The ‘Arab Spring’: the view from Tehran

2011 saw an unprecedented wave of popular protests shake the foundations of many Arab regimes across the Middle East and North Africa. While many observers welcomed the uprisings as movements for greater freedoms and democracy, Iran celebrated the unrests as an ‘Islamic awakening’ – the first steps in a process that would eventually result in the realignment of the Greater Middle East. This article will examine the official narrative of the Iranian regime and will contextualise the apparent contradiction in the Islamic Republic's support for the Arab uprisings despite its brutal suppression of its own people and the incitement of the same practise in Syria. The article will then assess Iran's actual role in the Arab unrests and whether the Islamic Republic has, and will retain, the ability to exploit the ‘Arab Spring’ as part of its broader revisionist struggle to weaken the forces of status quo in the region.     

Future reviews

Yet more on the Islamic revival

The Islamic Impulse. Edited by Barbara Freyer Stowasser. London & Sydney: Croom Helm with Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. 1987. 329pp. £25.00hb

From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam. Edited by Said Amir Arjomand. London: Macmillan, with St Antony's College, Oxford. 1984. 256pp. £33.00hb

Islam and the Political Economy of Meaning: Comparative Studies of Muslim Discourse. Edited by William R Roff. London: Croom Helm. 1987. 295pp. £25.00hb

Minorities and the problem of the state

The Elementary Structures of Political Life: Rural Development in Pahlavi Iran. Grace E Goodell. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1985. 362pp. n/p

Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan. Olivier Roy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1986. 253pp. £27.50hb/£9.95pb

The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Edited by Ali Banuazizi and Myron Weiner. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. 1986. 464pp. $35.00hb

Iran's revolution reappraised

Iran: A Revolution in Turmoil. Edited by Haleh Afshar. London: Macmillan. 1985. 262pp. £25.00hb/£8.95pb

The Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic. Edited by Nikki R Keddie and Eric Hooglund. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. 1986. 246pp. $14.95pb

The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. Amir Taheri. London: Hutchinson. 1985. 350pp. £14.95hb

All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran. Gary Sick. New York: Random House. 1985. 366pp. $19.95hb

Revolutionary Iran: Challenge and Response in the Middle East. R K Ramazani. London: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1986. 311pp. £21.60hb

The Left in Contemporary Iran: Ideology, Organization and the Soviet Connection. Sepehr Zabih. London: Croom Helm. 1986. 239pp. £25.00hb

Iran: At War with History. John W Limbert. Boulder, Colorado: Westview (distributed in the UK by IPI). 1987. 186pp. £24.00hb

The discovery of the Lebanese Shia

Militant Islamic Movements in Lebanon: Origins, Social Basis, and Ideology. Edited by Marius Deeb. Washington, DC: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown. University. 1986. 27pp. n/p

The Vanished Imam: Musa al‐Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon. Fouad Ajami. London: I B Tauris. 1986. 228pp. £15.95hb

Amal and the Shi'a: Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon. Augustus Richard Norton. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1987. 238pp. $10.95pb

The beguiling Gulf Cooperation Council

Majlis al‐Taawun al‐Khaliji: Al‐Itar al‐Siyasi wal‐Istratiji (The Gulf Cooperation Council: The Political and Strategic Framework). Abdallah Fahd al‐Nafisi. London: Ta‐Ha Publishers. 1982. 72pp. £2.50pb

Al‐Itar Al‐Qanuni wal‐Siyasi Li‐Majlis al‐Taawun al‐Khaliji (The Legal and Political Framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council). Abdallah al‐Ishal. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 1983. 291pp. $10.00pb

Majlis al‐Taawun al‐Khaliji: Azmat al‐Siyasat wal‐Shariyat (The Gulf Cooperation Council: The Crisis of Politics and Legitimacy). Majid al‐Majid. London: Ta‐Ha Publishers. 1986. 99pp. £2.50pb

