The Diputación de la Grandeza and the organization of ‘Retrospective Art Exhibitions’ in the second half of the nineteenth century

This paper analyses the art policies deployed by old Spanish nobility in the second half of the nineteenth century, and in particular those who became involved in organising what were then known as retrospective art exhibitions. The old nobility, whose families held titles that dated back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and belonged to the category of Grandes (Grandees) of Spain, joined together in the Diputación de la Grandeza de España – a private association created in opposition to the new nobility. It was a consultative institution attached to the Crown and created in 1815 under the honorary presidency of the King. This paper argues that the distinction sought by this regrouping of the old nobility does not imply lack of engagement in the new artistic model based on the notion of fine arts, in which they were responsible for a number of rather telling nuances. As well as sharing with the bourgeoisie the general idea that the arts were in need of protection, the nobility cultivated the image that patronage of the arts was linked to tradition, and this had consequences for the evaluation of history, the musealisation of their private collections and the public reception of old art.     

Some Soviet works on Islam

N. A. Smirnov's Ochyerki istorii izucheniya Mama v SSSR (Essays on the study of Islam in the Soviet Union), Moscow, The Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Press, 1954; 276 pp.

Large Soviet Encyclopaedia (in Russian, 2nd edition, Moscow, 1953).

Soviet Historical Encyclopaedia (in Russian, Moscow, 1965).

1. E. A. Belyayev's Araby, Islam i Arabskiy Khalifat v rannyeye Sryednyevyekov'ye (The Arabs, Islam and the Arab Caliphate in the early Middle Ages), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1965; 280 pp.

2. I. M. Fil'shtinskiy and B. Ya. Shidfar's Ochyerk Arabo‐Musul'manskoy KuVtury (VII‐XII vv.) (An essay on Arabo‐Muslim culture from the seventh to the twelfth centuries), Moscow, Soviet Academy of Sciences – Nauka Press, 1971; 260 pp.

3. I. P. Pyetrushyevskiy's Islam v Iranye v VII‐XV vyekakh (Islam in Iran from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries), Leningrad University's Publishing House, 1966; 400 pp.

A. M. Vasil'yev, Puritanye Islama? Vahhabizmipyervoyegosudarstvo Sauditov v Arabii {Jlie Puritans of Islam ? Wahhabism and the first state of the Sa'uds in Arabia), Moscow, Nauka Press, 1967; 264 pp.

L. I. Klimovich's Islam (in Russian), 2nd enlarged edition, Soviet Academy of Sciences – Nauka Press, 1965; 335 pp.

R. R. Mavlyutov's Islam (in Russian), Moscow, The Political Literature Press, 1969; 160 pp.

D. A. Patrushyev's Islam i ego reyaktsionnaya sushchnos’ (Islam and its reactionary nature), Moscow, Znaniye Press, 1960; 32 pp.

M. V. Vagabov, it is named Islam i dzyenshchina (Islam and woman), Moscow, Mysl’ Press, 1968; 231 pp.

Kul't svyatykh v Islamye {Saint‐worship in Islam), by V. N. Basilov, Moscow, Mysl’ Press, 1970; 144 pp.

Nugman Ashirov's Evolyutsya Mama v SSSR (The evolution of Islam in the Soviet Union),’ Moscow, The Political Literature Press, 1972; 152 pp.     

The Limits of Civil Society in Democratic Indonesia: Media Freedom and Religious Intolerance

Abstract

Indonesian democracy has been challenged by rising religious intolerance and discriminatory attitudes in civil society since the mid-2000s, despite expanded freedom in many areas including the media. Why has Indonesian civil society been put on the defensive by radical and conservative Islamic elements in the context of democratic consolidation? What role has expanded freedoms and a flourishing of new media and information technologies played? This article argues that two factors have contributed to the rising influence of religious hardliners/radicals and increasing religious intolerance. The first is hardliner access not only to new media but, more importantly, to traditional means and institutions for religious and political mobilisation, including state apparatus, to cultivate antagonistic sentiments and attitudes against what they consider the enemies of Islam within the Muslim communities while disseminating narrow and dogmatic interpretations of Islam. The other is the rise of conservative Muslim politicians within the state who are ready and eager to embrace new media and communication technologies while using the state office and prerogatives to advance conservative religious visions and agendas. In order to assess how those conservative politicians exploit their ministerial prerogatives and state patronage to curtail civil society, particularly the freedom of expression and religion, this article examines two prominent and controversial Muslim politicians: Tifatul Sembiring from the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party and Suryadharma Ali from the United Development Party.     

