Negotiating Muslim–Christian Relations in Kenya through Waqfs, 1900–2010
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Date
2017-07-27
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Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
Waqfs provided socio-economic security for the progeny of
endowers and for other social welfare causes. Being thus
guaranteed socio-economic well-being, these beneficiaries were
antithetical to ruling elites in Muslim dynasties and Christian
colonial powers, which led to the establishment of policies and
institutions to control waqfs and check their growing influence.
This development was not only counter to normative precepts but
also set minority Muslims in predominantly Christian societies at
odds with non-Muslim states. To what extent did civil policies and
judgements influence waqfs? How did Muslims negotiate the
secular state constructs vis-à-vis waqf practices? How did secular
state control of waqfs influence the dynamics of Christian–Muslim
relations? This discussion, based on ethnographic research in
Kenyan coastal areas, employs two theoretical frameworks –
Asad’s ‘Islam as a discursive tradition’ and Scott’s concept of
‘symbolic (ideological) resistance’. The article draws mainly on the
perspective of the Muslim minority in Kenya and argues that state
control of waqfs in Kenya did not only interfere with normative
practices but also partly laid the ground for the present-day
economic and political marginalization and exclusion of Muslims,
leading to suspicion and ambiguous relations with their Christian
compatriots
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Keywords
Waqfs; resource control; resistance; inter-faith relation