Majlis al‐Taawun li‐Dual al‐Khalij al‐Arabiyyah: Ruyat Mustaqbaliyat, Dirasat Qanuniyat, Siyasiyat, Iqtisadiyat (The Gulf Cooperation Council: Future Developments—A Legal, Political and Economic Study). Yahya Halmi Rajab. Kuwait: Maktabat al‐Arubat lil‐Nashr wal‐Tawzi. 1983. 528pp. $12.00pb     

American culpability: the Bush Administration and the Iranian nuclear impasse

Drawing on the memoirs of Hassan Rowhani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator (2003–2005) and newly elected president, this paper considers the impact of the Bush Administration's Iran policy on the internal politics of the Islamic Republic and the dynamics of its nuclear negotiation strategy. It argues that the administration had a detrimental effect on international nuclear negotiations with Iran and should be considered at least partially responsible for the current nuclear impasse. Identifying three key areas, it focuses on the administration's rejection of constructive engagement with the relatively moderate government of President Mohammad Khatami; the negative influence of the USA during Iran's nuclear negotiations with the EU3; and the administration's refusal to provide the Iranians with confidence-building incentives, or countenance unconditional nuclear talks, despite a policy change in Washington that was ostensibly multilateralist and gave the impression of directly engaging with the Iranians.     

Islamist Communities on VKontakte: Identification Mechanisms and Network Structure

Abstract

This article examines the presence of extremist online communities on the Russian social network VKontakte following the tightening by Russian federal аuthorities of internet counter-extremism policies and censorship. Extremist communities were detected using linguistic markers for extremist attitudes and radical violence. The study of socio-demographic data and network metrics of Islamist extremist communities reveals some general tendencies in the Russian context: a majority of female participants, a highly decentralised community network structure, radical Salafism as the mainstream ideology and covert proselytisation through the discussion of Islamic theology and lifestyle issues that are not in themselves extremist.     

ISIL's Execution Videos: Audience Segmentation and Terrorist Communication in the Digital Age

ABSTRACT

This article offers a bottom-up understanding of the media strategy employed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as it relates to the production and dissemination of its hostage execution videos. Through an empirical analysis of sixty-two videos of executions produced by ISIL in the year following its establishment as the “Islamic State” in 2014, this study examines the videos as a major component of ISIL's media strategy. Through these media products, ISIL seeks to spread a political message aimed at both local and global, ingroup and outgroup consumption through audience segmentation, while striving to influence both local and global audiences through the use and production of graphic violence. This article also discusses the strategy governing the production and release of ISIL's execution videos; how it relies on the global media to transmit its intertwined political and religious agenda in the digital media age.     

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front at 20: State of the Revolution

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has waged a secessionist campaign in the Southern Philippines since 1978, when they broke away from the secular Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Their avowed goal is to establish an independent Islamic state. Though initially armed and supported by the Libyan and Malaysian governments, by the early 1990s, the MILF had lost much of its state support and forged a tentative relationship with Al Qaeda, receiving money through Saudi charities, as well as limited military training. In exchange, they had to give some assistance to groups, such as Al Qaeda's regional affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Abu Sayyaf group (ASG); ties that they continue to maintain. Thus the ongoing peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the MILF have regional security operations.     

The Identity of Turkey: Muslim and secular

Abstract

This article analyses the rise of political Islam in Turkey in the context of the akp's tenure in power with reference to complex social, economic, historical and ideational factors. It aims to answer one of the key questions, which has wider implications for the West and Islamic world: ‘having experienced the bad and good of the West in secularism and democracy’, as claimed by Samuel Huntington's ‘clash of civilisations’ thesis, is Turkey in transition from a secular to an Islamic state? The article first questions Turkey's ‘bridge’ or ‘torn-country’ status and then explains the akp's ambivalent policies towards religious and identity issues in relation to the increased public visibility of Islam and a ‘performative reflexivity’ of ‘Muslim-selves’. It concludes that the real issue at stake is not the assumed clash of secular and Muslim identities but the complex of interdependence between Islam, secularism and democratisation in Turkey.     

