Islam and Politics: Politics Course: SOAS

Islam and politics

Course Code:: 15PPOH006
Unit value:: 0.5
Taught in:: Term 2

The course examines the interaction between politics and the various expressions of Islam in the modern period. It is organised around three main themes:

Islam in Western scholarship, with a focus on theories, concepts and methodologies used to study Islam and Muslim societies.
Islam as a social and political force in the contemporary period. Here, we will focus on those social and political movements and parties that actively affirm and promote prescriptions, laws, or policies that are held to be Islamic in character, often, though not necessarily, organised around the idea of establishing the Islamic state. We will examine the emergence of these movements as well as their ideologies, political philosophies, discourses, normative frameworks, and modes of action.
An exploration of alternative readings of the interaction between Islam and politics. We will explore recent scholarship and research from the disciplines of Anthropology, Sociology, Comparative Political Theory, Islamic Studies, International Relations and Cultural Studies to come to a more dynamic understanding of Islamic/ist discourses and practices in their diversity.

Objectives and learning outcomes of the course

Gain knowledge of the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the interplay of Islamic traditions and politics.
Gain knowledge of key conceptual issues in the study of Islamist politics.
Acquire analytical tools to rethink the concepts and approaches used to understand Islamist politics.

Scope and syllabus

Syllabus Plan

Week 1: Methodological and Theoretical Issues in the Study of Muslim Societies
Week 2: Islamist Movements: Frameworks for Understanding
Week 3: Islamist Ideologies
Week 4: Islamic Governments
Week 5: Islamism in Comparative Perspective
Week 6: Reading week
Week7: Islam and the West: Orientalism/ The Clash of Civilisations
Week 8: Islam, Modernity and Globalisation
Week 9: Transnational Islam
Week 10: Islam and Gender Politics
Week 11: The Fortunes of Islamism

Method of assessment

Assessment is 40% unseen examination and 60% coursework (in the form of one 5000 word essay) - all coursework is resubmissible.

Background Reading:

This is not an introductory course on Islam. If you do not have a basic familiarity with the history and basic tenets of Islam you should do some preparatory reading. There are a number of introductory texts which you could consult.

Biographies of the Prophet

The conventional and perhaps less controversial account of the life of the Prophet Muhammad can be found in Montgomary Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964. A somewhat different and shorter account is that of Michael Cook, Muhammad, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1983.

More recently published biographies include:

Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (2001); and Tariq Ramadan, The Messenger: The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad (2007)

Islamic History

Detailed studies of Islamic history and Muslim societies are to be found in Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, 3 volumes, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974; Ira Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995; Gelvin, James L., The Modern Middle East: A History, Oxford: OUP, 2008; and Owen, R., State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, revised ed., London, 2004. These can serve as reference texts.

An excellent reference to the literature on various aspects of Islamic history is Steven Humphreys, Islamic History: A Framework for Inquiry, London: I. B. Tauris, 1995.

Reference works

John Esposito, The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Islamic World: Six-Volume Set (OUP, 2009).

For bibliographic works on Islamism see Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, The Contemporary Islamic Revival, 1991 and idem The Islamic Revival Since 1988, 1997.

Internet sources:

A number of Islamist movements and groups have their own web pages and it is a good idea to visit them. Here are a few addresses:

The Muslim Brotherhood Movement: www.ummah.org.uk/ikhwan
A good site for news, debates and dialogues among Muslims is Islam on Line at www.islamonline.net
Hizb-ut-athrir at: www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org
Websites linked to Hizballah: almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/320/324/324.2/hizballah
Hamas websites: www.pmo.gov.ps; www.qassam.ps

There are research foundations dealing extensively with Islamist issues. Of these the Jamestown Foundation maintains good archives on militant groups and leaders. See www.jamestown.org/index.php

Also there is Conflicts Forum: an organisation dedicated to “opening a new relationship between political Islam, Islamists, the Muslim world, and the West”: conflictsforum.org

Indicative Readings

Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996).
Salwa Ismail, Rethinking Islamist Politics (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006).
Joel Beinin and Joe Stork eds., Political Islam (London: I.B.Tauris, 1997).
Peter Mandaville, Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (London: Routledge, 2004).
John Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
Fred Halliday, Islam and the Myth of Confrontation (London: I. B. Tauris, 1996).
Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004).
Roxanne L. Euben, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999);
Fancois Burgat, Face to Face with Political Islam, (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005)
Mehran Kamrava ed., The new voices of Islam : reforming politics and modernity; a reader (London : I. B. Tauris, 2006)

Weekly Readings

Week One: Methodological and Theoretical Issues in the Study of Muslim Societies

Discussion:

Identify the key elements of Talal Asad's critique of the main conceptual frameworks used to study Muslim societies; Critically explore the contributions and limitations of Asad’s concept of Islam as a discursive tradition; Disentangle the two strands of Ernest Gellner's approach: the institutionalist and the culturalist, drawing on Sami Zubaida's reading of Gellner; Critically assess the following questions: Is there a Muslim Society? Is there and Islamic Conception of Politics?

