peting Visions of Islam in the United States: A Study of
Los Angeles (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997);
Jane Smith, Islam in America (New York: Columbia Uni-
versity Press, 1999).
Muslim World League (Arabic: Rabitat
al-Alam al-Islami)
The Muslim World League is a pan-Islamic orga-
nization founded in 1962 to promote the unity
of the umma (the universal Muslim community).
Although it describes itself as a “cultural orga-
nization” for Muslims, it was created by a group
of Muslim political leaders, intellectuals, and
experts opposed at the time to the widespread
influence of secular Arab nationalism and the
spread of commUnism and socialism in Muslim
lands during the cold war period after World War
II. Saudi king Faysal ibn abd al-aziz (r. 1964–75)
was instrumental in its formation, it receives a
substantial amount of its funding from saUdi ara-
bia, and its headquarters is in Mecca. Its govern-
ing council, which must be led by a Saudi citizen,
is composed of Sunni religious authorities reflect-
ing strong Wahhabi and Islamist outlooks, such
as those espoused by the mUslim brotherhood
and abU al-ala maWdUdi’s Jamaat-i islami. There
are no Shii Muslims or liberal Muslims in the
organization. In contrast to the organization oF
the islamic conFerence, which was founded in
1969 as a body of Muslim nation-states, the Mus-
lim World League has been primarily concerned
with promoting the implementation of the sharia
and conducting d a awa (religious outreach) activi-
ties. It hosts meetings during the annual haJJ
and, to meet its objectives, it has created a Fiqh
Council, a World Supreme Council for Mosques,
councils for relief and charitable activities, as well
as for religious edUcation and memorization of
the Quran. The league’s chief publication is the
Muslim World League Journal, which is issued in
English.
See also pan-islamism; Wahhabism; World
mUslim congress.
Further reading: Mozammel Haque, “The Role of
Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami in the Promotion of Islamic
Education,” Islamic Quarterly 6, no. 1 (1992): 58–63;
Jacob Landau, The Politics of Pan-Islam: Ideology and
Organization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).mutaa See twelve-imam shiism.
Mutazili School
The first truly doctrinal school of theology
(kalam) in Islam, the Mutazili School flourished
from the eighth to the 11th centuries. Its com-
parative rationalist orientation influenced dis-
cussions within classical Islamic philosophy, and
made decisive contributions to the development
and intellectual sophistication of ilm al-kalam
(science of theology). In fact, the rationalist
approach and doctrines of Mutazili theology
impacted a variety of Islamic sciences. In our
own time, historical and theoretical treatments
of Mutazili theology have affected the tenor and
tone of modernist and postmodernist Muslim
discourse in general and Islamic liberalism in
particular: from the Indonesian scholar Harun
Nasution to such diverse figures as the late
FazlUr rahman, mUhammed arkoUn, Fatima
mernissi, and Hassan Hanafi.
The school’s name is derived from an Arabic
verb meaning “to withdraw, stand aside” (itazala),
here in the sense of “those who separate them-
selves.” The following traditional account elabo-
rates: al-hasan al-basri (642–728), an ascetic
Sufi who belonged to the generation of pious
Muslims (tabiun) after the companions oF the
prophet mUhammad, argued that humans have
been accorded free will and thus possess moral
and spiritual responsibility for their behavior.
This viewpoint, propagated by the Qadariyya,
opponents of the Umayyad caliphate, allowed
them to hold the caliph accountable for his
acts. Technically, qadar meant “divine decree” or
“predestination,” but for the Qadariyya and theMutazili School 511 J