Engaging China,With Strings Attached

There is a dearth of information in the open literature with a direct focus on the Hizbollah organization. Symptomatic of the shortcomings of the existing literature is the tendency to analyze Islamist movements in general with only peripheral reference to specific organizational entities such as Hizbollah. This paper will examine the development of the Hizbollah organization in the context of the Lebanese civil war, address its emergence in Amal, follow the Party of God's long march toward an Islamist republic, and observe the splitting of the party into an emasculated Hizbollah and a marginalized Islamic Resistance.     

Is India a Responsible Great Power?

Abstract

To what extent does rising responsibility accompany rising power in international relations? This article focuses on India to address the question: is a responsible great power in the making? Following a brief theoretical discussion on the notion of responsibility and its relationship to rising power, the article offers an empirical overview of India's achievements thus far, and also the international and domestic challenges that it faces today. It argues that despite the attempts by observers to thrust greatness upon India, the country is yet to achieve greatness. The article further illustrates that India's record of assuming global responsibility has been lacklustre at best. A central argument of the article is that India's reluctance to share the burden of providing global public goods is inseparably bound with the nature of its rise to power.     

New geographies of financial power: global Islamic finance and the Gulf

Abstract

A growing body of critical scholarship has examined the recent growth of Islamic finance (IF), unpacking its ethical assertions and highlighting its close affinities with conventional financial instruments. Receiving less attention, however, is the relationship between the global expansion of IF and the emergence of new financial actors and zones of accumulation. This article situates the evolution of global Islamic circuits alongside processes of capital accumulation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), arguing that contemporary IF is deeply bound up with the internationalisation of capital groups headquartered in the GCC. This is evident in the internationalisation of GCC Islamic banks, which has given the Gulf a powerful foothold in new markets and a variety of sectors that are typically considered ‘non-financial’. Simultaneously, the expansion and geographical diversification of Islamic debt (sukuk) issuance is refashioning the Gulf’s relationships with other global spaces, a process that looks set to intensify given the widespread push to utilise IF in development financing. Seen from this perspective, the global growth of IF sits in a mutually constitutive relationship with patterns of capital accumulation in the Gulf, as well as the region’s burgeoning weight within (and new linkages to) the global economy.     

Review

Abstract

What structured the fundamental nature of Indian security for the first 50 years of the country's independence? This article draws out four normative parameters that have been tempered and normalised during this period through India's international interaction along with her internal political developments. Using notions of ‘security identity’, the article unpacks these normative parameters in order to investigate holistically the interaction between both domestic and foreign influences in India's international relations. As such, the article finds a relative consistency to how security has been conceived of in India—displaying sustained threats to its territorial integrity, a continued democratic tradition, ongoing fears of communal violence plus an engrained desire for a greater global role. In turn, it has been the interface between internal and external factors that has structured, and continues to structure, Indian security.     

Al Qaeda as a Dune Organization: Toward a Typology of Islamic Terrorist Organizations

Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups offer the analyst a highly complex challenge. The current literature classifies Islamic terrorist organizations as either networked or hierarchical. Yet, this classification fails to account for the appearance on the international stage of a new type of global terrorism. Most notably, it does not capture the structure and mode of operation of Al Qaeda as it emerged after the 2001 U.S.-led assault on Afghanistan. This article therefore introduces a new conceptthe Dune organizationthat is distinct from other organizational modes of thinking. This conceptualization leads to a new typology of Islamic terrorist organizations. This typology concentrates on organizational behavior patterns and provides a framework for a comparative analysis of terrorist movements, which is applied to a study of Al Qaeda, Hizballah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.     

Islamic State Nasheeds As Messaging Tools

Although jihadi nasheeds play an important role in the Islamic State's propaganda, there is scant literature on the topic. This article is an exploratory study on seventeen Islamic State nasheeds released between December 2013 and March 2015. The main argument is that Islamic State nasheeds are effective messaging tools because they focus on a limited number of themes that have broad appeal among Muslims. The nasheeds differ from other Islamic State propaganda in their almost exclusive focus on war and fighting, rather than on the softer sides of life in the Islamic State.     

