Dominik Műller
Biographic Data
| ID | 4027122 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dominik Műller |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dominik |
| FAMILY NAME | Műller |
| SIGNATURE | MULLER D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Goethe University Frankfurt |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7234-4916 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 21 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective
This text provides a translated, revised and curtailed version of the original research proposal that led to the foundation of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich- AlexanderUniversität Erlangen-Nürnberg ( CAS-E ). The text discusses the pitfalls of the notion of ‘esotericism’ and provides a working definition of ‘esoteric practices.’ CAS-E ’s praxeological turn …
Afterword – Global Esotericism
In this afterword, the directors of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ ( CAS-E ) at Friedrich- Alexander-Universität offer a brief response to the comments by Carole Cusack, Mark Q. Gardiner, Steven Engler, Wouter Hanegraaff, Elizabeth McAlister, Jason Josephson Storm, and Hugh Urban. Reflecting on various theoretical and methodological discussions within CAS-E , particular…
I never intended to become an imam
Redesigning Justice for Plural Societies
Beyond the Sharia State
This article describes post-colonial state-making in the absolute monarchy of Brunei. After detailing the Sultan's powers, contextualizing the monarchy's stability, and introducing its state ideology, Melayu Islam Beraja ("MIB"), the article addresses formal laws, such as Brunei's Constitution and a new Islamic penal code, which are symbolically significant for the MIB state's (self-)legitimation but have little immediate relevance to many Brunei…
Appropriating and contesting ‘traditional Islam’
Based on an ethnographic case study of an Islamic university in Russia, I examine how the state-implemented and bureaucratized traditionalization of Islam in Russia affects the everyday life of Central Asian students and how this project ‘from above’ is entangled with their coping strategies. I show how religious education has become a resource for the state as well as for young students and their parents. The Russian state uses these official re…
Appropriating and contesting ‘traditional Islam’
Based on an ethnographic case study of an Islamic university in Russia, I examine how the state-implemented and bureaucratized traditionalization of Islam in Russia affects the everyday life of Central Asian students and how this project ‘from above’ is entangled with their coping strategies. I show how religious education has become a resource for the state as well as for young students and their parents. The Russian state uses these official re…
Bureaucratic Islam Compared
This article presents a comparative anthropological approach to studying the bureaucratization of Islam in contemporary Southeast Asia. In line with this approach, the article understands the bureaucratization of Islam not simply as a formalization, expansion, and diversification of Islamic institutions and legal frameworks; rather, bureaucratization is investigated as a social phenomenon that transcends its organizational boundaries and informs …
The Bureaucratisation of Islam in Southeast Asia
Special Issue on this topic. In their specific local contexts, state- and non-state projects of bureaucratising Islam are driven by very different socio-political motivations and conditioned by equally different (albeit often interconnected and overlapping) historical trajectories and their discursive substrates. In this special issue, we examine this transnationally and transregionally observable phenomenon in the context of Southeast Asia, wher…
Hybrid Pathways to Orthodoxy in Brunei Darussalam
This article investigates the bureaucratisation of Islam in Brunei and its interlinkages with socio-cultural changes. It elucidates how realisations of state-enforced Islamic orthodoxy and purification produce locally unique meanings, while simultaneously reflecting much broader characteristics of the contemporary global condition. The article first introduces a theoretical perspective on the bureaucratisation of Islam as a social phenomenon that…
Brunei Darussalam in 2016
Brunei continued in 2016 to suffer from declining oil and gas prices. The budget deficit grew. The Sultan made economic diversification and “prudent spending” the year’s central political themes. He criticized several government institutions during “surprise visits” and sharply attacked the Ministry of Religious Affairs for “delaying” the full enforcement of an Islamic legal reform
Taming the Wild
Often viewed as a normalised colonial legacy, static notions of race and indigeneity are integral to mainstream identity politics in contemporary Malaysia. Political discourse is obsessed with the
From Consultancy to Critique
The administration of Islamic alms (zakat) funds in Malaysia underwent spectacular transformations since the 1990s, shaped by the appropriation of marketized forms of management and a skyrocketing growth of collection and distribution rates. Simultaneously, local zakat funds are increasingly used to pursue targets of sustainable poverty reduction, such as the empowerment of micro-entrepreneurship. This globally inspired ‘success story’ is referre…
Paradoxical Normativities in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia
Brunei and Malaysia are promoting the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration but enforce a brand of Islamic law that systematically violates it. The paradoxical ways in which policymakers are navigating between the two, and the empirical realities of Islamic governance, impede the project of a transdoctrinal justification of human rights
Brunei in 2015
The oil price decline of 2015 caused significant losses for Brunei’s economy. The country is still preparing the second phase of its Sharia reform that began in 2014. In addition to his other government positions, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah appointed himself as minister of foreign affairs and trade, replacing Prince Mohamed Bolkiah
Islamic Politics and Popular Culture in Malaysia
