Religious Radicalism after the Arab Uprisings

Religious Radicalism after the Arab Uprisings PDF Author: Jon B. Alterman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442240695
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Gathering field work from almost twenty countries along with in-depth analysis and case studies, Religious Radicalism after the Arab Uprisings explores how radical groups, governments, and publics have responded to the Arab uprisings of 2011 and how conflicts that many thought were coming to an end are likely to continue indefinitely. Leading experts from the Center for Strategic & International Studies explore how radical groups have combined techniques learned from more liberal counterparts with a simultaneous decline in police capacity to construct an effective threat against established powers. The book also examines how governments have responded to unprecedented challenges to their authority by attacking a wide range of religiously inspired groups. It concludes that to face the current threats, governments need analyze the effectiveness of existing tools, discarding those that are outdated and adopting the new strategies to counter the ever-mounting radical presence.

Religious Radicalism after the Arab Uprisings

Religious Radicalism after the Arab Uprisings PDF Author: Jon B. Alterman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442240695
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 205

Get Book

Book Description
Gathering field work from almost twenty countries along with in-depth analysis and case studies, Religious Radicalism after the Arab Uprisings explores how radical groups, governments, and publics have responded to the Arab uprisings of 2011 and how conflicts that many thought were coming to an end are likely to continue indefinitely. Leading experts from the Center for Strategic & International Studies explore how radical groups have combined techniques learned from more liberal counterparts with a simultaneous decline in police capacity to construct an effective threat against established powers. The book also examines how governments have responded to unprecedented challenges to their authority by attacking a wide range of religiously inspired groups. It concludes that to face the current threats, governments need analyze the effectiveness of existing tools, discarding those that are outdated and adopting the new strategies to counter the ever-mounting radical presence.

Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East

Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East PDF Author: Emmanuel Sivan
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791401590
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
This book explores in a comparative perspective two fundamentalist waves that have rolled over the Middle East during the last two decades. Jewish and Muslim extremism have had a profound impact on the culture and politics of this important region. One thinks immediately of the Guh Emunism settlements on the West Bank, the Iranian revolution, and the assassination of President Sadat. The authors highlight various facets of the phenomena, such as Haradi Jewish ultra-orthodoxy, the transformation of secular Israeli nationalism by the Gush, Iranian attempts to spread the revolutionary gospel to the Sunni world, and fundamentalism as the spearhead of the national uprising in the Gaza. The introduction outlines what the extremist movements in both religions have in common, where they diverge, and how they are shaping the future of the Middle East.

Militancy and the Arc of Instability

Militancy and the Arc of Instability PDF Author: Jennifer G. Cooke
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442279699
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
An arc of instability stretching across Africa’s Sahel region, an area of strategic interest for the United States and its allies, is plagued by violent extremist organizations (VEOs). These organizations, including Boko Haram, al Qaeda, and other terror groups, have metastasized and present a serious threat to regional stability. Now these VEOs are transitioning. Under sustained pressure from French and regional security forces, and reeling from the loss of senior leaders, many of these groups feel backed into a corner. Despite setbacks, these groups continue to plague the region. To enhance policymakers’ understanding of these threats and how to respond to them, CSIS experts from the Africa Program and Transnational Threats Project conducted field-based and scholarly research examining the broad range of factors at play in the region. This research provides little ground for optimism. Chronic underdevelopment, political alienation, failed governance and corruption, organized crime, and spillover from Libya help foster and sustain violent extremists throughout the Sahel.

The New Sectarianism

The New Sectarianism PDF Author: Geneive Abdo
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190233168
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The Shi'a-Sunni conflict is one of the most significant outcomes arising from the Arab rebellions. Yet, there is little understanding of who is driving this tension and the underlying causes. By delving deeply into the historical factors leading up to the present-day conflict, The New Sectarianism sheds new light on how Shi'a and Sunni perceive one another after the Arab uprisings, how these perceptions have affected the Arab world, and why the dream of a pan-Islamic awakening was misplaced. Geneive Abdo describes a historical backdrop that serves as a counterpoint to Western media coverage of the so-called Arab Spring. Already by the 1970s, she says, Shi'a and Sunni communities had begun to associate their religious beliefs and practices with personal identity, replacing their fragile loyalty to the nation state. By the time the Arab risings erupted into their full fury in early 2011, there was fertile ground for instability. The ensuing clash-between Islamism and Nationalism, Shi'a and Sunni, and other factions within these communities-has resulted in unprecedented violence. So, Abdo asks, what does religion have to do with it? This sectarian conflict is often presented by the West as rivalry over land use, political power, or access to education. However, Abdo persuasively argues that it must be understood as flowing directly from religious difference and the associated identities that this difference has conferred on both Shi'a and Sunni. The New Sectarianism considers the causes for this conflict in key countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Bahrain and the development of regional trends. Abdo argues that in these regions religion matters, not only in how it is utilized by extremists, moderate Islamists, and dictators alike for political purposes, but how it perpetually evolves and is perceived and practiced among the vast majority of Muslims. Shi'a and Sunni today are not battling over territory alone; they are fighting for their claim to a true Islamic identity.