Differentiating Al Qaeda and the Islamic State Through Strategies Publicized in Jihadist Magazines

As Al Qaeda and the Islamic State vie for ascendancy in the jihad movement, policymakers grapple with distinguishing the threat posed by these groups. Proceeding from the terrorists’ view of media as a critical arena of jihad, this study applies content analysis to Al Qaeda- and Islamic State-produced magazines in order to empirically differentiate the two groups through the strategies publicized therein. Findings reveal that Al Qaeda consistently employs attrition to compel changes in the West's policy and behavior, while the Islamic State has shifted from intimidating populations to outbidding competing groups to solidify its claim to the Caliphate.     

Religious Basis for Islamic Terrorism: The Quran and Its Interpretations

Extreme religious interpretations of the Quran and the movement of Islamic Revivalism influence the emergence and progression of violent Jihad in contemporary times. Islamic “terrorists” are able to legitimize their movement as an act of violent Jihad permitted by the Quran essentially because of religious sanctions that permit the use of violence as an act of defense and to preserve the will of God in Islamic communities. The Quran systematizes this use and relates it to other aspects of the Shariat through its discourse on revivalism. Based on the Quranic principle of ijtihad, terrorists emphasize the Quran's tenets on violence and revivalism in their religious interpretations and present it as a legitimate premise for the use of excessive aggression. According to ijtihad Muslims can interpret and determine the extent of their Islamic practices individually as long as these are directed toward ensuring the will of God in an Islamic community. Thus terrorists use ijtihad to emphasize Quranic clauses that sanction the use of violent Jihad as a method ordained by God to preserve the Shariat in an Islamic community. The manner in which terrorists use ijtihad to contextualize geopolitical factors as a cause for violent Jihad is determined by their extreme interpretations of the Quran. These interpretations also determine the extent of violence used in a Jihad for religious amelioration. The religious legitimacy of this violence prevails until the cause and course of violent Jihad correlates with the Quran's discourse on violence and revivalism. In contemporary times an extreme interpretation of the movement of Revivalism ¹ 1. Refers to the contemporary movement of Islamic Revivalism. that is inspired by “revivalism” also provides an organized premise for Islamic terrorism. When implemented, this causes variations within specific geopolitical conditions and in different Jihadi groups. However a common understanding of religious doctrines determines the extent of Revivalism in Islamic communities because this movement relies heavily on the Quranic discourse for its existence. Thus, the religious basis for Islamic terrorism is primarily found when extreme interpretations of the Quran's tenets on violence and revivalism are directed toward obtaining an equally radical version of Revivalism in specific geopolitical conditions. In this manner, extreme Quranic and Revivalist interpretations ensure the ideological persistence of Islamic terrorism as a religious effort to preserve the will of God in an Islamic community. The aim of this article is to show the manner in which religion can cause the emergence of Islamic violence as it is known today. The discourse on Islamic violence and counterterrorism needs to be urgently studied given the numerous instances of violent Jihad in contemporary times. Many writings on Islamic violence and statements released after an act of Islamic violence allude to the impact of religion on violent Jihad, but they rarely explore it or present a premise for its existence. This exploration will be conducted based on research of the author's on the Kashmir crisis and the insurgency in it. Thus, examples from insurgency in Kashmir will be used on occasion to illustratively develop this argument. In his book The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington states that a theory must be causal and simple. Using the words of Thomas Kuhn, he explains that “to be accepted as a paradigm [it] must seem better than its competitors but it need not, and in fact never does, explain all the facts with which it can be confronted.” ² 2. Samuel Huntington, Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order (New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1996), p. 30. Furthering such simplicity and exploration, will be the central effort of this discourse. The sources for this exploration will be mainly derived from theoretical and practical understandings of terrorism, Islamic religion and theology, and the movement of Islamic Revivalism. A comparison between Islam and other religions will not be presented when evaluating the impact of Islam on violent Jihad. It will essentially present religious premises for violent Jihad from a Muslim rather than non-Muslim or “Western” perspective; although it is accepted that parallels in the understanding of “violence” do exist in the Muslim and non-Muslim world. Non-Muslim perspectives on violence and terrorism are relevant and known to the author. However a perpetual emphasis on these factors or a failure to acknowledge them limits the scope of the study of Islamic terrorism itself. The aim will be to present an Islamic perspective on violent Jihad. Then, it is accepted that a complex interplay between religious understandings and geopolitical events influence the emergence of Islamic violence in contemporary times. Thereafter, it must be stated that extreme psychological and sociological factors intrinsic to the Jihadis influence the religious choices that cause violent Jihad. An analysis of these factors is outside the realm of this discourse, which remains political in its scope. Further, on occasion a lack of empirical data and non-circumstantial evidence is encountered to substantiate some contentions mentioned ahead. As it has been suggested previously ³ 3. Nancy C. Biggo, The Rationality of the Use of Terrorism by Secular and Religious Groups available at (http://www.dissertations.com), 2002. this is mainly because there is a dearth of such data and reliable evidence pertaining to religious terrorism. At certain points, it becomes difficult to validate external opinions mainly because of the right to individual interpretations vested by the Quran in all Muslims. The validity of these opinions is vested in the fact that they are taken from informed Muslims who practice moderate and radical interpretations of Islam. Any reader may be expected to believe that any kind of terrorism is unjustifiable. However, in order to address these movements effectively, they must be studied from all possible dimensions and especially from the cultural contexts from which they arise.     