Required Readings:

Talal Asad, The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam, Washington D.C.: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, 1986.
Sami Zubaida, “Is there a Muslim Society? Ernest Gellner's 'Sociology of Islam,'” Economy and Society 24, no.2 (May 1995): 151-188.
Ernest Gellner, Muslim Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, chapter one.
Salwa Ismail, “Is there an Islamic Conception of Politics?” In What is Politics? Ed. Adrian Leftwich, Polity Press, 2004, 147-165.
Tripp, Charles. “The Social Problem,” in Charles Tripp, Islam and the Moral Economy: the challenge of capitalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, chapter 1.
Armando Salvatore, The Public Sphere: Liberal Modernity, Catholicism, Islam, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, Introduction.
Mitchell, Timothy. “The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics,” The American Political Science Review, 85:1 (March 1991): 77-96.
Recommended Readings:
Sayyed, Vali Reza Nasr, “Introduction: Defining the Problem,” in Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power, Oxford University Press, 2001.
Talal Asad, “The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category,” in Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam, Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993, 27-54.
Simon Bromley, Rethinking Middle East Politics, Polity Press, 1994, chapter one.
Brian S. Turner, Weber and Islam, London: Routledge, 1974, part one, chapters one, two and four, part two chapters five and six.
Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics, Princeton University Press, 1996.

Week Two: Islamist Movements: Frameworks for Understanding

Discussion:

Assess the ideological and sociological approaches to the study of Islamist movements in light of their critique by Eric Davis.; Discuss the conceptual framework of the sociological model used in the study of militant Islamism; Is it helpful to reinterpret the Islamist movement in the terms outlined by Edmund Burke? What contributions can comparative political theory make to our understanding of political Islam from a non-essentialist perspective?

Required Readings: Ideational Models

R. Hrair Dekmejian, “Islamic Revival; Catalysts, Categories, and Consequences,” in The Politics of Islamic Revivalism, ed. Shireen Hunter, Bloomington: Indianna Press, 1989, 3-22.
Roxanne Euben, Enemy in the Mirror, “Remarking Territories: Comparative Political Theory and Foundationalist Practice,” in Enemy in the Mirror, Chapter 1
Sociological Models
Saad Eddine Ibrahim, “Anatomy of Egypt's Militant Groups,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 12 (1980): 423-53. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/163128
Hamied Ansari, “The Islamic Militants in Egyptian Politics,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 16 (1984): 123-144 Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/162943
Islamism as a Protest Movement
Edmund Burke III, “Islam and Social Movements: Methodological Reflections,” in Islam, Politics and Social Movements, Edmund Burke, III, and Ira M. Lapidus, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Salwa Ismail, “The Popular Movement Dimensions of Contemporary Militant Islamism: Socio-Spatial Determinants in the Cairo Urban Setting,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 42, 2 (April 2000): 363-393. Reprinted in Rethinking Islamist Politics. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696610
Francois Burgat, “From one Islamism to another: Islamism between Reaction and Action,” in Face to Face with Islamism,” Chapter 4

Week Three: Islamist Ideologies

Discussion:

Outline the ideological principles, norms and values which guide the various Islamist thinkers. Where do they stand in relation to contemporary concerns about democracy and liberty? Taking into account the insights of Zubaida's analysis of Khomeini's thought, to what extent can we argue that Islamist ideologies have incorporated or undermined such concerns?

Required Readings:

Roxanne Euben and Muahammad Qasim Zaman, Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin-Laden, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, Chapter 1.
Roxanne Euben, “Changing Interpretations of Modern and Contemporary Islamic Political Theory,” Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, ed. John Dryzek, Bonnie Honig and Anne Phillips, Oxford University Press, 2006
“Introduction to Reformist Islam in Comparative Perspective,” Usama Bin Laden, Messages to the World: The Statements of Usama Bin Laden. Edited and Introduced by Bruce Lawrence. New York: Verso, 2005, 160-175, and 186-206.
Hassan Turabi , “The Islamic State,” in Voices of Resurgent Islam, John Esposito ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983, 241-251.
Sami Zubaida, “The Ideological Preconditions for Khomeini's Doctrine of Government,” Politics and Society 11, no. 2 (1982), reprinted in Islam, the State and the People, London: I. B. Tauris, 1991.

