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By exploring the trajectories of Islamist parties in six diverse countries (Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia), this book provides a comparative analysis of the strategies employed by Islamist groups to confront established political structures through electoral processes and their subsequent governance practices if and when they assume power. The latter aspect is less explored than the predominant focus on Islamist opposition movements. The book analyses how these Islamist political parties navigate and negotiate with oppositional forces and establishments, concisely discussing the complex dynamics at play within each country. The book also bridges the gap between North Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Asia Minor, providing a comparative analysis across regions. Primarily serving as an introductory text to the subject of Islamist parties, the book functions as a comprehensive reader and handbook. Each chapter covers a range of key issues and themes relevant to the governance and political activities of the Islamist party of the country studied in the chapter, offering a general overview of Islamist party experiences across various themes and different historical periods.

Are concepts of human rights universal? If so, how does one reconcile them with schools of thought that Western regimes often view as hostile to universal human rights, such as Islamic fundamentalism? This question often ends in the assumption that Sharia law cannot be reconciled with human rights or that there needs to be a one-way adaption of Sharia to human rights concepts. Others view the application of human rights ideas to Sharia as an imperial intrusion. In Human Rights Between Universality and Islamic Legitimacy, Mahmoud Bassiouni addresses the debate surrounding the compatibility of Islam and human rights. He argues that to understand their compatibility, we need to better understand the dynamic way in which Islamic tradition has evolved relative to international human rights. He asserts that existing Islamic human rights schemes have not been able to formulate an approach that adequately balances the double requirement of universality and Islamic legitimacy, and have done little to contribute to a more profound and methodologically coherent understanding of human rights. Including analyses of different Muslim positions, Bassiouni identifies their merits and shortcomings and asks how we can rethink and answer open questions in human rights philosophy by bringing the resources of the Islamic tradition to bear upon them. Overall, Human Rights Between Universality and Islamic Legitimacy engages current debates on human rights in the field of political theory and offers an Islamically informed perspective, which at times substantiates, at other times challenges, orthodox understandings of human rights. As a result, Bassiouni shows how an engagement with the Islamic legal tradition can contribute to the construction of a more sound and coherent theory of human rights.

This ground-breaking volume on political Islam takes the question of Islam and secularism in an entirely different direction. It shows how leading Islamists use Islamic legal theory to liberate the political sphere from the narrow exegetical worldviews of classical jurists and modern fundamentalists. Exploring the work of a vanguard of Islamists, the book brilliantly parses out the broadlines of these Islamists'liberal theory and its underpinning legal grounds. This theory promises much. Beyond resolving the problem of political legitimacy in Muslim majority countries, it opens immense potential for reasonable ‘overlapping consensuses'between traditional worldviews and modern secular perspectives. Most strikingly, this resolution rests not on a break with the Islamic legal heritage but on rediscovering and refining the most profound aspects of it. The secret of this liberal theory lies in the broad application of the medieval concept of maqasid, the Lawgiver's aims. This approach shifts the focus from textual analysis emphasizing what God said to a systematic rational exploration of what He intended.

Following the Arab Uprisings, new ways of understanding sectarianism and sect-based differences emerged. But these perspectives, while useful, reduced sectarian identities to a consequence of either primordial tensions or instrumentalised identities. While more recently'third way'approaches addressed the problems with these two positions, the complexity of secatarian identities within and across states remains unexplored. This book fills the gap in the literature to offer a more nuanced reading of both sectarian identities and also de-sectarianization across the Middle East. To do so, the volume provides a comparative account, looking at Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. It examines the ways in which sect-based difference shapes regional politics and vice versa. The book also contributes to burgeoning debates on the role of protest movements in sectarianism. Chapters are split across three main sections: the first looks at sects and states; the second traces the relationship between sects and regional dynamics; and the third examines de-sectarianization, that is, the contestation and destablization of sectarian identities in socio-political life. Each section provides a more holistic understanding of the role of sectarian identities in the contemporary Middle East and shows how sectarian groups operate within and across state borders, and why this has serious implications for the ordering of life across the Middle East.

