Islamism, Islamic Modernism and the Search for Modern Authenticity in an Imaginary Past

How to be authentically modern? This was the pervasive question behind the ideological elaborations of numerous religious and nationalist movements toward the end of the nineteenth century. Many of them attempted to find the answer in an imaginary past. This article claims that Islamist movements are not an exception, but rather an affirmation of this rule. The orientation towards a “golden age” of Islam and its allegedly authentic Islamic way of life has been a crucial feature of Islamist thought across all national, sectarian and ideological divides. The article traces this invocation of the past historically back to the construction of specifically Islamic forms of modernity by representatives of Islamic modernism in the second half of the nineteenth century. Interpreting their modernist thought in the context of more global nineteenth-century concepts and narratives, the article argues from a comparative perspective that Islamic modernism laid the foundations for the ways in which Islamist thinkers have constructed both individual and collective forms of Muslim identities.

Violence and Jihad in Islam: From the War of Words to the Clashes of Definitions

This article explores the phenomena of violence and jihad in three parts: their emergence and trajectory in the Qur’anic text, their meanings, and their entanglement with the religious cause. The objective was to examine the interactions between violence and jihad, highlighting the variations in their usage and interpretation. Based on intensive literal interpretations of the jihad verses, radical Islamist movements have distorted their historical memory by sanctifying and reducing them to an argument of war (harb, qital) and combat, thus seeking a military solution to their political agendas. This article also aimed to address the issue of the transition of Islam from a meta-narrative of emancipation and rationality to one of violence by examining the question of war in Islam, as well as its definition and legitimisation. In this rather complex transition, we drew on some modelling to highlight the political component related to violence. The aim was to attempt to disentangle the threads of violence, politics, and power within the Islamic tradition. This study will allow assessment of the tension—in the context of the Qur’an—between order (islah) and disorder/injustice (fasad). The transition from one to the other implies a legitimisation of violence; its appropriateness must, therefore, be studied.

DI ANTARA DUA ARUS: STUDI FENOMENOLOGI NARASI PASCA ISLAMISME ANAK MUDA MUSLIM DI YOGYAKARTA

The end of the New Order era is an opportunity to develop a new structure in Indonesia. The beginning of the reformation era was marked by the emergence of the Islamist movements or the rising religious spirit era. In this article, the term Islamism is not defined as a discourse within politics of religion, but it refers to narrative spiritual expression in the public space. In a more specific way, this article would like to describe how young Muslims criticize Islamism in their daily lives. This research found that Islamism that occurs in family milieu and in the circle of a friendship has created anxiety mong them. This anxiety appears in the form of disagreement on monolithic definition of Islamism, the criticism of the new pattern of piety in the public space, and the counter narrative to the Islamism phenomenon. Pasca runtuhnya rezim Orde Baru seolah menjadi ‘keran’ bagi terbukanya sistem dan struktur sosial di masyarakat, salah satunya ditandai dengan menguatnya Islamisme atau kebangkitan semangat beragama. Islamisme yang akan diulas di penelitian ini bukan merujuk pada diskursus relasi politik agama, namun lebih kepada eksistensi dari ekspresi keagamaan yang muncul dalam bentuk meningkatnya penggunaan atribut Islam di ruang publik. Penelitian ini secara khusus berupaya memberikan gambaran bagaimana pemuda Muslim mengkritisi fenomena Islamisme dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya Islamisme yang terjadi di ruang lingkup keluarga dan pertemanan melahirkan berbagai keresahan bagi anak muda. Keresahan itu terwujud melalui ketidaksetujuan tentang pemaknaan baru dalam Islam yang dinilai homogen, kritik atas pola kesalehan di ruang publik, dan munculnya konter narasi berupa perlawanan atas fenomena Islamisme.

