Shari’a on Multiple Belongings, Transnational Loyalties, and Calls for Jihad

This chapter analyses the transnational loyalties that Muslim communities feel towards their origin countries, the need and sense of belonging in the host countries, the identity crisis that religious and civic obligations may bring, as well as their perceived duties towards their origin country, their host country, as well as a global community of Muslims. Among the most hotly debated topic in this discussion is the notion of jihad, which this chapter looks at its theological, practical, and legal understandings and interpretations. The chapter shows that there is no single mode of being Muslim, as different lines of Shari’a interpretation and various other factors influence how individuals connect themselves to the broader Muslim community and how they perceive their sense of belonging and loyalty to the state in which they reside.