Rentier Islamism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Islamist Movements

This book, using contemporary history and original empirical research, updates traditional rentier state theory, which largely fails to account for the existence of Islamist movements, by demonstrating the political capital held by Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While rentier state theory predicts that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened, this book demonstrates that ideology, rather than rent, has motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements in the wealthiest states of the region. It argues for this thesis by chronicling the history of the Brotherhood in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, and showing how the organization adapted to the changing (and often adverse) political environs of those respective countries to remain a popular and influential force for social, educational, and political change in the region. The presence of oil rents, then, far from rendering Islamist complaint politically irrelevant, shapes the ways in which Islamist movements seek to influence government policies.

RENTIER ISLAMISM IN THE ABSENCE OF ELECTIONS: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AFFILIATES IN QATAR AND THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Rentier States ◽  
Islamist Movements

AbstractDrawing on contemporary history and empirical research, this article revises traditional rentier state theory, which fails to account for the existence of Islamist movements in states accruing substantial outside wealth. Rentier state theory expects that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened. Examining the development of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in two archetypal rentier states, or super-rentiers, in the Gulf—Qatar and the United Arab Emirates—this article shows that ideology rather than rent motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements. This research helps to break the causal link established by rentier state theory between oil rents and lack of politically relevant Islamist organizations. We find that the presence of oil rents, instead of rendering Islamist complaint politically irrelevant, shapes the ways in which Islamist movements seek to influence government policies.

Rentier Islamism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Cultural Influence ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Individual Country ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Rentier States ◽  
Lasting Influence

This chapter comprises an extended, substantive conclusion to take into account individual country experiences and to compare these countries along common themes. In this final chapter, a new model is elucidated for understanding how Muslim Brotherhood movements influence government policies in the super-rentier states, which is called rentier Islamism. The chapter reprises the book’s critique of rentier state theory for its failure to appreciate the resiliency of ideological opposition to oil-wealthy regimes, who have tried various tactics to contain and suppress Islamism. The chapter concludes by predicting the lasting influence of the Muslim Brotherhood as exercising both political and cultural influence within the Gulf.

Politicians or Preachers?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

This chapter continues tracing the development of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. It focuses on the period of expansion of the Brotherhood after the fall of Arab Nationalism from the 1970s through the 1990s, with a view to how Ikhwan movements used their ties with governments and their social appeal to earn more popular support. It presents case studies of Brotherhood activities within Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE during this period to show that the forms adopted by Brotherhood movements in the super-rentiers, similar to Ikhwan elsewhere in the region, were dictated by the political opportunities available to them. Opportunities became increasingly available to Ikhwan branches in the Gulf with the fall of Arab nationalism, which had been the Brotherhood’s primary ideological rival. Contrary to the predictions of rentier state theory, Brotherhood groups managed to establish themselves even as super-rentier governments were expanding welfare packages to citizens throughout the 1970s.

scholarly journals Capital, Labor, and State

2015 ◽  
pp. 321-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Hanieh
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
World Market ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
The World ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The Impact

The Middle East’s pivotal position in a hydrocarbon-based global capitalism carries enormous ramifications for the region and the Gulf Arab states in particular. This chapter aims to present key debates associated with this transformation. It begins with an overview of the Rentier State Theory (RST). RST theorists foreground the impact of oil rents on Gulf states, drawing causal relationships between these rents and the characteristics of the Gulf’s political economy. The chapter turns to a critique of some of its core assumptions, notably its theorization of state and class. It argues that a more satisfactory understanding of the political economy of oil in the Gulf can be found through a return to the categories of class and capitalism, and a deeper appreciation of the ways in which the Gulf is located in the wider dynamics of accumulation in the world market.

No Taxation, No Representation?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
Political Islam ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Political Group ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
First Time

This chapter provides an extended literature review, bringing together for the first time the strands of scholarship related to rentier state theory and to political Islam in the Middle East. In so doing, it sheds light on gaps in the scholarship, in particular the denial in rentier state theory scholarship of the political role played by Islamist groups in such states and the lack of study of the Gulf states by scholars of political Islam. The chapter then gives a brief background on definitional aspects of Islamism, as well as a description and brief history of the Muslim Brotherhood itself, as the region’s most powerful Islamist political group.

scholarly journals The Traditional Forms of the “History of the Present” from Herodotus to Humanist Historians

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Pasamar
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Truth ◽  
Contemporary Past

The present article revolves around the interest in contemporary history from ancient writers to humanist historians. Its objective, which forms part of a broader purpose devoted to elucidating the characteristics of the so-called History of the Present, is to examine the forms this interest has traditionally adopted. In this way, we put for consideration the following hypothesis: from classical historians onwards, concern with contemporary history was always considered a hard and inevitable task to be undertaken, since it affected rulers and living people. Nevertheless, the long-standing doctrine of history as memory of events for centuries prevented historians from facing paradoxes that interest in contemporary past implies, that is: how can historians confront the political uses, memories and demands of public opinion to deal with the recent past without jeopardizing historical truth?

