Download or read book Secularizing Islamists written by Humeira Iqtidar and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-02-15 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Secularizing Islamists? provides an in-depth analysis of two Islamist parties in Pakistan, the highly influential Jama‘at-e-Islami and the more militant Jama‘at-ud-Da‘wa, widely blamed for the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. Basing her findings on thirteen months of ethnographic work with the two parties in Lahore, Humeira Iqtidar proposes that these Islamists are involuntarily facilitating secularization within Muslim societies, even as they vehemently oppose secularism. This book offers a fine-grained account of the workings of both parties that challenges received ideas about the relationship between the ideology of secularism and the processes of secularization. Iqtidar particularly illuminates the impact of women on Pakistani Islamism, while arguing that these Islamist groups are inadvertently supporting secularization by forcing a critical engagement with the place of religion in public and private life. She highlights the role that competition among Islamists and the focus on the state as the center of their activity plays in assisting secularization. The result is a significant contribution to our understanding of emerging trends in Muslim politics.
Download or read book The Atheist Muslim written by Ali A. Rizvi and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-11-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In much of the Muslim world, religion is the central foundation upon which family, community, morality, and identity are built. The inextricable embedment of religion in Muslim culture has forced a new generation of non-believing Muslims to face the heavy costs of abandoning their parents’ religion: disowned by their families, marginalized from their communities, imprisoned, or even sentenced to death by their governments. Struggling to reconcile the Muslim society he was living in as a scientist and physician and the religion he was being raised in, Ali A. Rizvi eventually loses his faith. Discovering that he is not alone, he moves to North America and promises to use his new freedom of speech to represent the voices that are usually quashed before reaching the mainstream media—the Atheist Muslim. In The Atheist Muslim, we follow Rizvi as he finds himself caught between two narrative voices he cannot relate to: extreme Islam and anti-Muslim bigotry in a post-9/11 world. The Atheist Muslim recounts the journey that allows Rizvi to criticize Islam—as one should be able to criticize any set of ideas—without demonizing his entire people. Emotionally and intellectually compelling, his personal story outlines the challenges of modern Islam and the factors that could help lead it toward a substantive, progressive reformation.
Download or read book Secularism Confronts Islamism written by Mohammad Affan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-01-31 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides in-depth examination of the recent confrontation between Islamists and secularists in Egypt and Tunisia. Presenting a new approach to understand Islamism and secularism, the research addresses the variables that could affect the outcome of transitional negotiations. The secularist-Islamist conflict proved to be a major hindrance for democratisation and a main source of political instability in the Middle East. During the Arab Spring, disputes between both political trends sparked shortly after getting rid of their common enemy: the autocratic rulers. First, they disagreed on how to lead the transitional period. Then, polarisation grew deeper with the political competition in the parliamentary and presidential elections and the ideological disagreements during the drafting of the constitution. Eventually, this conflict put Tunisia at a verge of civil strife in the summer of 2013 and led to collapse of the transitional process in Egypt after the military coup. Examining the causes of the conflict between the secularists and the Islamists during the transitional period, the work provides new insights from the Arab Spring experience. Updating the transition literature, the book is a key resource to academics and students interested in democratization theory and Middle East politics.
Download or read book Formations of the Secular written by Talal Asad and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2003-02-03 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A dark but brilliantly original work . . . one of the most important books on religion and the modern in recent years.” —H-Net Reviews Opening with the provocative query “what might an anthropology of the secular look like?” this book explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities and attitudes in the modern West and the Middle East. Talal Asad proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. He argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the “strangeness of the non-European world” and to what are seen as non-rational dimensions of social life (things like myth, taboo, and religion),the modern and the secular have not been adequately examined. The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion, or be seen as on the side of the rational. It is a category with a multi-layered history, related to major premises of modernity, democracy, and the concept of human rights. This book will appeal to anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars, as well as scholars working on modernity. “A difficult if stunningly eloquent book, a response both elusive and forthright to the many shelves of ‘books on terrorism’ which this country’s trade publishers are rushing into print.” —Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature “This wonderfully illuminating book should be read alongside the author’s Genealogies of Religion.” —Religion “One of the most interesting scholars of religious writing today.” —Christian Scholar’s Review “Asad’s brilliant study remains a defining piece of intellectual and scholarly contribution for all of those interested in exploring the religious and the secular in the modern era.” —The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
Download or read book Islamism written by Tarek Osman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A political, social, and cultural battle is currently raging in the Middle East. On one side are the Islamists, those who believe Islam should be the region’s primary identity. In opposition are nationalists, secularists, royal families, military establishments, and others who view Islamism as a serious threat to national security, historical identity, and a cohesive society. This provocative, vitally important work explores the development of the largest, most influential Islamic groups in the Middle East over the past century. Tarek Osman examines why political Islam managed to win successive elections and how Islamist groups in various nations have responded after ascending to power. He dissects the alliances that have formed among Islamist factions and against them, addressing the important issues of Islamism’s compatibility with modernity, with the region’s experiences in the twentieth century, and its impact on social contracts and minorities. He explains what Salafism means, its evolution, and connections to jihadist groups in the Middle East. Osman speculates on what the Islamists’ prospects for the future will mean for the region and the rest of the world.
