Islamist organizations—that is, organizations that appeal to the religious values and social conservatism of the Arab public in their call for political reform—are the key to democratization in the Arab world. They have considerable support, as measured by the votes they receive when they are allowed to participate in elections, the turnout at their […].
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The West and Moderate Islam
Amr Hamzawy looks at Western democracy promotion efforts in the Arab world. He argues that the U.S. and Europe need to engage not only liberal Arabs, but also moderate Islamists to appeal to their popular constituencies. […].
Can Women Be Imams?
Analysis Halima Krausen In the face of the controversy over Amina Wadud’s Friday prayer, Muslim scholar Halima Krausen argues that we should have the courage to ask our own questions, to study the matter conscientiously and to reach conclusions which make sense in our times Following the Friday prayers led by Dr Amina Wadud in New York on 18th March and […].
Islamic Jurisprudence, ’Civil’ Disobedience, and Woman-led Prayer
This is a call for Muslims to stand behind women in prayer as a matter of “civil” disobedience in the face of a clear injustice, even in the face of the discomfort. By Laury Silvers, May 12, 2005 […].
The Need for Reform in the Islamic World and the Role of Civil Society
We recognize that the problems of the Islamic world which are yet to be resolved date back before the geopolitical changes that we have witnessed in recent years throughout the whole world and particularly in the Middle East. However, it is also a fact that the developments affecting international order, and in particular the increasing power of globalizat […].
Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -3-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -2-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East -1-
To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab present, and lack of concern for the Arab future. Creating a democratic political and social order in Iraq or elsewhere in the region will not be easy. But it is possible, and there are increas […].
Western Orientalism and Liberal Islam : Mutual Distrust ?
Orientalism is Western when it takes the West not as an event, but as an idea preordained in all eternity, complete and final from the beginning. And if it starts from this point, it has to construct its subject-matter as an explicitly, totally different item, reduced to the form it had at its birth. The two assumptions are clearly related ; if the West is […].
A humane Muslim future
Islam can move beyond its association with oppression and violence by being true to itself and its past, says Fareena Alam. “Islam means peace”, they exclaim. “Islam condemns terrorism”, they insist. “The vast majority of Muslims reject violence”, they wail. Even before 11 September 2001, Muslim leaderships in Britain and elsewhere went to great pains to […].
The trail of political Islam
Gilles Kepel, one of the world’s foremost experts on the modern Middle East, has written Jihad : the Trail of Political Islam, the first comprehensive attempt to follow the history and spread of Islamist political movements. In a talk given at the Institut Français in London as part of a collaboration between European cultural institutes on the relationshi […].
Islam et terrorisme
1- Du Texte à l’Histoire Comme dans tous les pays non-occidentaux, l’engagement des sociétés dans la voie de la modernité a posé beaucoup de défis et provoqué beaucoup de contradictions. L’une de ces dernières concerne la manière dont il faut s’approprier les valeurs de la modernité et accéder à la nouvelle civilisation. Face aux courants nationalistes e […].
Human Rights, Women and Islam
The ISIM invited 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi for her first formal visit to the Netherlands where she met with members of NGOs, government officials, scholars, students, and activists from 15-17 April 2004. On 16 April she gave a lecture at the Nieuwe of Littéraire Sociëteit de Witte in The Hague entitled, Human Rights, Women and Islam which […].
Conceptualizing Islamic Activism
Since the late 1990s, a number of Islamic movement specialists have begun to bridge the gap between the study of Islamic activism and social science theories of collective action. The underlying premise is that Islamic activism is not sui generis. Since the late 1990s, a number of Islamic movement specialists have begun to bridge the gap between the stud […].
Sayyid Qutb and his influence
Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi is professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary (Hartford, Connecticut). He is also co-editor of The Muslim World. Among his publications : Intellectual Origins of Islamic Resurgence in the Modern Arab World (Al […].
Islam and politics don’t mix
From the end of the 19th century, pan–Arabic and pan–Islamic movements have vied for influence in countries like ours. The Islamic movement developed in the 1950s in Egypt and spread to various countries. In Tunisia, it arose, particularly in the 1970s, as a sort of riposte to the leftist ideas that were prevalent at the time. Many people are convinced that the then regime of Habib Bourguiba helped the Islamic movement establish itself.
What is Progressive Islam?
The various understandings of Islam which fall under the rubric of ‘progressive’ are both continuations of, and radical departures from, the hundred and fifty year old tradition of liberal Islam. (1) Liberal advocates of Islam generally display an uncritical, almost devotional identification with modernity, and often (but do not always) by-pass discussions […].
Islam’s Reformist Tradition
The “clash of civilizations” supposedly underway between the West and the Muslim world, which many see as manifested in Iraq, as well as in Saudi Arabia’s growing violence, in fact masks other conflicts – disputes that will probably prove to be far more significant in the long term. One of these struggles is taking place among Muslims themselves over the […].
