Islamism,Pluralism and the Palestine Question: The Case of Hizbullah

The political vocabulary of the Lebanese Islamist party and militia Hizbullah in relation to pluralism exhibits an important self-contradiction. In Lebanon, Hizbullah has adapted to a process of national integration after 15 years of civil war, and appears as much more positive towards pluralism now than in 1985, when it made itself known officially. However, the Palestinian resistance struggle constitutes an ever more important part of the party's political and religious identity, and in this area the party relies on a vocabulary of absolute and religiously motivated conflict. Hizbullah has made the Palestine Question into a religious absolute at the same time as it connects this question to the issue of national unity in Lebanon, questioning the patriotic credibility of every Lebanese who disagrees with it on this issue. Consequently, a conflict-oriented vocabulary ‘colonizes’ Hizbullah's more tolerant and pluralist vocabulary within Lebanon, thus hindering a further development of pluralist attitudes.     

The Scum of Tabriz: Ahmad Kasravi and the Impulse to Reform Islam

Ahmad Kasravi (1890–1946), one of the most influential Iranian thinkers of the twentieth century, delivers a stinging criticism of Shi′ism and Islam in two works which have been almost completely ignored by secular scholars, despite their immense influence on the thought and writings of Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution as well as Ali Shariati and Jalal Ale Ahmad, its ideological forebears. The article considers the paradoxical reception of Kasravi's Shi′ism (Shi′igari) and On Islam (Dar Piramun-i Islam): both their extraordinary impact on Islamic revivalists and their neglect by specialists in Iranian affairs and Islamic studies. The occlusion of Kasravi's impulse to reform, the reduction of his ambiguous position in the Iranian intellectual tradition, has functioned to all but foreclose discussions of Islamic reform among secular scholars, deforming the contemporary intellectual history of Iran and Shi′ism more broadly.     

Regime Consolidation and Female Status in a Fledgling Theocracy: Khomeini's Vilayet-e-Fiqh, 1979–89

The Iranian Revolution, through Khomeini's consolidation measures, quickly morphed into an ‘Islamic Revolution’. Khomeini's regime abrogated popular legislation such as the Family Protection Laws of 1967 and 1975, which protected the rights of females, as the clerics sought to institute Shariah (Islamic) laws in an ‘Islamic Republic’. The historical record reveals that the precipitous legal transformation from secular to Shariah law under Ayatollah Khomeini's personal tutelage placed females in a dangerous predicament. Regressive gender policies, however, served to mobilize females to push back against the new social paradigm which had emerged under the rubric of Velayat-e-Fiqh. This article examines this misogynistic trajectory during Khomeini's rule and how it served to galvanize many Iranian women to ‘gender activism’.     

Thermidor in the Islamic republic of Iran: the rise of Muhammad Khatami

The following paper traces the course of elite factionalism in the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Islamic Republic Party's solidification of power beginning in 1981 to the present. With the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran has entered a period of economic and political Thermidor. Throughout the early part of his administration, President Rafsanjani engaged in a policy of rapproachment with conservative clerical factions. Thus the Rafsanjani era (1989–1997) was marked by a fundamental shift within the regime from the left to the right. Recently, there has been a falling out between centre groups and the right and this has resulted in the election of a moderate, Muhammad Khatami, to the presidency. A number of questions remain: What are the factors that facilitated Khatami's victory? And does this spell doom for Iran's conservative wing and mean an end to Thermidor?     

The Martyrs' Revolutions: The Role of Martyrs in the Arab Spring

This article examines popular representations of modern martyrs in the Arab world, comparing national models of martyrdom representations prior to the Arab Spring, namely those from Iran, Palestine and Hizbullah in Lebanon, to portrayals of martyrs during and after the Arab Spring. It argues that the Arab Spring brought forth a new model for the martyr in the Arab world, which (a) moves the production of martyrs' images from the state to the citizen; (b) personalises portrayals of martyrs through stories of their personal lives; and, (c) transitions from portrayals of victimisation to empowerment and agency. In the Arab Spring model, the martyr is both a symbol and narrative framework used to galvanise opposition to state regimes. Unlike the pre-Arab Spring models, which portrayed the martyr's death as an honourable sacrifice for the larger national or religious community, the Arab Spring martyr is portrayed as a needless victim in the fight for the universal values of dignity and human rights, as both a product and producer of meaning associated with agency. As the meaning of the ‘martyr’ continues to evolve in the post-Arab Spring era, it has come to represent the power of the people more broadly.     