Islam and the United States: streams of convergence,strands of divergence

This article identifies four historical phases of relations between Islam and the Western world, as led by the United States. The first phase was a convergence of values coinciding with a divergence of empathy. The second phase reversed the order – Islamic and Western values diverged, but intercommunal relations became closer. The third phase is after September 11 when intercommunal relations once again diverged while differences between Western and Islamic values were greater than ever. The futuristic fourth phase of Islam's relations with the U.S.‐led Western world is when the power of the new American Empire is circumscribed, Western values become less libertarian, and Islam reconciles itself to modernity.     

The Taliban: a new proxy for Iran in Afghanistan?

Abstract

Iran has pursued a highly contradictory policy towards Afghanistan. On the one hand, it became a significant beneficiary of the overthrow of the Taliban regime by the US-led military intervention in 2001 in Afghanistan. The new Afghan government established cordial ties with Iran, allowing it to expand its political, economic and cultural influence in the country. Yet Iran has also provided significant support to the Taliban in its campaign to violently upend the political, social and economic processes in the country. This article examines the underlying domestic and regional security dynamics that contribute to this contradictory behaviour. It offers an assessment of how tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic, as well as Tehran’s growing threat perception following the rise of the Islamic State – Khorasan in 2014, impact on Iran’s policy towards the Taliban. The paper argues that Tehran views the Taliban as an instrument to disrupt the influence of other actors in Afghanistan. The instrumentalisation of the Taliban, however, is likely to be counterproductive for Iranian security in the long run as it contributes to Afghanistan’s instability and insecurity and undermines Iran’s own long-term interests.     

Small media for a big revolution: Iran

Conclusion The Iranian revolutionary experience reveals not only the social power of tradition, but also the flexible and creative adaptations that a traditionalist movement can make in the face of adversity to protect its core. Khomeini felt no contradiction utilizing the international telephone circuitry, arriving home on a jumbo jet, or talking to his followers through television. All too often tradition is perceived as something static, unflexible and brittle; as something totally opposed to modernity. The Iranian popular mobilization, and indeed ten years of cultural politics inside the Islamic Republic of Iran, has provided a profound challenge to that interpretation.