Muscular Islam

{{Short description|Philosophy promoting physical fitness}}Muscular Islam is a sometimes used term to describe the push for physical fitness amongst Muslims.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m9J7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA330 |title=Ways of Knowing Muslim Cultures and Societies: Studies in Honour of Gudrun Krämer |date=2018-12-24 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-38689-1 |language=en}}{{Citation |last=Krawietz |first=Birgit |title=On Coming to Grips with Turkish Oil Wrestling: Conceptualising Muscular Islam and Islamic Martial Arts |date=2018-10-30 |work=Ways of Knowing Muslim Cultures and Societies |pages=327–354 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004386891/BP000021.xml |access-date=2024-03-21 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-38689-1}}

History

= Pre-colonial era =

Furusiyya, an ancient equestrian practice in the Muslim world, is argued by Birgit Krawietz to have been an early form of muscular Islam, with Turkish heritage wrestling being a modern-day extant furusiyya practice and major aspect of muscular Islam as practiced in Turkey.{{Cite journal |last=Fabian |first=Thomas |date=2021-03-17 |title=Endangered Species of the Physical Cultural Landscape: Globalization, Nationalism, and Safeguarding Traditional Folk Games |url=https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7701 |journal=Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository}}{{Cite book |last1=Vaczi |first1=Mariann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GgrWEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |title=Indigenous, Traditional, and Folk Sports: Contesting Modernities |last2=Bairner |first2=Alan |date=2023-10-06 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-98328-9 |language=en}}

= Colonial era =

{{See also|Western physical culture#Muscular religious nationalism}}

In Algeria and the Middle East, muscular Islam was promoted as a way of encouraging physical fitness, masculinity, and strength to execute anti-colonial resistance, as well as helping in nation-building and the encouragement of patriotism throughout the region.{{Citation |title=Muscular Reconstruction: Urban Leisure, Institutionalized Physical Education, and the Re-establishment of Boy Scouting (1940s–1960s) |date=2022 |work=Sport and Modernity in Late Imperial Ethiopia |pages=89–117 |editor-last=Bromber |editor-first=Katrin |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sport-and-modernity-in-late-imperial-ethiopia/muscular-reconstruction-urban-leisure-institutionalized-physical-education-and-the-reestablishment-of-boy-scouting-1940s1960s/A8D8A0929E70DEC66D30B845A4FB8558 |access-date=2024-03-21 |series=Eastern Africa Series |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |doi=10.1017/9781800103849.006 |isbn=978-1-80010-384-9|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Krais |first=Jakob |date=2019 |title=Muscular Muslims: Scouting in Late Colonial Algeria Between Nationalism and Religion |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |language=en |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=567–585 |doi=10.1017/S0020743819000679 |issn=0020-7438|doi-access=free }}{{Cite thesis |last=Hatchett |first=Diana |date=2021-01-01 |title=Captivating State: Youthful Dreams and Uncertain Futures in Kurdistan |url=https://uknowledge.uky.edu/anthro_etds/54 |journal=Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology |page=179 |doi=10.13023/etd.2021.198}}

= Post-colonial era =

File:With-chukhe wrestling championship of Iran - Tehran 1.jpg

In Indonesia, muscular Islam and the need for a return to Islamic values by any means necessary, including jihad, was promoted by Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo, who led revolts against the national government as Imam of Darul Islam in the early post-colonial era.{{Cite book |last=Ramakrishna |first=Kumar K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=noPDEAAAQBAJ&pg=PR70 |title=Radical Pathways: Understanding Muslim Radicalization in Indonesia |date=2009-03-20 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-37220-9 |language=en}}

In Iran, muscular Islam was the dominant state philosophy towards sporting activities in the 1980s and 90s, with traditional sports such as pahlevani and zoorkhaneh rituals taking center stage, and activities such as chess being banned because of their alleged association with gambling.

Within various communities

= Muslim diaspora in the West =

Basketball has been used by the South Asian Muslim-Americans to encourage manliness.{{Cite book |last=Thangaraj |first=Stanley I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXbVCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |title=Desi Hoop Dreams: Pickup Basketball and the Making of Asian American Masculinity |date=2015-06-26 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-6093-2 |language=en}}

Football has been theorized to have been played by the Muslim diaspora in Britain as a way to fight Islamophobia.{{Cite book |last=Burdsey |first=Daniel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QCmtAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT134 |title=Race, Ethnicity and Football: Persisting Debates and Emergent Issues |date=2012-01-25 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-72688-0 |language=en}}