Shi'a Minorities in the Contemporary World

Shi'a Minorities in the Contemporary World PDF Author: Scharbrodt Oliver Scharbrodt
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474430406
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
Global migrations flows in the 20th century have seen the emergence of Muslim diaspora and minority communities in Europe, North America and other parts of the world. While there is a growing body of research on Muslim minorities in various regional contexts, the particular experiences of Shi'a Muslim minorities across the globe has only received scant attention.This book offers new comparative perspectives of Shi'a minorities outside of the so-called 'Muslim heartland' (the Middle East, North Africa, Central and South Asia). It includes contributions on Shi'a minority communities in Europe, North and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia that emerged out of migration from the Middle East and South Asia in the 20th and 21st centuries in particular. As a 'minority within a minority', Shi'a Muslims face the double challenge of maintaining as Islamic as well as a particular Shi'a identity in terms of communal activities and practices, public perception and recognition.

Shi'a Minorities in the Contemporary World

Shi'a Minorities in the Contemporary World PDF Author: Scharbrodt Oliver Scharbrodt
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474430406
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
Global migrations flows in the 20th century have seen the emergence of Muslim diaspora and minority communities in Europe, North America and other parts of the world. While there is a growing body of research on Muslim minorities in various regional contexts, the particular experiences of Shi'a Muslim minorities across the globe has only received scant attention.This book offers new comparative perspectives of Shi'a minorities outside of the so-called 'Muslim heartland' (the Middle East, North Africa, Central and South Asia). It includes contributions on Shi'a minority communities in Europe, North and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia that emerged out of migration from the Middle East and South Asia in the 20th and 21st centuries in particular. As a 'minority within a minority', Shi'a Muslims face the double challenge of maintaining as Islamic as well as a particular Shi'a identity in terms of communal activities and practices, public perception and recognition.

Reaching for Power

Reaching for Power PDF Author: Yitzhak Nakash
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400841461
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
As the world focuses on the conflict in Iraq, the most important political players in that country today are not the Sunni insurgents. Instead, they are Iraq's Shi'I majority--part of the Middle East's ninety million Shi'I Muslims who hold the key to the future of the region and the relations between Muslim and Western societies. So contends Yitzhak Nakash, one of the world's foremost experts on Shi'ism. With his characteristic verve and style, Nakash traces the role of the Shi'is in the struggle that is raging today among Muslims for the soul of Islam. He shows that in contrast to the growing militancy among Sunni groups since the 1990s, Shi'is have shifted their focus from confrontation to accommodation with the West. Constituting sixty percent of the population of Iraq, they stand squarely at the center of the U.S government's attempt to remake the Middle East and bring democracy to the region. This groundbreaking book addresses the crucial importance of Shi'is to the U.S. endeavor. Yet it also alerts readers to the strong nationalist sentiments of Shi'is, underscoring the difficult challenge that the United States faces in attempting to impose a new order in the Middle East. The book provides a comprehensive historical perspective on Shi'ism, beginning with the emergence of the movement during the seventh century, continuing through its rise as a political force since the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1978-79, and leading up to the Iraqi elections of January 2005. Drawing extensively on Arabic sources, this comparative study highlights the reciprocal influences shaping the political development of Shi'is in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Lebanon, as well as the impact of the revival of Shi'ism on the larger Arab world. The narrative concludes with an assessment of the risks and possibilities arising from the assertion of Shi'I power in Iraq and from America's attempt to play an increasingly forceful role in the Middle East. A landmark book and a work of remarkable scholarship, Reaching for Power illuminates the Shi'a resurgence amid the shifting geopolitics of the Middle East.

The Other Saudis

The Other Saudis PDF Author: Toby Matthiesen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107043042
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
This book traces the politics of the Shia in the oil-rich Eastern Province of Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia since the nineteenth century.

Under threat: The challenges facing religious minorities in Bangladesh

Under threat: The challenges facing religious minorities in Bangladesh PDF Author:
Publisher: Minority Rights Group
ISBN: 1907919821
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Since 2013, Bangladesh has experienced a series of violent attacks by extremists. The victims have included – besides atheists, secular bloggers, liberals and foreigners – many Buddhists, Christians and Hindus as well as Ahmadis and Shi’a Muslims. A large number of the attacks targeting religious minorities in particular have subsequently been claimed by the organization Islamic State (IS) – a claim vigorously denied by the Bangladeshi government, which has attributed the attacks to domestic militant groups. Regardless of their authorship, since the beginning of this new outbreak of violence, the authorities have visibly failed to ensure the protection of those targeted. For religious minorities, who have borne much of the brunt of these attacks, this violence is the latest chapter in a long history of discrimination and segregation that stretches back to the country’s independence and the legacy of colonialism, the 1947 Partition and the bloody civil war in 1971 during which the Hindu population in particular was targeted. This briefing, drawing on a detailed review of published sources, fieldwork by local rapporteurs and first-hand author interviews with a number of activists, lawyers and journalists, aims to provide a fuller picture of the complex challenges facing these communities and the need for a society-wide solution to the insecurity that has convulsed the country in the last few years.

