Contesting Visions of Modernity in Ghanaian Salafis’ Islamic Reform

Abstract

This article re-interrogates the complex conceptions and debates concerning ideas of modernity expressed by Salafi leaders in Ghana between the 1970s and the 1980s. Previous research has suggested that the Salafi movement in Ghana, as in other parts of West Africa, inspired the appropriation of some ideas associated with modernity to help develop Muslim communities, and reinforce the appeal of their arguments against opponents. Arguing that while the Qur’ānic censure of reprehensible innovations (bid’a) is incompatible with material ideas of progress, they insisted that, if carefully analyzed, some modern ideas may in fact be consistent with the Qur’ān. This article presents a case study of two Muslim groups belonging to the broader Salafi movement in Ghana. It analyses the relationship between Salafi clerics trained in traditional and classical Islamic texts (‘ulamā), and the Western-educated scholars, referred to here as modernists, in the Islamic Research and Reformation Centre (IRRC) and their respective attitudes toward modernity. While this study highlights that these two groups of reformers both appropriated modern ideas for administrative efficiency, they differed among themselves on whether the Islamic reform project should engage in opportunities in the secular milieu, or solely focus on eradicating religious unorthodoxy. The study concludes that the ‘ulamā consciously navigated a complex balance between appropriating secular ideals for Islamic reform while asserting the relevance of eradicating what they believed to be unacceptable religious innovations that verged on apostasy.