In this paper, we consider anthropology's long and, at times, problematic engagement with the study of Islam and Muslim societies. Specifically, we reflect critically on ongoing anthropological debates about the relationship between Islam and politics and suggest new terms of analysis. Although we pay attention to the state and formal politics, involving various social actors and organizations, we are also interested in everyday politics and micropolitics, arenas where anthropology proves especially adept. It is at the intersection of these multiple levels and where the field of politics is constituted in practice that we situate the analytical focus of the anthropology of Islam and politics in this Special Issue of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Résumé Les auteurs s’intéressent ici à la longue, et parfois problématique histoire, de l’étude de l’islam et des sociétés musulmanes par l’anthropologie. L’accent est mis plus précisément sur une réflexion critique relative aux débats anthropologiques actuels sur les liens entre islam et politique, et sur l’exploration de nouveaux termes d’analyse. Tout en prêtant de l’attention à l’État et aux institutions politiques, impliquant différents acteurs sociaux et organisations, nous nous intéressons également à la politique au quotidien et à la micropolitique, domaines dans lesquels l’anthropologie s’avère particulièrement compétente. C’est à l’intersection de ces multiples niveaux, et là où le champ du politique est constitué dans la pratique, que nous situons le point focal de l’analyse anthropologique de l’islam et du politique dans ce numéro spécial du Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

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In this paper, I am concerned with understanding the recent efforts to reform the laws governing marriage and inheritance, the code de la famille or the Family Code in Mali. Since the advent of multiparty elections in the 1990s, prominent members of the Malian government and civil servants, Malian women's rights activists, secular NGOs, and international and bilateral donors have made efforts to promote various social reforms, including the advancement of women's rights and the promotion of gender equality, particularly through changes in the Family Code. While some observers have attributed the lack of reform to the increased influence of "Islamists" and/or to religiously conservative Muslims, I draw on historical research and ethnography to propose an alternative reading of the lack of institutional law reform. As I argue, the gap between Malian civil law relating to the family and the lived experiences and social practices of many Malians, who are overwhelmingly Muslim, has become even more apparent in this era of political liberalization and promotion of global human rights discourses. is has helped to make such proposed social reforms as the promotion of women's rights and

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Much recent scholarship about Islam among youth has tended to privilege so-called political Islam or Islamism and the radicalization of Muslim youth. In this chapter, I shift the focus away from such objects of study to consider a new Islamic organization in Nigeria called NASFAT (Nasr Allah al-Fatih Society of Nigeria) that exhibits some features of a social movement. NASFAT also clearly illustrates the influence of Pentecostalism on Muslim religious practice with some even referring to the organization as 'Islamic Pentecostalism'. NASFAT's founders intended the organization to be both non-sectarian and non-political. Like some other modern Islamic movements, NASFAT has focused on questions of piety and ethics and has been very active in social and economic activities. However, NASFAT's development of business activities, which it has sought to explicitly link with Islam, has been rather distinctive, helping to define it as an Islamic social movement. Given the limited attention to such contemporary Islamic organizations and social movements, which challenge some conventional terms and categories of analysis of Islam, Muslim youth and social movements, the chapter is a preliminary attempt to trace