While numerous studies on Islamic political movements are concerned with their engagement in party coalitions and the state, surprisingly few scholars have investigated the cultural life of Islamist groups. This article explores how the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) is currently undergoing dramatic cultural changes and has developed an unprecedented flexibility in the field of modern popular culture. It elucidates how PAS has shifted from a gro…
An Internationalist National Islamic Struggle
Localized constructions of transnational Islamic kinship or 'brothers abroad' are an integral part of discursive practices within the community of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). Based on empirical data gained from anthropological fieldwork between 2009 and 2010, this article examines domestic manifestations and the implicit subtexts of the party's foreign policy, with particular regard to the Palestinian cause. Narratives of victimization a…
Schweizer Literaturgeschichte
Kultur im Spiegel der Literatur. Die Schweiz als multikulturelle Nation hat über die Jahrhunderte hinweg regionale Eigenheiten in Kultur und Literatur bewahrt. Von den ersten literarischen Zeugnissen im Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart werden die prägenden Werke und einflussreiche Autoren vorgestellt. Darunter: Gottfried Keller, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Robert Walser, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Max Frisch, Urs Widmer, Adolf Muschg und Zoë Jenny. Neben …
The Bureaucratisation of Islam in Southeast Asia
Special Issue on this topic. In their specific local contexts, state- and non-state projects of bureaucratising Islam are driven by very different socio-political motivations and conditioned by equally different (albeit often interconnected and overlapping) historical trajectories and their discursive substrates. In this special issue, we examine this transnationally and transregionally observable phenomenon in the context of Southeast Asia, wher…
Hybrid Pathways to Orthodoxy in Brunei Darussalam
This article investigates the bureaucratisation of Islam in Brunei and its interlinkages with socio-cultural changes. It elucidates how realisations of state-enforced Islamic orthodoxy and purification produce locally unique meanings, while simultaneously reflecting much broader characteristics of the contemporary global condition. The article first introduces a theoretical perspective on the bureaucratisation of Islam as a social phenomenon that…
Brunei Darussalam in 2016
Brunei continued in 2016 to suffer from declining oil and gas prices. The budget deficit grew. The Sultan made economic diversification and “prudent spending” the year’s central political themes. He criticized several government institutions during “surprise visits” and sharply attacked the Ministry of Religious Affairs for “delaying” the full enforcement of an Islamic legal reform
An Internationalist National Islamic Struggle
Localized constructions of transnational Islamic kinship or 'brothers abroad' are an integral part of discursive practices within the community of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). Based on empirical data gained from anthropological fieldwork between 2009 and 2010, this article examines domestic manifestations and the implicit subtexts of the party's foreign policy, with particular regard to the Palestinian cause. Narratives of victimization a…
Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective
This text provides a translated, revised and curtailed version of the original research proposal that led to the foundation of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich- AlexanderUniversität Erlangen-Nürnberg ( CAS-E ). The text discusses the pitfalls of the notion of ‘esotericism’ and provides a working definition of ‘esoteric practices.’ CAS-E ’s praxeological turn …
Beyond the Sharia State
This article describes post-colonial state-making in the absolute monarchy of Brunei. After detailing the Sultan's powers, contextualizing the monarchy's stability, and introducing its state ideology, Melayu Islam Beraja ("MIB"), the article addresses formal laws, such as Brunei's Constitution and a new Islamic penal code, which are symbolically significant for the MIB state's (self-)legitimation but have little immediate relevance to many Brunei…
From Consultancy to Critique
The administration of Islamic alms (zakat) funds in Malaysia underwent spectacular transformations since the 1990s, shaped by the appropriation of marketized forms of management and a skyrocketing growth of collection and distribution rates. Simultaneously, local zakat funds are increasingly used to pursue targets of sustainable poverty reduction, such as the empowerment of micro-entrepreneurship. This globally inspired ‘success story’ is referre…
Schweizer Literaturgeschichte
Kultur im Spiegel der Literatur. Die Schweiz als multikulturelle Nation hat über die Jahrhunderte hinweg regionale Eigenheiten in Kultur und Literatur bewahrt. Von den ersten literarischen Zeugnissen im Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart werden die prägenden Werke und einflussreiche Autoren vorgestellt. Darunter: Gottfried Keller, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Robert Walser, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Max Frisch, Urs Widmer, Adolf Muschg und Zoë Jenny. Neben …
An Internationalist National Islamic Struggle
Localized constructions of transnational Islamic kinship or 'brothers abroad' are an integral part of discursive practices within the community of the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). Based on empirical data gained from anthropological fieldwork between 2009 and 2010, this article examines domestic manifestations and the implicit subtexts of the party's foreign policy, with particular regard to the Palestinian cause. Narratives of victimization a…
Islamic Politics and Popular Culture in Malaysia
While numerous studies on Islamic political movements are concerned with their engagement in party coalitions and the state, surprisingly few scholars have investigated the cultural life of Islamist groups. This article explores how the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) is currently undergoing dramatic cultural changes and has developed an unprecedented flexibility in the field of modern popular culture. It elucidates how PAS has shifted from a gro…
