Hamas and civil society in Gaza Roy, Sara; Roy, Sara
2011., 20131110, 2013, 2011, 2011-06-01, 2014-01-01, 20110101, Letnik:
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Many in the United States and Israel believe that Hamas is nothing but a terrorist organization, and that its social sector serves merely to recruit new supporters for its violent agenda. Based on ...Sara Roy's extensive fieldwork in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the critical period of the Oslo peace process, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza shows how the social service activities sponsored by the Islamist group emphasized not political violence but rather community development and civic restoration.
Upheavals in the Middle East: The Theory and Practice of a Revolution engages with some of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East—revolutions and social protests. The book offers theoretical ...paradigms that suit the Middle East’s conditions—culturally, religiously and historically. It deals with seventeen case studies from a range of Muslim and Arab states and provides a theoretical framework to study other situations all over the world, including cases from the recent Arab Spring. Revolution, as political action, can occur in all societies, but in recent years it has appeared most frequently in the Middle East. Will this trend continue? What makes the Middle Eastern revolution unique and surprising? This book seeks to answer these questions, placing side by side those cases that were successful and those that were doomed to fail.
Securitizing Islam examines the impact of 9/11 on the lives and perceptions of individuals, focusing on the ways in which identities in Britain have been affected in relation to Islam. ...'Securitization' describes the processes by which a particular group or issue comes to be seen as a threat, and thus subject to the perceptions and actions which go with national security. Croft applies this idea to the way in which the attitudes of individuals to their security and to Islam and Muslims have been transformed, affecting the everyday lives of both Muslims and non-Muslims. He argues that Muslims have come to be seen as the 'Other', outside the contemporary conception of Britishness. Reworking securitisation theory and drawing in the sociology of ontological security studies, Securitizing Islam produces a theoretically innovative framework for understanding a contemporary phenomenon that affects the everyday lives of millions.
In the wake of radical Islamist terrorist attacks described as jihad worldwide and in South Asia, it is imperative that there should be a book-length study of this idea in this part of the world. The ...focus of the study is the idea of jihad with its changing interpretations mostly those available in exegetical literature of key figures in South Asia. The hermeneutic devices used to understand the meaning of the Quranic verses and the Prophetic traditions relating to jihad will be the focus of this study. The main thrust of the study is to understand how interpretations of jihad vary. It is seen as being both defensive and aggressive by traditionalists; only defensive and mainly about moral improvement by progressive Muslims; and being insurrectionist, aggressive, eternal and justifying violence against civilians by radical Islamists. One purpose of the book is to understand how the radical interpretation came to South Asia. The book also explains how theories about jihad are influenced by the political and social circumstances of the period and how these insights feed into practice legitimizing militant movements called jihad for that period.
The expression of an Islamic political radicalism in Britain has been one of the most dramatic developments in recent decades. Islamic Radicalism and Multicultural Politics explores the nature of ...this phenomenon by analysing the origins of Islam and its historical contact with Western Europe and Britain, and the emergence of Islamic political radicalism in the Muslim world and in the West.
Tahir Abbas draws on historical analysis and contemporary case studies to explore the post-war immigration and integration of Muslim groups, the complex relations that exist between a secular liberal Britain and a diverse but multifaceted Islam, and the extent of social and economic inequalities that affect Muslims as individual citizens and in local area communities. He shows how violent extremism among British Muslims is in reality influenced by a range of issues, including the factors of globalisation and contemporary politics, media and culture. Analysing and dissecting public policy, Abbas offers suggestions for tackling the major social, political and economic questions facing British Muslims in the post-7/7 era.
An important contribution to the study of religion, 'race' and ethnicity in modern Britain, this accessible work will be of interest to anyone working in the field of Islamic studies, sociology and political radicalism.
Cover design by Mahtab Hussain, www.mahtabhussain.com
In Cairo in the 1940s, Leila Ahmed was raised by a generation of women who never dressed in the veils and headscarves their mothers and grandmothers had worn. To them, these coverings seemed ...irrelevant to both modern life and Islamic piety. Today, however, the majority of Muslim women throughout the Islamic world again wear the veil. Why, Ahmed asks, did this change take root so swiftly, and what does this shift mean for women, Islam, and the West?
When she began her study, Ahmed assumed that the veil's return indicated a backward step for Muslim women worldwide. What she discovered, however, in the stories of British colonial officials, young Muslim feminists, Arab nationalists, pious Islamic daughters, American Muslim immigrants, violent jihadists, and peaceful Islamic activists, confounded her expectations. Ahmed observed that Islamism, with its commitments to activism in the service of the poor and in pursuit of social justice, is the strain of Islam most easily and naturally merging with western democracies' own tradition of activism in the cause of justice and social change. It is often Islamists, even more than secular Muslims, who are at the forefront of such contemporary activist struggles as civil rights and women's rights. Ahmed's surprising conclusions represent a near reversal of her thinking on this topic.
Richly insightful, intricately drawn, and passionately argued, this absorbing story of the veil's resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, suggests a dramatically new portrait of contemporary Islam.
Given that this exchange takes place in an academic setting I will have to start this rejoinder by pointing out that Alain Gabon is neither an Islamic Studies nor Religious Studies scholar. This is ...important to keep in mind because, if Gabon was such a scholar, he would realize that much, if not all, of his purported critique, given the nature and aims of my article and all of my relevant scholarship in general, is simply misplaced, to put it mildly, or is aimed at intentionally trying to mischaracterize both my scholarship and intentions/motivations behind it (for reasons unknown to me) as will be discussed below. Given that my article focuses on the 'hermeneutical' limits of mainstream Sunnism in countering the theological, epistemological, conceptual, and interpretive (ie 'manhaj'-based) aspects of 'Salafi-jihadism', its main argument can/should only be critically evaluated/appreciated by those scholars who are either: 1. very well versed in the Islamic intellectual tradition, especially Islamic theology, Islamic legal theory (usul ul fiqh/manhaj), Islamic epistemology, and Islamic hermeneutics; or 2. more broadly those who work on religious fundamentalism and studies in religion and violence. Gabon cannot claim any academic expertise in relation to any of these.
Muslim preaching has been central in forming public opinion, building grassroots organizations, and developing leadership cadres for the wider Islamist agenda. Based on in-depth field research in ...Egypt, Patrick Gaffney focuses on the preacher and the sermon as the single most important medium for propounding the message of Islam. He draws on social history, political commentary, and theological sources to reveal the subtle connections between religious rhetoric and political dissent.
Many of the sermons discussed were given during the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and Gaffney attempts to describe this militant movement and to compare it with official Islam. Finally, Gaffney presents examples of the sermons, so readers can better understand the full range of contemporary Islamic expression.
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