Download or read book Militancy and Political Violence in Shiism written by Assaf Moghadam and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-07-21 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first systematic assessment of current trends and patterns of militancy in Shii communities in the Middle East and South Asia - specifically in Iran, Iraq, but also in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Bahrain. It addresses two key questions: What trends emerge in the types of militancy Shii actors employ both inside and outside of the Shii heartland? And what are the main drivers of militancy in the Shii community?

Download or read book Shiism and Sectarian Conflict in Pakistan Report on Identity Politics Iranian Influence Tit For Tat Violence by Shia and Sunni the Taliban Haqqani Network Iranian Influence and Benazir Bhutto written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issues surrounding militancy among the Shi'a community in the Shi'a heartland and beyond continue to occupy scholars and policymakers. During the past year, Iran has continued its efforts to extend its influence abroad by strengthening strategic ties with key players in international affairs, including Brazil and Turkey. Iran also continues to defy the international community through its tenacious pursuit of a nuclear program. The Lebanese Shi'a militant group Hizballah, meanwhile, persists in its efforts to expand its regional role while stockpiling ever more advanced weapons. Sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shi'a has escalated in places like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, and not least, Pakistan. Some of the subjects covered include Shia, Sunni, Taliban, Haqqani Network, General Mohammad Ayubkhan, General Muhammed Zia-Ul-Haq, General Pervez Musharaff, Prime Minister Alikhan, All Parties Shia Conference (APSC), Iranian Influence, Benazir Bhutto.As a hotbed of violent extremism, Pakistan, along with its Afghan neighbor, has lately received unprecedented amounts of attention among academics and policymakers alike. While the vast majority of contemporary analysis on Pakistan focuses on Sunni extremist groups such as the Pakistani Taliban or the Haqqani Network --arguably the main threat to domestic and regional security emanating from within Pakistan's border --sectarian tensions in this country have attracted relatively little scholarship to date. Mindful that activities involving Shi'i state and non-state actors have the potential to affect U.S. national security interests, the Combating Terrorism Center is therefore proud to release this latest installment of its Occasional Paper Series, Shiism and Sectarian Conflict in Pakistan: Identity Politics, Iranian Influence, and Tit-for-Tat Violence.This monograph is published as part of the CTC's Shi'a Militancy Program, established in 2008, which dedicates efforts toward investigating the real or potential emergence of Shi'a militancy, as well as its causes, nature, and potential implications for U.S. national security. Shiism and Sectarian Conflict in Pakistan is the fourth monograph published under the framework of the CTC's Shi'a Militancy Program.Since its founding in 1947, Pakistan has been accustomed to conflict, but in recent years the regime in Islamabad had to contend with new waves of militancy, including violence that directly challenges the country's leadership from within. Among groups involved in internal conflicts in Pakistan, Shia militant groups have received relatively scant attention, even though sectarian violence can have direct ramifications on the security of the country, and South Asia at large. This Occasional Paper examines the sectarian landscape in Pakistan, the growing potential for Shia-Sunni violence, and the implications of simmering sectarian tension for domestic Pakistani and regional security.

Download or read book Militant Islam written by Stephen Vertigans and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-10-30 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Militant Islam provides a sociological framework for understanding the rise and character of recent Islamic militancy. It takes a systematic approach to the phenomenon and includes analysis of cases from around the world, comparisons with militancy in other religions, and their causes and consequences. The sociological concepts and theories examined in the book include those associated with social closure, social movements, nationalism, risk, fear and ‘de-civilising’. These are applied within three main themes; characteristics of militant Islam, multi-layered causes and the consequences of militancy, in particular Western reactions within the ‘war on terror’. Interrelationships between religious and secular behaviour, ‘terrorism’ and ‘counter-terrorism’, popular support and opposition are explored. Through the examination of examples from across Muslim societies and communities, the analysis challenges the popular tendency to concentrate upon ‘al-Qa’ida’ and the Middle East. This book will be of interest to students of Sociology, Political Science and International Relations, in particular those taking courses on Islam, religion, terrorism, political violence and related regional studies.

Download or read book Fault Lines in Global Jihad written by Assaf Moghadam and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-05-10 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the causes, nature, and impact of the divisions within the jihadi movement, and the splits between jihadis and other Islamic groups. Fault Lines in Global Jihad offers a systematic and comprehensive examination of the broad range of divisions that contribute to the weakening of the jihadi movement. It separates these divisions into two broad categories, namely fissures dividing jihadis themselves, and divisions separating jihadis from other Muslim and Islamist groups. The first part of the book covers intra-jihadi divisions, highlighting tensions and divisions over strategic, tactical, and organizational issues. The second part of the book addresses several important case studies of jihadi altercations with other Muslim and Islamist groups of non-jihadi persuasion, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and the Shii community. More than simply an enumeration of problems and cracks within al-Qa’ida and its cohorts, this book addresses critical policy issues of relevance to the broader struggle against the global jihadi movement. The editors conclude that these divisions have and continue to weaken al-Qa’ida, but neither in an automatic nor in an exclusive fashion—for these divisions render the global jihadi movement simultaneously vulnerable and more resilient. This book will be of much interest to students of jihadism, terrorism and political violence, Islamism, security studies and IR in general.

