The Islamic liberation theology of Ali Shari'ati: religion and revolution
Date
2017
Authors
Jeenah, Shir'a
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Abstract
The emergence of Islam 1438 years ago in Makkah resulted in massive shifts in
power dynamics and in social relations and ways of living within, firstly, the Arabian
Peninsula and, within a couple of centuries, in most of West Asia and large parts of
Europe. The Islamic leader, Prophet Muhammad, following with experience of the
Judaic and Christian traditions, delivered the message of a religion that challenged
the status quo and advocated a new system of social, political and economic
relations, one based on the principles of justice and equality. Almost fifteen centuries
later, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, when more than twenty percent of
the world's population is Muslim, millions of Muslims around the world continue to
rely on the faith as an inspiration for their own struggles and for their solidarity with
the struggles of oppressed peoples across the globe.
In a context where discourses on decolonisation have become a major focus in
political science, especially at universities, there has been a shift in discussions on
struggle and revolution. A concerted effort has been made to tend away from the
reliance on Western epistemologies and to throw the spotlight on thinking from and
about the global South in an attempt at embarking on a process of 'decolonising'
knowledge, academic spaces and society at large. In an attempt to expand beyond
just Marxist analyses, much emphasis in decoloniality discussions has been placed
on thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Leopold Senghor, Che Guevara, those within the
Indian subaltern tradition and others from the Global South. However, following the
modernist (and postmodernist) tradition, there seems to be resistance among many
such thinkers, who have enjoyed relative popularity within the academy, to afford any
religious - including Islamic - strands of thought a seat at the decolonial intellectual
table, though there are exceptions. This research report will make the case for
further extending this privilege to Islamic thinkers through a presentation of the work
of the Iranian revolutionary intellectual Ali Shari'ati.
Description
A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Political Studies) to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017