scholarly journals ‘Rejecting the Legacy, Restoring the Honor’: The Anti-Capitalist Muslims in Turkey

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 621
Author(s):  
Ayca Tomac
Keyword(s):  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Muslim Youth ◽  
Justice And Development Party ◽  
Islamist Movements

Post-Islamism as coined by Asef Bayat in 1996 laid the framework to analyze rapid and fundamental changes in social and political life of the Muslim world. However, this paper argues that the scholarship around post-Islamism disregards neoliberal structuration introduced and expanded by post-Islamist parties and movements (such as the Justice and Development Party of Turkey). This structuration, coupled with the legacies of anti-left sentiments in preceding Islamist movements, stifles the Muslim youth in the region whose frustrations and aspirations are left silenced. Based on my ethnographic study between 2013 and 2017, the paper introduces the group of the Anti-Capitalist Muslims in Turkey as an internal challenge to the legacies of Islamist ideologies and the neoliberal politics of post-Islamism.

scholarly journals Political Science

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 99-101
Author(s):  
Mahmood Monshipouri
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Muslim Politics ◽  
New Nation

Adopting an issue-oriented approach toward understanding Islamic andWestern political thought, Professor Abdul Rashid Moten places these two tradition'swithin historical and contemporary contexts. Moten's book thereby providesa comparative analysis of key issues, including Islamic research methodology,Islamic law, Islamic political and social order, strategies and tactics ofvarious Islamic movements, and the link between Islam and politics.In chapter 1, Moten examines the secular domination of Muslim thought andculture, arguing that secularism was imported into the Muslim world throughthe efforts of a Westernized elite. He adds that no such secular state had everexisted in the Muslim world. This owes much to the fact that there was (is) nocommon ground between Islam and secularism (p. 7). With secularism camenationalism, liberal political institutions, and the pursuit of a capitalist economicsystem. Nationalism, Moten notes, wedged its way into the Muslim world,dividing it into new nation-states and client states (p. 12). Since independence,secularism has failed to meet the socioeconomic and political needs of Muslimsocieties. The rising tide of Islamic revivalism against secular regimes inAlgeria and Turkey demonstrates disenchantment with the shattered secularistdreams in the Muslim world (p. 16).Chapter 2 attempts to scrutinize the inherent link between Islam and politics.The pillars of Islam, Moten writes, go beyond moral and spiritual upliftment;they entail both practical and symbolic significance in all aspects of life. InIslam, ethics sets the tone for politics, and the rules of political behavior originatefrom ethical norms. Political life cannot be separated from the broaderframework of the religious and spiritual life (p. 21 ). Islamic rulers have hardly,if ever, emphasized the separation of religion and politics. Since the nineteenthcentury, Islamic modernists and revivalists have debated the nature of this separation.The reemergence of Islam in Muslim politics and societies in the lastquarter of the twentieth century has pointed to a distinct Islamic order and thereawakening of Muslim identity. Moten cites, among others, Iran and Pakistanas examples of such a renaissance (p. 30). However, he fails to examine the divisiveeffects of lslamization programs in Pakistan (under Zia al-Haqq) and othercountries such as Sudan.The comparison between Western and Islamic methods of political inquiry isthe subject of close scrutiny in chapter 3. Moten maintains that the Islamic conceptionof polity is based on profound religious-cultural grounds and that religionand polity form an organic unity (p. 37). Likewise, ethics and politics are ...

