The Idea of the Caliphate
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2014
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What is a caliphate? What ideals does such an Islamic state embody - and how could or should it be implemented? Analysis consults a range of voices to explore how the concept has evolved and has been expressed over the centuries. Edward Stourton talks to historians, religious scholars and political thinkers who offer their perspectives on caliphates of the past, the revivalist rhetoric of the present and the beliefs shared by many Muslims about its future return.
Contributors: Prof Hugh Kennedy, School of Oriental and African Studies Sheikh Ruzwan Mohammed, Sunni theologian and scholar Rebecca Mastertron, Shiite commentator Dr Reza Pankhurst, author, "The Inevitable Caliphate?" Dr Caroline Finkel, author, "Osman's Dream: the History of the Ottoman Empire" Dr Salman Sayyid, Leeds University, author, "Recalling the Caliphate" Dr Abdou Filali Ansary, Aga Khan University
Presenter: Edward Stourton Producer: Polly Hope.
Transcript
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| 0:38.6 | For over 40 years, analysis has been examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad. |
| 0:45.6 | I'm Edward Sturtin and in this programme I'll be exploring the idea of the caliphate. |
| 0:50.9 | What has it been been |
| 0:53.0 | global Islamic State meant in the past? |
| 0:55.0 | Why has it been resurrected in today's politics |
| 0:58.0 | and how might it influence the future? |
| 1:16.5 | And they were firm against the enemies of Allah and he made them powerful in the land until the declaration of the caliphate and choice of an imam. The group which styles itself Islamic State has given us plenty to be shocked and confused about, but perhaps most bewildering of all |
| 1:25.9 | was its leaders declaration that he's the Caliph, the successor of the Prophet Muhammad, |
| 1:30.5 | and that it's the duty of Muslims everywhere to establish a new caliphate to govern Muslim lands. |
| 1:36.0 | And this is a matter of liberty for all Muslims. It's an obligation and it must be applied |
| 1:45.4 | upon the earth entirely. If you were listening attentively you may already have heard |
| 1:51.1 | the word bubbling up during the last decade or so in the |
| 1:54.3 | battle cries of the West during the Bush-Blair era of the war on terror. |
| 1:58.6 | They hope to establish a violent political utopia across the Middle East, which they call a caliphate. |
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