This book describes the battle between major Middle Eastern and Asian Muslim-majority states to control the definition of Islam in the 21st century. Focusing on United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia, the book explores how the outcome of this battle will significantly empower the winner, or winners, to wield religious soft power, secure leadership of the Islamic world, and project strategic influence worldwide. The result of the rivalry will determine which notions of a ‘moderate Islam'will prevail including the degree to which these notions embrace religious and political pluralism, tolerance, gender equality, secularism, and human rights as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or remain vague, as in current Saudi and Emirate usage of the term moderation, which is designed to mask these states'failure to systematically integrate these values into their domestic and foreign policy agendas. Ultimately, the battle for the soul of Islam will significantly impact how Muslims worldwide understand and practice their faith. Waged in diverse arenas across the globe, this complex religious and geopolitical struggle will play a significant role in determining the prospects for peace and security not only in the vast region extending from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Philippines but also in the United States and Europe.

This book takes a hermeneutic approach toward reading the writings of Jamal al-Banna and Tariq al-Bishri across several decades in order to explore contemporary Islamic political thought under authoritarianism. Ebtisam Aly Hussein uses the framework of'meta-languages', in relation to the writings of these two particular Islamic intellectuals, to examine how authority over the public sphere is established, in both religious and political terms. Chapters outline the major themes of Islamic political thought in the writings of al-Banna and al-Bishri - mainly the state in Islam, Shari'a application, political violence as jihad, and identity politics - and how in their writings they have interacted with a variety of autocratic practices under Nasir, Sadat and Mubarak. The book puts forward a unique study of the role of politics and religion in establishing authority over the public sphere, and how this authority is manifested in the intellectual output of these two Islamic intellectuals.

This book explores the role of faith and politics in shaping the international relations of South Asia. Adopting a neo-classical realist framework and a discourse-historical approach to analyze how religious actors construct their political identities and interests through the interpretation of sacred texts, or exegesis, the book makes several key contributions to the field of international relations. It introduces the concept of exegesis as a novel analytical tool to understand the role of religion in world politics. The book argues that exegesis is not only a theological exercise, but also a political one, as it shapes the worldviews, values, norms, and interests of religious actors. The author applies exegesis to three case studies of South Asia: the partition of India and Pakistan, the rise of Hindu nationalism in India, and the emergence of Islamic radicalism in Pakistan and resurging signs of the same in Bangladesh. The research then challenges the conventional assumptions of IR, such as the secularization thesis, the clash of civilizations, and the rational actor model, by showing how religious actors are not monolithic, homogeneous, or irrational, but rather diverse, heterogeneous, and strategic. The book offers a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the role of religion in world politics, especially in the context of South Asia. Highlighting the diversity and complexity of the religious landscape in South Asia, which is home to various faiths, sects, movements, and ideologies, this book will be of interest to academics studying global politics, international relations, Asian Studies, and studies on religion and foreign policy.

Changes in Jihadi Discourse in the Wake of the'Islamic State'explores how the transnational jihadi discourse changed with the development of the'Islamic State'terrorist group and resulted in the fragmentation of the jihadi movement.From the Middle East, through Africa to South East Asia, today's jihadi movement is more fragmented than ever. Al-Qaida and the'Islamic State'compete not only with each other but also with local jihadi groups. Despite the fact that, in the wake of the'Islamic State', international jihadi groups are in fierce competition for supporters, little has been said on how the process of competition as well as external events changed the ideology of these groups and the topics relevant to them. Countering dominant research focusing on the differences between jihadi strains, this book explores how the appearance and temporary strength of the'Islamic State'changed the topics and talking points of other jihadi actors, such as al-Qaida. By analyzing primary sources in Arabic and English, the author sheds light on the inner- and inter-jihadi discourse and its development over the years. The book does not simply describe changes in topics; it traces these changes quantitatively and relates them to external events.This book is aimed at academics, researchers, and postgraduate students interested in political science, security studies, jihadism, jihadi discourse, al-Qaida,'Islamic State', and Salafism, as well as practitioners and decision-makers in government agencies who wish to understand how transnational jihadi discourse has developed over the previous two decades.

