
In a Pure Muslim Land
Shi'ism between Pakistan and the Middle East
Simon Wolfgang Fuchs
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 03/2019
Pages: 376
Subject: Religion, Social Science
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78147E+12
eBook ISBN: 9781469649801
DESCRIPTION
Fuchs shows how popular Pakistani preachers and scholars have boldly tapped into the esoteric potential of Shi'ism, occupying a creative and at times disruptive role as brokers, translators, and self-confident pioneers of contemporary Islamic thought. They have indigenized the Iranian Revolution and formulated their own ideas for fulfilling the original promise of Pakistan. Challenging typical views of Pakistan as a mere Shi'i backwater, Fuchs argues that its complex religious landscape represents how a local, South Asian Islam may open up space for new intellectual contributions to global Islam. Yet religious ideology has also turned Pakistan into a deadly battlefield: sectarian groups since the 1980s have been bent on excluding Shi'is as harmful to their own vision of an exemplary Islamic state.