Modern Islamic Politics - Midterm

How do we make sense of their popularity in an ostensibly secular era?

- 3 key revolutions: Communist Revolution, French Revolution, American Revolution. Hostile to religion as a hegemonic project. - Western: Unshackeling itself from religion. Middle East colonized by expanding European powers. Institutions that emerged in the Middle East (majority Muslim) in the post- colonial period were modernizing, secularizing in nature, hostile to tradition. More sympathetic to socialist/ modernizing ideas - These modernizing systems didn't achieve promise (no economy, self- determined governing, Secular didn't deliver the goods.

Why are religious ideologies resurgent in Islamic politics?

- Secular tyranny - Gross distortion of imported models of governance by unrepresentative ruling elites. - Crisis of Islamic religious authority: Decline of traditional authorities (ulama) a rise of alternative voices (Islam is the solution). Ulama failed to update way they address Islamic truth to being exposed to secularizing, modernizing society.

The Brotherhood Between Formal and Inform Power

"The Brotherhood began as an organization outside and against the political order." (Wickham, p. 42) Yet it's relationship to state authority shifted over time: 1. 1950's: sought to participate with revolutionary Free Officers government. 2. 1970's: resisted incorporation into the state apparatus. 3. 2000's: contested parliamentary elections in a limited way. 4. Post-2011: contested and won in presidential and parliamentary elections

Abu Zayd: Relationship of his ideas to politics

1. "The struggle for democratization... cannot be isolated from the interpretation of religious texts." 2. Innovative politics (democracy) must be paralleled by an innovative religion (Abu Zayd, p. 60)

Hamid -- Ideas Matter

1. 1970s and 1980s -- Islamist groundswell emerges 2. Most major forces in Egyptian politics are promoting Islamist rhetoric, if not policies (Wafd, NDP, MB [informally])

Salafism

1. A distinctive form of Muslim religious engagement with the modern world. 2. Sociologically modern, doctrinally traditional: Enabled by the fragmenting of religious authority, reasserts individual Muslims' relation to Islamic source texts

Broader Questions

1. Can we study Islamism as both a variation on Islamic tradition and a modern political ideology? 2. Do Roy and Haykel speak to one another, communicate in any way?

Conclusions: Blurring of Categories

1. Categories for describing various Islamist movements and individuals are not fixed. 2. al-Adl folks quote Salafi thinkers, incorporate Sufi practices into their meetings (p. 70-71) 3. Those who profess or espouse Saladi beliefs still visit graves, and practice or recognize local healers

Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia

1. Commins -- a key challenge for modern Saudi politics is balancing political realism with religious zeal. 2. Religion is a powerful yet highly unstable ideological material.

Sectoization and Corporatism

1. Corporatism -- rule through state-managed interest groups. 2. It is by authorizing such groups and circumscribing their range that authoritarian leaders believe "public unity can be found and kept." (Schmitter, p. 96-97)

Hamid on Islamist Ideas

1. Democracy in an increasingly conservative society pushes many parties to try and "out-Islamize" one another; Hamid suggests (p. 172) 2. A very different explanation for Islamists' strength and appeal to voters than Masoud's

Majoritarians, not Liberals

1. Egyptian MB are democrats -- they believe in elections, majority rule and even a version of popular sovereignty. 2. But they are not liberals -- they inhabit a political landscape in which many Salafist ideas are becoming "normal facts of life in a changing Egypt." (p. 171)

Salafi Law

1. Emphasizes direct engagement with legal proof texts (Quran and Hadith) 2. Rejects authority of legal schools -- Wahhabis disagree 3. Emphasizes ijtihad -- independent legal reasoning

Conclusions: The Value of Political Ethnography

1. Ethnographic approach proves that category is not destiny. 2. That Islamist activism is a dynamic process that means different things to different people at different times. 3. Focusing on individual lives fills in the nuances and contradictions of Islamic activism in modern Middle Eastern and Islamic societies

Explanations for Islamism's Appeal

1. Hamid - ideas and political context 2. Masoud - associational networks and their relative payoffs 3. Spiegel - "The pursuit of self-betterment."