The political thought of Muslim societies is all too often defined in religious terms, in which the writings of clerics are seen as representative and ideas about governance are treated as an extension of commentary on sacred texts. Disenchanting the Caliphate offers a groundbreaking new account of political discourse in Islamic history by examining Abbasid imperial practice, illuminating the emergence and influence of a vibrant secular tradition.Closely reading key eighth-century texts, Hayrettin Yücesoy argues that the ulema's discourse of religious governance and the political thought of lay intellectuals diverged during this foundational period, with enduring consequences. He traces how notions of good governance and reflections on prudent statecraft arose among cosmopolitan literati who envisioned governing as an art. Competent in nonreligious branches of knowledge and trained in administrative professions, these belletrists articulated and defended secular political practices, reimagining the caliphal realm as politically constituted rather than natural. They sought to improve administrative efficiency and bolster state control for an empire made up of diverse cultures. Their ideas about moral cultivation, temporal reasoning, and governmental rationality endured for centuries as a counterpoint to religious rulership. Drawing on this history, Yücesoy critiques the concept of “Islamic political thought,” calling for decolonizing debates about “secular” and “religious” politics.Theoretically rich and historically grounded, Disenchanting the Caliphate is an insightful and provocative reconsideration of key strands of political discourse in the intellectual history of Muslim societies.

Paul L. Heck's Political Theology and Islam offers a sophisticated and comprehensive analysis of sovereignty in Islamic society, beginning with the origins of Islam and extending to the present.This wide-ranging study sets out to answer an unassumingly tricky question: What is politics in Islam? Paul L. Heck's answer takes the form of a close analysis of sovereignty across Islamic history, approaching this concept from the perspective of political theology. As he illustrates, the history of politics in Islam is best understood as an ongoing struggle for a moral order between those who occupy positions of rulership and religious voices that communicate the ethics of Islam and educate the public in their religious and moral devotions. In this sense, sovereignty in Islam is split between ruling powers and pious communities, whose interactions range from close cooperation to outright competition. Heck shows that it is precisely through these interactions that Islamic conceptions of sovereignty are constructed and negotiated.Political Theology and Islam's first section spells out the concepts and methods for the study of politics in Islam as a struggle for a moral order, one not only involving varied claims to sovereignty but also a general determination to realize the righteousness of Islam that stands at the heart of the message that the Prophet Muhammad conveyed to his society in seventh-century Arabia. The following sections demonstrate, through examples from both the past and today's worldwide Muslim community, the diverse ways in which the umma, the community of Muslims, has struggled for a moral order that recalls its prophetic message. Deftly moving in various political theaters and through a wide range of intellectual traditions, Heck's book will emerge as a touchstone of scholarship in the field of Muslim politics and intellectual thought.

This volume draws attention to and moves beyond the traditional methodological frames that have governed knowledge production in the academic study of Islam. Departing from Orientalist and largely textual studies, the chapters collected herein revolve around three main themes: gender, the political, and what has come to be known as'lived Islam.'The first involves ascertaining how to read gender and gender issues into traditional sources. The second encourages an attunement to the often delicate intersection between the spheres of religion and politics. The final provides a corrective to our traditional over-emphasis on the interpretation of texts and a preoccupation with studying (mainly male) elites. Taken as a whole, this volume encourages a multi-methodological approach to the study of Islam. Contributors include Abbas Aghdassi, Aaron W. Hughes, Eva Kepplinger, Taira Amin, Betül Avcı, Ali Abedi Renani and Seyyed Ebrahim Sarparast Sadat, Meral Durmuş and Bahattin Akşit, Walid Ghali, Isabella Crespi and Martina Crescenti, Brian Arly Jacobsen, Pernille Friis Jensen, Kirstine Sinclair, and Niels Valdemar Vinding, Magdalena Pycińska, Zahraa McDonald, Emin Poljarevic, Abdessamad Belhaj.