Download or read book Islamic Exceptionalism written by Shadi Hamid and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Islamic Exceptionalism, Brookings Institution scholar and acclaimed author Shadi Hamid offers a novel and provocative argument on how Islam is, in fact, "exceptional" in how it relates to politics, with profound implications for how we understand the future of the Middle East. Divides among citizens aren't just about power but are products of fundamental disagreements over the very nature and purpose of the modern nation state—and the vexing problem of religion’s role in public life. Hamid argues for a new understanding of how Islam and Islamism shape politics by examining different models of reckoning with the problem of religion and state, including the terrifying—and alarmingly successful—example of ISIS. With unprecedented access to Islamist activists and leaders across the region, Hamid offers a panoramic and ambitious interpretation of the region's descent into violence. Islamic Exceptionalism is a vital contribution to our understanding of Islam's past and present, and its outsized role in modern politics. We don't have to like it, but we have to understand it—because Islam, as a religion and as an idea, will continue to be a force that shapes not just the region, but the West as well in the decades to come.
Download or read book Islamists and Secularists in Egypt written by Dina Shehata and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-12-04 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a detailed analysis of the continued survival of authoritarian governments in the Arab world, this book uses Egypt as a case study to address the timely and complex issue of democratization in the Middle East. The author argues that their longevity is less to do with the strength of the regime, but more closely related to the divisions and weakness of opposition groupings.
Download or read book Making the Arab World written by Fawaz A. Gerges and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a decade of research, including in-depth interviews with many leading figures in the story, this edition is essential for anyone who wants to understand the roots of the turmoil engulfing the Middle East, from civil wars to the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Download or read book The Quran and the Secular Mind written by Shabbir Akhtar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-10-31 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is concerned with the rationality and plausibility of the Muslim faith and the Qur'an, and in particular how they can be interrogated and understood through Western analytical philosophy. It also explores how Islam can successfully engage with the challenges posed by secular thinking. The Quran and the Secular Mind will be of interest to students and scholars of Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, Middle East studies, and political Islam.
Download or read book Identity and Religion in Palestine written by Loren D. Lybarger and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islamism and secular nationalism -- Situating secular nationalism and Islamism in the Palestinian setting -- Palestinian Islamist mobilization in regional perspective -- Generation dynamics within social movements -- Generational transformation and Palestinian national identity -- The secular-nationalist milieu -- The ethos of Fathawi nationalism -- Social backgrounds -- Factors of mobilization -- Conceptions of the collective : retrievals and alterations -- Conclusion -- The Islamist milieu -- The structures and ethos of the Islamist milieu -- Social backgrounds -- Mobilization : events and structures -- Islamist conceptions of the collective -- Al-jihād fī sabīl al-nafs : the struggle for the soul -- Al-jihād fī sabīl al-siyāsa : the struggle for politics -- Al-jihād fī sabīl al-thawra : the struggle for the revolution -- Conclusion -- Thawra camp : a case study of shifting identities -- Setting, institutions, and ethos of Thawra camp -- Social backgrounds of the interlocutors -- Mobilization : events and structures -- Identity formation in the secular-nationalist milieu -- Identity formation in the Islamist milieu -- Hierarchies of solidarity -- Sheer secularism : al-lībrāliyyīn -- Islamic secularism -- Liberal Islamism -- Sheer Islamism -- Conclusion -- Karama Camp : Islamist-secularist dynamics in the Gaza Strip -- Karama Camp and post-Oslo Gaza -- The camp -- The Gaza Strip -- The Asdudis : social backgrounds and paths of political mobilization -- Conceptions of the collective order -- ʻAbd al-muʼmin's Islamism -- Abu Jamil and "traditionalist nationalism" -- Islam without the Islamists : Latif, Imm Muhammad, and Abu Qays -- Conclusion -- Epilogue -- References -- Index.