Irreconcilability of Islamism and Liberalism

1. Hamid: Liberal democracy and Islamist democracy are not reconcilable. 2. Democracy and Islamism are, but this produces illiberal democracy (majority rule)

Hamid on Islamism and Democracy

1. Hamid: the MB is committed to democracy, but not to liberalism. 2. MB's political aims were and are "profoundly illiberal." (Wickham and Hamid)

Religion and Politics in Iran: Some Framing Questions

1. How did one of the world's most influential countries come to be ruled by a religious scholar? 2. How are new political structures or forms built out of the shells of older ones? >>Case study: executive authority in in contemporary Iran >>Wilayat al-Faqih as a revolutionary theory of governance

PJD as Countercultural

1. Idea of relatively flat hierarchy is truly countercultural in the Moroccan context. 2. Hierarchies pervade political and social life: >>Monarchial rule: king and his subjects >>Sufi tradition: master and disciple

Oliver Roy on Political Islam

1. Islamism is a structural outgrowth of global modernity, and that as a product of this globalized world, it is in fact a false alternative to it. 2. Islamism is not a throwback--it is a new development. 3. The view of a timeless Islamic world confronting Western modernity is wrong. 4. Islamists are sociologically modern: leaders are rarely seminary trained, they are doctors, engineers, etc.

Traditional Role of Marja's

1. Issuing legal guidelines and responses to queries by Shia believers 2. Collecting and distributing charitable contributions from Shia believers 3. Intervening with government on behalf of Shia believers 4. "Recognition of his station... [is] his one true means of ascent to the role of supreme marja of all the Shi'a. " (Walbridge, p. 233)

Khomeini's Innovation

1. Khomeini sought to transform the traditional marja'iyya, making it into an executive function of an Islamic government. 2. Wilayat al-Faqih: Guardianship of the Jurist 3. theory that the senior religious scholar or marja is the most qualified to lead the Islamic polity or state. 4. Khomeini implemented this idea with the Iranian Revolution.

Explaining Islamism in Saudi Arabia

1. Lacroix's key argument: the outside world influenced the development of Islamic activism in the kingdom moreso than the Wahhabi tradition 2. Wahhabism + Muslim Brotherhood = Sahwa >> Transposed to the Afghan war context, this combination produced al-Qaeda

Postcolonial Muslim Politics

1. Largely nationalist in character. 2. Did not advocate for Islam as a comprehensive system, encompassing the political. 3. Drew selectively from the Islamic tradition. 4. Oriented toward progress and development.

Spiegel's Arguments

1. Main driver of Islamist social or political activism is competition from rival Islamist movements. 2. PJD and al-Adl compete for youth allegiance >>state repression is important, but secondary for explaining Islamism 3. This competition transforms the nature of Islamist politics >>The best way to understand how is by looking at the people for whom Islamist parties compete: youth

Material vs. Ideational Factors

1. Masoud stresses material over ideational explanations. 2. "The key to understanding Islamist victories lies not in ideas or party tactics, but in the different political opportunities facing Islamists and their rivals." (Masoud, p. 31)

The "Failure" of Political Islam

1. Middle East states are resilient -- they have weathered the "pan-isms," including Islamism (Roy) 2. How? >>> Processes that produced the modern world too overwhelmingly powerful: emergence of territorial nation-state, urbanization, reshaping of social structures

Islamism

An ideological movement that asserts an unassailable place for the theology, laws, and institutions of Islam in the political and/or social sphere.