This volume unfolds the ebbs and flows of Muslim thought in different regions of the world, as well as the struggles between the different intellectual discourses that have surfaced against this backdrop. With a focus on Turkey, Egypt, Iran and the Indian subcontinent – regions that, in spite of their particular histories and forms of thought, are uniquely placed as a mosaic that illustrates the intertwined nature of the development of Muslim socio-political thought – it sheds light on the swing between right and left in different regions, the debates surrounding nationalism, the influence of socialism and liberalism, the rise of Islamism and the conflict between state bureaucracy and social movements. Exploring themes of civil society and democracy, it also considers current trends in Muslim thought and possible future directions. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the fields of sociology, anthropology, political science, history and political economy, as well as those with interests in the study of religion, the development of Muslim thought, and the transformation of Muslim societies in recent decades.

Muslim societies are largely absent from the study of religion and politics in the social sciences, despite the fact that scholarly literature often presumes that religion exercises a colossal influence on social, political, and economic outcomes in predominantly Muslim countries. This volume utilizes real world events and newly available data to more fully integrate the study of politics in Muslim societies into mainstream comparative analytical frameworks. Moreover, it explores the extent to which theories about core topics of inquiry in political science apply to Muslim societies. The aim is to interrogate rather than presume both whether and how Islam and Muslims are distinct from other religions and religious communities. Through 40 chapters by leading specialists, the Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies examines a wide range of topics concerning regimes and regime change, electoral politics, political attitudes and behavior beyond voting, social mobilization, economic performance and development outcomes, and social welfare and governance. The Handbook shifts focus away from the Arab world as the barometer of politics in the Muslim world, recognizing that the Islamic world spans several regions including Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Central Asia. This expanded geography enables a thorough investigation of which relationships, if any, hold across Muslim majority states in different regions of the world.

Justice (al-‘adl) is one of the principal values of the Islamic faith. In Islam, Justice, and Democracy, Sabri Ciftci explores the historical, philosophical, and empirical foundations of justice to examine how religious values relate to Muslim political preferences and behavior. He focuses on Muslim agency and democracy to explain how ordinary Muslims use the conceptions of divine justice—either servitude to God or exercising free will against oppressors—to make sense of real-world problems. Using ethnographic research, interviews, and public opinion surveys as well as the works of Islamist ideologues, archives of Islamist journals, and other sources, Ciftci shows that building contemporary incarnations of Islamist justice is, in essence, a highly practical political project that has formative effects on Muslim political attitudes. Islam, Justice, and Democracy compares the recent Arab Spring protests to the constitutionalist movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Middle East to demonstrate the continuities and rifts a century apart. By putting justice at the center of democratic thinking in the Muslim world, Ciftci reconsiders Islam's potential in engendering both democratic ideals and authoritarian preferences.

Les recherches sur les partis islamistes et les partis démocrates-chrétiens européens restent le plus souvent cloisonnées, donnant lieu à des études monolithiques. Partant, une analyse des trajectoires de l'islamisme tunisien et du parti démocrate-chrétien italien comble ce déficit et révèle les limites du nouveau projet islamiste. Cette « tectonique des plaques » est d'autant plus justifiée par la mutation inédite que connaît l'islam politique tunisien après le Xe congrès d'Ennahdha en 2016. Conscient de sa nouvelle conjoncture, le parti actualise son approche du fait politique en renouvelant ses modalités de recrutement et d'endoctrinement. Préfacé par le sociologue des religions M. Enzo Pace, ce livre insiste sur le rôle matriciel des espaces de socialisation (universités, prison...) dans l'édulcoration progressive de l'idéologie intransigeante primaire et sa mutation des deux côtés de la Méditerranée. En convoquant le réfèrent démocrate-chrétien, il est une invitation à un débat scientifique, apaisé et actualisé sur l'islam politique.

