A moment of persuasion: travelling preachers and Islamic pedagogy in the Netherlands

In this article, I examine the discursive as well as embodied and sensorial forms of persuasion that undergird the formation of religious authority, Islamic authority in the Netherlands more specifically. I argue that particular momentary occasions can play important roles in facilitating the mobili...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Culture and religion
Main Author: Beekers, Daan (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis [2015]
In: Culture and religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Netherlands / Islam / Authority / Itinerant preacher / Influence / Aesthetics / Religious pedagogy
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AE Psychology of religion
AH Religious education
BJ Islam
KBD Benelux countries
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:In this article, I examine the discursive as well as embodied and sensorial forms of persuasion that undergird the formation of religious authority, Islamic authority in the Netherlands more specifically. I argue that particular momentary occasions can play important roles in facilitating the mobilisation of these discursive and non-discursive forms of persuasion. Based on a close reading of an event I participated in during my fieldwork among young Muslims in the Netherlands, the analysis focuses on such a key moment of persuasion, paradoxically characterised by a preacher's apparently failed attempt at conversion. Despite this failure, this preacher can be seen to have succeeded in offering his young Muslim audience a model of how to be a Muslim and of how to represent Islam to non-Muslims. Apart from contributing to anthropological debates on Islamic authority in Europe and religious persuasion more generally, I discuss an important new type of Islamic leaders - referred to here as 'travelling preachers' - and the new kinds of youth-centred settings of religious learning in which they operate.
ISSN:1475-5610
Contains:Enthalten in: Culture and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2015.1058530