Muslim Brotherhood

Founded in Ismailiyya as an Islamic communal organization. 1929 there were 4 branches, by 1949 there were 4000. 1. Egypt then under colonial rule >> Ismailiyya a Suez Canal town -- dominated by the British 2. One of many groups contending to shape Egypt's future as an independent nation

Informal Authority vs. Formal Authority

How does the revolutionary politics of Iran influence the marja'iyya? 1. "the marja' is principally a charismatic figure." (Walbridge p. 244) >>His authority is by nature personalized (i.e., it inheres in him, and secondarily his students) >>It resists bureaucratization or institutionalization in the modern state. 2. Walbridge: the more Iran tries to formalize the institution of the marja'iyya, the more likely it will come to rest with religious authorities outside of Iran. >>Politicization of religion distasteful to many Shia believers

Al-Qaeda and the Jihadist Movement

Incursions of small media 1. Internet, social media amplify this fragmentation Jihadist Internet an example of the fragmentation of authority and reformulation of legitimate knowledge described by Eickelman. 1. Jihadists challenge official narratives, circumvent restrictions on communication through Internet.

Kurzman's finding (political)

Islamists led by Khomeini prepared the grounds for almost two decades, but the fact that they decided to mobilize in 1977 is not easily explained by regime liberalization.

Comparative Framework: PJD vs. al-Adl activists

PJD - Islamist political party 1. Largest party in current Moroccan parliament 2. PJD leader is Morocco's Prime Minister Al-Adl - Islamist social movement 1. Officially banned, but largely tolerated 2. Does not participate formally in politics 3. Under pressure from government

Conclusions

Q. Why did Islamist mobilization succeed to a limited extent at one point, but fail to achieve its full objectives? A1. Sectorization, paternalism, and the prohibition on political action distorts the Saudi political field A2. Power politics transpires in the informal domain, remaining opaque.

Kurzman finding (organizational)

Reliance on mosque networks was not a given before the revolution. These networks needed to be activated against strong resistance by many conservative senior scholars.

Roy and Haykel

Two questions: 1. What happens when we study Islamic politics in terms of a particular relationship with Islamic history and tradition? 2. What happens when we study it in terms of more universal political, economic, and social processes that are common to all societies, and not just Islamic ones?

Abu Zayd and Modern Islamic Thought

Two tendencies in Modern Islamic Thought: 1. Reconciliation and synthesis: adapting Islamic systems to harmonize with modernity and Western Influence. 2. Autonomy and opposition: casting Islam in opposition to Western secular modernity.

Post-Sahwa (1995-Present)

Sahwa movement broke up into many parts and contested orientations: 1. Sahwa leaders joined religious establishment --Salman al-Awda 2. Other activists formed liberal Islamic reformist movement-- called for constitutional reform, fizzled out 3. Others launched militant campaign inside the kingdom -- Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula All of these groups were limited in influence

State Development Strategies

Sectorization: What is it? 1. Managing the development process by chopping up social and political sphere into vertical sectors (separate religious, cultural, and defense institutions) 2. Encourages vertical solidarities and patronage networks 3. Facilitates regime control

Wahhabism and Muslim Brotherhood: Ideas

Wahhabism -- religious movement (18th. cen.) 1. Asks: who is or is not a Muslim? Has in mind: bedouin, Sufis, Shiites, other Sunnis (e.g. Ottomans) 2. Islam is: creed and correct practice. Muslim Brotherhood -- political movement (20th cen.) 1. Asks: how do we meet the challenge of Western ideas and systems? Has in mind: colonialism, secularism, Egyptian nationalism, Zionism. 2. Islam is: a comprehensive system.