On Salafism offers a compelling new understanding of this phenomenon, both its development and contemporary manifestations. Salafism became associated with fundamentalism when the 9/11 Commission used it to explain the terror attacks and has since been connected with the violence of the so-called Islamic State. With this book, Azmi Bishara critically deconstructs claims of continuity between early Islam and modern militancy and makes a counterargument: Salafism is a wholly modern construct informed by specific sociopolitical contexts. Bishara offers a sophisticated account of various movements—such as Wahabbism and Hanbalism—frequently collapsed into simplistic understandings of Salafism. He distinguishes reformist from regressive Salafism, and examines patterns of modernization in the development of contemporary Islamic political movements and associations. In deconstructing the assumptions of linear continuity between traditional and contemporary movements, Bishara details various divergences in both doctrine and context of modern Salafisms, plural. On Salafism is a crucial read for those interested in Islamism, jihadism, and Middle East politics and history.

Presents a comparative analysis of land issues and impact of reform across the British and Irish Isles, in Ireland, Scotland and Wales

Cet ouvrage se propose de nous aider à comprendre la complexité de l'idéologie islamo-populiste à travers les alliances qu'elle contracte avec les musulmans d'Europe et du monde pan-islamique. Egalement, se pose le problème du militantisme musulman, qui va de l'expansion communautaire à la radicalisation et qui, de fait, déstabilise l'art du vivre- ensemble sur le socle commun de la citoyenneté.

Discourse around Muslims and Islam all too often lapses into a false dichotomy of Orientalist and fundamentalist tropes. A popular reimagining of Islam is urgently needed. Yet it is a perhaps unexpected political philosophical tradition that has the most to offer in this pursuit: anarchism.Islam and Anarchism is a highly original and interdisciplinary work, which simultaneously disrupts two commonly held beliefs - that Islam is necessarily authoritarian and capitalist; and that anarchism is necessarily anti-religious and anti-spiritual. Deeply rooted in key Islamic concepts and textual sources, and drawing on radical Indigenous, Islamic anarchistic and social movement discourses, Abdou proposes'Anarcha-Islam'.Constructing a decolonial, non-authoritarian and non-capitalist Islamic anarchism, Islam and Anarchism philosophically and theologically challenges the classist, sexist, racist, ageist, queerphobic and ableist inequalities in both post- and neo-colonial societies like Egypt, and settler-colonial societies such as Canada and the USA.

Now in its fifth edition, The World Almanac of Islamism is the first comprehensive reference work to detail the current activities of radical Islamist movements worldwide. The contributions, written by subject expert, provide up-to-date assessments on the contemporary Islamist threat in all countries and regions where it exists.

Die Terroranschläge am 11. September 2001 erschütterten die im Westen weit verbreitete Vorstellung, Islamismus stelle allenfalls eine Bedrohung für die muslimische Welt dar. Die USA reagierten auf 9/11 mit der Ausrufung eines Krieges gegen den Terror; zahlreiche westliche Regierungen schlossen sich diesem ›Krieg‹ an und erließen oder verschärften Antiterrorgesetze. Hinzu kam eine hitzig geführte Debatte darüber, was Terrorismus mit dem Islam zu tun hat und wie sich der Islam zu den westlichen Werten verhält. Zwei Jahrzehnte nach 9/11 – und mehrere weitere einschneidende islamistische Anschläge später (Madrid, London, Paris, Nizza, Berlin) – versucht dieser Band eine Bestandsaufnahme. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei die Fragen: ·Welche Folgen haben die ergriffenen Antiterrormaßnahmen für Islamisten – trugen sie zu einer Schwächung oder gar Stärkung des Islamismus bei? ·Gibt es blinde Flecken im Umgang des Westens mit dem Islamismus? ·Welchen gesellschaftspolitischen Einfluss haben Islamisten in westlichen Ländern? Wie wirkt sich die gegenwärtige Integrationspolitik auf sie aus? Der Band versucht eine Annäherung an die Thematik durch sach- und faktenbasierte Analysen, die eine Debatte ermöglichen und sich einer solchen stellen wollen. Mit Beiträgen von: Helene Aecherli, Ebrahim Afsah, Volker Beck, Aje Carlbom, Heiko Heinisch, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Eckhard Jesse, Necla Kelek, Thomas Kessler, Ruud Koopmans, Sandra Kostner, Elham Manea, Markus Norell, Armin Pfahl-Traughber, Rebecca Schönenbach, Kristina Schröder, Susanne Schröter, Lorenzo Vidino, Joachim Wagner und Michael Wolffsohn

