Introduction

Chapter 1 familiarises readers with key concepts, ideas and theoretical frameworks associated with religious authority. The chapter details the theological, historical and scholarly arguments concerning Islam’s decentralised religious tradition. While describing this background, the chapter explains the rise of the ulama class in the formative and classical periods of Islam, and their role as the chief interpreters and guardians of Islam’s sacred scriptures. The introduction notes the impact of colonialism, modernisation reforms and state co-option of ulama in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It provides a background on the rise of new intellectual and social movements challenging the ulama’s presumed monopoly on religious authority. Against this background, the chapter identifies the lack of empirical research on the cultivation of Muslim religious authorities in the West, and Australia in particular. In identifying this gap, the book outlines four main objectives: how Muslims perceive and articulate Islamic religious authority; (2) the cultivation of Muslim religious authorities in Australia and abroad; (3) how religious authority is exercised and conveyed; (4) and finally, the extent religious actors and institutions compete for religious authority.