Mâine arabă
DAVID B. OTTAWAY
octombrie 6, 1981, trebuia să fie o zi de sărbătoare în Egipt. A marcat aniversarea celui mai mare moment de victorie al Egiptului în trei conflicte arabo-israeliene, când armata subordonată a țării a străbătut Canalul Suez în zilele de deschidere 1973 Războiul din Yom Kippur și a trimis trupe israeliene care se retrăgeau în retragere. Pe un răcoros, dimineață fără nori, stadionul din Cairo era plin de familii egiptene care veniseră să vadă militarii strângându-și echipamentul, Președintele Anwar el-Sadat,arhitectul războiului, privea cu satisfacție cum bărbații și mașinile defilau în fața lui. Eram în apropiere, un corespondent străin nou sosit.Deodată, unul dintre camioanele armatei s-a oprit direct în fața standului de examinare, exact când șase avioane Mirage răcneau deasupra capului într-o performanță acrobatică, pictând cerul cu trasee lungi de roșu, galben, Violet,și fum verde. Sadat se ridică, se pare că se pregătea să facă schimb de saluturi cu un alt contingent de trupe egiptene. El s-a făcut o țintă perfectă pentru patru asasini islamiști care au sărit din camion, a asaltat podiumul, În timp ce ucigașii au continuat, ceea ce părea o eternitate, să stropească standul cu focul lor mortal, M-am gândit pentru o clipă dacă să lovesc pământul și să risc să fiu călcat în picioare de spectatori panicați sau să rămân în picioare și să risc să iau un glonț rătăcit. Instinctul mi-a spus să rămân în picioare, iar sentimentul meu de datorie jurnalistică m-a determinat să merg să aflu dacă Sadat era în viață sau mort.
| Sept 26, 2010 | Comentarii 0
Islam and the Making of State Power
Seyyed vali reza nasr
In 1979 General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, the military ruler of Pakistan, declared that Pakistan would become an Islamic state. Islamic values and norms would serve as the foundation of national identity, law, economy, and social relations, and would inspire all policy making. In 1980 Mahathir Muhammad, the new prime minister of Malaysia, introduced a similar broad-based plan to anchor state policy making in Islamic values, and to bring his country’s laws and economic practices in line with the teachings of Islam. Why did these rulers choose the path of “Islamization” for their countries? And how did one-time secular postcolonial states become the agents of Islamization and the harbinger of the “true” Islamic state?
Malaysia and Pakistan have since the late 1970s–early 1980s followed a unique path to development that diverges from the experiences of other Third World states. In these two countries religious identity was integrated into state ideology to inform the goal and process of development with Islamic values.
This undertaking has also presented a very different picture of the relation between Islam and politics in Muslim societies. In Malaysia and Pakistan, it has been state institutions rather than Islamist activists (those who advocate a political reading of Islam; also known as revivalists or fundamentalists) that have been the guardians of Islam and the defenders of its interests. This suggests a
very different dynamic in the ebbs and flow of Islamic politics—in the least pointing to the importance of the state in the vicissitudes of this phenomenon.
What to make of secular states that turn Islamic? What does such a transformation mean for the state as well as for Islamic politics?
This book grapples with these questions. This is not a comprehensive account of Malaysia’s or Pakistan’s politics, nor does it cover all aspects of Islam’s role in their societies and politics, although the analytical narrative dwells on these issues considerably. This book is rather a social scientific inquiry into the phenomenon of secular postcolonial states becoming agents of Islamization, and more broadly how culture and religion serve the needs of state power and development. The analysis here relies on theoretical discussions
in the social sciences of state behavior and the role of culture and religion therein. More important, it draws inferences from the cases under examination to make broader conclusions of interest to the disciplines.
| Sept 25, 2010 | Comentarii 0
FEMINISM BETWEEN SECULARISM AND ISLAMISM: THE CASE OF PALESTINE
Dr., Islah Jad
Legislative elections held in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 2006 brought to power the Islamist movement Hamas, which went on to form the majority of the Palestinian Legislative Council and also the first majority Hamas government. These elections resulted in the appointment of the first female Hamas minister, who became the Minister of Women’s Affairs. Between March 2006 and June 2007, two different female Hamas ministers assumed this post, but both found it difficult to manage the Ministry since most of its employees were not Hamas members but belonged to other political parties, and most were members of Fatah, the dominant movement controlling most Palestinian Authority institutions. A tense period of struggle between the women of Hamas in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the female members of Fatah came to an end following Hamas’ takeover of power in the Gaza Strip and the resultant fall of its government in the West Bank – a struggle which sometimes took a violent turn. One reason later cited to explain this struggle was the difference between secular feminist discourse and Islamist discourse on women’s issues. In the Palestinian context this disagreement took on a dangerous nature as it was used to justify perpetuating the bloody political struggle, the removal of Hamas women from their positions or posts, and the political and geographical divides prevailing at the time in both the West Bank and the occupied Gaza Strip.