Haykel on Salafism

What is Salafism? 1. A method of approaching religious authority and interpretation 2. A Muslim social identity 3. An orientation toward politics

Salafi Engagement with Public Life

Wide range of approaches: 1. Some Salafi groups are political (e.g. Egypt's al-Nour Party [participatory], al-Qaeda [insurrectionist]) 2. Many are apolitical (Jama'at al-Tabligh)

Eickelman on Popular Islamic Books and Pamphlets

Their significance: they reflect "fragmentation of authority" 1. Authored often by non-specialists (not religious scholars) 2. Written in popular style (as opposed to classical) 3. Published by independent presses (as opposed to state-controlled presses). 4. Represent views on religion (or politics) that may not be reflected in official government discourse

Egypt is Poor, So:

1. Most voters are susceptible to vote buying and promises of patronage. 2. Strongly agrarian and informal economy of Egypt makes mass mobilization along class-based lines challenging. 3. Mobilization through preexisting religious networks is the most viable pattern.

New Media and the Fragmentation of Authority

1. New media technologies (fax machines, the Internet, e-book printing) enable challenges to dominant political narratives produced by states. 2. "Print and other technologies create new forms of community and transform authority and social boundaries." 3. New communication technologies enable laymen to interpret religious texts, find audiences for their interpretations. >>religious discourse no longer exclusively the province of the elite Under these circumstances, politics can be "reimagined"

Implications of Rentier States for Lacroix

1. Political contests in oil states like Saudi Arabia can only be about identity (i.e. religion) 2. But is religion strictly a matter of identity?

Masoud's Methods

1. Profiles of Brotherhood leaders (all highly educated) 2. Analysis of Brotherhood Internet presence: Brotherhood's Internet presence significantly greater than all other groups, including Egyptian state. 3. Analysis of MB social service marketing: Medical care networks catered to paying customers, not the poorest of the poor.

Constructing New Islamist Identities

1. Religious appeal is not enough, Spiegel argues. >>Nor are other explanations grounded in Islamism's material appeal 2. "Activism, I found, allows young people to construct new identities, to build better versions of themselves." (p. 93)

The Failure of the Failure of Political Islam

1. Roy's thesis challenged by Arab Spring uprisings and the rise of Islamic State. 2. 3 of 10 leaders identified on p. 26 have been deposed (Egypt, Yemen, Iraq), and one is facing severe challenge (Syria)

Rentier State + Corporatism = Saudi Arabia

1. Royal family earns revenue from sale of oil abroad 2. Distributes revenue through ministries and informal auspices to: religious leaders, business leaders, tribal leaders 3. These leaders distribute patronage to their own constituents, insulating the royal family from most controversy

Lacroix on the Sahwa Movement

1. Sahwa movement -- the first broad-based, mass mobilization of Islamic activists in Saudi Arabia 2. Outcome of multiple factors: state development strategies, exogenous shock of 1990 Gulf War, mass literacy

Egyptian-Saudi Islamism

1. Saudi Arabia needed: skilled Arab professionals. 2. Egypt needed: Jobs for educated Egyptian graduates 3. Unintended outcome for Saudi Arabia: importing of Muslim Brotherhood influence. 4. Unintended outcome for Egypt: importing of a new "bourgeoisie piety" (Salafism).

Salafi Theology

1. Sunni 2. Emphasizes oneness of God (tawhid) 3. Rejects Sufism, Shiism, other Sunni creeds

Masoud on Brotherhood's Political Base

1. The Brotherhood won seats in Mubarak's parliament by winning a plurality of a surprisingly small voter base 2. Masoud asks -- so who were these voters? 3. Answer: Middle class, not poor. 4. How does he know they were middle class?

Participation and Empowerment

1. The capacity to protest and engage in autonomous political action seems to be a key attraction to Moroccan Islamist movements. 2. PJD is thought of as non-bureaucratic, and very meritocratic -- anyone can reach the top

Illiberal Politics

1. The individual is not the fundamental unit of political value. 2. The collective of believers, and the enactment of Islamic law, is foremost, not the autonomy of a particular individual. >>Coercion of the individual in the name of religion is therefore possible >>Freedom of the individual to enact their own will is thus potentially restricted for the same reason

Three Conservative Elements of Salafism

1. Theology: the concept of tawhid 2. Law: the question of ijtihad and legal school adherence (Wahhabis follow a school, other Salafis reject school adherence) 3. Politics - question of manhaj >> whether to be political or apolitical--if political, what sort of politics (i.e. jihadist, deomocratic, etc.)?

