Anthropologist Blank lived in Mumbai, India, with members of the orthodox Shi'a Muslim denomination known as Daudi Bohra. "Over the past two decades," he writes, "the Bohra clergy has attempted with great success to establish a communal identity that is at once universally Islamic and unique to the denomination. Moreover, it has done so not by rejecting modern or Western ideas and technologies, but by embracing them: the Bohras have used modernity as a tool to reinvigorate their core traditions. The case study of the Bohras should serve as a powerful refutation to those who would essentialize Islamic revivalism, or even (to use a more ideologically laden term) Islamic fundamentalism." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
In Jonah Blank's important, myth-shattering book, the West gets its first look at the Daudi Bohras, a unique Muslim denomination who have found the core of their religious beliefs largely compatible with modern ideology. Combining orthodox Muslim prayer, dress, and practice with secular education, relative gender equality, and Internet use, this community serves as a surprising reminder that the central values of "modernity" are hardly limited to the West.
In Jonah Blank's important, myth-shattering book, the West gets its first look at the Daudi Bohras, a unique Muslim denomination who have found the core of their religious beliefs largely compatible with modern ideology. Combining orthodox Muslim prayer, dress, and practice with secular education, relative gender equality, and Internet use, this community serves as a surprising reminder that the central values of "modernity" are hardly limited to the West.
