Abstract
Since the great Iranian revolution of 1978-79, there has been a significant increase in
Islamic consciousness and activity in Muslim communities across the globe. As a
phenomenon it has become known as Islamic revivalism . Its hallmark is a return to
Islamic origins, the fundamentals of the faith embodied in the Qur an and the sunnah
(sayings and practices of Prophet Muhammad). Contemporary Islamic revivalism has its
roots in Muslim responses to European colonialism and imperialism at the turn of the
twentieth century, when the darker sides of modernity began to reveal themselves in what
was perceived as less than desirable social, cultural, economic, and political conditions of
many Muslim communities and societies.
Islamic revivalism has constantly featured in Islamic history and is by no means a new
phenomenon. What distinguishes contemporary Islamic revivalism from earlier
revivalisms is its complex multifacetedness as a defensive reaction to a new epoch of
modernity described in revivalist circles as jahiliyah (ignorance). This thesis argues there
is a central relationship between modernity and Islamic revivalism. Using in-depth
interviews and participant observation techniques this study is an ethnography of the
Tablighi Jamaat (Preaching Party), a transnational Islamic revivalist movement active in
Sydney. It also seeks to locate the Tablighi Jamaat in the spectrum of Australian Islam.
The principal argument of the thesis is that contemporary Islamic revivalism is a
defensive reaction to modernity. Contrary to popular belief it neither constitutes an antimodernity
nor does it seek to destroy modernity. Rather, it highlights that Muslims as
adherents to a revealed tradition - Islam - are in a serious state of crisis. They are
confronted with both material crisis and the threat of losing their faith and identity in
modernity. Through a study of the Tablighi Jamaat the thesis argues that contemporary
Islamic revivalism is, therefore, an attempt to rescue Muslims from their modern malaise
through selective use of modern ideological and technical means.