Saunders - The Ummah as a Nation: A reappraisal in the wake of the 'Cartoons Affair' [d1d32035]

Tags: papers, Nationalism and Outsiders in the Middle East,islamic political thought

"Cartoons" affair from Dutch newspaper Jyllands-Posten caused riots to break out against the Dutch embassies worldwide and lead to halted exports.

• Saunders attempts to debunk the notion that the Ummah is not a political identity

  • Ummah is clearly a political identity via Islamism

    • Sufi lodges with Can - Spiritual Subjects
    • Exceptionalism of Islam, Balkan Christian orthodoxies were absorbed into the state, but Islam was not Anscombe - State, Faith, and Nation
    • Hassan - Longing for the Lost Caliphate clearly shows precendence

• Muslims living in a disapora constitute a "nation on the move"

  • Similar to pilgrims or Blumi - Ottoman Refugees, 1878-1939
• This is somewhat unconvincing when he uses the "American immigrant experience"

• Rather than trying to dominate a place defined by physical territory (e.g. Leeds, Pakistan, or the Middle East), these elites are seeking influence over a space conceived around human beings (i.e. the Muslim world including its exclaves in the West), although there are certainly some groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir that would like to see the black flag of the caliphate flying over London.

  • This seems out of place and ignores history, Muslims in the past have seen distinct people as focal points
• Anderson - Imagined Communities's description of "nations on the move"
• Notably unqualfied assertions of economic impact
• Through internet-enabled virtuality and diasporic marginalisation, the ummah – more so than at any time in the past – is functioning as an ersatz nation.