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Debating Debate in Northern Afghanistan
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Marsden presented his ethnographic work in Afghanistan, which seeks to document the role of critical thinking which challenges global stereotypes about Muslims and adds to the scholarly debate about Muslim agency. |
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Dr Magnus Marsden, a Senior Lecturer at SOAS, lecturing in Social Anthropology with reference to South and Central Asia, presented a lecture entitled Debating Debate in Northern Afghanistan on 20 May.
Marsden’s ethnographic work in Afghanistan seeks to document the distinct importance placed on critical thinking which challenges global stereotypes about Muslims, and adds to the scholarly debate about Muslim agency.
Marsden has conducted a considerable amount of field-based research in Chitral, Northern Pakistan, exploring the anthropology of Islam.
Marsden’s presentation explored his current research, which looks at people living in northern areas of Afghanistan, some of whom were refugees in Pakistan.
“In 2005, I made the first of five field-work visits to Afghanistan, on which this paper is based. I spent much time speaking to Dari-speaking Afghan refugees, many who had lived in Chitral since 1979.”
In Chitral, Marsden’s work had focused on the complex local perceptions of Muslim virtuosity, and the centrality of displays of critical intellect within the context of debates and discussions.
This, Marsden noted, ensured that village life was intellectually stimulating. Participation in these exchanges was seen to be a mark of great prestige, and a display of not only Muslim virtuosity but a fully realised humanity.
Through his research, Marsden seeks to document the local insights, generated from local practices of debate, and what these offer into understanding everyday life in this predominantly Muslim context.
“Worldly and non-worldly knowledge is a well documented element of the Islamic tradition which shapes local understandings of being Muslim in both rural and urban settings.”
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The audience included members of AKU-ISMC's faculty and staff, as well as students and guests of the Institute. |
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“Mass communication and e-media, moreover, have stimulated more public debate about Islam, especially concerning its relationship to modern life.”
Marsden noted a number of ethnographic considerations, however, concerning the varying attitudes that Muslims living in particular contexts hold towards debate.
There has been intense scholarly debate about ‘Muslim agency’ and the different forms of debates among Muslims. However, other ethical standpoints which argue from collective positions that do not necessarily represent Islam, have received little attention.
Marsden noted that a comparative study of debates placed in the sociality of Muslim majority countries is of critical importance. Global stereotypes have depicted Muslims as being unable to think rationally or ironically, and so too have anthropologists focused on the embodied experience of ‘submission’ in the context of Muslim selfhood or agency.
“Western modes of subjectivity which associate agency with an inner ego associated with thought and desire do not merely reflect European assumptions.”
“The idea that humans should think critically is central to the inculcations, according to these scholars, of so called liberal forms of secular citizenship.”
Marsden’s work illustrates that critical thinking is not absent even from the minds of pious Muslims, who wish to follow an Islamic framework, and experience total submission to God.
The different values that people attach to critical thought should be differentiated by anthropologists; for example, pious Muslims do think critically about their own lives, but with the aim of seeking God’s approval above all else.
These studies help to show how some Muslims inculcate ethical norms, and help to unearth the principles on which Western models of agency are based.
Marsden noted the capacity of many of his informants to talk about the ways that their lives are shaped by particular sets of circumstances; in the eyes of these people, a marker not only of their Muslimness, but also their humanity.
In conclusion, Marsden noted that his research indicates that there are ways of being Muslim that exist in secular society and spheres, without actually being secular. In addition, Marsden notes a general disenfranchisement with systems which see the continued dominance of elite members of society along neo-patrimonial lines.
“These Muslims do not merely cope with conditions; they consider the capacity to reflect on their positions to live as well as they can in Afghanistan today. Many young men do ask themselves what it means to be a Muslim (morally) and they see themselves as ‘moral’.”
“A key dimension of the everyday life of my informants is to interrogate the world. Some have set to the task of perfectly embodying Islamic values, others seeking moral reflection.”
What is important, Marsden emphasised, is the importance of acknowledging the diverse range of reactions within this spectrum. Indeed, this acts as a reminder about the degree to which debates about survival and self-reflection among Muslims are just as important as those about what it means to be Muslim.
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