This struggle raises a number of important questions: should we punish the Islamist movement which has come to power, or should we consider the reasons which led to Fateh’s failure in the political arena? Can feminism offer a comprehensive framework for women, regardless of their social and ideological affiliations? Can a discourse of a shared common ground for women help them to realize and agree upon their common goals? Is paternalism only present in Islamist ideology, and not in nationalism and patriotism? What do we mean by feminism? Is there only one feminism, or several feminisms? What do we mean by Islam – is it the movement known by this name or the religion, the philosophy, or the legal system? We need to go to the bottom of these issues and consider them carefully, and we must agree upon them so that we can later decide, as feminists, if our criticism of paternalism should be directed at religion (credinţă), which should be confined to the heart of the believer and not be allowed to take control of the world at large, or the jurisprudence, which relates to different schools of faith which explain the legal system contained in the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet – the Sunnah.
| Sept 19, 2010 | Comentarii 0
ISLAMIST WOMEN’S ACTIVISM IN OCCUPIED PALESTINE
Interviews by Khaled Amayreh
Interview with Sameera Al-Halayka
Sameera Al-Halayka is an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She was
born in the village of Shoyoukh near Hebron in 1964. She has a BA in Sharia (islamice
Jurisprudence) from Hebron University. She worked as a journalist from 1996 la 2006 when
she entered the Palestinian Legislative Council as an elected member in the 2006 alegerile.
She is married and has seven children.
Q: There is a general impression in some western countries that women receive
inferior treatment within Islamic resistance groups, such as Hamas. Is this true?
How are women activists treated in Hamas?
Rights and duties of Muslim women emanate first and foremost from Islamic Sharia or law.
They are not voluntary or charitable acts or gestures we receive from Hamas or anyone
else. Thus, as far as political involvement and activism is concerned, women generally have
the same rights and duties as men. After all, women make up at least 50 per cent of
society. In a certain sense, they are the entire society because they give birth to, and raise,
the new generation.
Prin urmare, I can say that the status of women within Hamas is in full conformity with her
status in Islam itself. This means that she is a full partner at all levels. Într-adevăr, it would be
unfair and unjust for an Islamic (or Islamist if you prefer) woman to be partner in suffering
while she is excluded from the decision-making process. This is why the woman’s role in
Hamas has always been pioneering.
Q: Do you feel that the emergence of women’s political activism within Hamas is
a natural development that is compatible with classical Islamic concepts
regarding the status and role of women, or is it merely a necessary response to
pressures of modernity and requirements of political action and of the continued
Israeli occupation?
There is no text in Islamic jurisprudence nor in Hamas’ charter which impedes women from
political participation. I believe the opposite is true — there are numerous Quranic verses
and sayings of the Prophet Muhammed urging women to be active in politics and public
issues affecting Muslims. But it is also true that for women, as it is for men, political activism
is not compulsory but voluntary, and is largely decided in light of each woman’s abilities,
qualifications and individual circumstances. None the less, showing concern for public
matters is mandatory upon each and every Muslim man and woman. The Prophet
Muhammed said: “He who doesn’t show concern for the affairs of Muslims is not a Muslim.”
în plus, Palestinian Islamist women have to take all objective factors on the ground into
account when deciding whether to join politics or get involved in political activism.
| Sept 19, 2010 | Comentarii 0
IRANIAN WOMEN AFTER THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION
Ansiia Khaz Allii
More than thirty years have passed since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, yet there remain a number of questions and ambiguities about the way the Islamic Republic and its laws deal with contemporary problems and current circumstances, particularly with regard to women and women’s rights. This short paper will shed light on these issues and study the current position of women in various spheres, comparing this to the situation prior to the Islamic Revolution. Reliable and authenticated data has been used wherever possible. The introduction summarises a number of theoretical and legal studies which provide the basis for the subsequent more practical analysis and are the sources from where the data has been obtained.
