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Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality and Politics Walaa Quisay Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023. 332 + x Pages.
The work under review offers a sociological and anthropological study of an influential current within Anglo-American Islam. Walaa Quisay analyses the discourse about tradition and modernity within this current. She contends that there is a concerning reactionary dimension to this discourse, especially with regards to race, gender, and political quietism. More specifically, she observes this reactionary dimension within the teachings of three white Muslim converts and their interactions with students and followers. This mostly political reading of one strand within Western neo-traditionalist Islam represents a notable contribution to the increasing scholarly literature on the topic. However, it falls short of the broad examination of an entire current, promised in the title.
Quisay s research inscribes itself in a growing body of scholarship about Western Muslims who represent themselves as "traditional." Some of this research focuses on the Perennialist strain, which understands Islam to be one of many traditional paths to salvation and spiritual realization. This current has been discussed in detail by Mark Sedgwick.1 It can be traced to the French metaphysician Rene Guenon, also known as Abd al-Wahid Yahya, who passed away in 1951. However, the current Quisay examines is influenced by Guenon without being committed to Perennialism.
Before Quisay's monograph, other works were written on this topic. Anglo-American non-Perennialist Muslim proponents of tradition are the subject of an article by Kasper Mathiesen, who contends that they represent a new denomination.2 In contrast, Brendan Newlon's dissertation depicts Neo-traditionalism in the United States as one of three networks which express distinct approaches to Islam, without representing formal groups, schools, sects, orders, or denominations.3 The other two networks he identifies are Progressive-Muslims and Salafism. To my knowledge, only one major scholarly work offers a detailed examination of both the Perennialist and non-Perennialist proponents of traditional Islam in the West.4
Quisay entered this emerging academic discussion by conducting extensive ethnographic fieldwork between 2015 and 2021. She interviewed forty "seekers of sacred knowledge" who attended spiritual retreats. Her findings focus on the power dynamics established between the seekers-many of whom were of African or Asian descent-and three white, English-speaking, converts to Islam: Abdal Hakim Murad, Umar Faruq...