scholarly journals Divine Sovereignty and State Authority in Israel and Iran

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Negar Partow
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Analytical Model ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
State Building ◽  
Divine Sovereignty ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Relationship

<p>This thesis investigates the relationship between religion and politics in Israel and Iran through examining the development of Revolutionary Messianism as the founding philosophy of these contemporary states. These states differ in their political history and structure. In both cases, however, Messianism has been the core religious ideology in their understanding of revolution and their religio-political identity in the contemporary Middle East. Revolutionary Messianism negates the existence of apolitical and apocalyptic messianic theologies and gives rise to the emergence of new state actors: theological politicians and political theologians. This thesis examines the transformation of messianic ideology in the context of Israel’s and Iran’s security politics, their political structures, their legal systems, and their social environment. In doing so, it demonstrates the lasting impact of the messianic ideas on religion and politics in these states. It argues that the transformation of messianism has resulted in political elitism, the rise of new forms of fundamentalism, and the de-sacralisation of theology. This thesis offers a new analytical model for studying the relationship between religion and politics in Israel and Iran by identifying three phases: Revolutionary Messianism, State Building Messianism and State Maintenance Messianism. This model allows us to not only analyse the development of Revolutionary Messianism during the Revolutionary Phase but it crystallises the relationship between religion and politics after the establishment of the post-revolutionary states. In addition, it explains how these states define secularism, secularity, and secularization. It clarifies the boundaries that each state determines between religion and politics and the impacts of the development of Revolutionary Messianism on societies. It argues that in both cases politics is not subordinate to theology, but in fact it changes theology, and consequently religion.</p>

scholarly journals Divine Sovereignty and State Authority in Israel and Iran

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Negar Partow
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Analytical Model ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
State Building ◽  
Divine Sovereignty ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Relationship

<p>This thesis investigates the relationship between religion and politics in Israel and Iran through examining the development of Revolutionary Messianism as the founding philosophy of these contemporary states. These states differ in their political history and structure. In both cases, however, Messianism has been the core religious ideology in their understanding of revolution and their religio-political identity in the contemporary Middle East. Revolutionary Messianism negates the existence of apolitical and apocalyptic messianic theologies and gives rise to the emergence of new state actors: theological politicians and political theologians. This thesis examines the transformation of messianic ideology in the context of Israel’s and Iran’s security politics, their political structures, their legal systems, and their social environment. In doing so, it demonstrates the lasting impact of the messianic ideas on religion and politics in these states. It argues that the transformation of messianism has resulted in political elitism, the rise of new forms of fundamentalism, and the de-sacralisation of theology. This thesis offers a new analytical model for studying the relationship between religion and politics in Israel and Iran by identifying three phases: Revolutionary Messianism, State Building Messianism and State Maintenance Messianism. This model allows us to not only analyse the development of Revolutionary Messianism during the Revolutionary Phase but it crystallises the relationship between religion and politics after the establishment of the post-revolutionary states. In addition, it explains how these states define secularism, secularity, and secularization. It clarifies the boundaries that each state determines between religion and politics and the impacts of the development of Revolutionary Messianism on societies. It argues that in both cases politics is not subordinate to theology, but in fact it changes theology, and consequently religion.</p>

Rethinking religion and political legitimacy across the Islam–West divide

2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 439-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader Hashemi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Contention ◽  
The World ◽  
Historical Question ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Religion In Public Life

The relationship between religion and politics is a bone of political contention and a source of deep confusion across the Islam–West divide. When most western liberals cast their gaze on Muslim societies today, what they see is deeply disconcerting. From their perspective there is simply too much religion in public life in the Arab-Islamic world, which raises serious questions for them about the prospects for democracy in this part of the world. This article critically explores the relationship between religion and political legitimacy with a geographical and cultural focus on the Muslim Middle East. The broad historical question that shapes this inquiry is: Why is religion a source of political legitimacy in Muslim societies today while in the West, broadly speaking, religion is a source of disagreement and illegitimacy?

scholarly journals Problematizing "minorities" in the Middle East

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quinn Coffey
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
State Building ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Using a case study of the Palestinian Christians, this article explores the relationship of Middle Eastern Christian communities to “minority status” in light of the realities of citizenship, state building and nationalism in the Middle East.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroleen Marji Sayej
Keyword(s):  
Religion And Politics ◽  
State Building ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Building Process ◽  
Strategic Goals ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Religious Actors

After 2003, the national discussion about the relationship between religion and politics has been plagued with uncertainty because religious actors moved to the forefront of the democratic state-building process, causing confusion for Iraqis and outside observers alike. In particular, the emergence of the grand ayatollahs as political actors served to entwine religion with politics in new and important ways. The post-2003 state-building process brought into the open what had long been the practice of Iraqi political leaders—the calculated use of religion as a tool for achieving strategic goals. This choice must be understood in the context of the complex relationship between religion and politics in the Arab and Muslim world, which is normally focused on the role of sharia and jurisprudence. This chapter delves into the complex debates about Islam and democracy in Iraq and beyond, with consideration to the vague dictates of interpretation in Islam.

scholarly journals Boko Haram "Sharia" Reasoning and Democratic Vision in Pluralist Nigeria

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benson O. Igboin
Keyword(s):  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
The Core ◽  
Osama Bin Laden ◽  
Islamic Militancy ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Islamic Extremism

In the decade since Al-Qaeda, led by the late Osama Bin Laden, attacked America, there has been a resurgence in the debate about the relationship between religion and politics. The global Islamic terrorist networks and their successful operations against various targets around the globe increasingly draw attention to what constitutes the core values of Islamic extremism: the logic of evangelistic strategy, the import and relevance of its spiritual message and consideration of the composite view of life that does not distinguish between sacred and temporal mandates. Suspicions have been fuelled that Islam is incompatible with modern democratic systems and pluralist outlooks. The real cause of Islamic militancy is at once universal and particular. The Nigerian experience of this radical Islamism–Boko Haram–brings home the once “distant” threat to global peaceful co-existence. While there exist arguments regarding the raison d’etre and means or methods of the operations of Boko Haram, the end has been normative; to achieve a purely religious nationalistic system on the basis of the sharia code of ethics. This paper, therefore, critically analyses the historical and philosophical interpretations of Islamic history constructed as an infallible corpus, and how it has been impacted by the democratic vision in Nigeria. It concludes with a consideration of the possibility and practicability of a liberal system at once free and religious in a pluralist and global society.