Week Four: Islamic Governments

Discussion:

What are the key areas of Islamisation? How do you define an Islamic polity? (Draw on the experiences of Afghanistan, Sudan and Iran)

Required Readings:

Juan Cole, “The Taliban, Women and the Hegelian Private Sphere,” Social Research, 70, no. 2,(2003). Available at: search.ebscohost.com
Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Remaking the Islamic State, in Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin-Laden, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, Chapts 6,7 and 8.
Ann Elizabeth Mayer, “The Fundamentalist Impact on Law, Politics and Constitution in Iran, Pakistan and the Sudan,” in Fundamentalism and the State, Martin Marty and S. Appleby eds.
Sami Zubaida, “Is Iran an Islamic State,” in Political Islam, ed. Joel Beinin and Joe Stork. I.B. Tauris, 1997.
Recommended Readings:
Said Amir Arjomand, “Shi'ite Jurisprudence and Constitution Making in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” in Fundamentalism and the State, Martin Marty and S. Appleby eds., Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1993.
C.F. Lobban, “Islamization in Sudan: A Critical Assessment,” Middle East Journal 44, no. 4 (1990): 610-623.
Abdullahi A. Gallab, The First Islamist Republic: Development and Disintegration of Islamism in the Sudan, Asghate Publishing, Ltd, 2008.
Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: The Story of the Afghan War Lords, Pan Books, 2001.
Sami Zubaida, Law and Power in the Islamic World, London: IB Tauris, 2005.
Vanessa Martin, Creating an Islamic State: Khomeini and the Making of a new Iran, I.B. Tauris, 2003.
Ervand Abrahamian, Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic of Iran, Berkeley: University of Californian Press, 1993.

Week Five: Islamism in Comparative Perspective

Discussion:

What are the main conclusions to be drawn from the various experiences of Islamist politics? Highlight similarities and differences among Islamist movements, zeroing in on actors, policies, resources and objectives.

Required Readings:

Fred Lawson, “Social Bases for the Hamah Revolt,” MERIP Reports, no. 110 (1982): 24-28.
www.jstor.org/stable/3012281
Francois Burgat, “Algeria: Islamism: Against the Intellectuals?,” in Face to Face with Political Islam, (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005), Chapter 8.
Salwa Ismail, Rethinking Islamist Politics, chapter five.
Amal Saad Ghorayeb, Hizbu’llah, Politics, Religion. London: Pluto Press, 2002, chapter six.
Jeroen Gunning, “Hizballah and the logic of political participation” in Marianne Heiberg, Brendan O’Leary and John Tirman (eds.) Terror, Insurgency, and the State: Ending Protracted Conflicts (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).
Jeroen Gunning, “Hamas’ Political Philosophy”, Hamas in Politics (London: Hurst, 2007)
Corinna Mullin, “Islamist Challenges to the 'Liberal Peace' Discourse: The Case of Hamas and the Israel-Palestine 'Peace Process',” Millennium Journal of International Relations, Volume 39 Issue 2, December 2010

Week Six-Reading week

Week Seven: Orientalism and the Clash Civilisations

Discussion:

How does Edward Said define Orientalism? Is Orientalism, as a methodology and worldview, at work in Western representations of Islamist movements? Is there a clash of civilisations? What are the terms of the Islamic threat and how credible are they? Has there been a discernible shift in the discourse on political Islam/ ‘Islamic threat’ since the official end of the ‘war on terror’?

Required Readings:

Edward Said, Orientalism, New York: Vintage Books, 1979, Introduction; Chapter one, part one; and chapter three, part four.
Bernard Lewis, Islam and the West, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, chapter six.
Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72 no.3 (1993): 22-49
www.jstor.org/pss/20045621
Roy Mottahedeh, “The Clash of Civilizations: An Islamicist's Critique,” Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 2 (1996): 1-26.
Joyceline Cesari: Ch. 3: “A Clash of Civilisations?”, When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
Sadeq Jalal al Azm, “Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse,” Khamsin: Journal of Revolutionary Socialists of the Middle East, 8 (1981): 5-26.
Corinna Mullin “The US Discourse on Political Islam: Is Obama’s a Truly Post-‘War on Terror’ Administration,” Critical Studies on Terrorism (Forthcoming)

Week Eight: Islam, Modernity and Globalisation

Discussion:

Are globalism and tribalism mutually reinforcing? Are there elements of globalisation in contemporary Islamist movements? What are the implications of globalisation for the construction of Islamic identities? Are the concepts of tradition, modernity and post-modernity helpful in analysing Islamist movements?

