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Islam 4: Ismail Chapter 1: How Islamism is Normally Explained…
Islam 4: Ismail Chapter 1: How Islamism is Normally Explained
Definition of Rethinking Islamist Politics
Islamist Politics:
activities in the political sphere that deploy signs from Islamic traditions
Islamism:
encompass both Islamist Politics & re-Islamisation
re-Islamisation:
various domains of social life invested with signs from Islamic cultural tradition. Eg: hijab, Islamic banking
Comparative to the West, Western system as definition of modernity
Ernest Gellner's model of Muslim societies
High Islam:
city dwellers, scripturalist & ascetic
Low Islam:
tribes, ecstatic
Modernity increases High Islam and reduces Low Islam, ruler's failure to modernise frustrates High Islam's desires for learning & upward mobility
Islamism opposes modernity as a meta-narrative of Western hegemony, not modernity itself
Shifts the issue to global political identity, not Islam vs modernity
Islamism expresses a rejection of modernity OR Islamism is the way to embrace modernity 'authentically'
Chronologically from Islamic History
Works by 'slotting' Islamist movements into known chronological narratives
Appears to be self-explanatory by virtue of basic pattern that they are presumed to embody
John Esposito: Muslims shared belief regardless of sociality of everyday life in various settings
1st cons: relationship between people and their governments are influenced by societal environment
2nd cons: beliefs are not transhistorical, but are historically grounded
J.O. Voll: Islamist movement is a continuity of Islamic history. Religious motivation, the past guides the present.
4 ways of dealing with challenges throughout Islamic history:
adaptationist, conservative, fundamentalist, individualist
revival spirit is constant in Islam
Muslims are bound to be unhappy if society strayed from the Golden Age
Sociological & Political Economy approach
Based on Durkheimian views of social change
Saad Eddin Ibrahim: militant profile against a backdrop of rapid social transformation, urbanisation.
expressions of frustrated aspirations
uprootedness, disenchantment, disintegration
Charles Tilly's objection to Durkheimian model where societal change brings disintegration.
Contends that actors work base on solidarity and resources of mobilisation
Eric Davis: Islamic militants seek refuge in Islam to sooth alienation from deprivation
transferring their hostilities to scapegoats: liberals, imperialist, Jews
offering categories to mediate their realities
Michael Fischer: Iranian revolution is about middle class discontent
Nazih Ayubi: Islamism provides counter ideology appealing to disadvantaged groups allowing expression of political and economic demands
Lisa Anderson: Islamist are a byproduct created by their governments; Egypt, Iran, North Africa
Peter Gan: 18th century Egypt, change in cultural production was tied to early capitalist transformation, which in the 20th century widely circulated Islam as a commodification of identity
Anthropological approach
cultural approach seen ahistorical, political economy approach looks at macro only missing the micro (culture)
Sami Zubaida: cultural patterns are not fixed, they are reproduced at every generation in relation to different situations
Talal Asad: Diversity of Muslim societies explained thru Discursive Tradition.
the scripture should not be used to attribute homogeneity to Muslims societies as its interpretation is subject to contestations
claims to orthodoxy embody the power to authorise practices and ideas as Islamic
basically it is about power and the struggle for hegemony
invocation of referents is a discursive strategy or rhetorical device, the 'Islam' position is likely to be constructed outside of the referents
Egyptian and Moroccan example where Islam was the basis for reference, however the ruling did not follow the Rule. COULD IT BE DUE TO DIFFERENT INTERPRETATION OF THE RULE BY THE LAYPERSON AND THE KNOWLEDGABLE?
Ferrie: Relation between religiosity and Islamism
religion as a part of social condition
Islamist sees reframing of old values to modern situation as diluting Islam
the emergence of re-Islamisation attests to the ideological bankruptcy of Islamism
Integrated Approach
Edmund Burke III: Study of movements in historical context emphasises changing social structures and patterns of actions
attention to context bridges macro and micro analysis
formation of grouping during change must be studied at local level
No need to look for the start of Islamism
instead look for transformative processes that reorient the political field
Islamist movements tied to changing social conditions
Islamist movement like other social movement developed within infrastructures of actions and are geared towards particular political field
Basically saying that Islamist movement happened because it was the opportune moment?