ABSTRACT
In the last 15 years – ever since the Islamic revolution in Iran – Western and Middle Eastern interest in Islam as a political factor has steadily increased. In the West we now have experts who interpret the political behaviour of Muslim key actors as Islamically encoded secret messages. The date of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait is, in such a perspective, seen as significant in terms of Islamic history. Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem can be interpreted in light of its religious timing. Utterances of politicians are judged by their theological references. I see these analyses as part of the global interest in Islam. Islam has become, among other things, a discourse that is very difficult to ignore. Believers and observers who are unsure of the relations between religious beliefs and political action are today forced to have an opinion about the ‘importance of Islam’. But, as we all know, Islam is not an explanation. On the one hand, Islam can be used as a filter through which events are interpeted and future action anticipated. On the other hand, not all Muslims, at all times, use Islam as such an interpretative filter. The politization of Islam and at the same time various perceptions and understandings of this process, has in the last decade led to a perhaps exaggerated emphasis on the political importance of Islam. This exaggeration is made by both Western observers and cadres in Islamic revival movements, but obviously from different perspectives. Many Westerners fear and/or gloat over what is termed the global spread of Muslim fundamentalists. We are supposed to imagine how angry and fanatic Muslims are ready to take over the world, and particularly the West. A common contemporary Western identity is to a large degree shaped by this fear of Islam. Cadres in, or supporters of, Islamic revival movements, on the other hand, feed on this mainly Western fear. They also need to sway the unenthusiastic believers by implying that political Islam is the only true Islam. For reseachers it is, I think, equally important to look at, and try to analyse, situations where Muslims are not spurred on to action by a revivalist political movement. It is also important to analyse the possible relationship between Islamic revival movements and ‘apolitical’ Islam. I see this as a great challenge to anthropologists since by training we are specialists in neither religion nor politics, but rather interested in the mundane everyday life experiences of the people we study. The task today, however, is quite daunting.