Citizenship

Anthropology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sian Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Citizenship ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
Under Construction ◽  
The Relationship

At its most fundamental, citizenship means political belonging, and to study citizenship is to study how we live with others in a political community. Anthropological work on the theme of citizenship tends to break open the classic version of citizenship as a universal legal status belonging to citizens of a given nation-state. Instead, it recognizes the differentiated nature of political membership, and the ways that citizenship acts as an ordering and disciplining device as well as a mechanism for making claims upon different kinds of political communities. These may include the state but they are not limited to it. In dialogue with political theorists, anthropologists of citizenship have argued that the constitution of any given community requires a considerable amount of work, and that meaningful membership is more than the possession of rights and responsibilities. Citizenship may be formal or substantive, full or partial, and it is always under construction, as citizens and noncitizens claim inclusion and effective participation in political life. That may be articulated through languages of rights but may also be conducted—and contested—through other kinds of everyday or insurgent political practices. One of the main focuses of ethnographic study of the practices of citizenship has therefore been on how people relate to the state, bringing out the relationship between people and state bureaucracies and between people and law. Another aspect is the scale at which relevant political communities operate, as anthropologists have added to the discussion of national citizenship with studies of cosmopolitan, transnational, or global citizenships and of local, city-based formations. Citizenship is a complex bundle of practices of encounter between the state and citizens at different scales or levels. Because citizenship practices are also the means by which societies organize inclusion and exclusion, the figure of the noncitizen is crucial to the construction of citizenship. Noncitizens might be conceptualized as strangers, migrants, or refugees, and these individuals always raise questions about the definitions of political communities and their borders. Central to all these processes of inclusion, exclusion, encounter, and claims-making is the way that people (citizens and noncitizens) build their own political agency and subjecthood under what constraints and in what realms of life, including the most intimate.

scholarly journals Governing Death: Organizing End-of-life Situations

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Astrid Le Theule ◽  
Caroline Lambert ◽  
Jérémy Morales
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Organizational Practices ◽  
Life Worth Living

This paper examines the organization of death. Through an ethnographic study, we examine how a geriatrics department guides the end of life. Drawing on Agamben, we show that organizations that are dedicated to life, but regularly confronted with death, develop dispositifs (mechanisms, technologies, practices and relationships) to turn biopolitics (power over life) into thanatopolitics (a regime of death). We also show how the inherently political meaning of life disrupts such government of death. The inclusion of political life in a regime of death disrupts organizational practices that find themselves facing fundamental questions of what makes a life worth living, who can decide not to prolong life, and based on which criteria.

scholarly journals Non-Institutional Forms of Political Participation of Muslim Youth in Modern Scotland

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
A. R. Agababov ◽  
R. A. Lyovochkin
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Scottish National Party ◽  
Institutional Politics ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Muslim Youth ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Goal

The article examines the main forms and socio-cultural features of the participation of Muslim youth in Scotland in non-institutional politics. As their research goal, the authors chose to identify the mechanisms through which political processes specific to the Scottish context (different from the general British or, for example, the English context) generate various forms of political participation of young adherents of Islam. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was a significant layer of empirical data (mainly Scottish), comprehended through an interpretive paradigm, which allowed the authors to analyze the non-institutionalized political experience of young Muslims, finding patterns in how Muslim youth perceive and construct the social world around them. The result of the study was an understanding that the strengthening of the “Islamic factor” in the social and political life of Scotland is explained not only by the growth of the Muslim population, but also by the obvious support that the Scottish authorities provide to adherents of Islam. According to the authors, the issue of national and state independence, the specificity of Scottish nationalism, the attractiveness of the political platform of the Scottish National Party for ethno-confessional minorities became the most important primary factors that predetermined the active entry of Scottish Muslim youth into politics. The main conclusion in this article was the idea that the specific socio-political and sociocultural contexts of Scotland create appropriate forms of political participation of young Muslims. Despite the prevailing opinion that Scottish Muslim youth are interested mainly in international events, the authors show a clearly traceable institutional and non-institutional involvement of young Muslims in national and local political issues in Scotland. According to the authors, the non-institutional political participation of young Scottish followers of Islam is manifested in such forms as social movements, activism and charity, and volunteer work.

scholarly journals TASAWWUF AND WESTERN INTERESTS PERSPECTIVE OF HISTORY AND POLITICS

