scholarly journals Political Science

1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 99-101
Author(s):  
Mahmood Monshipouri

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 ...

Author(s):  
Shahrough Akhavi

The doctrine of salvation in Islam centers on the community of believers. Contemporary Muslim political philosophy (or, preferably, political theory) covers a broad expanse that brings under its rubric at least two diverse tendencies: an approach that stresses the integration of religion and politics, and an approach that insists on their separation. Advocates of the first approach seem united in their desire for the “Islamization of knowledge,” meaning that the epistemological foundation of understanding and explanation in all areas of life, including all areas of political life, must be “Islamic.” Thus, one needs to speak of an “Islamic anthropology,” an “Islamic sociology,” an “Islamic political science,” and so on. But there is also a distinction that one may make among advocates of this first approach. Moreover, one can say about many, perhaps most, advocates of the first approach that they feel an urgency to apply Islamic law throughout all arenas of society. This article focuses on the Muslim tradition of political philosophy and considers the following themes: the individual and society, the state, and democracy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-60
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Lewis

G. W. F. Hegel's greatest contributions regarding religion and politics stem from his abiding concern with social cohesion. While Hegel was interested in now classic questions regarding the role of religion in government, the focal point of his engagement with religion and politics lay in his view of religion's role in binding together a complex society in which a more traditional social order had been fragmented by interrelated economic, social, political, and intellectual transformations. He was less concerned with the role of religious reasons and language in policy debates or elections than with politics in a broader sense—specifically, the way that religion enables the population as a whole to identify with the society's defining social and political institutions, including the family, the economic order, and other legal institutions. In this image, religion reconciles the population with the existing practices and institutions. Without significant degrees of such identification and reconciliation, even the best of laws will be insufficient to sustain a polity. Though reconciliation is one of Hegel's principal terms for this relationship, it in no sense implies “making do,” settling for, or simply accepting the status quo because it happens to exist. Rather, he is ultimately concerned with religion's ability—or inability—to enable us to find ourselves at home in a just and rational social order that promotes freedom.


2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk

Al-Manār was an Arabic and reformist journal founded by Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā in Cairo in 1898, and its primary objectives were to examine the decadence of Muslim political institutions, underline the danger of European colonialism in the Muslim world, and promote the idea that Islam was compatible with modernity and reason. The present article attempts to examine the intellectual influence of al-Manār among the Ḥadhramī elite in the Malay-Indonesian world, and critically assess its role as the mouthpiece for the propagation of ‘Abduh's doctrines and accomplishment of his reforms. It first addresses the mission of al-Manār as a reformist journal that worked towards the promotion of social, religious and economic reforms in the Muslim world. It secondly examines the religio-cultural background of the Ḥadhramī elite who were influenced by the reformist mission of al-Manār and subscribed to its ultimate goal. The study finally highlights the impact of al-Manār on the religio-political and social structure of the Ḥadhramī diaspora in the Malay-Indonesian world, and discusses how this impact resulted in the establishment of a revivalist movement that rejected the conservative attitude of blind imitation (taqlīd ) of the four schools of Islamic law, and denounced the Sufi practices that were not in harmony with the fundamentals of Islam. Special attention will also be paid to the role of the Ḥadhramī organisations, schools and press that contributed to the propagation of al-Manār's reformist mission and its dissemination at the grass roots level of the Ḥadhramī community.


2002 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony McGrew

Globalization – Simply The Growing Intensity, Extent And deepening impact of worldwide interconnectedness – poses anew the classic questions of political life, namely: who rules, by what means, in whose interests and to what purpose? This is not to suggest, as some do, that the forces of globalization are eclipsing sovereign states but it is to acknowledge that the necessary conditions for sovereign and democratic self-government are undergoing a significant transformation. This is especially evident in Europe where, at the great intersection of regionalism and globalism, a novel continental political order is crystallizing: not quite federalism in its orthodox form but clearly something more than classic intergovermentalism. Caught between two worlds – a Europe of nation-states and a Europe of Citizens to use Joschka Fischer's construction – the future political trajectory of the continent, in part, will depend upon how effectively regionalism mediates the dynamics of globalism and localism.


Exchange ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abamfo Atiemo

AbstractA revolutionary development that resulted from Africa's experience of colonialism was the emergence of the nation-state made up of previously separate ethnic states. By the end of the colonial period the rulers of these ethnic states — the chiefs — had lost most of their real political and judicial powers to the political leaders of the new nation-states. But in spite of the loss of effective political power the chiefs continued to wield moral influence over members of their ethnic groups. The limited reach of the nation-state in the post-colonial era has also meant a dependence on the chiefs, in many cases, for aspects of local governance. This, for example, is the case of Ghana. However, in the modern context of religious pluralism the intimate bond between the chiefs and the traditional religion exacerbates tension in situations of conflict between people's loyalty to the traditional state and their religious commitment. In some cases, chiefs invoke customary laws in attempt to enforce sanctions against individuals who refuse to observe certain customary practices for religious reasons. But this has implications for the human rights of citizens. This article discusses the implications of this situation for the future of chieftaincy as well as prospects for the protection of the human rights of citizens who for religious reasons choose to stay away from certain communal customary practices.


