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The Transnational vs. the Local: Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi's Transnational Religious Authority and the Locally-Inspired Midad al-Suyuf Forum
Abstract
This paper concentrates on the religious authority of the Jihadi-Salafi ideologue Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (b. 1959). Although of Palestinian origin, al-Maqdisi has lived and studied in the West Bank, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Jordan and the influence of his writings extends far beyond the borders of his home-country of Jordan. He is therefore the epitome of a transnational scholar whose status has transcended the national sphere. Considered one of the most important living radical Muslim scholars in the world, al-Maqdisi has come under heavy criticism from fellow Jordanian Jihadi-Salafis for his criticism of his former student Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in 2004 and 2005. Since that time, a small but vocal group of critics has developed in Jordan that eventually found its place at the Midad al-Suyuf internet forum. While al-Maqdisi enjoys a global reputation as being one of the most important Jihadi-Salafi scholars alive, the criticism levelled at him from the mostly Jordanian-inspired Midad al-Suyuf forum challenges that reputation in three respects: his allegedly weak personality, his supposedly recanted radical beliefs and his lack of experience in fighting a jihad. These "accusations" stem mostly, if not entirely, from Jordanian radical Muslims who have first-hand knowledge of al-Maqdisi's experiences in Jordanian prisons or are taken from books written about him. Al-Maqdisi's efforts to counter these accusations against him are derived from his transnational network of sources, including the writings of Western analysts and Jihadi-Salafi scholars in Europe, who are only familiar with his writings but not with al-Maqdisi himself. This paper is based on the postings on the Midad al-Suyuf forum as well as al-Maqdisi's own writings and fieldwork in Jordan conducted in 2008 and 2009. Its focus is on the connection between the very local (Jordanian) "accusations" against al-Maqdisi on the Midad al-Suyuf forum and his transnational response. It asks whether al-Maqdisi's transnational responses to Jordanian accusations will ever be successful as long as they are being fed locally. Moreover, it seeks to answer to what extent these "accusations" affect al-Maqdisi's transnational religious authority and whether his local detractors may actually start a global decline of his status.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Islamic World
Jordan
Sub Area
None