scholarly journals “Self-testimony of a Past Present”: Reuses of Historical Film Documents

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Sattelmacher
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Found Footage ◽  
Historical Film ◽  
Small Series ◽  
Short Films ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment ◽  
New Generation

AbstractHas the history of film digitization ever been incorporated in questions of evidence and knowledge production? The digitization of thousands of films from the former Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) that is currently underway gives an occasion to think about the provenance and reuses of filmic images as well as the ways in which they claim to produce scientific (or in this case, historical) evidence. In the years between 1956 and 1960, the German Social Democrat, historian and filmmaker Friedrich “Fritz” Terveen initiated a film series that used historical found film footage in order to educate university students about contemporary history. The first small series of films was entitled Airship Aviation in Germany which consisted of four short films using found footage of zeppelin flights, of which the earliest images stem from around 1904 and the latest from 1937, the moment of the “Hindenburg disaster.” This article explores how Terveen sought to shape the political landscape of history teaching in the new Federal Republic of Germany by first setting up nation-wide visual archives to host historical film documents, and secondly by seeking to improve the political education of a new generation of young Germans with the aid of the moving image.

scholarly journals A Man, Who Never Stopped Dreaming of Humane India: Swami Agnivesh

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-83
Author(s):  
Venkat Rao Pulla ◽  
Bharath Bhushan Mamidi
Keyword(s):  
Social Activism ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Activists ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of

We share two observations based on what we have seen in India. First, that the hegemonic politics in India ushered in institutional and structural inequalities in their wake and second, that the political leadership continued to be aspirational irrespective of ideologies desiring to scale up in the hierarchy of global economic and political power. These two observations pertain to the contemporary history of five decades of development in India. As a result of the above two observations, we make a further two observations that for the Aām Aādmi (the common man), the political parties that sit in the government and their respective ideologies do not matter. And for the state and the political elites, the negative consequences such as marginalisation, exclusion and desperation of the common folks that emanate from the models chosen for development do not matter.   It is in such contexts, social activists argue for a legitimate space for the vying intersects of poverty, caste, class, occupations, habitats amidst such motivated globalisation. They also continue to raise difficult conversations around patriarchy, religious hierarchy, bonded labour, and the girl child.  One such social activist that was concerned about all the above issues was Swami Agnivesh.  He was not antigovernment, anti-democracy, anti-institutional, anti-hierarchy, anti-religious. He sought to restore a new and deeper meaning of freedom (democracy), a new meaning of hierarchy, social care, and even a new definition of spirituality that is social. He was a man who never stopped dreaming of humanising India. In this article, we reminisce about our association with Swami Agnivesh and attempt to espouse his thought based on our hearing, reading, and reflection.    Briefly, we present his life, achievements, and social activism, and more importantly, we attempt to interpret his conception of social spirituality and the ‘power of love’.

Civil Society in the Political Thinking of European Muslim Brothers

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-272
Author(s):  
Dunja Larise
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Political ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Social Accommodation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Muslim Brothers

It is generally assumed that the European Muslim brothers derive their concepts of state and society primarily from the traditional Islamic political theory that originated in the historical context of the Muslim Middle East. In contrast, this article asserts the hitherto scantily analyzed influence of liberal political theory, especially its idea of civil society, in the evolution of the political and social theory of the European Muslim Brotherhood within the context of the Muslim minority position in Europe. The article identifies the tendency of the European Muslim brotherhood towards the multiculturalist communitarian model of political and social accommodation, and does this by tracing the history of the conceptual interconnectedness between modern Islamic and liberal concepts of civil society as a privileged space of political action in the absence of realistic prospects for the seizure of state power.

scholarly journals Political, Social and Cultural Reforms under the Sovereignty of Amir Sher Ali Khan

2021 ◽  
pp. 12-20
Author(s):  
Saifullah Gharwal ◽  
Asmatullah Ziar
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Cultural System ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
History Of ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
New Institutions

The second rule of Amir Sher Ali Khan (1868-1878) has a special place in the contemporary history of Afghanistan. During this period, new features of the political, administrative, and cultural system were introduced, new institutions established in the country, and efforts were made to flourish civilization. He is one of the most broad-minded kings in the modern history of Afghanistan who has done his best for the development of Afghanistan. This article discusses the political, social, and cultural reforms of the second sovereignty of Amir Sher Ali Khan to create a sequence of historical events and take a chronological form, therefore, before his rule and especially during the reign of his father Amir Dost Mohammad Khan, several reform programs have been briefly discussed which the basis for his reforms are. In this article, we conclude that Amir Sher Ali Khan has brought about significant political, social, and cultural reforms for the new Afghanistan. On the other hand, he got into a series of internal problems and a big game between the Russian and British colonial circles and not allowed him to carry out all his plans. The British invaded Afghanistan for the second time and ended its rule, and whatever programs for the flourishing of a new civilization were suspended, Afghanistan was left behind in the caravan of global progress.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document