POSTREVOLUTIONARY IRAN AND SHIءI LEBANON: CONTESTED HISTORIES OF SHIءI TRANSNATIONALISM

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 289a-289a
Author(s):  
Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Transnational Network ◽  
Iranian Government ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Ideological Work

In this article I address the transnational dimensions of memory production. In particular, I analyze how interpretations of past events define Shiءi relations across borders in the Middle East. Focusing on how the Lebanese Shiءi political party of Amal and the current Iranian government remember the figure of Mustafa Chamran—an Iranian Shiءi anti-Shah activist based in Lebanon from 1970 to 1979—I discuss the debates that inform the creation of such contested memories and reasons for and consequences of their divergence. Participants' ideas about the history and characteristics of this transnational network cannot be understood separately from their claims to political and religious authority in the Shiءi world. Thus, transnational Shiءi networks do not self-evidently reproduce themselves based on a shared sense of religious identity and history. It takes ideological work both to construct differences and to create solidarities across borders among Shiءa. This ideological work must be situated within larger political, religious, and socioeconomic contexts.

A Casuistic explanation to Hizbullah’s realpolitik: Interpreting the re-interpreted

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
Mariam Farida
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Regional Conflicts ◽  
East Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
Middle East Region

Abstract The recent development unfolding in the Arab region forces the observer into the question of security and stability. The Middle East region has been coined with violence and transformations with the growing inability to bring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an end. The history of Lebanon is not separate from the surrounding danger. For that end, Hizbullah has pushed Lebanon into the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. This article investigates the role Hizbullah plays amidst regional conflicts, and its ability to stand out as a religio-political party able to face the Israeli aggression and withstand its religious identity. Interestingly, this has been a key to the Party’s success, where the Party’s religious identity and politics go hand in hand. As such, this paper offers the reader an analysis of how Hizbullah uses religion to its favour, and how religion (specifically Shi’ism) offers a ground for political pragmatism to be justified.

Strategizing the Sacred

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avi Max Spiegel
Keyword(s):  
Political Party ◽  
Religious Study ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Party Members ◽  
A Site

This chapter suggests that the representations of religion in young Islamists' lives are not the product of prevarication, but rather of personalization. Religious authority has become circulated to such an extent that it has come to mean multiple things to multiple members. In the midst of this diversification, political party members increasingly appropriate the authority to interpret and represent what “Islam” means or should mean to others. None of these myriad representations constitutes “lies.” Instead, these words and constructions represent and reflect members' own strategic desires for themselves. The chapter shows how the haraka represents for some a site for religious study, a place of Qurʾanic learning unfettered by politics. For others, it is a place to make contacts and to get ahead: an instrumental, not ideological, site. For still others, it serves as a strategic site, a place to try out new ideas, and even as a convenient scapegoat. And, yet, for others, it is completely ignored; it simply has no place in their lives as party members.

The New Islamic State

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Khosrokhavar
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
The West ◽  
Patriarchal Family ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Creation

The creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) changed the nature of jihadism worldwide. For a few years (2014–2017) it exemplified the destructive capacity of jihadism and created a new utopia aimed at restoring the past greatness and glory of the former caliphate. It also attracted tens of thousands of young wannabe combatants of faith (mujahids, those who make jihad) toward Syria and Iraq from more than 100 countries. Its utopia was dual: not only re-creating the caliphate that would spread Islam all over the world but also creating a cohesive, imagined community (the neo-umma) that would restore patriarchal family and put an end to the crisis of modern society through an inflexible interpretation of shari‘a (Islamic laws and commandments). To achieve these goals, ISIS diversified its approach. It focused, in the West, on the rancor of the Muslim migrants’ sons and daughters, on exoticism, and on an imaginary dream world and, in the Middle East, on tribes and the Sunni/Shi‘a divide, particularly in the Iraqi and Syrian societies.

Party systems and ideological cleavages in the Middle East and North Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406881989429
Author(s):  
Abdullah Aydogan
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Mena Countries

Previous studies have contrasted the political party systems in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with those in more democratic countries, raising three important points: (1) the religious–secular dimension, rather than the economic or social left–right, explains the underlying political party competition; (2) left-wing politics is relatively weaker than right-wing politics; and (3) parties that are traditionally known as rightist take left-leaning positions on numerous issue dimensions, and vice versa. Even though this particular literature on party politics in the MENA has greatly improved our understanding of political dynamics in the region, these studies have either lacked quantitative evidence to support these points or their evidence was limited to single-country cases. This study aims to address this issue by analyzing original expert survey data of the ideological positions of political parties in the MENA region. Results show that in addition to the religious–secular dimension, the economic left–right divide and the pace of political reforms are highly important dimensions. The study also provides numerous examples showing that the policy stances of leftist and rightist parties are significantly reversed when MENA countries are compared with more developed democracies.

