The Status of Yoga in the Gulf

Over the past 20 years, many Muslim countries have witnessed a remarkable growth of yoga and various meditation techniques. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar have recognized yoga and currently celebrate the International Day of Yoga. Some countries such as Saudi Arabia went even further and officially recognized yoga as a sports activity. Attitudes towards yoga in Muslim countries are represented by two types of discourses: that of Islamic legal scholars, and that of yoga practitioners. In Islamic legal debates regarding the permissibility of yoga, the most problematic and controversial issue in yoga concerns its links to Hindu and Buddhist beliefs. Contemporary Islamic scholars are divided on this issue and their fatwas vary from a total ban to permissibility. On the other hand, yoga practitioners' conceptualizations of yoga focus on the role of yoga in physical improvement and spiritual harmony of a particular individual as well as its attitude towards religion and transformation of modern society. There is therefore a wide range of perspectives on yoga. In this thesis, I analyze similarities and differences between the approaches of the two groups of actors in the context of the Arabian Gulf. I draw on a textual analysis of a number of fatwas on yoga and on a set of interviews conducted with yoga practitioners in Qatar. I argue that differences between muftis, and between muftis and yoga instructors, stem from different understandings of the weight of history, the relation of ritual to intentionality, and the performativity of yoga practices.