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This book describes Syria' s present day Islamic groups ' particularly their social profile and ideology ' as well as offering an explanation of their resurgence. It also examines the government' s shift from promoting secularism to muting secularism and co-opting Islamic sectors.
Examines the underground and overlooked actors and activities of liberal activism and liberal counter-cultures in the modern Arab world.
Contemporary studies on Syria assume that the country’s Ba’thist regime has been effective in subduing its Islamic opposition, placing Syria at odds with the Middle East’s larger trends of rising Islamic activism and the eclipse of secular ideologies as the primary source of political activism. Yet this assumption founders when confronted with the clear resurgence in Islamic militantism in the country since 2004. This book examines Syria’s current political reality as regards its Islamic movement, describing the country’s present day Islamic groups – particularly their social profile and ideology – and offering an explanation of their resurgence. The analysis focuses on: Who are today’s Syrian Islamic groups? Why and how are they re-emerging after 22 years of relative silence as an important socio-economic and political force? How is the Syrian state dealing with their re-emergence in light of Syria’s secularism and ideologically diverse society? Bridging area studies, Islamic studies, and political science, this book will be an important reference for those working within the fields of Comparative Politics, Political Economy, and Middle Eastern Studies.
What techniques has the Syrian state under Bashar al-Assad used to control the possibility of opposition from Syria¿s Islamic sphere? Addressing this question, the authors of State and Islam in Baathist Syria explore the troubled relations between the regime and the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood after the 1982 repression, consider the impact of the proliferation of Islamic charities and schools, and examine the discourses of the Damascus ulama during the current uprising.
Debunks the simplistic narratives of youth-driven, social media revolutions in the Arab Spring. Taking to the Streets critically examines the conventional wisdom that the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings happened spontaneously and were directed by tech-savvy young revolutionaries. Pairing first-hand observations from activists with the critical perspectives of scholars, the book illuminates the concept of activism as an ongoing process, rather than a sudden burst of defiance. The contributors examine case studies from uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, evaluating the various manifestations of political activism within the context o...
Ranging from the time of the infallible Imams, to the contemporary era, this book provides a comprehensive overview of Shi’i religious and political authority, focusing on Iran and Lebanon, without limiting the discourse to Khomeini’s version of an Islamic State. Utilising untapped Arabic and Persian sources, Hamid Mavani provides a detailed, nuanced, and diverse theoretical discussion on the doctrine of leadership (Imamate) in Shi’ism from traditional, theological, philosophical, and mystical perspectives. This theoretical discussion becomes the foundation for an analysis of the transmission of the Twelfth Imam’s religious and political authority vis-á-vis the jurists during his Gr...
Based on intensive fieldwork in Damascus and Beirut, Mediating the Uprising shows how gender and marriage metaphors inform Syrian television drama with various forms of cultural and political critique. The emergence of these suppressed narratives attests to the survival of the genre despite instability, war, and bloodshed.
This book presents a varied and critical picture of how the Arab Spring demands a re-examination and re-conceptualization of issues of transitional justice. It demonstrates how unique features of this wave of revolutions and popular protests that have swept the Arab world since December 2010 give rise to distinctive concerns and problems relative to transitional justice. The contributors explore how these issues in turn add fresh perspective and nuance to the field more generally. In so doing, it explores fundamental questions of social justice, reconstruction and healing in the context of the Arab Spring. Including the perspectives of academics and practitioners, Transitional Justice and the Arab Spring will be of considerable interest to those working on the politics of the Middle East, normative political theory, transitional justice, international law, international relations and human rights.
The book focuses, through multiple levels of international reality, on the pervasive and widespread effect of the Syrian civil war on the unravelling of established norms---both global or national--- which have determined international relations during the last seven decades. It postulates that since 2011, the Syrian situation has catalysed the breakdown of the international system based on the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. The core international values fostered by that system now laid waste, among others, are sovereignty, non-interference, sanctity of UN Security Council approval for waging war, human rights, protection of civilian populations, and the right of people t...
In this dynamic and wide-ranging collection of essays, prominent scholars examine the condition of church-state relations in the United States, France, and Israel. Their analyses are rooted in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ethnography and demography to political science, gender studies, theology, and the law.