Book Review Essays

Books reviewed in this article: Milton Viorst, What Shall I Do With This People? Jews and the Fractious Politics of Judaism Daryl Champion, The Paradoxical Kingdom: Saudi Arabia and the Momentum of Reform Simon Henderson, The New Pillar: Conservative Arab Gulf States and U.S. Strategy Akbar S. Ahmed, Islam Under Siege: Living Dangerously in a Post‐honor World Nathan J. Brown, Palestinian Politics After the Oslo Accords     

Redeeming Sunni Islam: Al-Qa‘ida's Polemic against the Muslim Brethren

The appearance of al-Qa‘ida at the beginning of the 1990s challenged the modern Islamic discourse by bringing the struggle against the ‘new Crusaders’—the United States and Europe—to centre stage. Impelled by frustration with the meagre record of Sunni radicalism in achieving substantive political change, and by its own aspiration for leadership, the organisation singled out the non-violent, influential Muslim Brethren as a main rival and a prime target for polemics. The formative basis for this polemic was provided by an essay written by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Hisad al-murr [The Bitter Harvest], around 1989. The essay, which has not been dealt with in the research literature until now, constitutes a biting attack against the Brethren. It undermines their historical legacy and goes so far as to shatter the image of their charismatic founder, Hasan al-Banna. More broadly, al-Zawahiri's essay reveals the close affinity between historical memory and politics, and illuminates the clash within modern Islam.     

The Revolution and its Discontents: Grenadian Newspapers and Attempts to Shape Public Opinion during Political Transition

Abstract

What role did the newspaper play in attempting to influence public opinion in the early stages of the Grenada Revolution and what are the terms in which printed discourses on the revolution were conceptualised? The Grenada Revolution was a discursive political process where branding and narration were necessary elements in securing the revolution’s authority and legitimacy. This paper argues that Cuba functioned as a metonym through which the revolution was translated in Grenadian periodicals. Even before the coup of 13 March 1979 Grenadian media represented the New Jewel Movement—the revolutionary party—as Cuban-inspired and socialist. In order to examine how socialism in general, and the socialist character of the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) in particular, was narrated, a comparison is staged between two newspapers—the government-run Free West Indian and the privately owned The Torchlight. Competing discourses on Cuban communism are analysed for the ways in which they stood-in for the Grenadian people’s hopes, aspirations and anxieties in the midst of radical political change. Issues including race, gender equality, property ownership, freedom of religious practice and freedom of travel are examined in relation to capitalism and socialism, and the PRG’s efforts to maintain narrative authority of the revolution.     

Yigal Allon,Native Son: A Biography

T. S. Sadibayev's Islam i obshchyestvo: opit istoriko‐sotsiologichyeskogo isslyedovaniya, Islam and Society: an Essay of Historical‐Sociological Research (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1984: 304 pp.).

Islam v SSSR: osobyennosti protsyessa syekulyarizatsii v Ryespublikakh Sovyetskogo Vostoka, Islam in the Soviet Union: Characteristics of the Process of Secularization in the Republics of the Soviet East (Moscow: Misl’ Press for the Institute of Scientific Atheism in the Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1983: 176 pp.).

L. I. Klimovich's Kniga o Koranye: Ego proiskhodzhdyenii i mifologii, The Book about the Koran: Its Origins and Myths (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1986; 272 pp.).

Islam v sovryemyennoy politikye stran Vostoka (Konyets 70‐kh nachalo 80‐kh godov XX v.). Islam in the Contemporary Politics of the Countries in the East: Late 1970s to Early 1980s (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1986; 280 pp.)

