Islamist Feminism: Constructing Gender Identities in Postcolonial Muslim Societies

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffry R. Halverson ◽  
Amy K. Way
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
Unique Extension ◽  
Islamic Feminism ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Independence Movements

AbstractThis article analyzes the emergence of female Islamist leaders in the Middle East and North Africa, and the glaring contradictions between their feminist views and their roles as political activists for the Islamic State. The two Islamist leaders who form the primary focus of this analysis are Zaynab al-Ghazali (d. 2005) of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Nadia Yassine of Morocco's Justice and Charity Society. Our analysis reveals the existence of “Islamistfeminism,” distinguished from broader secular-oriented Islamic feminism, as a logical, albeit unique, extension, and expression of Muslim anti-colonial discourse rooted in the intellectual currents of twentieth century independence movements that still resonate today.

scholarly journals Why Islam (Properly Understood) Is the Solution

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-145
Author(s):  
Nader Hashemi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This paper is a provocative play on the famous Muslim Brotherhood slogan al-Islām hūwa al-ḥāl (Islam is the solution). While critics of the Muslim Brothers rightly criticized them for the simplicity of their worldview in thinking that religion was a panacea for all of the problems confronting Muslim societies during the late twentieth century, an argument can be made that religion does profoundly matter in the context of the struggle for democracy in the Arab-Islamic world. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, democratic transitions in North Africa and the Middle East will be dependent on democratically negotiating the question of religion’s role in politics. Here I provide some reflections on this topic with a focus on Tunisia’s transition to democracy.  

scholarly journals The North African “Extremistan” of the Islamic State Caliphate

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-13
Author(s):  
Adrian Cosmin Basarabă ◽  
Maria-Mihaela Nistor
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
North African ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
The North ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Cellular Matrices

Abstract This article aims at presenting ISIS expansion in North Africa in the first quarter of 2016, with its subsequent implication in the wider framework of Jihadist proliferation worldwide. It can be argued that, while losing real estate in the Middle East, ISIS has started a permanent search for extra-cellular matrices or an ongoing process of de- and reterritorialization. The allegiance and support pledged by other African-based terrorist groups or organizations such as Boko Haram, al-I’tisam of the Koran and Sunnah in Sudan, al-Huda Battalion in Maghreb of Islam, The Soldiers of the Caliphate, al-Ghurabaa, Djamaat Houmat ad-Da’wa as-Salafiya and al-Ansar Battalion in Algeria, Islamic Youth Shura Council, Islamic State Libya (Darnah), in Libya, Jamaat Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, Jund al-Khilafah and Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem in Egypt, Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion, Mujahideen of Tunisia of Kairouan and Jund al-Khilafah in Tunisia and al-Shabaab Jubba Region Cell Bashir Abu Numan in Somalia is an alarming hypothesis of Jihadism reaching “the threshold of inevitability”- syntagm existent in the network theories of David Singh Grewal- turning a whole region, continent of even world into what Nassim Nicholas Taleb would call Extremistan.

She Came from Kasaba

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 582-585
Author(s):  
Leslie Hakim-Dowek
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Modal Approach ◽  
History Of

As in Marianne Hirsch’s (2008) notion of ‘devoir de memoire’, this poem-piece, from a new series, uses the role of creation and imagination to strive to ‘re-activate and re-embody’ distant family/historical transcultural spaces and memories within the perspective of a dispersed history of a Middle-Eastern minority, the Sephardi/Jewish community. There is little awareness that Sephardi/Jewish communities were an integral part of the Middle East and North Africa for many centuries before they were driven out of their homes in the second half of the twentieth century. Using a multi-modal approach combining photography and poetry, this photo-poem series has for focus my female lineage. This piece evokes in particular the memory of my grandmother, encapsulating many points in history where persecution and displacement occurred across many social, political and linguistic borders.

