Citizenship in the Writings of a Post-Islamist Ex-Muslim Brother: The Case of Ruhayyil Gharayiba

Abstract

The literature on post-Islamism has paid little attention to citizenship and has largely ignored how conceptual reform on this topic is supported by reinterpretations of the sharia. This article addresses this issue by focussing on the Jordanian ex-Muslim Brother Ruhayyil Gharayiba, who has been at the forefront of post-Islamist reform in his country, including with regard to citizenship. Based on an extensive reading of Gharayiba’s own work in Arabic as well as multiple interviews with him, it seeks to answer the following question: to what extent and how has Gharayiba built a conceptual as well as a legal basis for his post-Islamist ideas on citizenship and what does this tell us about the development of post-Islamism in relation to Asef Bayat’s writings on the subject? It shows that Gharayiba is, indeed, a post-Islamist and uses concepts on citizenship similar to those used by Egyptian post-Islamists, but goes further by also providing legal support for his views and pushing beyond the idea of a “civil state with an Islamic authority”. As such, the example of Gharayiba concurs with Bayat’s writings on post-Islamism, showing that continued religiosity can be combined with reform that goes beyond even that of the wasatiyya.