"Identity, politics and nation: the Berber minority in Algeria" in The fragments imagine the nation? Minorities in the colonial and postcolonial Middle East, Genève (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Fragments Imagine the Nation? Minorities in the Modern Middle East and North Africa
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 2016
Minorities in the Middle East 1 have been a perennial object of scholarly attention. 2 Minority politics have traditionally been considered as a problem: indeed, as one of the main reasons for the 'unsuccessful' consolidation of the nation-state in the region. In recent years, with the events of the Arab Spring and its aftermath, minorities have been gured at times as an obstacle to broader processes of democratization and liberalization, or at others as being threatened by those same processes-and the violence that has ensued as they stalled.
The Emergence of Minorities in the Middle East: The Politics of Community in French Mandate Syria
Middle Eastern Studies, 2013
separately from the rest of the book, as an informative introduction to the relationship between ideas and politics in Turkey since the 1920s. The rest of the book is more ambitious, exploring the roles of religion and ethnicity in the construction of national identity. For the most part, the picture she paints is unrelentingly grim, as we are presented with a polarized struggle between authoritarian secular-nationalists and Islamists, each demonizing the other, in which liberalism and tolerance are losing out. Paranoid xenophobes or neo-fascists like the former mayor of Istanbul Bedrettin Dalan are interviewed at length. National identity is presented as being 'embedded in religion and race-bloodline' (p.102). The Muslim headscarf worn by most women in Turkey is allegedly one of the 'key emblems of fear', along with Christian missionaries (p.79), in what is depicted as a chronically divided society. In it, the Kurds of Turkey are required to give up their cultural identities, since 'purity of culture is linked to purity of lineage, both deemed essential to national identity' (p.133). Admittedly, Turkey, like most societies, contains plenty of intolerant and mutually antagonistic individuals and institutions, but this stark picture leaves out the rest of the story. Towards the end of her book, Jenny White recognizes that, for instance, the AKP government has enacted wide-reaching constitutional and legal reforms, so that Turkish politics are generally far more democratic than they used to be (p.182). The ongoing enquiry into the alleged 'Ergenekon' conspiracy by senior military officers is briefly referred to (pp.56-7) but there is nothing on the dramatic reduction in the political power of the military-the crucial prop of authoritarian nationalism-which is a central part of this recent transformation. Overall, as she recognizes, national identity is being redefined in a variety of ways and has become 'a matter of choice' (p.187). These revisions to her earlier assertions are important, but may leave newcomers to the subject in some confusion as to her central argument.
Challenging the Hegemony of Nationalism and Islamism: Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Algeria
When one peruses the magnitude of the following Qur'anic verse: " You are indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for [the good of] mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you believe in God " (Al-Imran 3:110), one may wonder about the deplorable status of religious and ethnic minorities in the " Arab World " in general and specifically in Algeria. Basing my analysis on several studies on ethnic and religious minorities (Hourani, 1947; Ben Hounet, 2008 and Khiat 2006), this article shows how totalizing ideologies such as nationalism and State Islamism have hampered the legitimate aspirations of non-Arabs and non-Sunni-Moslems, and exacerbated the tensions between communities such as the Ibadhis, Imazighen, Sephardic Jews, and Tuaregs. The raison d'être of this paper is to highlight the necessity of various communities, whether ethnic or religious, to coexist peacefully and enjoy their full-fledged inalienable rights. A case in point would be the symbiosis that existed between the aforementioned minorities at some point of Islamic history. However, the Algerian regime, very much like the rest of the Maghrebi authorities, which is run and reined in by corrupt elite (Limam, 2012 and Cavatorta, 2009) and the country's military top brass through a civilian " hijab, " has so far exerted an unbounded hegemony and muzzled every " discordant voice. " But this regime is now compelled to open up, democratize, and acknowledge the minorities' rights to exist and thrive. And the dynamics of the recent riots and uprising in the country might very well help these ethnic and religious minorities achieve their inalienable rights.
