Religious Conflicts, Political Fights
Turmoil in the Middle East, Pragmatism in Southeast Asia
Abstract
Abstract Views: 87
The actual turmoil in the Arab world is the consequence of acute political crises (which have sometimes deteriorated into dramatic and inextricable situations of war). Among all the reasons of these crises (in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, etc.), the religious factor looks important. Contrarily, in Southeast Asia, political disagreements have been generally solved through negotiations and agreements (even if authoritarianism prevails in many cases), i.e. through pragmatism and away from sectarian divisions (with
some exceptions like the Rohingas tragedy in Burma). Although the picture is not clearcut, the comparison between these two cultural zones (with a focus on the Arab world) is interesting in trying to assess the role of religion (here: Islam) in politics. This paper will deal with the whole Arab world, compared to Southeast Asia when deemed relevant. The analysis will endeavour to connect religious-cultural dynamics to social-political
phenomena from an original theoretical angle: the perusal of the eventual link between (Arab) Islam and violence. Such issues as traditions, sectarianism, social homogeneity, external factors, etc., need to be analysed since they may push towards smooth political transitions or, on the contrary, violence and chaos, depending on circumstances. And when societal attitudes vis-à-vis the global system are characterized by fear (because of
religious-moral-cultural apprehensions), popular contestation may lean more easily towards intolerant inward-looking attitudes, with the result that socio-political claims degenerate swiftly into religion-driven strife.
Downloads
References
Ayoob, Mohammed. The Many Faces of Political Islam. Religion and Politics in the
Muslim World. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2007.
Bell, Gertrude. The Desert and the Sown. London: William Heinemann, 1919.
Bendix, Reinhard. “Social Stratification and the Political Community.” In R. Bendix and
Seymour Martin Lipset (eds.). Class, Status, and Power: Social Stratification in
Comparative Perspective. New York: Free Press, 1966.
Bengio, Ofra. The Kurds of Iraq: Building a State within a State. Boulder (CO): Lynne
Rienner, 2012.
Berman, Russell A. America’s Withdrawal from the Middle East. Washington (DC):
Hoover Institution Press, 2014.
Dabashi, Hamid. Post-Orientalism. Knowledge and Power in a Time of Terror.
Piscataway (NJ): Transaction Publishers, 2008.
Eisenstadt, Shmuel Noah. Traditional Patrimonialism and Modern Neo-Patrimonialism.
Beverley Hills: Sage Publications, 1973.
Erickson Paul A., and Liam Donat Murphy. (eds.). Readings for a History of
Anthropological Theory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.
Friedman, Yaron. The Nusayri-Alawis: An Introduction to the Religion, History, and
Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Geertz, Clifford. Islam Observed. Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1971.
Gellner, Ernest, and John Waterbury (eds.). Patrons and Clients in Mediterranean
Societies. London: Duckworth, 1977.
Ghanem, Hafez. The Arab Spring Five Years Later (2 vols.). Washington (DC):
Brookings Institution Press, 2015.
Gibb, H. A. R. Les Tendances Modernes de l’Islam. [Modern Trends in Islam] Paris:
Maisonneuve and Larose, 1949
Grunebaum (von), Gustav E(dmund). Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity.
New York: Vintage Books, 1964.
Harpen, Manfred. The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North
Africa. Scranton (PA): The Haddon Craftsmen, 1963.
Qureshi, Jawad. Line Khatib, Raphaël Lefévre. State and Islam in Baathist Syria:
Confrontation or Co-optation? Boulder (CO): Lynne Rienner, 2012.
Kienle, Eberhard, and Nadine Sika (eds.). The Arab Uprisings: Transforming and
Challenging State Power. London: I.B. Tauris, 2015
Laoust, Henri. Les Schismes dans l’Islam. Introduction à une Étude de la Religion
Musulmane [Schisms in Islam. Introduction to a Study of the Muslim Religion]
Paris: Payot, 1983.
Leca, Jean. “Pour une Analyse Comparative des Systèmes Politiques Méditerranéens.”
[Comparative Analysis of Mediterranean Political Systems] Revue Française de
Science Politique 4-5/27: (1977): 557-81.
Lister, Charles R. The Islamic State. A Brief Introduction. Washington (DC): Brookings
Institution Press, 2015.
Lodge, David, and Nigel Wood (eds.). Modern Criticism and Theory. A Reader. London /
New York: Routledge, 2013.
Macdonald, Duncan Black. The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1909.
Marx, Karl. “The British Rule in India.” In Surveys from Exile. Harmondsworth;
London): Penguin / New Left Review, 1973.
Musallam, Basim. “Power and Knowledge.” Middle East Research and Information
Project MERIP 9/6 (1979): 19-26.
Peters, Rudolph F. Jihad. A History in Documents. Princeton (NJ): Markus Wiener
Publications, 2016.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
.png){kind=icon}
