Guests of God: Pilgrimage and Politics in the Islamic World

by Robert Bianchi

Overview

Each year, about two million pilgrims from over 100 countries converge on the Islamic holy city of Mecca for the hajj. While the hajj is first and foremost a religious festival, it is also very much a political event. No government can resist the temptation to manipulate the hajj for political and economic gain. Every large Muslim state has developed a comprehensive hajj policy and a powerful bureaucracy to enforce it. The Muslim world's leading multinational organization, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has established the first international regime explicitly devoted to pilgrimage. Yet, Robert Bianchi argues, no secular or religious authority - national or international - can really control the hajj. State-sponsored pilgrimage management consistently backfires, giving government opponents valuable ammunition and allowing them to manipulate the symbols and controversies of the hajj to their own ends. Bianchi has been researching the hajj for over ten years and draws on interviews with and data from hajj directors in five Muslim countries (Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia, and Nigeria), statistics from Saudi Arabian hajj authorities, as well as his personal experience as a pilgrim. The result is the most complete picture of the hajj available anywhere, and a wide-ranging work on Islam, politics, and power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195342116
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/25/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

University of Chicago and has taught political science at the American University in Cairo, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Chicago. He is the author of Interest Groups and Political Development in Turkey (1984) and Unruly Corporatism: Associational Life in Twentieth-Century Egypt (1989). He made the hajj in 1989.

Table of Contents

List of TablesList of FiguresIntroduction1. What Is the Hajj and How Does Anyone Survive It? 2. What Does the Hajj Mean? 3. Pilgrimage and Power4. The Growth of the Hajj: Global and Regional Trends5. Pakistan: "Why Would Our Hajjis Vote Against Us? 6. Malaysia: The Broken Piggy Bank7. Turkey: The Belated Quest for Religious Tolerance8. Indonesia: Greening the Pancasila State9. Nigeria: "One Nation, Under God"10. The West Is Not Alone: The Hajj in World Politics and Law

Editorial Reviews

"Readable, informative, and often funny this book is appropriate for undergraduate courses in religion, politics, and international affairs; policy makers and journalists seeking understanding of the Hajj's central role in both religious and political life in the Muslim world; and general readers curious about Islam and its most important ritual." —The Historian

"Interesting and wide-ranging."—The Times Literary Supplement

"...a remarkable book that delivers more than its title even begins to suggest."—CHOICE

"...a work of great learning and of astute political and social analysis, written in a direct and jargon-free style that is a joy to read....an achievement remarkable for its learning, its sophistication, its acuity and its sheer lucidity."—F.E. Peters, Middle East and Islamic Studies, New York University

"Guests of God, the fruit of a personal pilgrimage in 1989 (do not miss the pages recounting that) and more than a decade of research throughout the Muslim world, is a beautifully wrought study that tells much about the hajj and more."—Foreign Affairs

"This is a masterful study of the Hajj, one of the greatest human experiences of our time, in historical, social scientific and legal perspectives, ranging from global thematic issues to detailed case studies. Bianchi combines fascinating narrative, accessible prose, and wealth of information with sophisticated analysis, insightful scholarship, and clarity of presentation. A highly instructive and inspiring contribution to possibilities of international peaceful cooperation at the present creative moment in human history."—Abdullahi An-Na'im, author of Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law

"Robert Bianchi's Guests of God is a unique and masterful treatment of the politicization of the hajj, pilgrimage to Mecca, and its global significance. Based on extensive field research and data, this is a definitive and critical study, must-reading for those who wish to understand the continuing role of the hajj from Nigeria to Indonesia in Muslim belief, politics and international relations." —John L. Esposito, author of Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam

"Robert Bianchi describes the Hajj as 'magical'. Guests of God is no less so. Melding social science analysis, history, public policy, Islamic studies, personal narrative, and travelogue Bianchi takes his readers on a Hajj of their own. From Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Nigeria, and elsewhere Bianchi reveals the mechanics, the politics, and the spiritual dimensions of perhaps the world's greatest regularized movement of people. Relying on brilliant scholarship, elegant writing, and rare insight this book is truly a colossal achievement." —Jerrold D. Green, Director of International Programs and Development and Director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy, RAND

From the Publisher

A career CIA analyst and the author of Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, "Anonymous" was granted permission to publish both books provided he was not named (though he has since been identified). In a somewhat repetitive style-with too many words wasted lining up other specialists for praise or condemnation rather than setting out his own case-he makes the following arguments. Bin Laden is not a madman but a rational strategist who says what he believes and acts on it. He is well regarded throughout the Muslim world. Al Qaeda hates us not for who we are but for where we are. So, too, does most of the Muslim world. The United States' propping up of unpopular Middle Eastern regimes and unflagging support for Israel weakens its hand in the region. Washington should have struck against al Qaeda in Afghanistan immediately after September 11 and should have finished the job there rather than turning to Iraq. These arguments might seem to lead to a prescription for a fine-tuned U.S. strategy of isolating al Qaeda and weakening its appeal to the Muslim masses by changing U.S. policies and building coalitions with Middle Eastern and other states. But not for Anonymous: this is war, he writes, and "we must kill many thousands of these fighters." Exactly how to engage in such a war (as opposed to a persistent police action) against tiny, mobile pockets of fighters spread all over the world and connected via the Internet is not clear.

Foreign Affairs