Protesting gender discrimination from within: women’s political representation on behalf of Islamic parties

Abstract

In recent decades, Islamic political movements, and their subsequent political parties, have been increasingly recruiting and nominating women to high-level decision-making positions despite the fact that the ideology they espouse often acts to dissuade women from assuming positions of political leadership. My ethnographic research on religious women’s activism in Iran and Turkey helps explain this unexpected trend by shedding light onto the role of Islamic party women in challenging the gender discriminatory attitudes and behaviours of their male party leaders. In particular, I highlight the role that a number of high-ranking Islamic party women with close ties to the ruling elites played in pressuring their male party leaders to address women’s political underrepresentation in formal politics. Women’s close ties to the ruling elites consisted of formal ties with key Islamic leaders that evolved thanks to women’s long-term devotion to the Islamic movement or learning at Islamic seminaries. I demonstrate that such close ties to the leaders, as well as the presence of a public discourse in favour of women’s increased access to politics, enabled influential Islamic women to leverage a form of ‘internal criticism’ as an important strategy to enhance women’s political rights and status from within the Islamic movements.     

To loosen and bind: Khomeini,Rafsanjani, and supplementary governance in the Islamic Republic

ABSTRACT

Despite attention to Khomeini’s Guardianship of the Jurist (1970) and to Sunni iterations of ma?la?a, there is a dearth of Western scholarship on what Iranian scholars and journalists recognize as indispensable to governance in the Islamic Republic. With a comparative approach to modern perceptions of ma?la?a from inside and outside Iran, this article reveals a new perspective on how the outcome of debates in the earliest years of the Islamic Republic between the parliament and the Guardian Council went against the grain of traditional discussions on reconciling new laws with the shari‘a’s principles. Using academic literature, Sunni and Shi‘i jurisprudence, and, most significantly, one of Ayatullah Hashemi Rafsanjani’s (d. 2017) final interviews, this article shows that in these debates, Rafsanjani invoked the welfare of the state and national interest using the traditionally legal and limited concept of ma?la?a to justify new laws. Khomeini, on the other hand, re-imagined ma?la?a as necessary for Islamic Republic’s existence. Curiously, Khomeini’s re-imagining bears unexpected parallels with Jacques Derrida’s ‘supplement’, which, unlike ma?la?a, maintained human existence while the latter maintained political existence. Both ma?la?a and the supplement, however, provide a means and explanation for the defence of political and human existence during a real or perceived crisis.     

Divide and conquer: the consolidation of Hafiz al-Assad's policy toward Lebanon – the early stages

This article examines the attitude of Syria toward Lebanon during the first years of Hafiz al-Assad's regime. Assad adhered to the policy of ‘divide and conquer’, in which Syria purposefully prevented any Lebanese figure from becoming too powerful in the political arena. The article will analyze two cases of prominent Lebanese leaders in which Syria applied this policy, President Suleiman Frangieh and the Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt. Both were close allays of Assad, but this fact did not prevent the latter from acting against his friends. The article's main claim is that by using this policy, Assad paved the way for Syrian intervention and increasing influence in the land of the cedars.     

Explaining Political Islam: The Transformation of Palestinian Islamic Movements

This article aims to present a comprehensive explanation of the development of Islamic political movements among the Palestinians. It focuses specifically on the analysis of three Islamic movements: two that are active among the Palestinians of Israel (e.g. the 1948 territories)—the Southern Islamic movement and the Northern Islamic movement—and the Hamas movement that is active among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Through the analysis of these movements, the authors have identified three different major strategies used by the movements under consideration: The ‘politics of acceptance’ by the Southern Islamic Movement, the ‘politics of difference’ by the Northern Islamic Movement, and the ‘politics of resistance’ by Hamas. Four factors together constitute the basis for a multi-layered explanation of the different approaches adopted by political Islam: the context, the public orientation, the leaders' movements' preferences and the interpretation of the religious text.     