The first section considers attitudes of the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards women and women’s rights, and then takes a comprehensive look at the laws promulgated since the Islamic Revolution concerning women and their position in society. The second section considers women’s cultural and educational developments since the Revolution and compares these to the pre-revolutionary situation. The third section looks at women’s political, social and economic participation and considers both quantative and qualitative aspects of their employment. The fourth section then examines questions of the family, cel relationship between women and the family, and the family’s role in limiting or increasing women’s rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
| Sept 19, 2010 | Comentarii 0
Women in Islam
amira Burghul
Despite major consensus amongst a large number of philosophers and historians that the
principles and teachings of Islam caused a fundamental change in the position of women
compared to the prevailing situation in countries in both East and West at the time, and despite
the agreement of a large number of thinkers and legislators that women during the time of the
Prophet (PBUH) were granted rights and legal privileges not granted by man-made laws until
recently, propaganda campaigns by Westerners and people with a Westernised perspective
consistently accuse Islam of being unjust to women, of imposing restrictions on them, și
marginalising their role in society.
This situation has been made worse by the atmosphere and conditions prevalent across the
Lumea musulmană, where ignorance and poverty have produced a limited understanding of religion
and family and human relations which occlude justice and a civilised way of life, în special
between men and women. The small group of people who have been granted opportunities to
acquire an education and abilities have also fallen into the trap of believing that achieving justice
for women and capitalising on their abilities is dependent upon rejecting religion and piety and
adopting a Western way of life, as a result of their superficial studies of Islam on the one hand
and the effect of life’s diversions on the other.
Only a very small number of people from these two groups have managed to escape and cast off
their cloaks of ignorance and tradition. These people have studied their heritage in great depth
and detail, and have looked at the results of Western experiences with an open mind. They have
distinguished between the wheat and the chaff in both the past and the present, and have dealt
scientifically and objectively with the problems which have arisen. They have refuted the false
charges made against Islam with eloquent arguments, and have admitted to concealed flaws.
They have also re-examined the sayings and customs of the Infallible Ones in order to
distinguish between what is established and holy and what has been altered and distorted.
The responsible behaviour of this group has established new directions and new ways of dealing
with the question of women in Islamic societies. They have clearly not yet tackled all problems
and found final solutions for the many legislative gaps and deficiencies, but they have laid the
ground for the emergence of a new model for Muslim women, who are both strong and
committed to the legal and effective foundations of their society.
With the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the blessing of its leaders, which is the
main religious authority for the participation of women and their effective political and social
participation, the scope for strong debate over women in Islam has been significantly expanded.
The model of Muslim women in Iran has spread to Islamic resistance movements in Lebanon,
Palestine other Arab countries and even the Western world, and as a result, propaganda
campaigns against Islam have abated to some extent.
The emergence of Salafi Islamic movements such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and similar
Salafi movements in Saudi Arabia and North Africa, and their fanatical way of treating women,
have provoked nervous onlookers fearing an Islamic resurgence into launching new propaganda
campaigns accusing Islam of inspiring terrorism and being backwards and unjust towards
women.
| Sept 17, 2010 | Comentarii 0
smearcasting: How Islamophobes spread fear, bigotry and misinformation
FAIR
Julie Hollar
Jim Naureckas
Making Islamophobia Mainstream:
How Muslim-bashers broadcast their bigotry
A remarkable thing happened at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) nominations in February 2007: The normally highbrow and tolerant group nominated for best book in the field of criticism a book widely viewed as denigrating an entire religious group.
The nomination of Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying the West From Within didn’t pass without controversy. Past nominee Eliot Weinberger denounced the book at the NBCC’s annual gathering, calling it ‘‘racism as criticism’’ (New York Times, 2/8/07). NBCC board president John Freeman wrote on the group’s blog (Critical Mass, 2/4/07): ‘‘I have never been
more embarrassed by a choice than I have been with Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept…. Its hyperventilated rhetoric tips from actual critique into Islamophobia.’’
Though it didn’t ultimately win the award, While Europe Slept’s recognition in the highest literary circles was emblematic of a mainstreaming of Islamophobia, not just in American publishing but in the broader media. This report takes a fresh look at Islamophobia in today’s media and its perpetratrators, outlining some of the behind-the-scenes connections that are rarely explored in media. The report also provides four snapshots, or “case studies,” describing how Islamophobes continue to manipulate media to in order to paint Muslims with a broad, hateful brush. Our aim is to document smearcasting: the public writings and appearances of Islamophobic activists and pundits who intentionally and regularly spread fear, bigotry and misinformation. The term “Islamophobia” refers to hostility toward Islam and Muslims that tends to dehumanize an entire faith, portraying it as fundamentally alien and attributing to it an inherent, essential set of negative traits such as irrationality, intolerance and violence. And not unlike the charges made in the classical document of anti-Semitism, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, some of Islamophobia’s more virulent expressions–like While Europe Slept–include evocations of Islamic designs to dominate the West.