In the postcolonial era, Arab societies have been ruled by a variety of authoritarian regimes. Focusing on his native Morocco, Abdellah Hammoudi explores the ideological and cultural foundations of this persistent authoritarianism. Building on the work of Foucault, Hammoudi argues that at the heart of Moroccan culture lies a paradigm of authority that juxtaposes absolute authority against absolute submission. Rooted in Islamic mysticism, this paradigm can be observed in the drama of mystic initiation, with its fundamental dialectic between Master and Disciple; in conflict with other cultural forms, and reelaborated in colonial and postcolonial circumstances, it informs all major aspects of Moroccan personal, political, and gender relations. Its influence is so pervasive and so firmly embedded that it ultimately legitimizes the authoritarian structure of power. Hammoudi contends that as long as the Master-Disciple dialectic remains the dominant paradigm of power relations, male authoritarianism will prevail as the dominant political form.'Connecting political domination to gift exchange, ritual initiation, social loyalty, and gender reversals, Master and Disciple is nothing less than a thoroughgoing revision of our understanding of authoritarian rule in Morocco and in the Arab world in general.'—Clifford Geertz, Institute for Advanced Study

This book highlights the conflict between jihadist militants and the West as essentially ideological in character. It has serious implications internalized by Muslim societies, with the boundaries of faith changed by the interplay of socio-political variables. Violence emerged in Muslim societies as a means of emancipation or identity when the state could not resolve the conflict situation. Although the militants were influenced by socio-political factors, they have always looked to religion to justify their acts of violence. This book, exposing the fallacy of the narrative evolved by the militants, offers a counter narrative. It reinterprets the primary sources, unravels the historical and socio-political constructs, unmasks the heroes and enemies, challenges the dichotomies between theory and practice, re-establishes the boundaries between heresy and faith, and attempts to transform the current ideological discourse. ~This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the discourse between religion and security, political Islam, Islamic history, jihad, Middle Eastern studies, and South Asian studies.

This book engages the diverse meanings and interpretations of Islamic and Western law which have affected people and societies across the globe, past and present, in correlation to the epistemological groundings of those meanings and interpretations. The volume takes a distinctively comparative approach, advancing dialogue on crucial transnational and global debates over the history of Western and Islamic approaches to law, politics and society and their relevance for today. It discusses how fundamental concepts are understood and even translated from one historical or political context or one semantic domain to another. The book provides focused studies of key figures and theories in a manageable, accessible format useful for specialized academic courses and research as well as general audiences.

Can we affirm that a political theology exists in Islam? This apparently simple question is the core of Massimo Capanini and Marco Di Donato's edited collection of essays. Considering the wide range of meanings of political theology this book contains essays written by different authors having their own, specific, and specialized, point of view on the topics, from Shia and Sunni political thought, to Islamic classic philosophy, and philosophers until arriving at contemporary Muslim thinkers.

Since 9/11 and the global War on Terror, practitioners of Islam in Europe and beyond have been scrutinised and surveyed under suspicion of disloyalty and as potential disrupters of national social cohesion. Seemingly benign, altruistic practices, such as charity, are viewed as potential threats to national security and have increasingly become subject to counter-terrorism policies. This work seeks to critically assess the assumptions behind the lesser-known financial War on Terror, through exploration of the effects of current policies on Muslim charitable practices in the UK. The consequences of current policies are multi-faceted – from the stigmatization and suspicion of Muslim charities and communities, individual loss of status and financial standing, to a decrease of living standards and/or loss of lives. Engaging with the everyday socio-political activities of Muslim individuals, this book gives voice to the motivations, apprehensions and challenges faced by Muslim charitable practitioners. A must read for anyone wanting to challenge policy assumptions behind increased surveillance of charities and individual donors, whilst outlining the repercussions of current policies on Muslim individuals and charities.

