Sunnī Higher Education: Can it be liberal?

Abstract

Research on university experiences has been neglected by anthropologists and social scientists. As more and more young people leave their homes to study and work, a better understanding of the spaces that they inhabit, universities are essential for understanding transitions to adulthood. In this spirit this chapter undertakes the study of one such educational institution, the International Islamic University of Islamabad, Pakistan. The chapter seeks to highlight how in many ways the experiences of Islamic University students are similar to those of students in higher education elsewhere, i.e., in learning to live with each other’s differences. The chapter also highlights the factors which make the experiences of Islamic University students distinctive given the plethora of Sunnī revivalist movements active on the university campus competing for adherents. At the Islamic University, students learnt to live by the wisdom, and practice the rituals, inspired by Islam and the Islamic knowledge traditions that they studied. These shared experiences led them to feel part of the global Muslim community ummah, while other factors like educational and cultural background, political (sectarian) inclination, and gender pulled them apart. The chapter is an investigation of how students balanced these opposing forces of harmony and dissonance in their everyday lives at the university.