Maktab Qur'an; Believers in the Nostalgia of Ummah; Case Study of Kurds in Iran

Abstract

In recent decades, Maktab Qur'an(MQ),founded by Ahmad Muftizadeh (Iranian Sunni Kurdish scholar and political activist) in 1977,as the oldest Iranian Sunni Islamist group, has experienced different phases in its evolution, bothstructurally and discursively. In this study,using grounded theory,we have examined the social mechanisms affecting Iranian Sunni Kurds' tendency to Islamist movements (MQ as the case study, in the fourth phase of its structural evolution since1995). This study argues a major reason for Sunni Kurds’ orientation to Maktabis a tendency among people to live in a "community", and what makes this community ideal is a collective life that strengthenspersonal relationships and collective solidarity. Also, the dominant social relationships in society have moved toward a kind of "societal" relationshipcharacterized by impersonal relationships, alienation and increasing individualism. In this study it is argued that while the influence of societal world is increasing, some of its alienated inhabitants try to leave it and dwell in a new community. Therefore, currently, due to lack of other supportive structures in today's Iranian society, MQ, with its community-like characteristics, functions as a kind of haven for Iranian Sunni Kurds who feel alienated from the individualistic society.This is a new kind of "Hijra" in our modern era, which is not place-based but is rather characterized by transformations in Maktabi Muslims’ social ties and beliefs, which virtually provide them with a new Ummah–MaktabQur’an–to live in.

Keywords

• collectivism
• community
• individualism
• islamist movements
• society