Islamic institutions and Muslims, desigur, should be subject to the same kind of scrutiny and criticism as anyone else. For instance, when a Norwegian Islamic Council debates whether gay men and lesbians should be executed, one may forcefully condemn individuals or groups sharing that opinion without pulling all European Muslims into it, as did Bawer’s Pajamas Media post (8/7/08),
“European Muslims Debate: Should Gays Be Executed?”
asemănător, extremists who justify their violent actions by invoking some particular interpretation of Islam can be criticized without implicating the enormously diverse population of Muslims around the world. After all, reporters managed to cover the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh–an adherent of the racist Christian Identity sect–without resorting to generalized statements about “Christian terrorism.” Likewise, media have covered acts of terrorism by fanatics who are Jewish–for instance the Hebron massacre carried out by Baruch Goldstein (Extra!, 5/6/94)–without implicating the entirety of Judaism.
| Sept 16, 2010 | Comentarii 0
The Totalitarianism of Jihadist Islamism and its Challenge to Europe and to Islam
Basso tibi
When reading the majority of texts that comprise the vast literature that has been published by self-proclaimed pundits on political Islam, it is easy to miss the fact that a new movement has arisen. Further, this literature fails to explain in a satisfactory manner the fact that the ideology which drives it is based on a particular interpretation of Islam, and that it is thus a politicised religious faith,
not a secular one. The only book in which political Islam is addressed as a form of totalitarianism is the one by Paul Berman, Terror and Liberalism (2003). The author is, in orice caz, not an expert, cannot read Islamic sources, and therefore relies on the selective use of one or two secondary sources, thus failing to grasp the phenomenon.
One of the reasons for such shortcomings is the fact that most of those who seek to inform us about the ‘jihadist threat’ – and Berman is typical of this scholarship – not only lack the language skills to read the sources produced by the ideologues of political Islam, but also lack knowledge about the cultural dimension of the movement. This new totalitarian movement is in many ways a novelty
in the history of politics since it has its roots in two parallel and related phenomena: first, the culturalisation of politics which leads to politics being conceptualised as a cultural system (a view pioneered by Clifford Geertz); and second the return of the sacred, or ‘re-enchantment’ of the world, as a reaction to its intensive secularisation resulting from globalisation.
The analysis of political ideologies that are based on religions, and that can exert appeal as a political religion as a consequence of this, involves a social science understanding of the role of religion played by world politics, especially after the bi-polar system of the Cold War has given way to a multi-polar world. In a project conducted at the Hannah Arendt Institute for the application of totalitarianism to the study of political religions, I proposed the distinction between secular ideologies that act as a substitute for religion, and religious ideologies based on genuine religious faith, which is the case in religious fundamentalism (see note
24). Another project on ‘Political Religion’, carried out at the University of Basel, has made clearer the point that new approaches to politics become necessary once a religious faith becomes clothed in a political garb.Drawing on the authoritative sources of political Islam, this article suggests that the great variety of organisations inspired by Islamist ideology are to be conceptualised both as political religions and as political movements. The unique quality of political Islam lies is the fact that it is based on a transnational religion (see note 26).
| Sept 15, 2010 | Comentarii 0
islam, Islamul politic și America
Insight Arab
Este posibilă „Frăția” cu America?
khalil al-anani
„Nu există nicio șansă de a comunica cu niciun SUA. administrație atât timp cât Statele Unite își mențin viziunea de lungă durată asupra Islamului ca un pericol real, o viziune care pune Statele Unite în aceeași barcă cu inamicul sionist. Nu avem noțiuni preconcepute referitoare la poporul american sau SUA. societatea și organizațiile sale civice și grupurile de reflecție. Nu avem nicio problemă de comunicare cu poporul american, dar nu se depun eforturi adecvate pentru a ne apropia,”A spus dr. Issam al-Iryan, șef al departamentului politic al Frăției Musulmane într-un interviu telefonic.
