Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The events of September 11, 2001, have understandably focused critical attention on jihad. The dialogue in popular media has framed jihad in binary terms. Detractors (largely in the West) view jihad in a single dimension. For them, jihad is bellicose, aggressive, and radical― historically linked to Islam’s imperial ambitions. Defenders, sometimes apologists, for Islam have attempted to recast jihad, emphasizing its importance in the interior spiritual life of Muslims, a kind of personal jihad. This alternative narrative has emphasized personal striving to lead a righteous and Godly life, attempting to effectively neutralize jihad’s historical associations as a political instrument claimed by the state to justify its dominion.
Al-Qadi al-Nu ‘man’s tenth century Da ‘a’im al-Islam, particularly its final volume, the “Book of Jihad,” best exemplifies the latter tradition. I believe that a close investigation of this text will offer us a better view of the multiple resonances of jihad. Specifically, I am concerned with examining the dimensions of jihad in a political context and thereby challenging the reified positions it occupies in the current debate.
While al-Nu ‘man’s “Book of Jihad” is a theoretical justification of the Fatimid Dynasty’s imperial project, I argue that it introduces a new form of political judgment, that creates a form of democratic accountability which transforms subjects into citizens. This new form of society is notably more egalitarian, particularly with respect to its economic welfare provisions. I argue that considerable power rests, not with the Imam, but with the people. Rather than an omnipotent Imam (al-Nu ‘man begins by describing the Imam as God’s plenipotentiary), al-Nu ‘man subverts and constrains the Imam’s powers. A close textual reading in combination with an understanding of the larger intellectual currents that shaped the Fatamis Isma‘ili Shi’ism and societal practices suggests that al-Nu ‘man believes that the Imam’s authority rests on his ability to foster and maintain a society characterized by concern for social justice, including economic regulation and welfare provisions. Al-Nu ‘man repeatedly exhorts the Imam to identify and ally his interests with those of the people. This paper aims to recover the more radical elements of the “Book of Jihad” that have been neglected in the single dimensional emphasis on its endorsement of a belligerent jihad.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: Recent scholarship has focused on an increasingly important variable in 21st century conflict: public opinion. Indeed, the war in Iraq is replete with examples that demonstrate the growing importance that information has on shaping public attitudes, which in turn has significant consequences for the operations and effectiveness of conflict. Of the many actors involved in today’s information war, the U.S. government’s Arabic language broadcaster Alhurra and the Qatari-based and funded Al-Jazeera represent two competing agents that have drawn much public controversy, though for largely divergent reasons. This paper examines the organizational goals and operations of both, looking at the roles that each has played as independent political actors in the region and world, as well as their attempts and abilities to influence public opinion. In order to demonstrate both similarities and differences, as well as successes and failures, this paper draws from interviews with representatives from both organizations, a narrow content analysis, and an historicization of particular departures that each has taken from other, more traditional media organizations operating in the region.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: I intend to explore some of the fundamental differences between al-Ghazali and al-Farabi, whose profound relation marked the beginning of the first systematic struggle between Greek philosophy and monotheistic revelation in Islam. As this conflict is complicated and vast, I will limit my approach to it by beginning with al-Farabi’s understanding of the relationship between theology and political science, and ending with al-Ghazali’s treatment of mysticism in relation to the philosophic way of life as implied in al-Farabi. Al-Farabi’s conception of the relationship between political science and theology and al-Ghazali’s mystical response will reveal that one of the fundamental conflicts between reason and revelation is over the nature of divine causality, called by the Greek philosophers “emanation”, and its theological and educational implications. For the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides, as for many Christian and Islamic theologians, the philosophic man and the man of faith could be distinguished according to how they understood divine causality.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Drawing upon a collection of more than 100 public messages by bin Ladin and al-Zawahiri since 9/11 and analytical tools from content analysis theory, this paper explores to what degree al-Qaida public message on strategic issues has been consistent over t

Publication Type: Abstract Proposal
Abstract: Al-Ghazālī’s (d. 1111 CE) al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (The Deliverance From Error) is a criticism of the theological formulations of the kalām, the Bāt.inites (Shī‘a esotericists), and the philosophers. At the same time he argues for the spiritual and intellectual superiority of Sūfīsm. Within Islam this treatise became a powerful standard by which the ijmā‛ (consensus) judged the orthodoxy or heresy of later theologies and philosophies, and al-Ghazālī’s influence is substantial in theological discussion and Sūfī piety today. Al-Ghazālī’s refutation, however, certainly admits to the excellence of numerous scientific and philosophic disciplines, and he continually draws examples from these disciplines even as he defends the Sufi accounts of the taste of God, the ecstatic experience of unity, and the ascetical virtues. He leaves a remarkable legacy of respect for the sciences of math, logic, and nature even as he advocates the flooding of the soul with the light of the prophetic ecstasies of the Sufis. Although al-Ghazālī’s criticisms of philosophy may well be primarily directed at Ibn Sīnā (d. 1035 CE), the degree to which al-Ghazālī’s criticisms pertain to Alfarabi is questionable. The purpose of this essay is to show that four of the main arguments which he makes in the treatise against the philosophers do not apply to al-Fārābī. These four arguments are in regard to their respective accounts of 1) philosophic demonstration, 2) what is known in metaphysics, 3) the distinction between assent (tas.dīq) and concept (tas.awwur), and 4) prophecy.