Moderate Fundamentalists

Muhammad Afzal Upal

Open Access Published by De Gruyter Open Poland 2017

Moderate Fundamentalists

Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at in the Lens of Cognitive Science of Religion

Muhammad Afzal Upal

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110556643

Overview
Contents

About this book

Open Access

In the mid 1950s, a British taxi driver named George King claimed that Budha, Jesus, and Lao Tzu had been alien “cosmic masters” who had come to earth to teach mankind the right way to live. Sun Myung Moon claimed that Korean people are descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. Joseph Smith claimed that some lost tribes of Israel had moved to Americas hundreds of years ago. All three people successfully founded new religious movements that have survived to this day. How and why do some people come up with such seemingly strange and bizarre ideas and why do others come to place their faith in these ideas? The first part of this book develops a multidisciplinary theoretical framework drawn from cognitive science of religion and social psychology to answer these critically important questions. The second part of the book illustrates how this theoretical framework can be used to understand the origin and evolution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at founded by an Indian Muslim in 1889. The book breaks new ground by studying the influence that religious beliefs of 19th century reformist Indian Muslims, in particular, founders of the Ahl-e-Hadith movement, had on the beliefs of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at. Using the theoretical framework developed in part I, the book also explains why many north Indian Sunni Muslims found Ahmad’s ideas to be irresistible and why the movement split into two a few years Ahmad’s death. The book will interest those who want to understand cults as well as those who want to understand reformist Islamic movements.

Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at, Cognitive Science of Religion, New Religious Movements

Author information

Muhammad Afzal, Upal, Toronto, Canada

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Acknowledgement Open Access Download PDF	VII
1 Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
2 Tribal Gods: My God Is Better than Yours Open Access Download PDF	25
3 Social Identity Change Entrepreneurs Open Access Download PDF	32
4 Attraction of the New Open Access Download PDF	41
5 Social Counterintuiveness Open Access Download PDF	69
6 Shared Beliefs of Northwestern Indian Muslims Open Access Download PDF	77
7 Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Open Access Download PDF	107
8 Ratcheting Up of Counterintuitiveness in Ahmadiyya Doctrine Open Access Download PDF	141
9 Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	156
Endnotes Open Access Download PDF	162
Glossary of Arabic/Urdu Terms Open Access Download PDF	165
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	168
Subject Index Open Access Download PDF	178
Person Index Open Access Download PDF	180
Geographic Index Open Access Download PDF	181

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Open Poland
Audience: Scholars of Cognitive Science of Religion, Scholars of New Religious Movements, Scholars of Islam
Pages
- Main content: 190
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 9
- Tables: 6
Keywords: Cognitive Science of Religion; Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at; New Religious Movements

eBook

Published: September 11, 2017
ISBN: 9783110556643

Hardcover

Published: September 11, 2017
ISBN: 9783110556483