Citizenship and Its Discontents

Citizenship and Its Discontents PDF Author: Thanassis Cambanis
Publisher: Century Foundation Press
ISBN: 9780870785566
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
Pluralism and rights are under threat from communal violence, authoritarianism, and religious identity politics. How is the Middle East attempting to create more inclusive rights and citizenship? How do religious and nonreligious minorities envision their future in the region? On what basis can communities enjoy citizenship or seek rights in an era when law increasingly draws on religion and majoritarianism for its legitimacy? In this volume, researchers and activists draw on extensive fieldwork to open a new line of discussion in the Middle East as well as among Western policymakers. The question of belonging is more urgent than ever, as governments promote a simplistic discourse that opposes secularism and promotes a MuslimsversusChristians or SunniversusShia read of contemporary conflicts. Contributors include Rohan Advani, Mustafa Akyol, Zaid alAli, Lina Attalah, Melani Cammett, Joseph Daher, Cale Salih, Maria Fantappie, Mark Farha, Mona Fawaz, Fanar Haddad, Yassin AlHaj Saleh, Karl Sharro, and Elizabeth Thompson.

Shi'ism, Resistance, And Revolution

Shi'ism, Resistance, And Revolution PDF Author: Martin Kramer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000311430
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
The recent revival of interest in the Muslim world has generated numerous studies of modern Islam, most of them focusing on the Sunni majority. Shi'ism, an often stigmatized minority branch of Islam, has been discussed mainly in connection with Iran. Yet Shi'i movements have been extraordinarily effective in creating political strategies that have

Religious Minorities in Pakistan

Religious Minorities in Pakistan PDF Author: Iftikhar Haider Malik
Publisher: Minority Rights Group
ISBN: 1897693699
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Recent massacres of religious minorities in Pakistan have focused new attention on the predicament of minorities in a country that is generally perceived to be a homogeneous Muslim nation. In fact, besides five ethno-regional groups (Baloch, Muhajir, Punjabi, Pushtuns and Sindhis), there are numerous religious groups including Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and Hindus, together with several smaller Islamic groups.Pakistan has been ruled by the military for much of its existence. The political use of religion by governments and a weak civil society pose enormous challenges for minorities in Pakistan. Non-Muslim minorities and women in Pakistan are subject to harsh religious laws, while some minority Muslim groups face similar forms of discrimination. Constitutional amendments and the Blasphemy Law have deprived minorities of religious freedom and violated their rights as citizens. In addition, the decision of the current military regime to join the US-led coalition against terrorism has provoked popular resentment and an internal backlash by extremist groups with renewed violence against minorities.This report aims to enhance understanding of religious minorities in Pakistan and increase awareness of the need for the protection of minority and gender-based rights across communities. With a general election due this year, this report is timely and of direct relevance to both the international community and agencies concerned with Pakistan.

Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds

Claiming and Making Muslim Worlds PDF Author: Jeanine Elif Dağyeli
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110727110
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
To what extent can Islam be localized in an increasingly interconnected world? The contributions to this volume investigate different facets of Muslim lives in the context of increasingly dense transregional connections, highlighting how the circulation of ideas about ‘Muslimness’ contributed to the shaping of specific ideas about what constitutes Islam and its role in society and politics. Infrastructural changes have prompted the intensification of scholarly and trade networks, prompted the circulation of new literary genres or shaped stereotypical images of Muslims. This, in turn, had consequences in widely differing fields such as self-representation and governance of Muslims. The contributions in this volume explore this issue in geographical contexts ranging from South Asia to Europe and the US. Coming from the disciplines of history, anthropology, religious studies, literary studies and political science, the authors collectively demonstrate the need to combine a translocal perspective with very specific local and historical constellations. The book complicates conventional academic divisions and invites to think in historically specific translocal contexts.

Shiism and Politics in the Middle East

Shiism and Politics in the Middle East PDF Author: Laurence Louer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197644163
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
In this timely book, completed before the current outbreak of unrest in Bahrain that has formed part of the Arab Spring, Laurence Louer explains, the background of the Bahraini conflict in the context of the wider issue of Shiism as a political force in the Arab Middle East, amongst other issues relating to the role of Shiite Islamist movements in regional politics. Her study shows how Bahrain's troubles are a phenomenon based on local perceptions of injustice rather than on the foreign policy of Shiite Iran. More generally, the book shows that, though Iran's Islamic Revolution had an electrifying effect on Shiite movements in Lebanon, Iraq, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, local political imperatives have in the end been the crucial factor in the direction they have taken. In addition, the overwhelming influence of the Shiite clerical institution has been diminished by the rise to prominence of lay activists within the Shiite movements across the Middle East and the emergence of Shiite anti-clericalism. This book contributes to dispelling the myth of the determining power of Iran in the politics of Iraq, Bahrain and other Arab states with significant Shiite populations.

Purifying the Land of the Pure

Purifying the Land of the Pure PDF Author: Farahnaz Ispahani
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190621656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
In Purifying the Land of the Pure, Farahnaz Ispahani analyzes Pakistan's policies towards its religious minority populations, both Muslim and non-Muslim, since independence in 1947.