The Islamic Realism of Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi (1926–) and Sayyid Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (1935–2010)

The article sheds light on the core realist assumptions—regarding international anarchy, the centrality of power to international relations and human nature—that underpin the international relations perspectives of two leading contemporary Islamist thinkers, Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi (1926–) and the late Sayyid Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (1935–2010). It further asserts that the law of mutual restraining—which Qaradawi and Fadlallah derive from the Qur’an—bears a major affinity to realism’s balance of power principle. It argues that Qaradawi and Fadlallah articulate a non-western variant of realism that this article refers to as Islamic realism. After defining Islamic realism, the article compares it to four strands of realism: structural, neoclassical, classical and Christian realism. The conclusion suggests that realism should not be viewed as exclusively a product of European experiences and western ‘secular’ thought, but as a mode of theorizing about international relations that transcends cultural boundaries. In addition, it underscores the links between religion and realism, calling for research into the likely sources of realism in the three Abrahamic religions.     

Islam,ethnicity and the state: contested spaces of legitimacy and power in the Kurdish-Turkish public sphere

ABSTRACT

The pro-Kurdish nationalist mobilization in Turkey was mostly built on the right to self-determination aligned with the Marxist-Leninist ideology for the insurgent Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the early 1980s and ethnic minority rights for the secular-leftist pro-Kurdish legal parties in the 1990s. The Turkish state mostly framed the legal and illegal pro-Kurdish mobilization as ‘the enemy of the state’ and ‘the enemy of Islam’ in its counter-insurgency efforts. However, in the 2000s, the PKK and the pro-Kurdish legal parties became more tolerant and inclusive toward Islamic Kurdish identity by mobilizing their sympathizers in events such as ‘Civic Friday Prayers’ and a ‘Democratic Islamic Congress’. This move aimed to function as an antidote to the rising popularity of the ruling conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Kurdish Hizbullah in the early 2000s. In other words, Islam and pious Muslim identity has increasingly become contested among Turkish Islamists, Kurdish Islamists, and the secular Kurdish nationalists. This article seeks to unpack why, how, and under what conditions such competing actors and mechanisms shape the discursive and power relationships in the Kurdish-Turkish public sphere.     

China Comes Home: The Re-integration of China into the World Economy

This paper examines changes in the Iranian educational system implemented by the Islamic theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini and his religious followers in the decade after the Revolution overthrowing the Shah. The study demonstrates weaknesses in the theoretical literature on development and education because of its inability to anticipate people in a developing nation empowering a government controlled by religious leaders. Religious values dominate this society and they have significantly altered Iranian education in terms of who teaches; how political/religious ideology, gender roles, and other subjects are taught; who attends schools; and consequentially, these affect Iran's literacy rates.     

The development of Kuwaiti Islamists’ political ideology: the administration of the Kuwaiti Supreme Committee and the Free Kuwait campaign during the Second Gulf Crisis 1990–91

Abstract

This article aims to explore how the intellectual thinking and political actions of an Islamist could be developed and changed toward a more realistic view. The Kuwaiti Islamic Students’ movement in the UK was led by the youth of the Muslim Brotherhood under the Free Kuwait Campaign during the Second Gulf Crisis in 1990-91. This movement went through a significant development and change of ideas and practices with other political and societal groups. Dealing with all segments of Kuwait’s society as partners in the country and its destiny, and not as intellectual or party opponents, was the main change in ideas. Moreover, a qualitative leap in realistic political thought emerged among these young people and affected the future of the movement. In the immediate post-invasion era, this action was not invested towards building an open national platform. However, the students’ actions were influenced by the event, and pro Islam al-’i’tilafiyah became more accepting of others, leading to many students from other ideologies joining the ranks. Moreover, nationalistic ideas crept into Islamic thoughts in the post-invasion era, leading to a mixture of ideologies rendering one ‘moderate’ or ‘conservative’ that was described by stricter Islamists as ‘lenient’.     

Power,Tradition and Challenge: The Resilience of the Elite Shi‘ite Families of Lebanon

This article deals with the main processes and challenges that the Shi‘ite elite families experienced, beginning in the late 1950s and continuing through the first decade of the twenty-first century. It argues that although the turbulent times caused the socio-political standing of these families to weaken, the change in their status was more moderate than usually acknowledged. Prominent Shi‘ite families remained important factors in the political sphere. In fact, most of them were able to adapt successfully to the changes, particularly by cultivating beneficial relationships with Amal and Hizbullah. This demonstrates that these families, as well as the socio-political phenomena they represented, remained relevant.     