From Consultancy to Critique
The administration of Islamic alms (zakat) funds in Malaysia underwent spectacular transformations since the 1990s, shaped by the appropriation of marketized forms of management and a skyrocketing growth of collection and distribution rates. Simultaneously, local zakat funds are increasingly used to pursue targets of sustainable poverty reduction, such as the empowerment of micro-entrepreneurship. This globally inspired ‘success story’ is referre…
Paradoxical Normativities in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia
Brunei and Malaysia are promoting the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration but enforce a brand of Islamic law that systematically violates it. The paradoxical ways in which policymakers are navigating between the two, and the empirical realities of Islamic governance, impede the project of a transdoctrinal justification of human rights
Brunei in 2015
The oil price decline of 2015 caused significant losses for Brunei’s economy. The country is still preparing the second phase of its Sharia reform that began in 2014. In addition to his other government positions, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah appointed himself as minister of foreign affairs and trade, replacing Prince Mohamed Bolkiah
Brunei Darussalam in 2016
Brunei continued in 2016 to suffer from declining oil and gas prices. The budget deficit grew. The Sultan made economic diversification and “prudent spending” the year’s central political themes. He criticized several government institutions during “surprise visits” and sharply attacked the Ministry of Religious Affairs for “delaying” the full enforcement of an Islamic legal reform
Taming the Wild
Often viewed as a normalised colonial legacy, static notions of race and indigeneity are integral to mainstream identity politics in contemporary Malaysia. Political discourse is obsessed with the
Bureaucratic Islam Compared
This article presents a comparative anthropological approach to studying the bureaucratization of Islam in contemporary Southeast Asia. In line with this approach, the article understands the bureaucratization of Islam not simply as a formalization, expansion, and diversification of Islamic institutions and legal frameworks; rather, bureaucratization is investigated as a social phenomenon that transcends its organizational boundaries and informs …
The Bureaucratisation of Islam in Southeast Asia
Special Issue on this topic. In their specific local contexts, state- and non-state projects of bureaucratising Islam are driven by very different socio-political motivations and conditioned by equally different (albeit often interconnected and overlapping) historical trajectories and their discursive substrates. In this special issue, we examine this transnationally and transregionally observable phenomenon in the context of Southeast Asia, wher…
Hybrid Pathways to Orthodoxy in Brunei Darussalam
This article investigates the bureaucratisation of Islam in Brunei and its interlinkages with socio-cultural changes. It elucidates how realisations of state-enforced Islamic orthodoxy and purification produce locally unique meanings, while simultaneously reflecting much broader characteristics of the contemporary global condition. The article first introduces a theoretical perspective on the bureaucratisation of Islam as a social phenomenon that…
Appropriating and contesting ‘traditional Islam’
Based on an ethnographic case study of an Islamic university in Russia, I examine how the state-implemented and bureaucratized traditionalization of Islam in Russia affects the everyday life of Central Asian students and how this project ‘from above’ is entangled with their coping strategies. I show how religious education has become a resource for the state as well as for young students and their parents. The Russian state uses these official re…
Appropriating and contesting ‘traditional Islam’
Based on an ethnographic case study of an Islamic university in Russia, I examine how the state-implemented and bureaucratized traditionalization of Islam in Russia affects the everyday life of Central Asian students and how this project ‘from above’ is entangled with their coping strategies. I show how religious education has become a resource for the state as well as for young students and their parents. The Russian state uses these official re…
Redesigning Justice for Plural Societies
Beyond the Sharia State
This article describes post-colonial state-making in the absolute monarchy of Brunei. After detailing the Sultan's powers, contextualizing the monarchy's stability, and introducing its state ideology, Melayu Islam Beraja ("MIB"), the article addresses formal laws, such as Brunei's Constitution and a new Islamic penal code, which are symbolically significant for the MIB state's (self-)legitimation but have little immediate relevance to many Brunei…
Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective
This text provides a translated, revised and curtailed version of the original research proposal that led to the foundation of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich- AlexanderUniversität Erlangen-Nürnberg ( CAS-E ). The text discusses the pitfalls of the notion of ‘esotericism’ and provides a working definition of ‘esoteric practices.’ CAS-E ’s praxeological turn …
Afterword – Global Esotericism
In this afterword, the directors of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ ( CAS-E ) at Friedrich- Alexander-Universität offer a brief response to the comments by Carole Cusack, Mark Q. Gardiner, Steven Engler, Wouter Hanegraaff, Elizabeth McAlister, Jason Josephson Storm, and Hugh Urban. Reflecting on various theoretical and methodological discussions within CAS-E , particular…
I never intended to become an imam
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Islam (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Asian Studies and History (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · History (7 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Economics (5 works)