Geneaologies of Progressive Islam in South Africa: an Intellectual History of the Claremont Main Road Mosque

Objective

"This research aims to retrace the intellectual genealogy of progressive Islam in the context of South Africa, observed from a transnational perspective; the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town (CMRM) is chosen as the case study. CMRM is a historical Capetonian mosque that, in the early 80s, became a nodal point in the transnational circulation of Muslim progressive intellectual discourses and practices. The mosque made world history on August 14th, 1994, when Amina Wadud was invited to deliver a sermon to the Friday congregation: it was the first time in modern history for a woman to do so. The term “gender jihad”, which the mosque's imam Rashied Omar coined in the aftermath of the event and that Wadud has since adopted and popularized, is now used worldwide as an alternative to “Islamic feminism"" and yet the intellectual and historical landscape that shaped the action and the coinage of the term has received very little scholarly attention. Taking the ""Amina Wadud moment"" as a watershed date, this project this project intends to pursue two main objectives: 1. Retrace the intellectual development and historical circumstances that paved the way for this event 2. Explore the effects that the democratic transition and the subsequent years had on CMRM’s discourse By exploring the Claremont Main Road Mosque's post-Apartheid discourse in its five key dimensions (the empowerment of youth, the gender jihad, jihad against poverty, interfaith dialogue, and environmental justice), and by retracing its historical background and intellectual genealogy, this project aims to give a significant contribution to the field of modern Muslim intellectual and exegetical history. The value of this project is not only theoretical: it seeks to offer insights and recommendations that can guide policymakers and civil society organizations in fostering social justice and diversity and in contrasting religious illiteracy and radicalization. "