Page 148 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

Islamic Renewal, Radio, and the Surface of Things 133

as one option among others. Talal Asad (2003), similarly, sees secularism
not just as a negative process of disenchantment, or of the separation of
religion and politics, but as productive of the laws, modes of sociability,
and forms of life in contemporary societies. One way to think of Gumi and
Izala is to see them as exemplars of a modern religious movement shaped
by secularism. In this sense Gumi is as secular as anyone, not because he is
not religious, but because he articulates religion within a context of under-
standing shaped by secularism. Gumi’s renewal took the form of what we
see now as a public emphasizing debate and egalitarianism, and by critiqu-
ing inherited charisma and obedience. Media are central to the articula-
tion of this public by disseminating knowledge to social strangers rather
than passing down secret teachings to initiates, and also, of course,
because their institutional structures in colonial and postcolonial Nigeria
were themselves shaped by the norms of a public broadcast medium. What
makes Gumi and Izala “modern” to Nigerians is their use of technologies,
their connections to the wider Islamic world, their introduction of Salafi
ideas of renewal, their revolution in education, in modes of sociability, and
in religious practice. Gumi explicitly stages this public as a key aspect of
his legitimacy, and a main source of his distinction from traditional
Nigerian sheikhs.
What is important to recognize is that the claim to open debate and
equal access is as much a part of the presentation of a religious movement
used by its adherents as it is an evaluation of a state of affairs. In actuality
the split between Sufis and Salafis while fiercely constitutive of Nigerian
Islam over the past few decades is something that needs to be interrogated
and not just assumed. Because my focus in this chapter is to throw into
relief the role media play in shaping religious movements I have concen-
trated on those elements of distinction and difference. But Sufis were very
quick to adopt many elements of Salafi revivalism just as many Izala lead-
ers are insistent on hierarchy and reflexive loyalty. This rupture between
the two movements should be seen as a claim staged by participants in a
polemic while reflective of significant divisions can sometimes hide the
way these movements overlap.
I began this chapter by stating that many, if not most, people in Nigeria

view Gumi as a “modern” mallam and Izala as a “modern” religious move-
ment. This chapter has been an exploration into the role media played in
producing this sense of difference—the rupture that separates Gumi from
“local” mallams—and how the use of media signals a transformation in
Nigerian Islam. One theoretical lineage sees the distinction of media lying
in their ability to shape the contours of a new religious public, the opera-
tions of the medium shaped by theologies and political philosophies that
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dictate how media are to be used and for what purposes. In contrast to