Download or read book Compulsion in Religion written by Samuel Helfont and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-21 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samuel Helfont draws on extensive research with Ba'thist archives to investigate the roots of the religious insurgencies that erupted in Iraq following the American-led invasion in 2003. In looking at Saddam Hussein's policies in the 1990s, many have interpreted his support for state-sponsored religion as evidence of a dramatic shift away from Arab nationalism toward political Islam. While Islam did play a greater role in the regime's symbols and Saddam's statements in the 1990s than it had in earlier decades, the regime's internal documents challenge this theory. The "Faith Campaign" Saddam launched during this period was the culmination of a plan to use religion for political ends, begun upon his assumption of the Iraqi presidency in 1979. At this time, Saddam began constructing the institutional capacity to control and monitor Iraqi religious institutions. The resulting authoritarian structures allowed him to employ Islamic symbols and rhetoric in public policy, but in a controlled manner. Saddam ultimately promoted a Ba'thist interpretation of religion that subordinated it to Arab nationalism, rather than depicting it as an independent or primary political identity. The point of this examination of Iraqi history, other than to correct the current understanding of Saddam Hussein's political use of religion throughout his presidency, is to examine how Saddam's controlled use of religion was dismantled during the US-Iraq war, and consequently set free extremists that were suppressed under his regime. When the American-led invasion destroyed the regime's authoritarian structures, it unwittingly unhinged the forces that these structures were designed to contain, creating an atmosphere infused with religion, but lacking the checks provided by the former regime. Groups such as the Sadrists, al-Qaida, and eventually the Islamic State emerged out of this context to unleash the insurgencies that have plagued post-2003 Iraq.

Download or read book The New Political Islam written by Emmanuel Karagiannis and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islamist political parties and groups are on the rise throughout the Muslim world, constituting a new political Islam that is global in scope and yet local in action. Emmanuel Karagiannis explains how various Islamists have endorsed human rights, democracy, and justice to gain influence and mobilize supporters.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism written by Erica Chenoweth and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-14 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism systematically integrates the substantial body of scholarship on terrorism and counterterrorism before and after 9/11. In doing so, it introduces scholars and practitioners to state of the art approaches, methods, and issues in studying and teaching these vital phenomena. This Handbook goes further than most existing collections by giving structure and direction to the fast-growing but somewhat disjointed field of terrorism studies. The volume locates terrorism within the wider spectrum of political violence instead of engaging in the widespread tendency towards treating terrorism as an exceptional act. Moreover, the volume makes a case for studying terrorism within its socio-historical context. Finally, the volume addresses the critique that the study of terrorism suffers from lack of theory by reviewing and extending the theoretical insights contributed by several fields - including political science, political economy, history, sociology, anthropology, criminology, law, geography, and psychology. In doing so, the volume showcases the analytical advancements and reflects on the challenges that remain since the emergence of the field in the early 1970s.

Download or read book Understanding Shiite Leadership written by Shaul Mishal and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Shaul Mishal and Ori Goldberg explore the ways in which Shiite leaderships in Iran and Lebanon approach themselves and their world. Contrary to the violent and radical image of religious leaderships in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanese Hizballah, the political vision and practice of these leaderships view the world as a middle ground, shying away from absolutist and extremist tendencies. The political leadership assumed by Shiite religious scholars in Iran and Lebanon has transformed Shiite Islam from a marginalized minority to a highly politicized avant garde of Muslim presence, revitalized the practice and causes of political Islam in its struggle for legitimacy and authority, and reshaped the politics of the Middle East and the globe in its image. Utilizing approaches from social theory, history, theology, and literary criticism, the book presents these leaderships as pragmatic, interpretative entities with the potential to form fruitful relationships between Shiite leadership and the non-Shiite world.

Download or read book The Ulama in Contemporary Pakistan written by Mashal Saif and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-22 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores how contemporary clerics engage with the historically first and currently most populated Islamic nation-state: Pakistan. The book weds ethnography with textual analysis to provide insights into some of the country's most significant issues and offers a theoretical framework for assessing state-'ulama relations across the Muslim world.

Download or read book Religious Movements Militancy written by Aoun and published by CSIS Reports. This book was released on 2012-07-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious Movements, Militancy, and Conflict in South Asia we draws on recent research on religion and conflict to offer a broad overview of the different roles religion has played in governance, politics, and conflicts in South Asia. The authors argue that it is important that policy officials pay specific attention to the role of religion in conflict settings. It is not safe to assume that religiously themed rhetoric represents the true motives of conflict actors or the true beliefs of local communities. But nor is it safe to assume that religion, and especially religious identity, does not contribute to conflict--or that it could not contribute to peace. Religion needs to be understood in context.