Required Readings:

Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, chapter six.
Benjamin R. Barber, Jihad Versus McWorld, New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, Introduction, Part I, chapters 4, 6 &7, Part II, chapters 13 & 14.
Fariba Adelkha, Being Modern in Iran, London: Hurst, 1999, Preface and chapter five.
Salwa Ismail, “Being Muslim: Islam, Islamism and Identity Politics,” Government and Opposition 39, 4 (2004): 614-631. Available at: interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/118752490
Lara Deeb, Enchanted Modern, Princeton University Press, 2006, Introduction (pp. 3-41).
Roxanne Euben, “Islamic Fundamentalism and Modern Rationalist Discourse”; “Inside the Looking Glass: Views within the West”; “Cultural Syncretism and Multiple Modernities”, Enemy in the Mirror.
Bobby Sayyid, “Islam, Modernity and the West,” in A fundamental fear: Eurocentrism and the emergence of Islamism (Zed Books, 2003), Chapter 6

Week Nine: Transnational Islam

Discussion:

What are the characteristics of transnational Islam? What distinguishes transnational Islamist movements from their national counterparts? What is the impact of transnationalisation on Islamist groups and ideas?

Required Readings:

Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, chapter seven.
Peter Mandaville, Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma, 2004, chapter four.
Hisham Aidi, “Let us be Moors: Islam, Race and ‘Connected Histories’.” Middle East Report 229 (2003): 42-53. Available at: www.jstor.org/stable/1559394
Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics, Princeton University Press, chapter six.
Mohammed Ayoob, “Defining Concepts, Demolishing Myths”; “Transnational Islam”, in The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Muslim World, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2007.
Francois Burgat, “The Islamist Field between National Specificity and Transnationalization,” in Islamism in The Shadow Of Al-Qaeda, Texas: University of Texas, 2008.

Week Ten: Islam and Gender Politics

Discussion:

Discuss the relationship between Islamic traditions and women's rights. What other factors should be taken into account when looking at the position of women in Muslim societies? How are women’s rights viewed by Islamist movements? Can their be an Islamist feminism?

Required Readings:

Mervat Hatem, “Gender and Islamism in the 1990s,” Middle East Report 222 (Spring 2002). Available at: www.jstor.org/stable/1559270
Deniz Kandiyoti, “Women, Islam and the State,” In Political Islam, ed. Joel Beinin and Joe Stork, London: I.B. Tauris, 1997, 185-193.
Lara Deeb, Enchanted Modern An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi'i Lebanon, Princeton University Press, 2006, chapter 6.
Valentine M. Moghadam, Globalization and social movements : Islamism, feminism, and the global justice movement, Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009. Introduction and Chapter 1.
Leila Ahmed, “Women and the Rise of Islam,” in Mehran Kamrava ed., The new voices of Islam : reforming politics and modernity ; a reader, London : I. B. Tauris, 2006.
Francois Burgat “Islamism and Women,” in Face to Face with Islamism

Week Eleven: The Fortunes of Islamism

Discussion:

Assess the “failure of political Islam” thesis. Consider scenarios for the future of Islamism in light of recent events involving transnational and/or national Islamist movements.

Required Readings:
Salwa Ismail, “The Paradox of Islamist Politics,” Middle East Report 221 (November 2001): 34-39, or Rethinking Islamist Politics, chapter six. Available at: www.jstor.org/stable/1559338
Graham E. Fuller, “The Future of Political Islam,” Foreign Affairs (March/April 2002).
Francois Burgat, “Islamic Radicalisation”; “From Sayyid Qutb to Mohammed Atta: Sectarianism or Political Counterviolence?”, in Islamism In The Shadow Of Al-Qaeda (University of Texas, 2008)
Roy, Olivier, Globalised Islam: The Search for a new Ummah (Hurst & Co., 2004), chapters 2, 6,7.
Faisal Devji, The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics (Columbia University Press, 2009), Preface and Chapter 7

SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Department of Politics and International Studies