1994 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Guedea

Beginning in 1808 the people started to play a prominent role in the political life of Mexico. This article examines the significant growth of popular political participation in the City of Mexico during the period 1808-1812. In particular, it analyzes the substantial role that the people played in the elections of 1812, a role they would continue to play in the early years of the new nation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1423-1463 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL EILENBERG

AbstractPost-independence ethnic minorities inhabiting the Southeast Asian borderlands were willingly or unwillingly pulled into the macro politics of territoriality and state formation. The rugged and hilly borderlands delimiting the new nation-states became battlefronts of state-making and spaces of confrontation between divergent political ideologies. In the majority of the Southeast Asian borderlands, this implied violent disruption in the lives of local borderlanders that came to affect their relationship to their nation-state. A case in point is the ethnic Iban population living along the international border between the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Based on local narratives, the aim of this paper is to unravel the little known history of how the Iban segment of the border population in West Kalimantan became entangled in the highly militarized international disputes with neighbouring Malaysia in the early 1960s, and in subsequent military co-operative ‘anti-communist’ ‘counter-insurgency’ efforts by the two states in the late 1960–1970s. This paper brings together facets of national belonging and citizenship within a borderland context with the aim of understanding the historical incentives behind the often ambivalent, shifting and unruly relationship between marginal citizens like the Iban borderlanders and their nation-state.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Ahmad El-Sharif

The Late King Hussein’s last Speech from the Throne in 1997 was given amidst public outcry over the outcomes of the parliamentary elections which resulted the triumph tribal figures with regional affiliations after the boycott of most political parties. This brought to public debate the questions of maintain the long-established balance between the several socio-political structures in the political life in Jordan. While the speech can be perceived as a reflection of King Hussein’s vision about ‘Jordanian democracy’, it can also be interpreted as an elaborate scheme to construct the conventional understanding of the exceptionality of Jordan and its socio-political institutions; including democracy. This article discusses the representation of ‘Jordanian democracy’, the state, and the socio-political structures in Jordan as reflected in the Late King’s last speech from the throne (1997). The analytical framework follows a critical metaphor analysis perspective in which all instances of metaphors used to epitomise these issues are primarily acknowledged from there sociocultural context. Herein, the article focuses on revealing the aspect of metaphorical language by which the Late King Hussein legitimizes and, hence, constructs, the prevailing ideology pf the ‘exceptionality’ of Jordan.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-131
Author(s):  
Bani Syarif Maula

Islam in Indonesia is culturally very different from that in the Middle East, particularly related to a tradition of greater freedom for women in public places. In Indonesia, there are many women entering public and political arena and even women are seeking and achieving unprecedented power and influence in public life. However, there are some barriers from religion and culture that give burdens to women to express their political views and to involve in public life. Very often women who want to enter politics find that the political and public environment is not conducive to their participation. This paper discusses cultural, religious, and political factors of the difficulties faced by Indonesian Muslim women to participate freely in public and political lives. This paper looks at how women’s status in cultural and social structure influences the involvement of women in political activities. This study is a philosophical investigation of the value of culture, religion, and politics to Indonesian women in democratic practices. With the use of intensive reading of books and other information sources, together with policy document analysis, the study aims to explore the problems and possibilities of putting the visions of democracy into practice in contemporary Indonesian women, to explore the nature of culture, religion, and politics in Indonesia in influencing women’s political activism, and to understand both the status of Muslim women and the dynamics of Muslim societies in Indonesia. This paper concludes that women are still under-represented in public and political institutions in Indonesia. The long struggle of women’s movement for equal rights has not been easy due to the cultural and religious reasons.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Athoilah Islamy ◽  
Sansan Ziaul Haq

Abstract: one of the big issue that is still debatable about the relationship between Islam and politics is how legitimate the democratic political system is in the paradigm of Islamic law. This study will explain the alternative paradigm in evaluating the democratic system based on the paradigm of Islamic law from a prominent Muslim intellectual named Yusuf al-Qaradawi. This research is a qualitative research in the form of literature review. The primary source used is a variety of literature that explains Yusuf al-Qaradawi's thoughts about democracy in Islam. The method used is the method of interpreting the thoughts of the figures with the maqasid al-shari‘ah approach. There are two big conclusions of this research. First, Yusuf al-Qaradawi's view of democracy can be said to be grounded in its epistemological foundation in understanding the concept of an Islamic state. For al-Qaradawi, an Islamic state is a system of government that provides policy improvisation space in the benefit of social, economic and political life based on the objectives of Islamic law (maqasid shari'ah). Second, Yusuf al-Qaradawi's view, the democratic system can be compatible with Islam if the principles in the democratic system are in accordance with various values which are the spirit of the objectives of Islamic law (maqasid shari'ah), such as the value of justice, equality of rights, freedom, etc. so. To realize this, the democratic system must carry a holistic vision and mission, which includes worldly and ukhrawi benefits as well as individual and social benefits.       Keywords: Validity, democracy, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, maqasid shari’ah; 


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