Cuvintele lui Al-Iryan rezumă punctele de vedere ale Frăției Musulmane despre poporul american și SUA. guvern. Alți membri ai Frăției Musulmane ar fi de acord, ca și regretatul Hassan al-Banna, care a fondat grupul în 1928. Al- Banna privea Occidentul mai ales ca un simbol al decăderii morale. Alți salafi - o școală de gândire islamică care se bazează pe strămoși ca modele exemplare - au adoptat aceeași viziune asupra Statelor Unite, dar nu au flexibilitatea ideologică susținută de Frații Musulmani. În timp ce Frăția Musulmană crede în angajarea americanilor în dialog civil, alte grupuri extremiste nu văd niciun rost în dialog și susțin că forța este singura modalitate de a face față Statelor Unite.
| Sept 15, 2010 | Comentarii 0
Notes on the Isocratic Legacy and Islamic Political Thought: The Example of Education
JAMES MUIR
An unfortunate feature of human history is the tendency for religious differences and con icts to nourish themselves with the poisonous brew of ignorance and prejudice. While much can sometimes be done to reduce prejudice, it seems to me that scholars and educators ought to be primarily concerned with the more fundamental and enduring goal of reducing ignorance. One’s success in reducing ignorance—including one’s own—will depend upon one’s motives.
The study of Islamic educational philosophy may be motivated by current practical concerns: the desire of British Muslims to have Islamic schools, whether funded privately or by the state, is one topical example. From the perspective of educational philosophy, in orice caz, such a motive is exceedingly narrow, circumscribed by the concepts and categories of the local political disputes of the moment. For those motivated by a desire for knowledge and understanding of a tradition outside their own, it is most doubtful that any study of Islamic philosophy restricted by current practical concerns can be at all productive. There is no simple correspondence between knowledge and “relevance.”
There must, in orice caz, be some connection between two traditions of thought and practice if there is to be a point of departure, and a point of entry, which allows the scholar to step from one tradition to another. The legacy of Isocrates may constitute one such point of departure, which will help us to understand the relation between two traditions, the classical Greek and the Islamic. The dominance of the Isocratic legacy in Western education is well established and widely known among historians, classicists
and political philosophers, although awareness of it has only just begun to surface among educationists.2 Similarly, the Isocratic legacy to education (and the rich tradition of Arabic Platonism in philosophy) has in uenced Islamic thought, though in ways that are
still not yet well understood. The intention of this paper is to suggest that a modi ed form of the Isocratic educational tradition is a fundamental component of Islamic political thought, și anume, Islamic educational thought. This general wording of the intention of this paper in terms of Islamic political thought may give rise to a misunderstanding. islam, desigur, is regarded by its adherents as a uni ed and universal system of belief and behaviour.
| Sept 09, 2010 | Comentarii 0
Liberal Democracy and Political Islam: the Search for Common Ground.
Mostapha Benhenda
This paper seeks to establish a dialogue between democratic and Islamic political theories.1 The interplay between them is puzzling: for example, in order to explain the relationship existing between democracy and their conception of the ideal Islamic political
regim, the Pakistani scholar Abu ‘Ala Maududi coined the neologism “theodemocracy” whereas the French scholar Louis Massignon suggested the oxymoron “secular theocracy”. These expressions suggest that some aspects of democracy are evaluated positively and others are judged negatively. De exemplu, Muslim scholars and activists often endorse the principle of accountability of rulers, which is a defining feature of democracy. On the contrary, they often reject the principle of separation between religion and the state, which is often considered to be part of democracy (at least, of democracy as known in the United States today). Given this mixed assessment of democratic principles, it seems interesting to determine the conception of democracy underlying Islamic political models. In other words, we should try to find out what is democratic in “theodemocracy”. To that end, among the impressive diversity and plurality of Islamic traditions of normative political thought, we essentially focus on the broad current of thought going back to Abu ‘Ala Maududi and the Egyptian intellectual Sayyed Qutb.8 This particular trend of thought is interesting because in the Muslim world, it lies at the basis of some of the most challenging oppositions to the diffusion of the values originating from the West. Based on religious values, this trend elaborated a political model alternative to liberal democracy. Broadly speaking, the conception of democracy included in this Islamic political model is procedural. With some differences, this conception is inspired by democratic theories advocated by some constitutionalists and political scientists.10 It is thin and minimalist, up to a certain point. De exemplu, it does not rely on any notion of popular sovereignty and it does not require any separation between religion and politics. The first aim of this paper is to elaborate this minimalist conception. We make a detailed restatement of it in order to isolate this conception from its moral (liberal) foundations, which are controversial from the particular Islamic viewpoint considered here. Într-adevăr, the democratic process is usually derived from a principle of personal autonomy, which is not endorsed by these Islamic theories.11 Here, we show that such principle is not necessary to justify a democratic process.