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-131
Author(s):  
Tarek Ladjal ◽  
Benaouda Bensaid ◽  
Mohd Roslan Mohd Nor
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Viable Option ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Politically Active

This relationship between Sufism and politics presents itself at the heart of an emerging Western interest in Sufi political development. Western institutions have identified Tasawwuf as viable option for shaping all forms of cooperation and understanding with the Muslim world. Such a choice however, stems from factual realities shown in the practice of some Sufi schools and historical developments. This inquiry seeks to explore the historical context of Sufism in relation to political engagement while elucidating its course of interaction as a demonstration of its very values and ideals. This paper also examines some of the similarities and differences between the attitudes of classical and contemporary Sufi practices vis- à-vis political life, and evaluates the evidences of both the current approaches to and interpretation of the position of Sufism in today’s world. This research demonstrates the partial interpretation that favours a particular trend pertaining to Sufism and politics, and suggests that the defiant and politically active interpretation of Tasawwuf is by large the dominant and historically consistent current in Sufi thought and practice.

scholarly journals The Role of Women in the Political Discourse of Muslim Countries

Islamovedenie ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Gadzhimuradova Gyulnara Ilyasbekovna ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
The One

The article is devoted to the problem of gender equality in Tunisia, Lebanon and Turkey. These countries belong to the Arab-Muslim world, where religious traditions and Sharia law are strong. The authors show what path these countries have taken in addressing gender equality is-sues and outline the role of women themselves in addressing the question of their rights. The article shows the results of women's struggle for their rights and the ways women's right to equality are implemented in each country. The authors emphasize the importance of women's participation in the social and political life of countries. They use the examples of Tunisia, Leb-anon and Turkey that, on the one hand, are part of the Muslim world, and, on the other hand, adhere to secular principles of government at the legislative level. The article shows that tradi-tions are still strong in these countries, and religion is a powerful social and political factor that affects the current state of gender equality and hinders women's participation in politics at dif-ferent levels of government. The study attempts to demonstrate the role governments and vari-ous Islamic movements play in shaping public policy towards women and their rights, and the role of women themselves in the society and in addressing gender equality issues.

Politics in Muslim Societies: What’s Religion Got to Do with It?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melani Cammett ◽  
Pauline Jones
Keyword(s):  
Economic Outcomes ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Potential Force ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
Definition Of

In Western scholarship, depictions of social and political life in the Muslim world oscillate between emphasizing the importance of religion and rejecting its relevance altogether. This chapter explores how—if at all—religion influences social, political, and economic outcomes in the Muslim world. Based on a narrow definition of religion as doctrine—that is, the set of beliefs and practices that delimit a particular faith—the authors agree with much of the scholarly community that religion is not the root cause of various social, political, and economic outcomes in the Muslim world. Their broader conceptualization of religion as both the beliefs and practices that constitute doctrine and the infrastructure that sustains these beliefs and practices enables them to adopt a more nuanced approach. The authors argue that doctrine is critical to understanding religion’s potential force, whereas infrastructure—specifically, social organization (i.e., institutions and actors) and social identity—is the key to understanding why, when, and where religion has agency to enact that force. The goal is not to make universal claims, but to understand the effects of religious institutions, actors, and identities in a given context. This approach can apply more generally to Western and non-Western contexts with distinct dominant religious traditions and help to integrate the study of politics in Muslim societies more fully into mainstream comparative analytical frameworks.

Polyphony of Urdu in Post-colonial North India

2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 678-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
RIZWAN AHMAD
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
North India ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Muslim Youth ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
Language Data ◽  
Generational Study