Improvising Happiness

2019 ◽  
pp. 478-494
Author(s):  
Barbara Sellers-Young
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Small Towns ◽  
Belly Dance ◽  
Global Discourse ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Aesthetic Principle

Solo improvisational dance forms from North Africa and the Middle East, most commonly referred to as belly dance, have their roots in community celebrations in which dancers improvise to the accompaniment of a diverse set of local instruments. The movement vocabulary of these forms became part of popular global discourse in the twentieth century through the inclusion of the dances at transnational fairs. Later belly dance was adopted as part of dance studios and recreational centres in small towns and major urban centres on all continents. Despite its global transmission and performance, belly dance has maintained improvisation as a core aesthetic principle.

scholarly journals Al-Azhar University in the Events of the Arab Spring (Case of Egypt)

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-596
Author(s):  
Yurii Vitalevich Lashkhia
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Official Document ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Arab Spring

Due to the comprehensiveness of Islam, the role of the “Islamic factor” in political processes in the Middle East and North Africa is great, while the nature of the manifestations of the “Islamic factor” largely depends among other things on the current state of modern religious educational institutions, including those serving as a forge of Islamic personnel today. One of the most prestigious universities in Islamic oikumene, giving religious education for Muslims from all over the world, is AlAzhar al-Sharif (the shorter Al-Azhar is more common). It was here that some famous thinkers studied, who further significantly contributed to the development of the so-called “political Islam”. This study is an attempt to clarify the role of Al-Azhar University and related Islamic scholars in the socio-political processes of the Middle East and North Africa. Conducting the research, the author largely turned to the sources of the Islamic religion (the Qur’an, Hadith), theological texts of a number of thinkers (for example, the interpretation of the Qur’an Rashid Rida), religious polemical works (the work of Sheikh Osama al-Azhari against the “Muslim Brotherhood” and other “Islamist” trends), documents compiled by the leadership of Al-Azhar; academic literature on related issues. The author came to the conclusion that the “Islamic factor” did not play a crucial role at the beginning of events, but vividly manifested itself subsequently. The actual suppression of Islam by secular dictators created a fertile ground for the acute discontent of believing citizens and activists of various movements who uphold a particular version of the Islamic political alternative. The most influential university in the Islamic world, Al-Azhar, in an official document, “Arab Spring”, indicated the possibility of a shift in despotic power, while emphasizing at the same time the inadmissibility of violent suppression of peaceful protest. Certain Azharite theologians were directly involved in the events of the “Arab Spring”, in particular, the passionate scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, associated with the Muslim Brotherhood movement and graduated from Al-Azhar, as well as Sheikh Emad Effat, who died during the suppression of an unarmed speech 15 December 2011. Such activity of various Islamic forces in the political sphere is primarily due to the very nature of the Islamic tradition, which does not separate the “sacred” and “profane”.

Prospects for the Middle East in the second quarter

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Financial Performance ◽  
Foreign Exchange ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Oil Prices ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fiscal Revenue ◽  
State Group

Subject Prospects for the Middle East in the second quarter. Significance With average oil prices in 2015 likely to be 30-40% lower than in 2014, most countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will see a huge change in their financial performance. Oil exporters could face major falls in fiscal revenue and foreign exchange earnings, while oil importers will receive a welcome boost to their budgetary and external accounts. On the security front, regional governments will focus on the threat from an expanding Islamic State group (ISG), and the fallout from a possible nuclear deal between the P5+1 world powers and Iran.

scholarly journals CHALLENGES POSED BY THE IRAQI, SYRIAN AND LIBYAN CRISIS TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

2017 ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
József Kis-Benedek
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Key Words ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
East European ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
The Eu