Sotsialno‐politichyeskiye pryedstavleniya v Islamye: Istoriya i sovryemyenost’, Socio‐political Notions in Islam: History and Present (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1987: 120 pp.).

A. A. Ignatyenko's Khalifi byez Khalifata, Caliphs Without a Caliphate (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1988; 208 pp.).

N. V. Dzhdanov and A. A. Ignatyenko, is entitled Islam na porogye XXI vyeka, Islam on the Threshold of the 21st Century (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1989; 352 pp.).

M. I. Philippova has written Obshchyestvyenniye funktsii Islama v sovryemyennom Amyerikanskom Islamovyedyenii, The Social Functions of Islam in Contemporary American Islamology (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1989; 149 pp.).

Islam: Kratkiy spravochik, Islam: A Short Guide (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1983; 160 pp.)

Islam: Entsyklopyedichyeskiy slovar’, Islam: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1991; 316 pp.).     

Allegories of Venice: Singapore’s Vague Concept of a Global City

This paper argues that although the state elites of Singapore use “Venice” as an image to legitimate the People’s Action Party’s continuous rule and unpopular immigration policies, the image has both empowered and constrained the state. To the state, Venice serves as a keyword that conjures up dynamism, progress, and continuity; to its critics, however, Venice signals the state’s willingness to focus on the intangible elements of nationhood, namely culture and the arts. These critics use the ambiguities of the Venice rhetoric to legitimate their own appeals for change, especially after discovering that the “shared vision” of Venice is mainly in economic terms. By so doing, detractors of the state contest the centrality of economics in the making of modern—and future—Singapore, rendering the use of “Venice” as an image to promote the concept of a Global City problematic.     

Even honey may become bitter when there is too much of it: Islam and the struggle for a balanced existence in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan, as in the rest of Central Asia, recent decades have witnessed a proliferation of distinctions between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Islam. What is perceived as a growing ‘religiosity’ is often seen as a symptom of post-Soviet chaos and excess, but people equally tend to see Islam as an important source of well-being, for themselves and for society as such. It is argued that a general feature of the Islam many Muslims strive for – and occasionally experience glimpses of – is one that expresses, embodies and enables a balanced existence: a balance between well-being in this world and in the afterlife; a balance between the acceptance of one's fate and the attempt to improve one's situation; or a balance between adherence to abstract dogmas and respect for local moralities.     

Radical Islamism,Traditional Islam and Ethno-Nationalism in the Northern Caucasus

This study examines the interplay between Islam and collective identity and their position in potential conflicts by exploring the dynamics of Islam, ethno-nationalism and civic society within different parts of the Northern Caucasus. Historical and anthropological approaches are used for a comparative analysis of Daghestan and Chechnya in the east and of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Cherkesia in the west. The study demonstrates the importance of local context and historical background to the understanding of ethnicity, nationalism, civic identity and their interplay with Islam. The analysis highlights that the different history and socio-cultural characteristics of the different regions in question leads to different approaches to religion which contain a paradox. In Daghestan and Chechnya, Islam is well established and the authorities have to collaborate with different Islamic bodies in their struggle against ‘Wahhabism’. In Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Cherkesia the ‘legitimate’ Islamic leaders – whether those representing the state or leaders of other Islamic movements – are powerless. While this represents the overall weak position of Islam in these areas, paradoxically it also opens options for radical Islamists to gain support, in the context of economic hardships, weakening of other sources of identification, and corruption. This process is generated and fostered by policies that limit ethno-nationalism and expand the struggle against radicalism to a struggle against religious activity in general. The Northern Caucasus has often been perceived as a major locus of radical Islam, and as a strategic rift in the ‘clash of civilizations’. This study claims that the significant rifts and conflicts are between different Islamic alternatives. Important variables crucial to this discussion highlighted by the case of the Northern Caucasus are ethnicity, nationalism, civic identity and their interplay with Islam. At the same time, this case also highlights that the potential of radicalism in Islamic societies is not the mere result of its own ‘characteristics’, but is also a product of policy towards Islamic societies by outside actors, in this case Russia.     