Contested identities: Tuan Guru and Ahmadiyah in the redrawing of post-1998 Sasak-Muslim boundary lines in Lombok

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sitti Sani Nurhayati
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Religious Violence ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Boundary Lines

<p>This study examines what drives the increasing hostility towards Ahmadiyah in post-Suharto Lombok. Fieldwork was undertaken in three villages – Pemongkong, Pancor and Ketapang – where Ahmadiyah communities lived and experienced violent attacks from 1998 to 2010. The stories from these villages are analysed within the context of a revival of local religious authority and the redefinition of the paradigm of ethno-religious identity. Furthermore, this thesis contends that the redrawing of identity in Lombok generates a new interdependency of different religious authorities, as well as novel political possibilities following the regime change. Finally, the thesis concludes there is a need to understand intercommunal religious violence by reference to specific local realities. Concomitantly, there is a need for greater caution in offering sweeping universal Indonesia-wide explanations that need to be qualified in terms of local contexts.</p>

The American Perception of the Palestine-Israel Conflict

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Israa Daas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Source Of Information

Abstract The Palestine-Israel conflict is probably one of the most pressing problems in the Middle East. Moreover, the United States has been involved in this conflict since the 1970s. Therefore, the present research aims to learn more about the American perception of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was conducted using a survey that addressed Americans from different backgrounds, focusing on four variables: the American government’s position, solutions, the Israeli settlements, and Jerusalem. The research suggests a correlation between political party and the American perception of the conflict. It appears that Republicans seem to be against the withdrawal of the Israeli settlements, and they believe that the US government is not biased toward Israel. Nevertheless, Democrats tend to believe that the US government is biased in favor of Israel, and they support withdrawing the Israeli settlements. Moreover, there might be another correlation between the American perception and the source of information they use to learn about the conflict. Most of the surveyed Americans, whatever their resource of information that they use to learn about the conflict is, tend to believe that the US is biased in favor of Israel. It is crucial to know about the American perception when approaching to a solution to the conflict as the US is a mediator in this conflict, and a powerful country in the world. Especially because it has a permanent membership in the UN council. KEYWORDS: American Perception, Palestine-Israel Conflict, Jerusalem, Israeli settlements

scholarly journals Israel and the Middle East: The creation of a Nation

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Antonella Colonna Vilasi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Jewish Question ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Social Debate

Abstract In order to properly study the foundation of a State, a paradigm of thought or any other organization, we should analyze the historical context which produced the conditions for this phenomenon to happen, in all its variables and components. The Jewish question cannot certainly be relegated only to the 20th century, but surely it was the century in which the cultural, political, economic, and social debate was the expression of a collective will to create a Nation and develop and transform it into a key country in the context of global geopolitics.

scholarly journals Measuring the Unmeasurable? Production & Certification of Halal Goods and Services

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 364-386
Author(s):  
Aisalkyn Botoeva
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Behavioral Norms ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Transnational Network ◽  
Collective Meaning ◽  
Shared Understandings

Abstract Attending to the rise of halal economy and particularly halal certification initiatives in the region and globally, this paper asks why and how third-party certifiers would gain credibility and authority, and what does authority have to do with the work of entrepreneurs in the sector. Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2012 and 2015, and interviews with entrepreneurs and a private halal certification agency in Kyrgyzstan as well as their accreditors in Kazakhstan, I pay close attention to the collective meaning-making deliberations that revolve around questions of what makes goods and services halal and also what makes one a ‘good Muslim’. Certifiers and entrepreneurs come to form what I call a valuation circuit. In these circuits, they construct shared understandings of ethnical and behavioral norms for market actors, create and reinforce binaries around halal and haram, and rely on transnational network of religious authority as they attempt to valuate and measure compliance to halal standards.

scholarly journals Arab Spring as a Factor of Emergence of Salafi Parties in the Middle East and North Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-176
Author(s):  
T. R. Khayrullin
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
New Development ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Arab Spring

The article is devoted to the analysis of Salafi Islamism. Conservative Salafi Islamism during the events of the Arab spring received a new development. In particular, the fall of authoritarian regimes and the beginning of the democratic process in the Middle East and North Africa led to the creation of Salafi political parties. The Salafi sts believed, that in a favorable political environment, they would be able to defend their legal status and gain some privileges through participating in parliamentary elections. However, the creation of parties has deepened internal divisions within the Salafi movements. In particular, there were supporters among the Salafi sts, who defended the combination of student and political activities against those who considered participation in the political struggle as a temporary tactical action. The result of the disagreement was the emergence of a reformist movement, that began to see participation in politics as a tool for strengthening the position of the Salafi st movement.

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