Prospects for global jihadism in Southeast Asia

The article examines the relationship between local and global radical Islamist movements in the countries of Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The author set out to determine the reasons for the attractiveness of the rhetoric of modern global jihadist movements for the local population in remote regions of the world. The study showed that the ideology of jihadism is based on a return to identity, the main pole of which is religion. After examining the origins of radical Islamist movements in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the author concluded that the Afghan War was the impetus for their development. The purpose of this study is to find common and distinctive characteristics of the situation with Islamist radicalism in each of the countries of the region. Analyzing the situation in Indonesia, the author concludes that the priority for local groups is local goals, and the issue of armed jihad has split the Indonesian Islamist movement into a moderate and radical wing associated with Al-Qaeda and ISIS. The article traces the evolution of secular power in Malaysia to the institutionalization of political Islam, starting in the 1970s. The author argues that the grows of the Islamization in Malaysia led to the fact that the modern religious and ethnic discourse of the country as a whole was prepared for the perception of the ideology of radicals when ISIS appeared in the region. The author found that the jihadist movements in the Philippines are motivated by the separatist conflict, they pursue local goals and use the rhetoric of global jihad to stimulate the struggle and intimidate opponents.

Post-islamism: features, processes and prospects

The article is devoted to the analysis of such an ambiguous phenomenon as Post-Islamism, which emerged as an alternative to the ideas of Islamism that were subjected to the crisis in the 1990s. A distinctive feature of Post-Islamic ideas is their compatibility with the principles of democracy in a globalizing world. Unlike Islamism, Post-Islamism focuses on the rights of an individual instead of his duties. However, these progressive ideas could not become a full-fledged replacement for Islamism, since the decline in its popularity at the end of the XX century turned out to be temporary. The success of a number of Islamist parties in the parliamentary elections at the beginning of the XXI century became a confirmation of this. The events of the Arab Spring have made significant adjustments to the ideological architecture of the region. In the wake of the fall of authoritarian regimes and the growth of democratic calls for the expansion of human rights and freedoms, Islamist movements from moderate to ultra-radical have intensified. Against the background of the victory of moderate Islamists in the parliamentary elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, they again started talking about the onset of a phase of Post-Islamism. However, the failures of the Islamists in achieving political power and creating an Islamic state are more a tactical shift in their policy than a strategic one. Few Islamist movements have abandoned their goal of creating an Islamic State with the full application of Islamic law. Since Islamism is ambiguous, the boundaries between it and post-Islamism are still blurred and inaccurate. Despite this, post-Islamism is a more intellectual discourse about Islam and its place in the modern world and society.

Islam Radicalization Factors in Post-Soviet Tajikistan

This article explores the problem of Islamic fundamentalism in Tajikistan. The relevance of the topic is due to the fact that in this Republic there is the greatest activity of Islamist movements among all CIS countries. The potential destabilization of the situation in Tajikistan threatens the entire sub-region of Central Asia, and may also lead to the transit of instability to the Russian North Caucasus. In this paper, the author examines the influence of religious, socio-economic and other factors on the radicalization of Islam in this post-Soviet Republic, as well as the activities of fundamentalist groups with a focus on the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT).

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

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.

Rights, Democracy, and Islamist Women's Activism in Tunisia and Egypt

In the early days after the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, Islamist movements and parties appeared to be the winners of the political transformation. This opened new opportunities for activism and political participation for Islamist men and women. The political organizing of the Egyptian Muslim Sisterhood and Ennahda women in Tunisia before, during, and after the Arab Spring provides a significant case for addressing the gap in the literature on Islamist women's political organizing and agency. Moreover, it addresses the lack of scholarly attention to the Muslim Sisterhood and Ennahda women and the agency they manifest in their sociopolitical activism. Relying on primary and secondary interviews with these activists, this article traces the framing strategies, activism, and roles of Islamist women in Egypt and Tunisia. In both cases, we argue that government repression and backlash against Islamist movements is a shared experience and a central topic of identification for Islamist women. Islamist women in Tunisia and Egypt became more visible in the aftermath of the uprisings and reached into decision-making bodies such as a parliament when their countries were on the path toward democracy. Women from the two groups highlight democracy, freedom, human rights, and women's rights to frame their activism.