The Long Shadow of the State

Studies on the conflict between Sunnis and Shi‘as in Pakistan tend to single out intellectual influences emerging from the Arab monarchies of the Gulf as the paradigm for how sectarian ideas have spread more broadly. Yet, Simon Fuchs shows that the focus on Saudi Arabia does not capture the important entanglement of further influences stemming from the Gulf with local dimensions of sectarianism in Pakistan. Local Sunni scholars, although connected to Saudi Arabia, built their own brand of anti-Shiism. After the 1979 Iranian revolution, sectarian arguments based on Salafi-Wahhabi doctrines and emphasizing the doctrinal incompatibility between “proper” Islam and Shiism gave way to more political arguments, as the new Islamic Republic was seen as threatening the identity and the nature of the Pakistani state.

Iran, an Unexpected Sunni Hub between

Looking at the Sunni religious networks in Iran, Stéphane Dudoignon shows how Iran is an interface between South Asia and the Gulf monarchies. This process went through the progressive building of a Sunni community of Iran, which is for the first time able to gather Sunnis from various ethno-national backgrounds. A recipient of Sunni influences from South Asia, the Shi‘a Islamic Republic, by coopting some influential Sunni religious leaders, has been able to re-export them to some Gulf monarchies, building for itself an unexpected form of Sunni soft power.

Multinational Mujahidin

Don Rassler’s chapter documents the contemporary knowledge of the Haqqani network in the context of its establishment and early infrastructure development, especially in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia. In looking at this yet another transnational jihadi network between South Asia and the Gulf born during the anti-Soviet jihad, the chapter revolves around mujahidin commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and his ties to the two countries. Tracing the comparative dynamics and evolution of these ties, the chapter sketches the development of the Haqqani network in both countries highlighting the importance of the role of religious and private social networks. It emphasizes on the greater importance of institutional factors in the case of the UAE as well as the ambiguous approach of the Saudi establishment towards Haqqani.

Pakistani Madrasas

Ayesha Siddiqa’s chapter traces the complex dynamics of the connections between the Pakistani education system and the Gulf monarchies by examining the state and nature of Pakistani Sunni madrasas. The role of the madrasas in the education system is explained by placing them in their cultural and socio-political context. The chapter expands upon the Saudi Arabian and Gulf funding received by these institutions and the politico-ideological interests motivating the same. Three waves of progressive consolidation of such Saudi-Gulf influence are mapped out to show the ‘mutual influence’ emphasized in Chapter 1 being replaced by a top-down patronage system driven by some Gulf monarchies. A resulting expansion of the Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith seminaries is therefore presented as proof of South Asian Islam moving further away from its Sufi-based idiosyncrasies.

Conclusion

This volume on the relations between the Gulf and South Asia from the point of view of Islamic flows suggests a series of conclusions. Several chapters are revealing about a tension between South Asian Islam and Arabian Islam. Certainly, as shown by Christophe Jaffrelot, the two-way traffic of the nineteenth century, when Muslim scholars of South Asia and the Middle East—including clerics of Mecca and Medina—were in a conversation, is something of the past. Indeed, as shown by Ayesha Sidiqqa, the ‘...

The Salafi Emirate of Kunar

Vahid Brown’s chapter examines the role of the Salafi Emirate of Kunar’s role in shaping the development of transnational salafi jihadi networks while also focusing on the fault lines within the same. The chapter brings out the significance of this previously little studied Afghan mujahidin movement in forming links between the Gulf and Afghanistan-Pakistan. Explaining the Emirate of Kunar’s brand of jihadi Salafism as a creation based on previous ties with South Asian Ahl-i-Hadith movement and Gulf Salafism, the chapter identifies it as a precursor to the ISIS brand in Iraq and Syria. In its progression, the chapter traces the historical emergence of the emirate followed by an examination of the writings of the Gulf Salafi mashayikh on Jamil al-Rahman, its founder, and the emirate itself. Subsequently, the Afghan Arab literature on the Salafis of Kunar is reviewed.

South Asian Muslims’ interactions with Arabian Islam until the 1990s

Christophe Jaffrelot’s chapter highlights the polyvocal exchanges between Arabia and South Asia contributing to the making of the Indian Muslim Civilization. Tracing a historical path starting from the 1857-59 mutiny in colonial India, the chapter draws out the effects of the fall of the Mughal empire and the repression of the Mutiny on the reinforcement of ties between Arabian centers of Islam and Indian Muslims. It insists upon the mutuality of influences between the two in the flourishing of the Muslim cosmopolis. The chapter goes on to present the visions of a new Islamic Republic harbored by the promoters of Pakistan and the failed effort to build a trend-setting model of an Islamic State for the Muslim world. The historical progression of the chapter ultimately moves to examine the Arabization of Islam in Pakistan under President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq through his Islamization Policy and the rapprochement with the Gulf monarchies following the Afghan jihad explaining thus, the ‘gulfization’ of South Asian Islam.

The Gulf–South Asia Religious Connections

The pattern of Islamization of South Asia has resulted in the making of a specific civilization, characterized by a Sufi-based form of spirituality in conversation with Hindu mystics. It was long cut off from the original crucible of Islam in Arabia, which had lost its religious and political centrality after the reign of the fourth caliph. It was only in the 19th and 20th centuries that ties intensified with Arabia, in the context of the expansion of Wahhabism, the development of pan-Islamic reformist movements in India and the creation of Pakistan.

‘Seeking Knowledge from the cradle to the grave’

The Twelver Shi‘a in South Asia have had long historical connections with centers of pilgrimage and learning in the Shi‘a heartlands of Iran and Iraq. In contemporary times, the payment of taxes incumbent upon Shi‘as and donations from Indian followers continue to be an important source of financial support and legitimacy for mujtahids in Iraq and Iran. Their importance as figures of emulation, guidance in religious matters, and superior knowledge has endured over time despite the development of Shi‘a centers of learning in India. Radhika Gupta analyses the competing influences from the Gulf among Shi‘as in India, looking how the divide between the South-Iraqi- and the Iranian-based religious authorities are reproduced by local scholars connected to either of these centers of learning.

Pakistani Sufism in the Gulf

The whole spectrum of Pakistani Sufi orders is represented in the Gulf. They range from the New Age Sufi Islam of Sufi Order International to the Deobandi orthodox Sufism of the Naqshbandiyya Owaisia or the Barelvi-inspired Sufism of Minhaj-ul Quran organized around the cult of the so-called Shaykh-ul Islam’Tahir-ul Qadri. Alix Philippon explores the ways these orders have established themselves in some Gulf monarchies. Providing migrants with a set of religious services, they also benefit a lot from diaspora funding there. Moreover, Pakistani Sufi networks in the Gulf contribute to the creation of a new religious elite back home.