Introduction

Since the events of September 11, 2001, many in the West have come to view the Islamic world with a mixture of fear and hostility. Violent attacks against civilian populations, supposedly sanctioned by Islamic religious doctrine, seem to validate Samuel Huntington’s theory of a “clash of civilizations.”1 In the West, Islamic principles, theology, and above all, political activity in the name of Islam, have become suspect, while traditional schools of learning and the Islamic seminaries, or madaris, have come under special scrutiny. There is widespread debate in the West over the training of Islamic clerics and religious leaders, the authority they hold in their societies, and whether they use this authority to promote violence against Western targets.

More and more Westerners, influenced by what they see, hear, and read in the media, have come to believe that it is the most extremist among the Islamists who represent, and speak for, Islam. Lacking an understanding of the intricacies of Muslim societies and the debates and cleavages within them, many Westerners confuse the terms Islamist and fundamentalist with the term ulama, the traditional scholars and jurists of Islam.

The confusion about who speaks for Islam is also related to the fact that there is no single locus of religious authority within Islam. There are currently multiple groups in a variety of states that simultaneously claim to speak on Islam’s behalf. A major purpose of this paper is to identify these groups, including the ulama—the scholars of religion who were traditionally considered to be the authentic interpreters of Islamic faith and law. The ulama are themselves divided both by the schools of jurisprudence to which they belong and by their political orientations. Beyond the ulama, those who claim to speak for Islam include leaders of various Muslim states, many of which are products of the twin processes of colonization and decolonization. Several of these leaders claim to speak on behalf of the Muslim world but often use Islamic discourse to advance the agenda of their state or regime.

Other claims to speak for Islam have been made by a number of Islamist groups that emerged in the second half of the 20th century. Although these groups represent a relatively recent phenomenon, their ideas are rooted in salafi thought that goes back to the latter half of the 19th century.2 Another cluster that claims to speak for Islam is made up of extremist groups that have deviated significantly from the strategies pursued by most Islamist political formations. These extremists include transnational networks that undertake violent terrorist activities in the name of Islam, whereas mainstream Islamists are primarily engaged in advocating social transformation and/or regime change through peaceful means within individual Muslim countries. Finally, more recently, scholars and proponents of what may be called the New Ijtihad have begun, however hesitatingly, to assert themselves if not as spokespersons for Islam then as significant voices advocating change in the Muslim world. This paper will analyze each of these claimants in turn.


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