Making Islam Work

In January 2009, just three weeks after my appointment as professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, I attended the first 'halal borrel' , organised by the university's Islamic student association, Mashriq.In Dutch, a 'borrel' is an alcoholic drink, but the word commonly refers to drinks after a work meeting or at a reception.Halal is the theological concept denoting that which is permitted according to Islamic law.The seemingly contradictory messages brought together in 'halal borrel' attracted my attention.It is just a small but meaningful example of the fact that many young Muslims want to make sense of their religion and engage with society.The organisers did not intend to violate Islamic requirements, but they wanted to play with words and attract the attention of potential visitors to the event.However, some critical comments were made by Muslims who considered the combination of these words inappropriate.I recalled this event when I was doing some preparatory work for this book because it was the kind of situation that I have become increasingly interested in over the past two decades.For whatever reasons, Muslims initiate something, or raise a pressing issue, and this may lead to discussions and reactions, both positive and negative.Sometimes 'experts' are asked by the media to explain and interpret 'what is going on' .Many such questions, including some that were addressed to me, deal with what I would now call issues of Islamic authority, such as the meaning of a controversial statement by a theologian, the reasons why young Muslims would leave the country to join Islamic State in Syria, why so many Muslims go to 'halal holiday resorts' , or whether music is allowed in Islam.The implicit assumption behind many of these questions by journalists is that there must be only one 'authorised' answer, the 'rule according to Islam' .When I was working on the book, I sometimes asked family, friends, students, and colleagues what associations and connotations the expression 'Islamic authority' had for them.For many of them, it was related to the position of an Islamic scholar, or what is written in Islamic sources.This is understandable as many introductions to Islam present it as a relatively autonomous and well-defined and unambiguous set of norms, values, and rules.'Islam' refers to the written corpus of knowledge, the doctrine, and the institutional structure.The basic question that is then asked is: 'What does Islam say about …?' The premise is that the doctrine is the source, the blueprint, for the social order from which we must understand and explain it.Such sources are considered to be the essence of the Islamic creed, and the vast majority of Muslims do indeed accept them as authoritative, acknowledge their importance and regard them as a moral compass, so it is not very surprising that many non-Muslims take Thijl Sunier -978-90-04-68492-8

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