Rivals in the Gulf: Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Abdullah Bin Bayyah, and the Qatar–UAE Contest Over the Arab Spring and the Gulf Crisis By David H. Warren

Abstract

Rivals in the Gulf is a tale of two men in two cities—and much more. David H. Warren skillfully probes and answers questions about geopolitics and the nature of religious authority and political theology in a modern Islamic context by focusing on the lives and (a)political engagements of two Muslim religious scholars (ulema), namely the late Egyptian Azhari Yusuf al-Qaradawi (d. 2022) and Mauritanian neo-traditionalist ʿAbdallāh b. Bayyah in Doha, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, respectively. This short yet dense book is easy to follow with clear titles that tell the reader exactly what to expect to find in each chapter. The book is divided into two parts: the first explores al-Qaradawi’s life and scholarship (ch. 1), rise to fame in Qatar and his influence on the country’s foreign policy and global brand, especially through his appearances on the Qatari satellite channel al-Jazeera (chs. 1 and 2), and his legal (and personal) stances on the Arab Spring and revolutions in general (chs. 2 and 3); the second part explores Bin Bayyah’s life and relationship to the rulers of the UAE (chs. 4 and 5) and his response to the uprisings (ch. 5). The Arab Spring appears to be the climatic point in the stories of the two scholars and their respective political commitments. It is as the uprisings and their consequences become clear that the two scholars’ divergent views on rebellion, and obedience to those in authority, and the relationship between the scholars and the state unfold.