| Sept 09, 2010 | Comentarii 0
On the American Constitution from the Perspective of the Qur’an and the Madinah Covenant
Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad
This paper is by no means an exhaustive comparison of the American Constitution with the Qur’an and the Madinah Covenant. Mai degraba, it explores the kinds of insights that a comparison between these two documents may suggest. În consecinţă, the constitutional topics selected are those in which the author or the commentators on earlier drafts perceived an assessment within the Islamic sources.4 This paper should be taken as an invitation for future studies with more systematic comparisons. In addition to rational inference from the text of the Qur’an and of the Madinah Covenant, I shall draw on the views of the Prophet’s Companions as recorded in the leading Hadith books. Analogously, the views of the Founding Fathers of the American Republic on constitutional
matters are articulated in The Federalist Papers.We shall begin by reviewing the Madinah Covenant, and then evaluate the Constitution’s goals as expressed in the preamble. After that, we shall explore a variety of topics in the main body of the text that lend themselves to the examination proposed here. În special, these are the roles of the branches of government according to the separation of powers, the role of elections in determining the next head of state, the penalty for treason, the existence of the slave trade and racism, the republican form of government, the provisions for amending the Constitution, religious tests, and the Bill of Rights. In cele din urma, we consider the Madisonian arguments on how the Constitution may be considered a model for avoiding fitnah.
The Madinah Covenant That Muslims attach great significance to their organization as a political community can be seen in the fact that their calendar is dated neither from the birth nor the death of the Prophet, but from the establishment of the first Muslim polity in the city-state of Madinah in 622. Before Madinah was founded, the Arabs had no state to “establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty …” The custom at that time was that those who were too weak to protect themselves became clients of a protector (wali). Muhammad, himself an orphan, was brought up under the protection of his uncle Abu Talib.
After his uncle’s death in 619, Muhammad received an invitation from Yathrib’s feuding Arab tribes to govern there. Once in Yathrib, he entered into a covenant with all of its residents, whether they had accepted Islam or not. Even the Jews living on the city’s outskirts subscribed to it.
| Sept 09, 2010 | Comentarii 0
ISLAMUL ȘI DEMOCRAȚIA LIBERAL
Robin Wright
Of all the challenges facing democracy in the 1990s, one of the greatest lies in the Islamic world. Only a handful of the more than four dozen predominantly Muslim countries have made significant strides toward establishing democratic systems. Among this handful–including Albania, Bangladesh, Iordania, Kyrgyzstan, Liban, Mali, Pakistan, and Turkey–not one has yet achieved full, stable, or secure democracy. And the largest single regional bloc holding out against the global trend toward political pluralism comprises the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
Yet the resistance to political change associated with the Islamic bloc is not necessarily a function of the Muslim faith. Într-adevăr, the evidence indicates quite the reverse. Rulers in some of the most antidemocratic regimes in the Islamic world–such as Brunei, Indonezia, Irak, Oman, Qatar, Siria, and Turkmenistan–are secular autocrats who refuse to share power with their brethren.
Overall, the obstacles to political pluralism in Islamic countries are not unlike the problems earlier faced in other parts of the world: secular ideologies such as Ba’athism in Iraq and Syria, Pancasila in Indonesia, or lingering communism in some former Soviet Central Asian states brook no real opposition. Ironically, many of these ideologies were adapted from the West; Ba’athism, for instance, was inspired by the European socialism of the 1930s and 1940s. Rigid government controls over everything from communications in Saudi Arabia and Brunei to foreign visitors in Uzbekistan and Indonesia also isolate their people from democratic ideas and debate on popular empowerment. In the largest and poorest Muslim countries, moreover, problems common to [End Page 64] developing states, from illiteracy and disease to poverty, make simple survival a priority and render democratic politics a seeming luxury. In cele din urma, like their non-Muslim neighbors in Asia and Africa, most Muslim societies have no local history of democracy on which to draw. As democracy has blossomed in Western states over the past three centuries, Muslim societies have usually lived under colonial rulers, kings, or tribal and clan leaders.
