Roundtable on Political Islam after the Arab Uprisings (original) (raw)
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Jadaliyya, 2020
In the early stages of the Arab uprisings, one of the questions frequently posed in the analysis of the mass mobilizations revolved around the role that Islamists would play in post-authoritarian transitions. To that end, when the Critical Currents in Islam page launched in 2013, it featured a roundtable exploring Islamism as a political force that presented a popular challenge to authoritarian rule. As events unfolded and gains of revolutionary movements were rolled back, however, the conversation shifted to the fallout from a resurgent authoritarian wave and its impact on forces of political Islam moving forward. In the interim, a phenomenon that came to demand more attention from observers was the construction of theological arguments and the enlisting of Islamic institutions in support of the authoritarian resurgence. This roundtable facilitates critical discussion on the state of this question ten years after the Arab uprisings.
Political Islam and the Arab Uprisings
Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention, 2018
This book emerges from the observation that much has changed in the field of political Islam following the popular uprisings that rocked the authoritarian status quo in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2010-11, nowadays widely referred to as the Arab uprisings or 'Arab Spring'. Prominent instances of such change include the dramatic rise to (and fall from) power of moderate Islamist political parties/groupings in Egypt and Tunisia-forces that had been violently repressed and/or dismantled by pre-uprisings authoritarian regimes-, the pluralisation of the field of Islamist political players, including most notably the formation of Salafi parties and their ascent to political prominence in electoral and institutional politics, the escalation of sectarian conflict between the region's Sunni and Shi'a communities, exacerbated by war in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, as well as the emergence of the jihadi-Salafi organisation al-Dawla al-Islamiyya (Islamic State, IS) which advances formal ruling pretentions over territories in Syria and Iraq, a new quality to such groups. All of these developments suggest that a renewed analysis and approach to the study of Islamist political and social actors are needed. While extant pre-uprisings scholarship had already noted part of these dynamics and devoted efforts to their analysis-such as for instance the case of Salafi participation in electoral politics, or the growing relevance of the sectarian variable in MENA politics-it can hardly account for their development in the new environment that the 'Arab Spring' has brought about. A cursory look at the scholarship available on the subject of political Islam post-2011 seems to suggest, in fact, that the uprisings constitute just one phase in the long history of Islamist political and social forces present in the MENA, a history characterised by periods of political opposition, inclusion and co-option by authoritarian leaders.
Digest of Middle East Studies, 2018
T his book is original and timely. I think it has almost everything a modern book on Middle East politics after the Arab Spring should have-a reliance on both fieldwork and narrative techniques, an openness to new theories of public space, sociology, anthropology, and political science that promise better outcomes, illustrations with real data sets that show the cultural and political perspectives and specificities of this region of the world. The book raises useful questions with step-by-step answers that help the reader work out how to understand the challenges facing Arab politics and society in the post-Arab Spring era. It is a sophisticated book that truly provides an elegant and useful analysis of the interaction of religion and politics in the region. This is a book for readers and researchers who are already familiar with theories of politics and public sphere, but who may not know the complexities of Arab and Muslim societies. The title of the book and the introduction seem to indicate that this book is suitable for those who are interested in Islam and the Islamic movement in the Middle East and who want to know how political discourse, activism, and religion impact on policymaking and democratizing the region. What is interesting about this book is that it focuses on several types of public sphere and analyzes how they interact together. It investigates political conversations in small groups in public and private circles, debates in public squares and mosques, discussions that take place in social and regular media, and debates in institutions like parliaments, especially the political discussions and clashes that take place between opposing parliamentary groups before agreeing or voting on legislation. However, I have two problems with this book. First, it gives the impression that religion and politics can go together, but we know for a fact that one of the reasons
Politics of Modern Muslim Subjectivities
2014
A ck now ledgments First and foremost, our gratitude goes to the many members and volunteers of the Jordanian and Egyptian organizations who open heartedly shared their ideas, expertise, and experiences with us. This book would not have been possible without their trust and time. We also want to thank our research assistants Doaa al-Awaysheh, Hala Imam, and Mohamed Hayek for their indispensable help. They not only assisted us with translation, but also facilitated our access to the field and provided us with invaluable insights into daily life in Jordan and Egypt.
Revisiting Post-Islamism a Decade After the Arab Spring
Philosophy and Society, 2024
The Arab Spring uprisings marked a watershed moment in regional politics, significantly impacting Islamist movements in terms of strategies, ideologies, and organizational structures. Accordingly, this paper examines whether these dramatic events strengthened or weakened the post-Islamist evolution of traditional political Islam movements, focusing on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (E-MB) and the Tunisian Ennahda Movement Party (EMP) as case studies. The proposed hypothesis is that the Arab Spring has variably influenced Islamists. In Egypt, it initially weakened the post-Islamist turn of the E-MB. However, owing to the 2013 coup and subsequent repression, the E-MB was politically excluded and weakened, creating a vacuum that was filled by various forms of less political or non-ideological forms of Islamic activism. The Tunisian Islamists had a different story. The Arab Spring seems to have strengthened their transition to post-Islamism. In its tenth conference, the EMP declared its exit from political Islam, adopting the new concept of Muslim Democracy. Even after the presidential takeover in July 2021, which resulted in the political exclusion of the EMP, the Work and Achievement party that defected from it maintained clear post-Islamist features.