scholarly journals Governing Political Islam

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 95-120
Author(s):  
Sami Al-Daghistani
Keyword(s):  
Social Reality ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Conceptual Innovation ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Media Discourses

This paper analyzes what I define as an anti-Islamist discourse (or an “Islamistphobia”) both as a social reality and as conceptual innovation in contemporary Egypt. The paper focuses on four interrelated actors—the current Egyptian regime and its discourse on political Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood and its historical entanglements with the Egyptian state, the Salafi al-Nūr and Rāya Parties, and al-Azhar’s relation with both the regime and the Islamists. I advance an idea that anti-Islamist sentiments channel primarily through official (state) and media discourses in Egypt, rooted in both a colonialist locale and in a contemporary religious framework and its anticolonial rhetoric. It is, however, directed primarily against the Muslim Brotherhood, rather than against all Islamist groups across the board. Keywords:   Anti-Islamist discourse, Islamistphobia, Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt, political Islam

Political Islam: An African Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 88-103
Author(s):  
Hussein Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
African Continent ◽  
The Future ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

Political Islam continues to gain adherents across the African continent. In an attempt to understand why this is the case, this article explores the historical evolution of political Islam or Islamism. Three case studies are then provided to examine the implementation of this ideology—the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Sudan’s National Islamic Front and Al Shabab in Somalia. In conclusion, we examine the future of political Islam from the perspective of secularism.

scholarly journals Contextualizing Salafism

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Sedgwick
Keyword(s):  
Related Problem ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Radical Islam ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Way

The importance of Salafism, both in the Muslim world and in Europe, has been quickly grasped by scholars and by governments, and some excellent studies of Salafism in individual countries have been published. Methodological and analytical problems, however, remain. One problem is defining the topic: what is and what is not Salafi? Classification is not assisted by internal divisions within the Salafi movement that result in disagreement among Salafis themselves as to who and what is and is not Salafi, nor by the way in which Salafis do not always describe themselves as Salafi, often preferring ahl al-sunna wa’l-jama’a, sometimes shortened to plain “Sunni,” terms which could, of course, describe almost any non-Shi’i Muslim. A related problem is that the term “Salafi” is sometimes applied by outsiders with little justification, often in the press, but also by authorities such as Hillel Fradkin, director of the Center for Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World at the Hudson Institute, a “conservative” American think tank, who classified the Muslim Brotherhood as Salafi, on the basis that they were part of “the worldwide Islamic phenomenon and movement variously known as Islamism, Salafism, radical Islam, militant Islam, political Islam and the like.”

scholarly journals From Theocracy to Democracy? Towards Secularisation and Individualisation in the Policy of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan

1970 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 84-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Sofie Roald
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
British Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Common Assumption ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

There is a common assumption that ‘Islam’ has an inherent opposition between the sacred and the secular which obstructs the secularisation process witnessed in western societies. This study argues that Weber’s notion of Protestant religion as a driving force in the rationalisation of society might be an indicator of how political Islam in itself in the end might lead to a differentiation between the religious and the secular sphere; an individualisation and a secularisation of the Islamic message and thereby to a privatisation of religion. The political experience of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan is analysed in view of western theories of secularisation, particularly Steve Bruce’s study on secularisation in British society. As Islamists work within the democratic system, there seems to be a transformation from being a radical organisation towards becoming ‘just another comfortable denomination’, as expressed in Bruce’s claim that ‘the sectarian project’ is ‘largely self-defeating’.

The Muslim Brotherhood Faultline in Saudi-Qatari Relations: Domestic Divisions and Regional Rivalry

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Fall 2021) ◽  
pp. 51-61
Author(s):  
Mustafa Menshawy ◽  
Simon Mabon
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

The commentary argues the Saudi-Qatari tensions lie in conflicting perspectives about the role of political Islam within the fabric of both states and their actions regionally. Funda-mentally, the rivalry stems from contrasting relations between political and religious elites in each country which has taken on an increasing political importance in tensions between Riyadh and Doha. Central to much of this are questions about the role played by the Muslim Brotherhood (and its various affiliates). More relatedly, the Saudi-Qatari rifts emerge out of competing understandings of authority and legitimacy, and with it, concern at the contesta-tion of these claims.

Hasan al-Hudaybi and the Muslim Brotherhood: Can Islamic Fundamentalism Eschew the Islamic State?