In other words, neither Islam nor its culture is the major obstacle to political modernity, even if undemocratic rulers sometimes use Islam as their excuse. 1 In Saudi Arabia, for instance, the ruling House of Saud relied on Wahhabism, a puritanical brand of Sunni Islam, first to unite the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula and then to justify dynastic rule. Like other monotheistic religions, Islam offers wide-ranging and sometimes contradictory instruction. In Saudi Arabia, Islam’s tenets have been selectively shaped to sustain an authoritarian monarchy.
| Sept 08, 2010 | Comentarii 2
Islam and the New Political Landscape
Înapoi, Michael Keith, Azra Khan,
Kalbir Shukra and John Solomos
IN THE wake of the attack on the World Trade Center on 11 Septembrie 2001, and the Madrid and London bombings of 2004 și 2005, a literature that addresses the forms and modalities of religious expression – particularly Islamic religious expression – has flourished in the penumbral regions that link mainstream social science to social policy design, think tanks and journalism. Much of the work has attempted to define attitudes or predispositions of a Muslim population in a particular site of tension such as London or the UK (Barnes, 2006; Ethnos Consultancy, 2005; GFK, 2006; GLA, 2006; Populus, 2006), or critiqued particular forms of social policy intervention (Bright, 2006a; Mirza et al., 2007). Studies of Islamism and Jihadism have created a particular focus on the syncretic and complex links between Islamic religious faith and forms of social movement and political mobilization (Husain, 2007; Kepel, 2004, 2006; McRoy, 2006; Neville-Jones et al., 2006, 2007; Phillips, 2006; Roy, 2004, 2006). Conventionally, the analytical focus has spotlighted the culture of Islam, the belief systems of the faithful, and the historical and geographical trajectories of Muslim populations across the world in general and in ‘the West’ in particular (Abbas, 2005; Ansari, 2002; Eade and Garbin, 2002; Hussein, 2006; Modood, 2005; Ramadan, 1999, 2005). In this article the emphasis is different. We argue that studies of Islamic political participation need to be contextualized carefully without recourse to grand generalities about culture and faith. This is because both culture and faith are structured by and in turn structure the cultural, institutional and deliberative landscapes through which they are articulated. In the case of the British experience, the hidden traces of Christianity in the formation of the welfare state in the last century, the rapidly changing cartography of spaces of the political and the role of ‘faith organizations’ in the restructuring of welfare provision generate the material social context determining the opportunities and the outlines of new forms of political participation.
| Sept 08, 2010 | Comentarii 0
Principiul mișcării în structura Islamului
Dr.. Muhammad Iqbal
Ca mișcare culturală, Islamul respinge vechea viziune statică asupra universului, și ajunge la o viziune dinamică. Ca sistem emoțional de unificare, acesta recunoaște valoarea individului ca atare, și respinge relația de sânge ca bază a unității umane. Relația cu sângele este rădăcină cu pământul. Căutarea unui fundament pur psihologic al unității umane devine posibilă numai cu percepția că toată viața umană este spirituală la originea sa. 1 O astfel de percepție este creată pentru noi loialități, fără nici un ceremonial care să le mențină în viață., și face posibil ca omul să se emancipeze de pe pământ. Creștinismul care apăruse inițial ca un ordin monahal a fost încercat de Constantin ca un sistem de unificare.2 Eșecul său de a funcționa ca un astfel de sistem l-a determinat pe împăratul Iulian3 să se întoarcă la vechii zei ai Romei pe care a încercat să pună interpretări filozofice.. Un istoric modern al civilizației a descris astfel starea lumii civilizate despre timpul în care Islamul a apărut pe scena Istoriei: Se părea atunci că marea civilizație pe care a durat-o patru mii de ani până la construire era pe punctul de a se dezintegra, și că omenirea va reveni probabil la acea condiție de barbarie în care fiecare trib și sectă era împotriva celorlalți, iar legea și ordinea erau necunoscute . . . The
vechile sancțiuni tribale își pierduseră puterea. Prin urmare, vechile metode imperiale nu ar mai funcționa. Noile sancțiuni create de
Creștinismul lucra la divizare și distrugere în loc de unitate și ordine. A fost o perioadă plină de tragedie. Civilizaţie, ca un copac gigantic al cărui frunziș cuprinsese lumea și ale cărui ramuri dăduseră roadele aurii ale artei, științei și literaturii, stătea clătinat, trunchiul său nu mai este viu cu seva curgătoare a devotamentului și respectului, dar putrezit până la miez, sfâșiat de furtunile războiului, și ținute împreună numai de corzile vechilor obiceiuri și legi, care s-ar putea rupe în orice moment. A existat vreo cultură emoțională care să poată fi adusă, să adune omenirea încă o dată în unitate și să salveze civilizația? Această cultură trebuie să fie de un tip nou, căci vechile sancțiuni și ceremonii erau moarte, și a construi altele de același fel ar fi lucrarea
de secole. „Scriitorul continuă apoi să ne spună că lumea avea nevoie de o nouă cultură care să ia locul culturii tronului, și sistemele de unificare care se bazau pe relația de sânge.