This book offers comparative ontologies of both Islam and liberalism as discourses more broadly construed.The author argues that, despite recent efforts to speak of overlapping consensuses and discursive congruence, the fundamental categories that constitute'Islam'and'Liberalism'remain very different, and that these differences should be taken seriously. Thus far, no recent scholarly works have explicitly or meticulously broken down where these differences lie. The author rigorously explores questions related to rights, moral epistemologies, the role of religion in the public sphere, and more general approaches to legal discourse, via primary and canonical sources constitutive of both Islam and liberalism. He then goes on to articulate why communitarian modes of thought are better suited for engaging with Islam and contemporary socio-political modes of organization than liberalism is.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics and international relations, Islam, liberalism, and communitarianism.

This book examines the issue of territorial control by violent jihadist groups, using a comparative perspective.The book argues that in many parts of the world the connection between a state and the control over territory is not as close as presented by conventional political maps, and therefore it is necessary to analyse the territoriality of non-state actors as well. Based on a variety of case studies, the work looks at different levels of connection between the violent Islamist groups and territory, dividing them into non-territorial, semi-territorial and territorial groups. While the majority of the cases are located in the Middle East (Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda at the Arabian Peninsula, Ha´yat Tahrir al-Sham, Hamas and Hezbollah), the book also draws cases from Africa (groups in the western Sahel, Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram), South Asia (Taliban), and East Asia (Abu Sayyaf). By providing in-depth understanding of their respective approaches to territory, the book identifies the specifics of each group's territoriality, while also drawing more general conclusions.This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, radical Islam, Middle Eastern studies, and International Relations in general.

Welches religiöse Wissen und welche Praktiken sind in deutschen Moscheen vorzufinden? Wie legitimieren Muslim•innen islamisches Wissen als gültig bzw. ungültig und wer autorisiert dieses Wissen? Ayse Almila Akca bietet mit ihrer ethnographischen Studie tiefe Einblicke in das Moscheeleben in Deutschland und gibt spannende Antworten auf diese und weitere Fragen. Sie hinterfragt gängige Vorstellungen und analysiert religiöse Autorität, Geschlechterverhältnisse und innerislamische Kritik in deutschen Moscheen auf Basis ihrer langjährigen und intensiven Feldforschungen. Damit leistet sie einen wichtigen Beitrag, um die Entwicklungen im islamischen Feld in Deutschland besser zu verstehen.

Pathways to Contemporary Islam: New Trends in Critical Engagement highlights that the current tensions in Islam and the Muslim world are the result of historical dynamics as opposed to an alleged incompatibility between religious tradition and modernity. The emphasis on pathways indicates that critical engagement and contestation have always been intrinsic to the history of Islam. The aim of the book is to elaborate the contemporary pathways and analyse the trends that contest the Islamic intellectual tradition, the relationship between religion and politics, and the individual and collective practice of religion. The collection of essays analyses the current efforts of critical re-engagement with the Islamic intellectual tradition and underlines the historical diversity of Islamic orthodoxies that led to the establishment of various pathways in the practice and role of religion in Muslim societies.

Few symbols in today's world are as laden and fraught as sharia—an Arabic-origin term referring to the straight path, the path God revealed for humans, the norms and rules guiding Muslims on that path, and Islamic law and normativity as enshrined in sacred texts or formal statute. Yet the ways in which Muslim men and women experience the myriad dimensions of sharia often go unnoticed and unpublicized. So too do recent historical changes in sharia judiciaries and contemporary strategies on the part of political and religious elites, social engineers, and brand stewards to shape, solidify, and rebrand these institutions.Sharia Transformations is an ethnographic, historical, and theoretical study of the practice and lived entailments of sharia in Malaysia, arguably the most economically successful Muslim-majority nation in the world. The book focuses on the routine everyday practices of Malaysia's sharia courts and the changes that have occurred in the court discourses and practices in recent decades. Michael G. Peletz approaches Malaysia's sharia judiciary as a global assemblage and addresses important issues in the humanistic and social-scientific literature concerning how Malays and other Muslims engage ethical norms and deal with law, social justice, and governance in a rapidly globalizing world.