Morbid Symptoms

Morbid Symptoms PDF Author: Gilbert Achcar
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503600475
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Since the first wave of uprisings in 2011, the euphoria of the "Arab Spring" has given way to the gloom of backlash and a descent into mayhem and war. The revolution has been overwhelmed by clashes between rival counter-revolutionary forces: resilient old regimes on the one hand and Islamic fundamentalist contenders on the other. In this eagerly awaited book, foremost Arab world and international affairs specialist Gilbert Achcar analyzes the factors of the regional relapse. Focusing on Syria and Egypt, Achcar assesses the present stage of the uprising and the main obstacles, both regional and international, that prevent any resolution. In Syria, the regime's brutality has fostered the rise of jihadist forces, among which the so-called Islamic State emerged as the most ruthless and powerful. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood's year in power was ultimately terminated by the contradictory conjunction of a second revolutionary wave and a bloody reactionary coup. Events in Syria and Egypt offer salient examples of a pattern of events happening across the Middle East. Morbid Symptoms offers a timely analysis of the ongoing Arab uprising that will engage experts and general readers alike. Drawing on a unique combination of scholarly and political knowledge of the Arab region, Achcar argues that, short of radical social change, the region will not achieve stability any time soon.

Radical Arab Nationalism and Political Islam

Radical Arab Nationalism and Political Islam PDF Author: Lahouari Addi
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626164509
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Radical Arab nationalism emerged in the modern era as a response to European political and cultural domination, culminating in a series of military coups in the mid-20th century in Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. This movement heralded the dawn of modern, independent nations that would close the economic, social, scientific, and military gaps with the West while building a unity of Arab nations. But this dream failed. In fact, radical Arab nationalism became a barrier to civil peace and national cohesion, most tragically demonstrated in the case of Syria, for two reasons: 1) national armies militarized nationalism and its political objectives; 2) these nations did not keep pace with the intellectual and political and cultural and social progress of European nations that offered, for example, freedom of speech and thought. It was the failure of radical Arab nationalism, Addi contends, that made the more recent political Islam so popular. But if radical nationalism militarized politics, the Islamists politicized religion. Today, the prevailing medieval interpretation of Islam, defended by the Islamists, prevents these nations from making progress and achieving the kind of social justice that radical Arab nationalism once promised. Will political Islam fail, too? Can nations ruled by political Islam accommodate modernity? Their success or failure, Addi writes, depends upon this question.

Weapon of Peace

Weapon of Peace PDF Author: Nilay Saiya
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108474314
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
This book shows that attempts to repress religion produce the very violent religious extremism that states seek to avoid.

Rethinking Political Islam

Rethinking Political Islam PDF Author: Shadi Hamid
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190649224
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
For years, scholars hypothesized about what Islamists might do if they ever came to power. Now, they have answers: confusing ones. In the Levant, ISIS established a government by brute force, implementing an extreme interpretation of Islamic law. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Tunisia's Ennahda Party governed in coalition with two secular parties, ratified a liberal constitution, and voluntarily stepped down from power. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, the world's oldest Islamist movement, won power through free elections only to be ousted by a military coup. The strikingly disparate results of Islamist movements have challenged conventional wisdom on political Islam, forcing experts and Islamists to rethink some of their most basic assumptions. In Rethinking Political Islam, two of the leading scholars on Islamism, Shadi Hamid and William McCants, have gathered a group of leading specialists in the field to explain how an array of Islamist movements across the Middle East and Asia have responded. Unlike ISIS and other jihadist groups that garner the most media attention, these movements have largely opted for gradual change. Their choices, however, have been reshaped by the revolutionary politics of the region. The groups depicted in the volume capture the contradictions, successes, and failures of Islamism, providing a fascinating window into a rapidly changing Middle East. It is the first book to systematically assess the evolution of mainstream Islamist groups since the Arab uprisings and the rise of ISIS, covering 12 country cases. In each instance, contributors address key questions, including: gradual versus revolutionary approaches to change; the use of tactical or situational violence; attitudes toward the nation-state; and how ideology, religion, and political variables interact. For the first time in book form, readers will also hear directly from Islamist activists and leaders themselves, as they offer their own perspectives on the future of their movements. Islamists will have the opportunity to challenge the assumptions and arguments of some of the leading scholars of Islamism, in the spirit of constructive dialogue. Rethinking Political Islam includes three of the most important country cases outside the Middle East-Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan-allowing readers to consider a greater diversity of Islamist experiences. The book's contributors have immersed themselves in the world of political Islam and conducted original research in the field, resulting in rich accounts of what animates Islamist behavior.

Microfoundations of the Arab Uprisings

Microfoundations of the Arab Uprisings PDF Author: Frédéric Volpi
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789462985131
Category : Arab Spring, 2010-
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Cover -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Rethinking Mobilization after the Arab Uprisings -- James M. Jasper and Frédéric Volpi -- 1. The Social Life of Contentious Ideas -- Piracy and Unruly, Translocal Appropriation in the Arab Uprisings and Beyond -- John Chalcraft -- 2. Routines and Ruptures in Anti-Israeli Protests in Jordan -- Jillian Schwedler -- 3. Shaping Contention as a Salafi Movement -- The Rise and Fall of Ansar al-Sharia in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia -- Frédéric Volpi -- 4. Contingency and Agency in a Turning Point Event -- March 18, 2011, in Daraa, Syria -- Wendy Pearlman -- 5 .It Takes Two (or More) to Tango -- The Local Coproduction of the Alexandrian Revolutionary Moment -- Youssef El Chazli -- 6. Violence, Social Actors, and Subjectivation in the Egyptian Revolution -- Farhad Khosrokhavar -- Conclusion -- Unruly Protest -- Charles Kurzman -- Index

The New Middle East

The New Middle East PDF Author: Fawaz A. Gerges
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107028639
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
The New Middle East critically examines the Arab popular uprisings of 2011-12.