Este uimitor, el adauga, că o astfel de cultură ar fi trebuit să apară din Arabia chiar în momentul în care era cel mai necesar. Există, in orice caz, nimic uimitor în fenomen. Viața-lume își vede intuitiv propriile nevoi, iar în momentele critice își definește propria direcție. Acesta este ce, în limba religiei, numim revelație profetică. Este firesc ca Islamul să fi străbătut conștiința unui popor simplu neatins de oricare dintre culturile antice, și ocupând o poziție geografică în care trei continente se întâlnesc împreună. Noua cultură găsește temelia unității lumii în principiul Tauhâd.’5 Islam, ca politică, este doar un mijloc practic de a face din acest principiu un factor viu în viața intelectuală și emoțională a omenirii. Cere loialitate față de Dumnezeu, nu la tronuri. Și întrucât Dumnezeu este baza spirituală supremă a întregii vieți, loialitatea față de Dumnezeu echivalează practic cu loialitatea omului față de propria sa natură ideală. Baza spirituală supremă a întregii vieți, așa cum a fost conceput de Islam, este etern și se revelează în varietate și schimbare. O societate bazată pe o astfel de concepție a Realității trebuie să se împace, în viața sa, categoriile de permanență și schimbare. Trebuie să posede principii eterne pentru a-și reglementa viața colectivă, căci eternul ne oferă un punct de sprijin în lumea schimbării perpetue.
| Sept 08, 2010 | Comentarii 0
islamice Reformei
Adnan Khan
The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi boasted after the events of 9/11:
“…we must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation, a system that has guaranteed
well being, respect for human rights and – in contrast with Islamic countries – respect
for religious and political rights, a system that has its values understanding of diversity
and tolerance…The West will conquer peoples, like it conquered communism, even if it
means a confrontation with another civilisation, the Islamic one, stuck where it was
1,400 years ago…”1
And in a 2007 report the RAND institute declared:
“The struggle underway throughout much of the Muslim world is essentially a war of
ideas. Its outcome will determine the future direction of the Muslim world.”
Building moderate Muslim Networks, RAND Institute
The concept of ‘islah’ (reform) is a concept unknown to Muslims. It never existed throughout the
history of the Islamic civilisation; it was never debated or even considered. A cursory glance at classical
Islamic literature shows us that when the classical scholars laid the foundations of usul, and codified
their Islamic rulings (fiqh) they were only looking to the comprehension of the Islamic rules in order to
apply them. A similar situation occurred when the rules were laid down for the hadith, tafseer and the
Arabic language. Scholars, thinkers and intellectuals throughout Islamic history spent much time
understanding Allah’s revelation – the Qur’an and applying the ayaat upon the realities and coined
principals and disciplines in order to facilitate understanding. Hence the Qur’an remained the basis of
study and all the disciplines that evolved were always based upon the Qur’an. Those who became
smitten by Greek philosophy such as the Muslim philosophers and some from amongst the Mut’azilah
were considered to have left the fold of Islam as the Qur’an ceased to be their basis of study. Thus for
any Muslim attempting to deduce rules or understand what stance should be taken upon a particular
issue the Qur’an is the basis of this study.
The first attempt at reforming Islam took place at the turn of the 19th century. By the turn of the
century the Ummah had been in a lengthy period of decline where the global balance of power shifted
from the Khilafah to Britain. Mounting problems engulfed the Khilafah whilst Western Europe was in
the midst of the industrial revolution. The Ummah came to lose her pristine understanding of Islam, și
in an attempt to reverse the decline engulfing the Uthmani’s (Ottomans) some Muslims were sent to the
vest, and as a result became smitten by what they saw. Rifa’a Rafi’ al-Tahtawi of Egypt (1801-1873),
on his return from Paris, wrote a biographical book called Takhlis al-ibriz ila talkhis Bariz (The
Extraction of Gold, or an Overview of Paris, 1834), praising their cleanliness, love of work, and above
all social morality. He declared that we must mimic what is being done in Paris, advocating changes to
the Islamic society from liberalising women to the systems of ruling. This thought, and others like it,
marked the beginning of the reinventing trend in Islam.
| Sept 07, 2010 | Comentarii 0
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