Review: ISLAMISM: Religion, Radicalization, and Resistance. By Anders Strindberg &Mats Wärn. Polity Press, 2012 (original) (raw)
Related papers
ISLAMISM: Emergence, Establishment, and Expansion
Turkey Agenda, 2015
This essay, mainly based on Anders Strindberg and Mats Wärn's Islamism: Religion, Radicalization, and Resistance (Polity Press, 2012), explores the emergence and establishment of 'Islamism'. Demarcated differently and debated variedly, “Islamism” is regarded as a political ideology, an outcome of the current form of political Islam, and thus a “multidimensional paradox”, which is "identity and ideology, process and objective, tactic and strategy, as well as reality and ideal"
Islamism and Its Role in Modern Islamic Societies
Islamism, Arab Spring, and the Future of Democracy, 2018
Islamism and Its Role in Modern Islamic Societies Introduction. What Is This Chapter About? The subject of this chapter is how Islamism is not a monolith but rather, multifaceted, multileveled, continually changing, and often self-contradictory. It is simply impossible to understand contemporary Islamic (and, especially, Arab) societies without considering the influence of Islamism as a pastiche of ideology, cultural environment, modes of action, and ways of life. Without acknowledging this, the mass of relevant phenomena will look unexplained and not integrated into the general course of life. To understand Islamism is not easy, because it is one of the most complex social phenomena of the present time (Kepel 2000: 25; Levin 2014: 4). In addition, for a number of reasons, which we will discuss below, for many observers of the Middle East in the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-firstst century, Islamism remains "a phenomenon lurking beneath the surface" (Osman 2016: xiii). For that reason, it remains insufficiently understood. Meanwhile, it can swing wildly in its manifestations from quite respectable political parties and debates of scientists to a vocal stream of consciousness rant by an illiterate Muslim or violent actions of radical Islamist groups. Thus, "political Islam is not a monolithic phenomenon, but rather a complex concept with multifaceted dimensions, comprising Muslim political attitudes that vary vastly cross-nationally" (see, e.g., Achilov and Sen 2017: 609; see also Ayoob 2009; Denoeux 2002; Schwedler 2011). In addition, "the very concept of Islamism is sensitive to volatile social and political shifts" (Achilov and Sen 2017: 621), and, as a result, the concept of Islamism changes with certain major events. As experts note, even radical Islam is extremely diverse. There is still no established terminology for its designation: Experts speak of Islamism, political Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic terrorism, jihadism, Wahhabism, Salafism,
Islamism and Its Role in Modern Islamic Societies (Springer, 2019)
2019
A multifaceted, multidimensional, changing, and inconsistent Islamism is a subject under study in this chapter. It is impossible to comprehend modern Muslim societies without an account of the impact of Islam on all sides of life. It would be a mistake to present Islamism as a node on the body of Muslim societies. In fact, Islamism in many respects reflects the essence of modern Muslim societies, of their mode of thought and life. It helps to maintain social, economic, political sphere at different societal levels as well as create a peculiar Islamic pattern of modernization. That is why Islamism cannot be eliminated at the present stage; it can be only overgrown. And this will take a long time. One should understand clearly that it is impossible to reduce the dangers of radical and terrorist Islamism only by force. It will decrease only after it is separated from moderate Islamism having made the latter a more respectable, open, and involved in normal political life movement. We analyze in this chapter a number of issues. Among them are general characteristics and functions of Islamism; confrontation of Islamism with secular regimes; evolution of Islamism; modern trends and the future of Islamism, etc.
The article (4667 w.) analyses the term Islamism and its contemporary uses: "Islamism is one of many sociopolitical concepts that are continuously contested in scholarly literature. It is a neologism debated in both Muslim and non-Muslim public and academic contexts. The term Islamism at the very least represents a form of social and political activism, grounded in an idea that public and political life should be guided by a set of Islamic principles. In other words, Islamists are those who believe that Islam has an important role to play in organizing a Muslim-majority society and who seek to implement this belief. As such, Islamist activism is a public manifestation of religiously informed political will, often expressed as resistance to various types of competing ideas, policies, and even lifestyles. The ideological dimension of Islamism has developed primarily during the second half of the twentieth century. The primary method of diffusion of activists’ ideas has always been through the persuasion of the Muslim masses—daʿwah or tarbīyah. This form of awareness-raising campaigns has been used by virtually all Islamist groups, be they violent (radical) or nonviolent (moderate). Increasingly, many Islamist groups have adjusted their claims to sociopolitical realities in various political contexts, translating these claims through liberal and human rights discourse . Many of the organizations have toned down their previous emphasis on the past, resulting in increased popular support and gradual Islamization of the political discourse centering on democratization of their societies. Most notably, Islamists have become increasingly aware of the sociopolitical and economic “needs” of the populations they addressed. They have responded by organizing social welfare and education programs, as well as political parties and lobby associations. Such organizations are frequently labeled as moderate Islamists." ...
Review Essay: The Perpetual Politics of Islam
Post-Islamism: The Changing Faces of Political Islam. Edited by Asef Bayet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, xiv + 351 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-976606-2 Salafism in Yemen: Transnationalism and Religious Identity. By Laurent Bonnefoy. London: Hurst and Company, 2011, xxii + 313 pp. ISBN 978-1-849-04131-7 Whatever Happened to the Islamists? Salafis, Heavy Metal Muslims and the Lure of Consumer Islam. Edited by Amel Boubekeur and Olivier Roy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012, ix + 333 pp. ISBN 978-0-231-15426-0 When Victory is not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics. By Nathan J. Brown. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012, xii + 260 pp. ISBN 978-0-8014-7772-0 The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia. By Gregory D. Johnsen. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2012, xv + 326 pp. ISBN 978-0- 393-08242-5 The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists. By Charles Kurzman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, v + 248 pp. ISBN 978-0-19-976687-1 Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement. Edited by Roel Meijer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009, xix + 463 pp. ISBN 978-0-231-15420-8 Europe and the Islamic World: A History. By John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein and Henry Laurens, Translated by Jane Marie Todd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, xi + 478 pp. ISBN 978-0=691-14705-5 Political Islam: A Critical Reader. Edited by Frédéric Volpi. New York: Routledge, 2011, xv + 471 pp. ISBN 978-0-415-56028-3
"Islam and Islamism," Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 2022
Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 2022
Abstract: In his 2012 book Islamism and Islam, Bassam Tibi argues that Islamism, a political ideology, is quite distinct from Islam, which he defines as a religion focused on faith and spirituality. This article analyzes and evaluates the six arguments that Tibi advances for this thesis and finds all of them unconvincing. The main problem with Tibi’s case is that it ignores the figure of Muhammad, whom Islamic sources uniformly portray as someone who fused politics and religion and sought to overthrow a non-Islamic socio-religious order and to replace it with an Islamic one. For mainstream Muslims, Muhammad is the perfect role model who possessed divinely granted infallibility against sin and error. Due to Muhammad’s example, as enshrined in classical Islamic sources, Islamists have a strong claim to be following orthodox Islamic principles when they embrace an ideology in which religion and politics are tightly intertwined. The article concludes with some tentative suggestions as to how a Muslim reformer like Tibi might develop more promising arguments for a progressive form of Islam.
The Paradox of Islamist Politics
Middle East Report, 2001
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