"Commitment" (iltizam) has become a nearly unquestioned keyword to discuss and describe what it means to be a good Muslim. It is most centrally advocated by the Salafi current. But why do some people try to become committed, while others are satisfied with holding the idea of commitment high without living it out? And why do people who take the path of commitment often find it very difficult to actually be committed, so that many if not most paths of commitment turn out to be short-lived? In this lecture, which is based on discussions with Muslims from Egypt whose experiments with Salafi commitment were short-lived, Samuli Schielke argues that we need to de-centre the focus on committed activists and instead look at the grounds and consequences of their activist experience.

Samuli Schielke is a research fellow at Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO), Berlin. His research focusses on everyday religiosity and morality, aspiration and frustration, and literary and creative trajectories in contemporary Egypt. His publications include “"Second Thoughts about the Anthropology of Islam, or how to make Sense of Grand Schemes in Everyday Life” and” "Boredom and Despair in Rural Egypt." In addition he has made ethnographic films and runs a blog, "You'll be late for the revolution!"

Lecture arranged by the Islamic Cultures and Societies Research Unit, icsru.au.dk.

Supported by the SATS research project and the program for Interdisciplinary research in religion.