Masoud's Original Approach

1. To further prove his case, he looks not at data about MB results, but data on where it competed for seats, and how relatively affluent those districts were 2. By looking at where the MB contested seats as opposed to where they won or lost them, Masoud builds an argument about middle class autonomy that underpins his explanatory model.

Masoud Conclusions

1. We can study Islamist politics at the granular level by collecting and interpreting original data: >>Spiegel -- ethnographic data >>Masoud -- quantitative data 2. These approaches challenge conventional wisdom on Islamism

Egypt and Saudi Arabia Questions

1. What distinctions can we observe between the politics of Egypt and Saudi Arabia? 2. How do the constraints of opportunities of the political environment in these countries shape different forms of Islamist activism?

Spiegel's Questions

1. Who are Morocco's Islamist youth activists? 2. How does studying their lives take us beyond conventional understandings of Islamism?

Traditional Authority

1. Woven into the modern Iranian revolutionary republican state. 2. Yet strong tensions persist between the informal institution of the marja'iyya, a pan-Shia phenomenon, and the governing institutions of Iran, which are formally sovereign only in Iran

Islam

A faith tradition or belief system, that can be invoked for political purposes, but is not itself a predominantly political ideology.

Islamists fill the Vacuum

A range of Islamist ideological movements filled the power vacuum in each case: 1. Iraq: SCIRI and Dawa, and now, Islamic State 2. Yemen: Houthis and al-Qaeda 3. Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood 4. Syria: Syrian Islamist opposition and Islamic State

Political Repression, Islam, and Secularism

AbdolKarim Soroush: Abu Zayd's paradigmatic Islamic liberal. 1. For Soroush, Islam must be saved from its politicization by the Iranian revolutionary system. 2. The only thing that can save it is democracy and human rights. > Whereas secular tyranny attracted Muslims to Islamism, the tyranny of Iranian state Islamism has turned many Iranians away from their faith.

Salafism's Appeal

Absolute Knowledge -- Religious certainty is possible 1. Truth is in the proof texts 2. The believer need only seek it out Community 1. Bounded by common markers -- dress, social and religious habits, prayer postures, speech Authenticity 1. Salafis see themselves re-enacting the Prophetic life and early Muslim community.

Kurzman on the Revolution

According to Kurzman, what are some of the common explanations for the 1979 Iranian Revolution? 1. Political explanations 2. Organizational explanations 3. Cultural explanations 4. Economic explanations

Wahhabism and Muslim Brotherhood: Networks

Arab Cold War -- Brotherhood activists flee home countries for Saudi Arabia. 1. Find work in Saudi high schools and universities 2. Help shape pedagogy in the kingdom. Lacroix: totalizing view of Islam articulated in Saudi education policy (1970) reflects Brotherhood influence. 1. To shape Muslim citizens in comprehensive sense, not just creed (or, correct belief)

Masoud's Argument for Islamist Successes at the Polls

Argument: Islamist electoral victories are not in the main about Islam 1. Voting patterns are about social networks, not religious convictions 2. In practice, support for Islamist parties isn't automatically about support for religious politics.

Khomeini on Human Rights

Ayatollah Khomeini: Abu Zayd's paradigmatic Islamic conservative. Says: 1. Only God has rights 2. Humans have duties, not rights (sharp contrast with Western liberal norms)

The Rentier State

Beyond corporatism, what distinguished politics in the Arab Gulf? The rentier phenomenon. 1. Rentier state: a state in which the vast majority of national income is derived from external rents that are controlled by the government. 2. Gulf oil states are rentier states.

Kurzman's findings (cultural)

Many of the Shia rituals and practices associated with the revolution were not practiced in the same fashion in regular contexts, but were redirected for revolutionary purposes.