Die Zahl der Muslime in Deutschland und Europa wächst demographisch und durch Migration: Nach einer Prognose des Pew Research Center werden 2050 bis zu 20% der Bevölkerung in Deutschland islamischen Glaubens sein, in Europa insgesamt zwischen 7% und 14%. Angesichts dieser europäischen Realität ist die Förderung der Herausbildung eines Islam, der europäische Ideen wie Zivilgesellschaft, säkulare Demokratie und individuelle Menschenrechte ausdrücklich und umfassend bejaht, eine wichtige gesellschaftliche Aufgabe. Bassam Tibi, selbst muslimischer Migrant aus Syrien und intimer Kenner des Koran (Hāfiz), entwickelt mit seiner Idee des Euro-Islam ein integratives Konzept, das sich gegen die Politisierung des Islam positioniert und sich kritisch mit der Schariatisierung und Djihadisierung auseinandersetzt. Tibi – Mitbegründer der Initiative Säkularer Islam – gibt frei von ideologischen Schablonen eine überzeugende europäische Antwort auf die Herausforderung des islamischen Fundamentalismus.

With this work, Justyna Nedza presents the first comprehensive analysis of the theologically charged legal practice of “declaring someone an unbeliever” (takfir) in militant Salafist thought. Her investigation zooms in on the role of takfir in the formal legitimization of militant jihad against government institutions. Investigating both the Egyptian and Saudi Arabian case, Nedza demonstrates the importance of the regional context in shaping consistent legal arguments for the legitimacy of takfir of collectives. The careful analysis of the arguments of four selected militant Salafist authors brings out that this contextuality plays also a decisive role for the respective textual references, as well as shaping the conclusions drawn by the Egyptian and Saudi Arabian authors, respectively. In dieser Arbeit präsentiert Justyna Nedza die erste umfassende Analyse der theologisch aufgeladenen Rechtspraxis des „Apostasievorwurfs“ (takfīr) im Milieu des militanten „Salafismus“. Dabei liegt ein besonderer Fokus auf der rechtlichen Begründung von gewaltsamen Widerstand (ǧihād) gegen staatliche Organe in muslimischen Mehrheitsgesellschaften, sowie die hiermit verbundene Ausweitung dieses Rechtsmittels vom Individuum auf Kollektive. Anhand der komparatistischen Untersuchung der Schriften von vier ausgewählten Autoren aus Ägypten und Saudi-Arabien zeigt Nedza, dass deren divergenter nationaler Kontext eine entscheidende Rolle sowohl für ihre jeweiligen textlichen Referenzrahmen als auch ihre entsprechenden Schlussfolgerungen spielt. Damit wird die bisher weithin akzeptierte These vom “Salafismus” als global einheitlichem Phänomen auf den Prüfstand gehoben.

In recent years, Islam – whether via the derivatives of'Political Islam'or'Islamism'– has come to be seen as an'activist'force in social and political spheres worldwide. What such representations have neglected is the strong countervailing tradition of political quietism. Political quietism in Islam holds that it is not for Muslims to question or oppose their leaders. Rather, the faithful should concentrate on their piety, prayer, religious rituals and personal quest for virtue. This book is the first to analyze the history and meaning of political quietism in Islamic societies. It takes an innovative cross-sectarian approach, investigating the phenomenon and practice across both Sunni and Shi'i communities. Contributors deconstruct and introduce the various forms of political quietisms from the time of the prophetic revelations through to the contemporary era. Chapters cover issues ranging from the politics of public piety among the women preachers in Saudi Arabia, through to the legal discourses in the Caucasus, the different Shi'i communities in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and Pakistan, and the Gülen movement in Azerbaijan. The authors describe a wide range of political quietisms and assess the continuing significance of the tradition, both to the study of Islam and to the modern world today.

Analysts and pundits from across the American political spectrum describe Islamic fundamentalism as one of the greatest threats to modern, Western-style democracy. Yet very few non-Muslims would be able to venture an accurate definition of political Islam. Fully revised and updated, The Many Faces of Political Islam thoroughly analyzes the many facets of this political ideology and shows its impact on global relations.