ABSTRACT
The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 have profoundly transformed the image of Islam in Western eyes. Individuals who are visibly Muslim – as identified by their clothes, the color of their skin, their location, etc. – have been subject to Islamophobia as well as institutionalized monitoring and discrimination by Western and Muslim governments. Arguably the group that has suffered the most are individuals who are reviewed as terrorists, or as having links with terrorists. Prime among them are traditional Muslims scholars (‘ulama’) in Pakistan. These individuals have been trained in and often teach at religious seminaries (madrasas) – institutions that have been labeled as hotbeds of terrorism and that have faced unparalleled scrutiny since the Twin Tower attacks. Despite the deep impact on these scholars and their tradition, very little work has been done on their experiences of, and responses to, 9/11.
This chapter pays close attention to the ulama and presents their views on the impact of 9/11 on their intellectual tradition, their fraternity, their institutions of learning and Islam more broadly. My work examines the tensions highlighted by the ulama regarding the negative as well as positive impact of 9/11.
On the one hand, the ulama’s tradition has faced unprecedented surveillance and monitoring. Madrasa curriculums have been critiqued and the Pakistani government has taken concrete steps to reduce the independence of these institutions in areas as varied as registration, funding, curriculum and student enrollment. At the same time, a number of ulama have noted a rarely acknowledged fact: Post-9/11 there have been substantial conversions to Islam in the US and Europe. The ulama in engaging with these conversions emphasize the remarkable beneficial outcomes of the terrorist attacks for Islam and the ulama’s intellectual tradition. In so doing, some among the ulama question the source of the attacks, asserting that they were an ‘inside job’, carried out simply to malign the name of Islam. But – in the language of these traditional scholars – God is the best of planners and He orchestrated the remarkable outcome of increased conversions to Islam following the attacks.
In sum, this chapter makes a vital contribution to studies on 9/11 by bringing to the fore the views of Pakistani ulama – a community that despite being drastically impacted by the terrorist attacks has received little attention in scholarly works. This chapter fills this vital lacuna.