Minorities in Retreat: The Jews of the Maghreb (1979)
2019
After a brief review of the history of Jews in North Africa, including Jews in Algeria, the chapter picks up the concern for minority group type discussed in the introductory chapter. Jews in both Tunisia and Morocco are religious minorities in non-secular states, and in the early and mid-1970s, they were similar in other ways as well. But they were also different in important respects, including size, complexity, organizational strength, and the ideology and priorities of the host country government. Even though both minority groups were small and vulnerable at the time of the research reported in this chapter, these differences reflected substantially greater weakness and vulnerability on the part of the Jewish community in Tunisia. Compared to the community of Jews in Morocco, the one in Tunisia was in a much greater state of demographic dislocation and institutional decay. Against this background, the chapter then investigates the explanatory significance of attributes with respect to which the two religious minorities differ, in effect holding minority group type constant while considering whether or not variation in demographic dislocation and institutional decay accounts for variance in areas of communal importance. Presenting findings from public opinion surveys, particular attention is given to the views about Arab-Islamic culture and about the host society held by Jews in Tunisia and Jews in Morocco and, within each community, by Jews in different demographic categories. The survey data show notable attitudinal differences both between the two Jewish communities and within each as a function of age and education. The chapter concludes with reflections on the future of the two North African Jewish communities.
"Old and new challenges for ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East"
ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, Routledge, London, 2019
This chapter argues that ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East are living a crucial juncture in this early twenty-first century that asks for a reassessment of their position. The ever-expanding process of globalization as well as the Arab revolts of 2010–11 have paved the way for an empowerment of certain ethnic and religious minorities, despite the fact that the latter have witnessed a dramatic decline from a numerical perspective. Today, like yesterday, diverse sectors from Middle Eastern societies, including minorities, are calling for new forms of governance beyond the “primitive” versions of nationalism and communitarianism. As in other regions across the world,63 minority groups seek to modify the content of their cause in ways that empower ordinary people to gain more control over the resources as well as the decision-making processes at all levels. As in the past, however, this capacity of “agency” provides at once new opportunities – publicity for their concerns and influence (and old challenges) – and a “visibility” that forces minority groups not only to respond to those challenges in order to maintain their place and even new relevance, but also to avoid being associated as allies of “fifth columns”. Finally, against this backdrop, the (re)examination of how “minorities” have shaped (and continue to shape) international relations in the Middle East asks for a less stato-centered vantage point in the IR field. The growing visibility (religious revivalism both in the Middle East and among the diaspora), social activism seeking to secure the “right to difference”, and the political empowerment (particularly the Amazigh movement in North Africa, as well as the Kurdish movement both in Syria and Iraq) need to be analyzed not as marginal dynamics, but as potential forces of transformation in the Middle East. After all, political claims on behalf of “minorities” have frequently been claims not for separation but for more liberal politics with implications for the majority as well.
This special issue explores the prospects for what Jacob Mundy calls 'transformative minority politics' in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region – that is, a form of minority politics that strengthens democratic reform in the region, and that helps deepen a culture of human rights and democratic citizenship. The cases examined in the special issue include the Amazigh in North Africa, the Copts in Egypt, the Kurds in Iraq, the Palestinians in Israel, the 'minoritarian' regimes in Syria and Bahrain, and the various ethnic minorities in Iran. In this introduction, we try to situate this debate in a larger historical and international context, identifying some of the factors that might help support a new transformative minority politics in the region, while also emphasizing the factors that have inhibited it in the past, and why they remain powerful. In the MENA region, as in much of the postcolonial world, ethnic politics is widely seen as a threat to social cohesion and political stability, if not outright secession and irredentism, and authoritarian rulers have justified their repressive rule in part on the grounds that they alone can contain this threat. While democratic reformers often criticize authoritarian regimes for exaggerating the threat posed by ethnic politics, these reformers have themselves typically been ambivalent, if not hostile, to the political mobilization of minorities. At best, ethnic-based movements are seen as fragmenting the forces for democratic reform, and at worst, are seen as opportunistic actors who will betray the broader reform movement if promised token particularistic benefits. In short, the spectre of minority politics is seen as reinforcing older authoritarian, clientelistic or patriarchal political tendencies. As a result, projects of democratic reform in the MENA region have said little about the place of minorities and minority rights in their vision of reform, implying that these issues are best deferred to some indefinite future. While many people agree that the Arab Spring is, in some sense, a 'battle for pluralism', 1 there is reluctance to discuss what this pluralism might actually mean for the political claims of minorities, for fear of triggering divisive conflicts and undemocratic tendencies. Is there an alternative? Can we imagine what Jacob Mundy (2010) calls 'transformative minority politics' – that is, a form of minority politics that strengthens democratic reform in the region, and that helps deepen a culture of human rights and democratic citizenship? The goal of this special issue is to explore whether this is