Povzetek: Leta 2016 in predvsem 2017 so se na kriznih območjih Bližnjega vzhoda in Severne Afrike pojavile nekatere pozitivne spremembe. Spodbuden dogodek je bila uspešna akcija iraških in pešmerskih sil, ki jih podpira zahodna koalicija, proti tako imenovani Islamski državi, katere rezultat je bila izguba ozemlja ekstremističnih organizacij. Avtor analizira vidike kriznih območij, in sicer Iraka, Sirije in Libije, ki se nanašajo na posledice nerešenega vprašanja migrantov. Poleg kriznih območij predstavlja tudi situacijo tujih borcev in varnostna tveganja, ki jih povzroča njihova vrnitev v domovino. Navaja ukrepe, ki so jih sprejele EU in njene države članice, da bi preprečile in obvladale grožnjo, ki jo predstavlja vračanje tujih borcev. Ključne besede: Bližnji vzhod, Evropska unija, migracije, Sirija, Libija, tuji borci. Abstract: In 2016, but mainly in 2017 some positive changes happened in the crisis areas of the Middle East and North Africa. Encouraging event was the successful actions of Iraqi and Peshmerga forces supported by the western coalition against the so called Islamic State, the result is the loss of territory of the extremist organizations. The author analyzes the perspectives of the crisis areas, namely Iraq, Syria and Libya, referring to the effects of the unresolved migrant issue. Besides the two crisis zones, he also presents the situation of foreign fighters and the security risks posed by their return. He specifies the measures taken by the EU and its member states to avert and handle the threat represented by returning foreign fighters. Key words: Middle-East, European Union, migration, Syria, Libya, foreign fighters.

scholarly journals The Influence of Sufism on the Sudanese Belt

2020 ◽  
pp. 80-95
Author(s):  
Salah M. Sharief ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Life ◽  
International Media ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
The People ◽  
Islamic Terrorism ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Terrorist Acts

As of the last decade of the 20th century, the Middle East and Africa have been the birthplace of extremist organizations espousing a radical ideology, which encourages violence against the dissenters and branding them apostates. Organizations like Al-Qā’ida and Dā’ish/ISIL performed numerous terrorist acts around the world, but especially in the Middle East. Other Salafi organizations like Boko Haram also gained recognition in international media disproportionate to their actual size. This discourse was behind the coinage of the term ‘Islamic Terrorism’, which casts a shadow of suspicion on any member of the Muslim community worldwide and served as an impetus for the writing of this paper as a means of shedding light on other Muslim organizations, which arguably are much larger in scope and influence. At the same time, these organizations are peaceful in nature and characterized by an incomparable level of tolerance. In my quest for sources of both narratives, I traced the history of the advent and dissemination of Islam in Africa – such a diverse geographic, cultural, ethnic and religious setting. I discovered that whereas the advent of Islam in the northern part of the region (North Africa) unfolded relatively quickly through invasion, it entered the Sudanese Belt (an area from the red sea shore of modern-day Sudan in the East to today’s Mauritania by the Atlantic Ocean in the West) more gradually via trade relations and the influence of Sufi sheikhs. They lived with the people indigenous to the area and seamlessly weaved themselves into the fabric of the societies they came to counsel. This paper argues that the areas where Sufi Islam is present have been largely shielded from extremist ideologies, and the reverse is true for North Africa, where Islam arrived in a relatively short period of invasion. The argument is presented by looking at the example of modernday Sudan, which leads me to examine the phenomenon of Sufi orders entering political life through direct involvement by establishing political parties, which propelled them into direct confrontation with representatives of a different branch of the Islamic movement in politics, namely, the Islamists. Arguably, the strongest Islamist party in the Middle East and Africa of today is the Muslim Brotherhood. I look at the diverging values of the two. Where the Muslim Brotherhood is arguably seeking absolute political power through a rigid organizational structure, the Sufi orders have been integrating into the political life of the country of residence. I argue that this example constitutes an opportunity to renegotiate the social contract between different factions of the society and lay the foundation for a different Islamic narrative. One based on pluralism, tolerance and understanding, which has the potential to gradually transform the sociopolitical environment of the entire Sudanese Belt in this direction.

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