Sacred Money. Faith and Finance in a Global Sufi Order
Nils Bubandt, Aarhus University, will present a paper on "Sacred Money. Faith and Finance in a Global Sufi Order".
Abstract
This presentation analyses the role of money in the Murabitun order, an
Islamic missionary movement that has established communities in
twenty-one countries throughout the world, and has attracted converts
from variety of backgrounds: Caribbean migrants in the UK, indigenous
people in Mexico, black town-dwellers in South Africa, and middle-class
European. Although small in numbers, the Murabitun order has become
influential on the Internet and has had considerable success in
disseminating its grand, if also idiosyncratic, design to topple the
current economic world system by the introduction of the Islamic gold
dinar to a number of political leaders in the Muslim world. The paper
will look at some of the surprising global links and secular-religious
entanglements of this movement that allow it to combine practices of
Sufi mysticism with a project of economic world renewal. By mixing
economic revolution and religious vision, the case provides an
ethnographic platform from which to rethink both conventional ideas
about the future of social movements and established social theories
about the relationship between faith and finance.
Cross-Cultural Seminars at ToRS
Every semester, six invited speakers will present a scholarly paper for academic staff and graduate students at ToRS (and other invited guests). The papers will be based on material from one of the regions covered by ToRS, but will - thematically or theoretically - also have a strong cross-cultural appeal. The aim is to encourage interest across disciplines at ToRS - and thereby strengthen scholarly discussion and cooperation - and to give us all a chance to get acquainted with scholars from outside the department.
Each presentation will last 45 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of discussion chaired by a person from ToRS. The seminars will take place every second Thursday from 15.15pm to 16.30pm in room U6. After each seminar, we will go for drinks and possibly dinner with the speaker. All participants are invited for this, but expenses will have to be covered by participants themselves.
Organizers: Andreas Bandak, Mikkel Bille and Lars Højer
September 15
Oscar Salemink (University of Copenhagen)
Sex and the Temple: Interlocking categorizations of sexuality, gender and the sacred in post-secular Vietnam
September 29
Brian Moeran (Copenhagen Business School)
Japanese Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in Japan
October 13
Ayo Wahlberg (University of Copenhagen)
Banking viability - reproduction and the sperm crisis in China
November 10
Nils Bubandt (Aarhus University)
Sacred Money. Faith and Finance in a Global Sufi Order
November 24
Dietrich Jung (University of Southern Denmark)
Max Weber and Sheikh Ahmad ibn Zayni al-Dahlan: Shaping modern knowledge on Islam
December 8
Michel Hockx (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)
Postsocialist Publishing: Internet Literature in China