The Muslim World And Politics In Transition

Examines the impact of the Gulen movement on the contemporary Muslim world.

9/11 and various acts of global terrorism from Madrid to Bali have challenged the understanding of academic experts, students, and policymakers, Muslims and non-Muslims. Critical questions have been raised about Islam and Muslim politics in the modern world. This work includes materials with representative selections from diverse Muslim voices.

In early 2011, widespread protests ousted dictatorial regimes in both Tunisia and Egypt. Within a few years, Tunisia successfully held parliamentary and presidential elections and witnessed a peaceful transition of power, while the Egyptian military went on to seize power and institute authoritarian control. What explains the success and failure of transitions to democracy in these two countries, and how might they speak to democratic transition attempts in other Muslim-majority countries? Democratic Transition in the Muslim World convenes leading scholars to consider the implications of democratic success in Tunisia and failure in Egypt in comparative perspective. Alongside case studies of Indonesia, Senegal, and India, contributors analyze similarities and differences among democratizing countries with large Muslim populations, considering universal challenges as well as each nation’s particular obstacles. A central theme is the need to understand the conditions under which it becomes possible to craft pro-democratic coalitions among secularists and Islamists. Essays discuss the dynamics of secularist fears of Islamist electoral success, the role of secular constituencies in authoritarian regimes’ resilience, and the prospects for moderation among both secularist and Islamist political actors. They delve into topics such as the role of the army and foreign military aid, Middle Eastern constitutions, and the role of the Muslim Brotherhood. The book also includes an essay by the founder and president of Tunisia’s Ennadha Party, Rachid Ghannouchi, who discusses the political strategies his party chose to pursue.

Contributors to this book are particularly interested in expanding our understanding of what helps, or hurts, successful democratic transition attempts in countries with large Muslim populations. Crafting pro-democratic coalitions among secularists and Islamists presents a special obstacle that must be addressed by theorists and practitioners. The argument throughout the book is that such coalitions will not happen if potentially democratic secularists are part of what Al Stepan terms the authoritarian regime's "constituency of coercion" because they (the secularists) are afraid that free elections will be won by Islamists who threaten them even more than the existing secular authoritarian regime. Tunisia allows us to do analysis on this topic by comparing two "least similar" recent case outcomes: democratic success in Tunisia and democratic failure in Egypt. Tunisia also allows us to do an analysis of four "most similar" case outcomes by comparing the successful democratic transitions in Tunisia, Indonesia, Senegal, and the country with the second or third largest Muslim population in the world, India. Did these countries face some common challenges concerning democratization? Did all four of these successful cases in fact use some common policies that while democratic, had not normally been used in transitions in countries without significant numbers of Muslims? If so, did these policies help the transitions in Tunisia, Indonesia, Senegal and India? If they did, we should incorporate them in some way into our comparative theories about successful democratic transitions.

This book examines the role that political Islam plays in processes of democratization in the Muslim world, detailing the political processes that facilitate the collective learning of democratic ways of solving the practical problems of those polities. Democratization in the Muslim World represents an important contribution to the debate on democratization and political Islam that emphasises the synergetic effects and global reach of both Islamist and democratic politics. It comes to terms with the problematic relationship between Islam and democracy in the uncertain post-Cold War, post-9/11 world order by highlighting the malleability of Islamic discourses and of its institutional resources, as well as the diversity of the political strategies of incumbent regimes to remain in power. It combines key theoretical issues and country-specific studies of some of the most relevant Muslim polities of the post-Cold War and post-9/11 era. This text was previously published as a special issue of Democratization and will be of interest to students of Middle East politics, governance, democracy, and human rights.

Tensions and Transitions in the Muslim World provides an alternative reading of Middle Eastern politics and political culture by focusing on the dynamics of change, and examining the role of Islam in the emerging modern Middle East. Louay Safi contends that by focusing on radical and traditionalist Islam, Middle East specialists often overlook the liberal manifestations of Islam, which, though marginalized, constitute the driving force in the sociopolitical development of the Middle East. To capture the dynamics of progress in the Middle East, Safi examines the impact of the ideological struggle and intellectual debate between the forces of modernism and Islamic traditionalism on the transformation of mainstream society, and delineates the emerging sociopolitical outlooks and orientations, locked in a fierce struggle for the heart and soul of the Middle East.

In addition to the important breaking points of the last century – such as the abolition of the Caliphate, the World Wars, the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Iranian Revolution and the foundation of a ‘New World Order’ which directly affected Muslim societies – the new conjuncture formed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks brought about various structural problems and changes in the Muslim world. Political and economic developments in the last ten years in particular have brought many Muslim countries to the edge of crisis. Along with political, economic and social issues, the fact that modernisation and secularisation have become dominant in Muslim societies shows that the outcomes of these changes are of great importance. In this respect, this book offers a significant contribution to debates on the processes of change and transformation in the Muslim world. In addition to theoretical debates, the main dynamics of political and social change in Muslim societies are discussed here using specific examples from each country. As such, this volume will provide the reader with a practical understanding of the historical turning points in the Muslim world over recent years.

The landscape of the Middle East has changed dramatically since 2011, as have the political arena and the discourse around democracy. In Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring, John L. Esposito, John Voll, and Tamara Sonn examine the state of democracy in Muslim-majority societies today. Applying a twenty-first century perspective to the question of whether Islam is compatible with democracy, they redirect the conversation toward a new politics of democracy that transcends both secular authoritarianism and Political Islam. While the opposition movements of the Arab Spring vary from country to country, each has raised questions regarding equality, economic justice, democratic participation, and the relationship between Islam and democracy in their respective countries. Does democracy require a secular political regime? Are religious movements the most effective opponents of authoritarian secularist regimes? Esposito, Voll, and Sonn examine these questions and shed light on how these opposition movements reflect the new global realities of media communication and sources of influence and power. Positioned for a broad readership of scholars and students, policy-makers, and media experts, Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring will quickly become a go-to for all who watch the Middle East, inside and outside of academia.