The State in the Pulpit: State Incorporation of Religious Institutions in the Middle East

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birol Baskan
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Political Development ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Institutional Capacity ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Development Literature ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractPolitical development literature held that the process of secularization is conflict-ridden between the state and religious institutions. Later state building literature left state-religion relations outside its theoretical scope and left a puzzle in our understanding of state building. How did state-religion relations really change in the course of modern state formation? This article argues that the relationship between state builders and religious institutions was not necessarily conflictual. Rather, there were potential areas of cooperation between the two. However, whether any cooperation was realized was historically contingent. Depending on the type of relationship established, state-religion relations took different institutional shapes. This article makes two observations. First, if the religious institutions have a fairly hierarchical internal organization, then the state and religious institutions part their ways. This is the picture classical political development literature paints. Second, in cases where the state faces a disunited body of religious institutions, the state incorporates religious institutions into its apparatus, its extent depending on the institutional capacity of the state. As the institutional capacity of the state increased, its control over religious institutions also increased. The article then illustrates these observations through major cases from the Middle East.

Language, Politics and Society in the Middle East

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abeer AlNajjar
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Politics ◽  
Road Signs ◽  
Grassroots Initiatives ◽  
Language And Politics ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Core Questions ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

This book aims to shed light on core questions relating to language and society, language and conflict, and language and politics, in relation to a changing Middle East. While the book focuses on Arabic, it goes way beyond a purely linguistic analysis by bringing to the fore a set of pressing questions about the relationship between Arabic and society. For example, it touches on the development of language policy via an examination of administrative mandates (top-down) in contrast to grassroots initiatives (bottom-up); the deeper layers of the linguistic landscape that highlight the connection between politics, conflict, identity, road signs and street names; Arabic studies and Arabic identity and the myriad ways countries deal simultaneously with globalisation while also seeking to strengthen local and national identity, and more.

A Religious State (A Study of Hasyim Asyari and Muhammad Iqbal's Thought on the Relation of Religion, State and Nationalism)

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 226
Author(s):  
Arik Dwijayanto ◽  
Yusmicha Ulya Afif
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Early Generation ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Religion And State ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Diverse Cultures

<p><em>This article explores the concept of a religious state proposed by two Muslim leaders: Hasyim Asyari (1871-1947), an Indonesian Muslim leader and Muhammad Iqbal (1873-1938), an Indian Muslim leader. Both of them represented the early generation when the emerging revolution for the independence of Indonesia (1945) from the Dutch colonialism and India-Pakistan (1947) from the British Imperialism. In doing so, they argued that the religious state is compatible with the plural nation that has diverse cultures, faiths, and ethnicities. They also argued that Islam as religion should involve the establishment of a nation-state. But under certain circumstances, they changed their thinking. Hasyim changed his thought that Islam in Indonesia should not be dominated by a single religion and state ideology. Hasyim regarded religiosity in Indonesia as vital in nation-building within a multi-religious society. While Iqbal changed from Indian loyalist to Islamist loyalist after he studied and lived in the West. The desire of Iqbal to establish the own state for the Indian Muslims separated from Hindus was first promulgated in 1930 when he was a President of the Muslim League. Iqbal expressed the hope of seeing Punjab, the North West province, Sind and Balukhistan being one in a single state, having self-government outside the British empire. In particular, the two Muslim leaders used religious legitimacy to establish political identity. By using historical approach (intellectual history), the relationship between religion, state, and nationalism based on the thinking of the two Muslim leaders can be concluded that Hasyim Asyari more prioritizes Islam as the ethical value to build state ideology and nationalism otherwise Muhammad Iqbal tends to make Islam as the main principle in establishment of state ideology and nationalism.</em></p><em>Keywords: Hasyim Asyari, Muhammad Iqbal, religion, state, nationalism.</em>

In a word, I’ve been there

2019 ◽  
pp. 246-256
Author(s):  
A. K. Zholkovsky
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Core Problem ◽  
Typical Solution

In his article, A. Zholkovsky discusses the contemporary detective mini-series Otlichnitsa [A Straight-A Student], which mentions O. Mandelstam’s poem for children A Galosh [Kalosha]: more than a fleeting mention, this poem prompts the characters and viewers alike to solve the mystery of its authorship. According to the show’s plot, the fact that Mandelstam penned the poem surfaces when one of the female characters confesses her involvement in his arrest. Examining this episode, Zholkovsky seeks structural parallels with the show in V. Aksyonov’s Overstocked Packaging Barrels [Zatovarennaya bochkotara] and even in B. Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago [Doktor Zhivago]: in each of those, a member of the Soviet intelligentsia who has developed a real fascination with some unique but unattainable object is shocked to realize that the establishment have long enjoyed this exotic object without restrictions. We observe, therefore, a typical solution to the core problem of the Soviet, and more broadly, Russian cultural-political situation: the relationship between the intelligentsia and the state, and the resolution is not a confrontation, but reconciliation.

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