Arts,apartheid struggles,and cultural movements

ABSTRACT

This study i) briefly sketches some anti-apartheid arts initiatives of the 1980s; ii) examines the anti-apartheid academic common sense that assumed that “real struggle” could occur only within the labor movement; while iii) both are discussed in relation to early Afrikaner conservative cultural theory. The role of social theory within these sites of resistance is discussed. The article offers a lived methodology by including evocative observations from some social actors who participated in, and contributed to anti-apartheid art, drama and writing. The objective is to draw out debates on struggle rather than to offer a discussion of arts initiatives themselves. These are examined in terms of Albie Sachs’ pleas for discussion beyond the weaponization of art, one that restores the humanity robbed by apartheid.     

Identity,Politics and Nation: Algerian Nationalism and the ‘Berberist Crisis’ of 1949

Abstract

Between the 1940s and the 1950s, a crucial period of change for Algerian nationalism and state formation, Berber activists within the anti-colonial nationalist movement challenged the political line of the nationalist party, the Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques. This opposition focused on the need to redefine the concept of identity: activists did not reject either Arabic or Islam—the dual linguistic-religious core of national identity for Algerian nationalists—but they identified with a broader idea of an ‘Algerian Algeria’ that could incorporate various components of society.

Through the study of archival sources, this paper analyses the origins and consequences of the 1949 controversy within Algerian nationalism known as the ‘Berberist crisis’. Particular attention is paid to the idea of the nation proposed, assessing whether and how Berber activists participated in the political debate and state-building.     

Islam in Indonesia: Its History,Development and Future Challenges

In Indonesian history, Islamic groups have always played an important political role. Jusuf Wanandi, co-founder of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta, states that most of these groups are moderate, tolerant and democratic. In the past few years, however, radical and extreme groups of Muslims have emerged and to some degree have set the agenda in the country with their extreme political interpretation of Islam. The depth of political and economic crises, and the weakness of the national government to resolve the crises have complicated the positive development of Islam in Indonesia. This is the biggest challenge facing young Muslim leaders. If they should succeed, which is quite likely, Indonesia's Islam could become the model for political Islam around the world. Wanandi concludes that this will be Indonesia's biggest contribution against global terrorism.     

Islam and Ethnicity in the Republics of Russia

An American sociologist reports results of survey research conducted in 1993 among Muslims in the five Islamic Autonomous Republics of Russia (N = 4,955). The data demonstrate that the strength of Islam as both a religious and social institution varied regionally despite the shared experience of Soviet anti-religious policies. Muslims in Chechnya and Dagestan were much more likely to report that they actively practiced Islam than Muslims living in Kabardino-Balkariya, Tatarstan, and Bashkortostan. Moroever, religious practice was high among non-traditional groups of Chechentsy and Avartsy. The young, the urban migrants, the highly educated, and men reported high levels of active worship. In Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, and Kabardino-Balkariya, in contrast, active religiosity was primarily confined to old, rural women with low levels of education. These differences, it is argued, are linked to the Sufi Islam tradition present in Chechnya and Dagestan but absent in the other Muslim autonomous republics. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O50, R10, Z1.     

Works on Islam in Russian

Islam v politichyeskoy dzhizni stran Sovryemyennogo Blidzhnyego i Sryednyego Vostoka, Islam in the Political Life of the Countries of the Contemporary Near and Middle East (Erevan: Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia, 1986; 230 pp.)

N. Oganyesyan's ‘Islamic Activism’ (pp.7–47)

Ye. A. Abgaryan's ‘The Religious and Political Organization of the Muslim Brethren in Egypt’ (pp.48–133)

P.A. Saradzhyan's ‘Activity of the Muslim Brethren in Syria, 1979–82’ (pp. 134–76)

R.P. Kondakchyan's ‘The Strengthening of the Islamic Factor and the Policy of the Military Authorities in Turkey in Religious Affairs After the 1980 Coup d'Etat’ (pp.177–209)

G.M. Yeganyan's ‘Mutual Relations Between Shah and Clergy, 1950–1960’ (pp.210–28).