Download or read book Islam and Modernity written by Muhammad Khalid Masud and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-18 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent events have focused attention on the perceived differences and tensions between the Muslim world and the modern West. As a major strand of Western public discourse has it, Islam appears resistant to internal development and remains inherently pre-modern. However Muslim societies have experienced most of the same structural changes that have impacted upon all societies: massive urbanisation, mass education, dramatically increased communication, the emergence of new types of institutions and associations, some measure of political mobilisation, and major transformations of the economy. These developments are accompanied by a wide range of social movements and by complex and varied religious and ideological debates. This textbook is a pioneering study providing an introduction to and overview of the debates and questions that have emerged regarding Islam and modernity. Key issues are selected to give readers an understanding of the complexity of the phenomenon from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The various manifestations of modernity in Muslim life discussed include social change and the transformation of political and religious institutions, gender politics, changing legal regimes, devotional practices and forms of religious association, shifts in religious authority, and modern developments in Muslim religious thought.
Download or read book Civil Democratic Islam written by Cheryl Benard and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2004-03-25 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the face of Islam's own internal struggles, it is not easy to see who we should support and how. This report provides detailed descriptions of subgroups, their stands on various issues, and what those stands may mean for the West. Since the outcomes can matter greatly to international community, that community might wish to influence them by providing support to appropriate actors. The author recommends a mixed approach of providing specific types of support to those who can influence the outcomes in desirable ways.
Download or read book The Challenge of Political Islam written by Rachel Scott and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-23 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on Islamist writings, political tracts, and interviews with Islamists, this book examines Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt from the perspective of Islamic conceptions of citizenship, and provides non-Muslim responses to those views.
Download or read book Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey written by Jeremy F. Walton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In contemporary Turkey, a plethora of Muslim NGOs, spanning the sectarian divide between Sunni and Alevi Muslims, has called into question statist sovereignty over Islam. Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey is an ethnographic study of these institutions and their distinctive, nongovernmental politics of religious freedom.
Download or read book Islam and Democracy written by Asef Bayat and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can islam and democracy exist side by side? Is Islam compatible with democracy? The text examines one of the most frequently-asked and yet misguided questions. Democratic ethos should not and cannot be deduced from some essence of religions supposedly inscribed in the scriptures. Rather, they are the outcome of political struggles that push Islam toward democratic or authoritarian directions. Asef Bayat offers a new approach to examine Islam and democracy arguing how the social struggles of diverse Muslim populations, those with different interests and orientation, render Islam to embrace democratic ideas or authoritarian disposition. "Islamism" and "post-Islamism" are discussed as representing two contrasting movements which have taken Islam into different, authoritarian and inclusive, political directions.
Download or read book Questioning Secularism written by Hussein Ali Agrama and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-11-02 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What, exactly, is secularism? What has the West's long familiarity with it inevitably obscured? In this work, Hussein Ali Agrama tackles these questions. Focusing on the fatwa councils and family law courts of Egypt just prior to the revolution, he delves deeply into the meaning of secularism itself and the ambiguities that lie at its heart.
Download or read book Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics written by Zeki Sarigil and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Kurdish Movement in Turkey’s growing alliance with Islam One of the fault lines of Turkish politics traditionally has been the divide between religious and secular movements. However, as Zeki Sarigil argues, the secular Kurdish movement in Turkey has increasingly become aligned with Islam. As a result, Islam has become part of the movement’s political discourse, strategies and actions. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics traces the evolving relations between the leftist, secular Kurdish movement and Islam, from an apathetic and/or antagonistic attitude in the 1970s and 1980s to an increasingly Islam-friendly approach in the 1990s to an attitude of accommodation and the rise of Kurdish-Islamic synthesis in the early 2000s. Based on 104 interviews in several provinces in Turkey (primarily Ankara, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, and Tunceli) between 2011 and 2015 as well as ethnographic data, public opinion surveys and statements from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Kurdish leaders, Sarigil shows how the secular Kurdish movement increasingly has been endorsing Islam and Islamic actors. The reasons for this Islamic opening are global, national, and local; Sarigil demonstrates that a group of strategic and ideological factors have encouraged and/or forced Kurdish leaders to redraw symbolic and social boundaries of the movement. Namely, with the end of the Cold War support for Marxist ideas collapsed, creating increasingly more favorable responses towards religion. In addition, the movement’s need to expand its social basis and popularity; electoral politics; and legitimacy struggles against rival political actors were other major factors, which triggered the Kurdish movement’s boundary expansion (i.e. its Islamic opening). The study also shows that the Kurdish boundary making was not without any tension or contestation. The boundary expansion by Kurdish ethnopolitical elites triggered both internal and external boundary contestations. The movement’s embrace of Islam on a more widespread level has major ramifications for politics in Turkey and in the region. Ethnic Boundaries in Turkish Politics has important insight into the PKK, modern Turkish and Islamic societies and highlights the increasing role of Islam in global politics.