AbstractMany scholars, politicians, and the lay people alike believe that Urdu in North India symbolizes a Muslim identity and culture. Based on an eight-month long ethnographic study and quantitative language data collected in Old Delhi, this article challenges this notion and shows that the symbolic meanings of Urdu have been mutating in post-colonial India. A cross-generational study involving both Muslims and Hindus shows that different generations assign different meanings to Urdu. Unlike the older generation, Muslim youth do not identify themselves with Urdu. A study of the Urdu sounds /f/, /z/, /kh/, /gh/, and /q/ in the speech of Muslim youth further demonstrates that they are losing three of these sounds. Another transformation involves the adoption of the Devanagari script to write Urdu by many Muslims. This change in the literacy practices of Muslims reinforces the shift in the symbolic meanings of Urdu. I argue that the transformation in the symbolic meanings of Urdu is reflective and constitutive of the sociopolitical changes that Muslims have undergone in the twentieth century.

scholarly journals Democratization in the Muslim World

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Volpi ◽  
Francesco Cavatorta
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Individual Rights ◽  
Islamic Religion ◽  
Muslim Majority

The issue of the democratization of the Muslim world has puzzled scholarship since the end of the Cold War, when the third wave of democratization swept across the world but seemed to bypass most Muslim-majority countries, particularly the Arab world. Central to the debate about democratization in the Muslim world is the relationship between the Islamic religion and the political system supposedly bound up with it. As we will see, for some authors there is an inherent contradiction between the precepts of the Muslim faith and the requirements of democracy, while for others the two can be compatible or causally separated. When the debate on democratization is framed in these terms, it becomes very important to specify the definitions, issues, and processes investigated and evaluated to avoid confusion. When discussing processes of democratization—the move away from authoritarian practices to a political system based on political pluralism—there is a tendency in the literature to consider primarily the emergence of a very specific form of democracy: liberal democracy. There is therefore an important difference between democracy and democratization. Democratization is concerned with the introduction of democratic mechanisms and procedures and not necessarily with the granting of extensive liberal individual rights. One can then imagine a democratic political system where individual rights are limited and focus on the minimal requirements for equal political participation. Liberal democracy for its part is concerned with democratic political systems seeking to operationalize the progressive extension of different liberal individual rights. When this distinction is taken into account, it becomes easier to interpret and explain the changes—or absence thereof—occurring across the Muslim world. At this stage, a further distinction is necessary: the one between the Muslim world as a geographical area, in which people belonging to the Muslim faith are the majority or a very significant part of the population, and an Islamic system in which religious precepts actually organize social and political life. In this respect, one finds that a significant number of Muslim-majority countries can be labeled procedural democratic, while authoritarianism characterizes in fact the Arab world (with exceptions) and not the Muslim world per se, suggesting that there is nothing inherently antidemocratic in the Islamic religion. It should also then be noted that an Islamic system is actually in place in a very limited number of countries and that authoritarianism in Muslim and Arab countries is commonly not the product of the adoption of an Islamic system of government.

scholarly journals Consuming Representations of Korean TV Dramas among Indonesian Muslim Youth

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Imron Rosidi
Keyword(s):  
Image Representation ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
Purposive Sampling ◽  
Muslim Youth ◽  
Islamic Identity ◽  
Television Medium ◽  
Islamic Values

<p><em><span>This article dealt with Korean TV dramas consumption among Muslim youth in Pekanbaru. It aimed to undestand their interpretations on the television dramas. The values of being a Muslim was constantly under scrutiny by the image representation in Korean TV Dramas. As transnational cultural products, they were considered as reducing Islamic values for Muslim youth. Using ethnographic study, forty two informants were selected based on a purposive sampling technique in which they loved on consuming Korean TV dramas. This article found that Muslim youth were active audiences consuming and interpreting Korean TV dramas. This can be seen from two characteristics. The first is that Muslim youth consumption of Korean TV dramas was not dominantly done through television medium, but through their lapptop. As a result, their position as an active audiences or viewers was obvious. This was because the dramas to be watched were not interrupted by some advertisements. The audiences could also actively watch them without depending on the schedule decided by television stations. The second is that young Muslims watching Korean TV dramas did not accept some representations contradictory with their Islamic identity. However, some of Korean TV dramas were accepted due to their proximity with Islamic values.</span></em></p>

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