Yu.M. Kobishchanov's Istoriya rasprostranyeniya Islama v Afrikye, The Spread of Islam in Africa (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1987; 220 pp.)

N.I. Voronchanina's Islam v obshchyestvyenno‐politichyeskoy dzhizni Tunisa, Islam in the Socio‐Political Life of Tunisia (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1986; 192 pp.).

L.V. Val'kova, is entitled Saudovskaya Araviya: nyeft’, islam, politika, Saudi Arabia: Oil, Islam, Politics (Moscow, Nauka Press, 1987; 256 pp.).

S.A. Kirillina's Islam v obshchyestvyennoy dzhizni Yegipta (vtoraya polovina XIX‐nachalo XX v.), Islam in Egypt's Social Life, Second Half of the 19th Century to the Beginning of the 20^th (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1989; 204 pp.).

A.V. Kudryavtsyev's Islamskiy mir i Palyestinskaya problyema, The Islamic World and the Palestinian Problem (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1990; 134 pp.)

V.N. Spol'nikov's Afganistan: Islamskaya oppozitsiya. Istoki i tsyeli, Afghanistan's Islamic Opposition: Sources and Objectives (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1990; 189 pp.)     

Rural Reactions to Zionist Activity in Palestine before and after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 as Reflected in Petitions to Istanbul

The article examines the contemporary debate in Muslim–Arab scholarship as to the compatibility of Islam and Western democracy. This debate centres on interpretations of shura, or consultation. The article claims that Islam, as a body of texts, traditions and practices, does not favour or reject any specific system of government. Rather, four main theories on Islam and democracy compete for hegemony: a theory integrating some aspects of Western democracy with shura and rejecting others; a theory dichotomizing shura and democracy; a theory contending that shura is democracy; and a theory legitimizing exiting political orders by defining them as manifestations of shura. The article examines the historical roots of each of these theories and analyzes the social-political roles they play.     

Khatami's Islamist-Iranian Discourse of National Identity: A Discourse of Resistance

Using a discourse approach, the article demonstrates that Khatami's construction of Iranian national identity is a discourse of resistance on the international and regional levels. This resistance is evident in the meanings attached to three sets of values: Iranian-Islamic culture, ‘dialogue among civilisations’ and Islamic mardumsālārī, which are referred to as the three pillars of the Islamist-Iranian discourse of national identity. In terms of Iranian-Islamic culture, it is evident that Islam is Iranianised and furthermore the framework for the political apparatus is not simply politicised Islam, but rather Iranian political Islam. In terms of ‘dialogue among civilisations’, the resistance is not only to perceived Western hegemony in the international system, but also resistance to the dominance of the West and Western perspectives in the discipline of International Relations. Finally, Khatami establishes Islamic mardumsālārī as the most appropriate and authentic means of maintaining Iran as an independent nation.     

SAYS TUKA

This article discusses and provides examples of the revolutionary poetry of Tukaram (“Tuka”), the seventeenth-century writer who represented the culmination of three centuries of a radical bhakti (devotional) movement that aimed to bring together women and men of low caste to proclaim their equality and reject Brahmanic ritualism and caste hierarchy. The backdrop to this discussion of Tuka's songs is the recent reassessment of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries in India–an era of Muslim rule and linkages to the modern world through Islam– as an “early modern” period of time.     

中国武术运动在韩国的发展现状分析及思考

韩国跆拳道运动在世界和中国得到了很好的发展，并于2000年的悉尼奥运会成为正式的比赛项目，尤其是跆拳道道馆（俱乐部）经营理念，已经成了跆拳道核心的理论。同样和韩国跆拳道运动一样被称为“博大精深”的中国武术运动在韩国的发展现状如何，笔者2010年担任韩国国家武术队教练期间，采用文献资料、专家访谈、综合分析等方法，对中国武术在韩国的发展现状做了直观的、详尽的调查和分析。结果显示中国竞技武术在韩国得到了较好的发展，但传统武术和竞技武术也存在一些问题。本文同时为中国武术的国际化发展提供一定参考。