Nov 2016

Abstract

In response to radical interpretations of Islam numerous progressive Muslim movements have emerged in order to demonstrate that Islam can be both equitable and inclusive. This paper is focused on two progressive organisations: Muslims for Progressive Values and El-Tawhid Jumma Circle and their practice of shared authority. Shared authority necessitates that leadership responsibilities are shared among the congregation and that religious leadership positions are open to all. In practice this means that women can assume religious leadership roles. Using field work data, this article will examine the experiences of progressive Muslim women who take up leadership positions in new Islamic organisations. It will be argued that progressive Muslims are creating alternative shared authority structures within their congregations in order to construct egalitarian worship spaces and open religious leadership to women.

Download Media

PDF (Price: £17.50 ) Restricted Access

DOI: 10.1558/jasr.v29i2.30882

References

Ahmed, Safdar. 2013a. Progressive Islam and Quranic Hermeneutics: The Reication of Religion and Theories of Religious Experience. In Muslim Secular Democracy: Voices from Within, edited by Lily Z. Rahim, 77-92. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137282057_4

Ahmed, Safdar. 2013b . Reform and Modernity in Islam: The Philosophical, Cultural and Political Discourses Among Muslim Reformers. I.B. Tauris, London.

Alatas, Sayid F. 2007 . Contemporary Muslim Revival: The Case of ‘Protestant Islam’. The Muslim World 97: 508-20. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-1913.2007.00192.x

Beck, Ulrich. 2010 . A God of One’s Own: Religion’s Capacity for Peace and Potential for Violence. Polity, Cambridge.

Duderija, Adis. 2007. Literature Review: Identity Construction in the Context of Being a Minority Immigrant Religion: The Case of Western-born Muslims. Immigrants & Minorities 25(2): 141-62. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02619280802018132

Duderija, Adis. 2007. 2012 . Pre-Modern and Critical Progressive Methodologies of Interpretation of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Journal of Qur’an and Hadith Studies 1(2): 181-95.

Duderija, Adis. 2007. 2013 . Critical-Progressive Muslim Thought: Reections on Its Political Ramications. The Review of Faith & International Affairs 11(3): 69-79. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2013.829987

Duderija, Adis. 2007. 2014. Islam and Gender in the Thought of a Critical-Progressive Muslim Scholar-Activist: Ziba Mir-Hosseini. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 25(4): 433-49. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2014.931043

El-Tawhid Juma Circle. 2015 . Who We Are. Online: http://jumacircle.com/about/who-we-are/ (accessed September 20, 2015).

Fadil, Nadia. 2005 . Individualising Faith, Individualizing Identity: Islam and Young Muslim Women in Belgium. In European Muslims and the Secular State, edited by Jocelyne Cesari and Sean McLoughlin, 143-55. Ashgate, Aldershot.

Hammer, Juliane. 2012 . American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Kaleem, Jaweed. 2012. Progressive Muslims Launch Gay-Friendly, Women-Led Mosques In Attempt to Reform American Islam. The Hufngton Post (30 March). Online: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/progressive-muslims-launch-gay-friendly-women-led-mosques_n_1368460.html

Kalmbach, Hilary. 2008. Social and Religious Change in Damascus: One Case of Female Islamic Religious Authority. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 35(1): 35-57. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13530190801890238

Kalmbach, Hilary. 2011 . Introduction: Islamic Authority and the Study of Female Religious Leaders. In Women, Leadership, and Mosques: Changes in Contemporary Islamic Authority, edited by Masooda Bano and Hilary Kalmbach, 1-28. Brill, Leiden. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004209367_002

Kersten, Carool, and Susanne Olsson. 2013. Alternative Islamic Discourses and Religious Authority. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, UK.

Moosa, Ebrahim. 2007 . Transitions in the ‘Progress’ of Civilization. In Voices of Islam, edited by Vincent J. Cornell, 115-18. Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT.

Muslims for Progressive Values. 2015. Our Mission. Online: http://www.mpvusa.org/who-we-are/ (accessed September 20, 2015).

Riesebrodt, Martin. 1999. Charisma in Max Weber’s Sociology of Religion. Religion 29(1): 1-14. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/reli.1999.0175

Sa, Omid. 2007 . Introduction: Islamic Modernism and the Challenge of Reform. In Voices of Islam, edited by Vincent J. Cornell, xvii-xxxiv. Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT.

Weber, Max. 1962. Basic Concepts in Sociology. Citadel Press, New York.

Weber, Max. 1962. 1968 . On Charisma and Institution Building. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

Equinox Publishing Ltd - 415 The Workstation 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0)114 221-0285 - Email: [email protected]