Download or read book Armed Organizations and Political Elites in Civil Wars written by Erwin van Veen and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-03 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses under what conditions, and with what developmental effects, armed organizations shift their ‘coercive profile’ during civil wars, with a focus on the recent conflicts in Syria and Iraq. The work begins with an operationalisation of the term ‘political settlement’, focusing on how power is organized in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and then uses this operationalization to analyse the political settlements of contemporary Syria and Iraq, including their breakdown and transformation during recent civil wars (of 2011-today in Syria and 2014-17 in Iraq). It subsequently examines why and how elite factions have used armed organizations in times of conflict. This approach links an understanding of the broad evolution of power relations at the national level with the specific effects of the use of armed organizations on such relations. It argues for a shift from assigning fixed labels to armed organizations during civil wars to studying their coercive profile in a dynamic fashion, i.e. how armed organizations behave in terms of their use of threats and coercive force. The book introduces five profiles of coercive behaviour that demonstrate how the same organization can behave very differently at various points in time. One of these, the ‘hybrid coercive profile’, fills a gap in the existing civil war typology of organized armed violence by opening up the possibility of elite factions deliberately combining collaborative and competitive modes of behaviour. As an evidence base, the book provides in-depth analysis of the origins, evolution and operations of four armed organizations that have acted under a hybrid coercive profile during the Syrian and Iraqi civil wars: the Syrian Kurdish People’s Defence Forces, the Eagles of the Whirlwind of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and the Badr Organization. By connecting the concepts of political settlement and civil war, and applying them to specific armed organizations operating in Syria and Iraq, the book offers new insights into this nexus. This book will be of much interest to students of civil wars, conflict studies, Middle Eastern Studies and International Relations.

Download or read book Weapon of Peace written by Nilay Saiya and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-23 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows that attempts to repress religion produce the very violent religious extremism that states seek to avoid.

Download or read book The Shias of Pakistan written by Andreas Rieck and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical background -- Shias and the Pakistan movement -- Shias in Pakistan until 1958 -- The Ayub Khan era, 1958-1968 -- The Yahya Khan and Bhutto era, 1969-1977 -- The Zia-ul-Haqq era, 1977-1988 -- The interim democratic decade, 1988-1999 -- The Musharraf and Zardari eras, 2000-2013.

Download or read book Middle Eastern Minorities written by Ibrahim Zabad and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a comprehensive survey of minorities in the Middle East with a special focus on the post Arab Spring era. Minority communities in the Middle East are the most susceptible to the turbulence engulfing the region; the majority may suffer physical violence and socioeconomic loss, but minorities could potentially vanish. Instead of ushering in democracy and inclusive politics, the revolutionary upheavals have prompted chaos and fear and reinforced the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism throughout the region. Zabad uses historical sources as well as first-hand interviews to vividly describe the current status of minorities in the Middle East, explaining attitudes towards the revolutionary upheavals as well as the various strategies they used to avail themselves of the opportunities presented and to confront the risks posed. The question of ethnic, sectarian and religious minorities is situated in the context of the broader history of the region in order to explain the underlying institutional and ideological factors that caused their predicament and problematized their relationship with the majority. The book providesa rich trove of information and insights generated from ten case studies that covered the Shī‘a in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Lebanon and Egypt, the Druze, the Alawites, Christians and Kurds in Syria, the Copts in Egypt, and the Zaydis in Yemen.

Download or read book The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies written by Clinton Bennett and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-02-14 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive one-volume reference resource to Islamic Studies and key research fields within it, written by an international team of leading scholars.

Download or read book Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran written by Przemyslaw Osiewicz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-29 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a well-balanced and impartial perspective on the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, this book contributes to a better understanding of the current foreign policy of Iran, especially its internal and external determinants. Combining theoretical and practical aspects, it provides readers with a short analysis of Iranian foreign policy. The first part is dedicated to the Pahlavi era between 1925–1979. The second consists of three chapters covering issues relating to ideological and institutional aspects of Iranian foreign policy after 1979. The last part incorporates eight case studies which best present both regional and global dimensions. This comprehensive study contains a synthesis of views and opinions of commentators and scholars who often represent contradictory perspectives. Serving as a key reference and starting point for further studies, this book will be of interest to students and researchers studying Iranian foreign policy, international relations, and Middle Eastern studies.

Download or read book The Future of the Arab Gulf Monarchies in the Age of Uncertainties written by Mohammed El-Katiri and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seismic cultural and political shifts are under way in the Arab Gulf monarchies. The political upheavals and transitions that have swept through the Arab world over the last 2 years have not toppled the Arab Gulf rulers, but did not leave them untouched, either. Rulers of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states face heightened internal and external challenges and uncertainties. Pro-democracy protests and calls are extending from Bahrain to other oil-rich countries of the Arabian Peninsula. The expectations of GCC citizens, particularly the educated youth, are increasingly moving from socio-economic demands to political ones. They are now not only asking for jobs or wage increases, but also for more political participation and accountability. Chief among internal challenges is the resurgence in several GCC countries, particularly Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, of a decades-long sectarian rift between the Sunni regimes and their Shia subjects. The Gulf regimes' already tense relations with Iran have worsened on the basis of alleged Iranian interference inflaming sectarian tensions in Bahrain and across the broader region.