In this paper, we draw attention to the ways in which theology operates within, and indeed proceeds from, generative social contexts. Beyond a concern for correct interpretation of scripture, categories of religious permissibility and impermissibility are socially constituted—they define boundaries of inclusion or exclusion that establish specific relationships to hegemonic Western societies. To examine these relationships, we will consider the charismatic critique of the Islamic State, as well as the institutional response of North American Muslim scholars, through an analysis of textual interpretations for the obligation of hijrah (emigration) and jihad proposed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its supporters.

Drawing from Weber’s analysis of charisma, we contend that the ideo-logy of ISIL and its style of argumentation play upon Muslim anxieties over their national belonging in the West. This resonance is seen through a close reading of the ISIL promotional magazine Dabiq and the way in which its authors imagine their Western audiences. Against ISIL’s claims, the argument for the impermissibility of this jihad by leading Western Islamic scholars and organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is also considered. In the North American construction of an Islamic legal discourse on the impermissibility of joining ISIL, Muslim minorities’ anxieties over national belonging are again highly relevant. We argue that, while coming to opposite conclusions, both Western Islamic scholars and ISIL ideologues rely upon constructions of Western Muslim anxiety as much as the Islamic tradition for staging their arguments. These legal arguments can only be under-stood by contextualizing these debates as a part of a broader contest over Islamic authority and institutionalization in the West.