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.     

The First Time as Tragedy,the Second as Farce? Lebanon’s Nascent Petroleum Sector and the Risks of Corruption

This article analyses the risks of corruption in Lebanon’s nascent governance structures established in preparation for a thriving petroleum sector. Engaging with comparative theory on the ‘oil curse’, the article assesses the risks of corruption in the institutional and regulatory measures and policy tools that have thus far been developed down the sector’s value chain and including revenue management and expenditure. Lebanon’s political settlement, or the ways in which its political decision-making process evolved since the Ta’if Accord, consistently caused disappointing outcomes when it comes to sound institution-building and countering corruption; despite signs of awareness of the large stakes involved, this tendency is once again discernible in the country’s preparations for petroleum sector governance.     

The Two Language Problem: Sélim Abou,Lebanon and the Ethnolinguistic Nation

Abstract

In 1961, Sélim Abou, then a young doctoral student and now chair of cultural anthropology at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut, published his thesis. It argued that Lebanon's most formative national characteristic is its French-Arabic bilingualism. Moreover, he proposes that Lebanese communities should be defined not by confession but by language. Abou’s work raised red flags for partisans of Arabic in Lebanon who argued that bilingualism was nothing more than a conceptual 'fig leaf' for maintaining French and an established cultural and political status quo that worked in favour of Lebanon’s Maronites. Critics suggested that his design was nothing more than a thinly veiled promotion of sectarian politics. Through an examination of his work, and of the critical response it provoked, this article examines the possibilities of language as an alternative category of analysis in Lebanon. While Abou’s bilingualism most certainly served as an apology for French colonialism and for Maronite interests, his work nonetheless illustrates alternative local categories of use other than “confession.” Instead of focusing on the criticism of Abou and his category, we must examine how language can provide possibilities that might crack open the hermetic and fragile structure of confessionalism, highlighting the types of moveable communities in the post-colony.     

The Muslim Brothers’ Conception of Armed Insurrection against an Unjust Regime

The article analyzes the opinions of the intellectual and political luminaries of the Muslim Brothers from the 1930s to the late 1990s on launching an armed insurrection against an unjust Muslim regime. An examination of works by Hasan al-Banna, Hasan al-Hudaybi, ‘Umar al-Tilmisani, Muhammad Qutb, Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Ma'mun al-Hudaybi reveals that, in addressing different types of challenges, the mainstream of the movement developed a broad and consistent consensus on the matter that draws from classic Islamic jurisprudence. According to this consensus, violence can be applied only as a last resort and only following an application of ‘fiqh al-muwazanat’ (the jurisprudence of balances) that indicates that success is certain, and that the harm caused in the process would not be greater than the benefit incurred. How a specific regime came to power, and the level of injustice it commits, are irrelevant criteria; a decision on launching a violent revolution is primarily concerned with pragmatically assessing opportunities and consequences.     

Inclusion-moderation or political opportunity? Lessons from the case of Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party,PAS)

Much of the recent literature on the inclusion-moderation thesis revolves around Islamist political parties. This paper contends that the case of Parti-Islam Se-Malaysia (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party) is instructive in this regard. I argue that political opportunity is what decides whether a party would adopt more ‘moderate’ tendencies, not its mere inclusion in the electoral system. PAS’ raison d’etre was initially based on campaigning for an Islamic State. Subsequently, when it was in a coalition with two other secular parties, it began espousing the concept of a 'Benevolent State'. When the alliance eventually failed, PAS reverted to calls for an Islamic polity. PAS’ ideological commitment to an 'Islamic state' was dependent on political opportunities. This study argues for a more nuanced understanding of the trajectories of Islamist parties.     

Andalusiasation: Is Iran on the Trajectory of De-Islamisation?

Andalusiasation is a critical concept in the Islamic Republic's security discourse that implies the gradual de-Islamisation of cultural structures, which will eventually constitute an existential threat to the political domination of the Islamists. The state displays confidence about its hard power, yet it shows anxiety about the enemy's cultural invasion. This article examines the widening religio-cultural gap between the state and the grassroots and evaluates the increasing securitisation of the cultural sphere in Iran.