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
David L. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Existing Structures ◽  
General Guide ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

Beginning with an examination of the writings of the Muslim Brotherhood‘s second General Guide, Hasan al-Hudaybi (from 1951 to 1973), this paper questions the general assumption that Islamic ?fundamentalism,? or Islamism, is necessarily a ?political Islam? that seeks to overthrow existing political entities in order to install an ?Islamic state.? Hudaybi personally denounced any violent means to promote the Brotherhood‘s cause and in his writings defined the Islamic state as a state in which the moral injunctions of the sacred texts are promoted—a program on which in Egypt Muslims and Christians can easily agree. The paper concludes that the key difference between Islamic activists who seek to overthrow existing structures and those who only seek a moral revitalization of society is to be found in their theological approach— both their hermeneutic and the choice of classical authorities they consult.

The Making of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Faith Brand

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-214
Author(s):  
Noha Mellor
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
The Future ◽  
Brand Attributes ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

Abstract This article sheds light on the use of narrative within the realm of political Islam, taking the Muslim Brotherhood as a topical case study. The argument is that the Brotherhood media served as a faith brand that was based on a narrative aimed at mobilizing voters and supporters, both within Egypt and regionally. The article questions whether the Brotherhood media represent a coherent voice of the movement, and how the media have helped sustain, preserve, and distinguish the Brotherhood’s brand for nine decades. It is argued that the Brotherhood’s narrative and brand attributes have come under scrutiny with the ongoing fissures within the movement post-2013, particularly between the old and new guard with regards to the re-assessment of the Brotherhood’s ideology and mission. These controversies attest to the gradual fragmentation of the Brotherhood brand, raising doubts about the movement’s ability to resuscitate this brand in the future.

Violent and Non-Violent Political Islam in a Global Context

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Bonino
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Four Books ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

The role played by Islamism, or political Islam, in the contemporary world holds the key to understanding current geopolitical tensions both within the Muslim world and between the West and the Muslim world. This article centres on four books that explore some violent and non-violent manifestations of political Islam and offer analyses of the Islamic State, al-Qa’eda, the Muslim Brotherhood and, more generally, Salafi-jihadism. Political Islam considers Islam to be a totalising entity that should shape the contours of society, culture, politics and the law – that is, it ideally seeks to achieve unity of state and religion ( din wa-dawla). It expresses itself in multiple, and at times interlinked, ways that can encompass, among many others, a largely non-violent gradualist approach to power (Muslim Brotherhood), global terrorist action (al-Qa’eda) and sectarian warfare combined with territorial control and state-building (Islamic State). The aim of this article is to capture some of the multifarious ways in which political Islam manifests itself with the aid of the four books under review. Holbrook D (2014) The Al-Qaeda Doctrine: The Framing and Evolution of the Leadership’s Public Discourse. New York: Bloomsbury. Pantucci R (2015) ‘We Love Death as You Love Life’: Britain’s Suburban Terrorists. London: Hurst. Vidino L (2010) The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West. New York: Columbia University Press. Weiss M and Hassan H (2015) ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. New York: Regan Arts.

Political Islam in Saudi Arabia: recent trends and future prospects†

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tawfiq al-Saif
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The One

This article focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood and political Salafism, two influential currents of political Islam that formed a two-pronged political movement prevailing in Saudi Arabia over the past two decades. It examines how they have both influenced, in separate and distinct ways, the development of political Islam in that country. What began initially as a religious movement, striving to assert a national character, has subsequently over time separated itself from the political regime and the official religious establishment in a process that witnesses profound social change in Saudi society. It suffers from an inherent paradox linked to the context in which it developed; an organic relationship with the state in the 1980s, on the one hand, and a struggle against it in the 1990s, on the other. It enshrines the contradictory constraints with which it grapples with respect to government reluctance to modernize the society, on the one level, and popular, progressive aspirations linked to individual civil rights, on the another. In the opinion of the author, this religious movement has failed to comprehend and cope with the social change that has been taking place in Saudi society since 1994. The movement has suffered from an inability to set political priorities, and its ageing leadership has prevented it from keeping abreast with change and developments occurring within the society at large. With its uncompromising stance against women's rights, and most particularly their right to work, as one example, it has got bogged down on many issues – in blatant opposition to popular demand – and failed to take into account the transformation under way in the society. This paper argues that the outlook for Saudi political Islam, within the two groups under study in this article – the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist Islam – is bleak and does not augur well for its promising future. It is likely to be the same for other Arab countries.

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