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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010114840 | BP173.7 S244 2006 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
Searching... | 30000010119777 | BP173.7 S244 2006 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
In an atmosphere of growing concern over the threat posed by Islamist violence, political Islamism has become the most important of geopolitical issues. In the process, it has been misrepresented. Contrary to what many believe, Islamist movements are characterised by their diversity. Revisiting the main arguments and explanations that have been used over the past twenty years to understand Islamist activism, moderate as well as militant, Salwa Ismail here proposes a rethinking of Islamist politics. The phenomenon of political Islam is determined by macro and micro-level changes in the Muslim world, such as the retreat of the welfare state across the Middle East, and the subsequent expansion in the role of informal political activists in the popular neighbourhoods of such cities as Algiers or Cairo. Ismail examines both levels to explain the socio-economic and political settings out of which Islamism has developed. Her focus is both the economic and political environments that fomented Islamism, and the structures of Islamist movements themselves (from their ideologies to their modes of action).
Looking at Islamism as a form of contestation politics, Ismail offers a reassessment of its failures and successes - limited, as it is, by its use of violence, but capable of real mobilisation at a popular level. "Rethinking Islamist Politics" will be vital reading for anyone seeking to understand such spectacular expressions of Islamism as the September 11th attacks, but also the everyday struggles of ordinary people which Islamism embodies.
Author Notes
Salwa Ismail is Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics, Department of Politics, University of Exeter.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Ismail reviews and critiques existing scholarship on Islamism, calling for more comparative and anthropological approaches to the analysis of political Islam. Chapters 2 through 4 examine the place of Islam in the political sphere in Egypt, with chapter 4 looking more specifically at the sociospatial determinants of the Islamic movement in Egypt. Chapter 5 addresses Islamism in Algeria and Tunisia, with an analysis of the national context and the microprocesses through which Islamists work locally. She takes issue with claims that political Islam has failed, attributing this to a narrow perspective on what defines politics and to a static conception of Islam. Ismail argues that Islamism's role in preserving or changing existing power relations is key to any analysis of Islamism. This is an excellent book. The emphasis on social geography is interesting and points to the different sites of politics. One can get lost in the details of the "microprocesses" of the three cases though, and Ismail often talks about Islamists "embedding" or "anchoring" themselves in popular urban spaces, implying a unidirectional process in some respects. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students and upper-division undergraduates of Middle East studies. F. J. Adely Columbia University
Table of Contents
| The Study of Islamism Revisited |
| Islamism and the Structuring of the Political Field in Egypt: Conservative Islamists and the State |
| Religious "Orthodoxy" as Public Morality: The State, Islamism and Cultural Politics in Egypt |
| The Popular Movement Dimensions of Contemporary Militant Islamism: Socio-Spatial Determinants in the Cairo Urban Setting |
| Islamist Politics in Algeria and Tunisia: A State-Society Perspective |
| The Paradox of Islamist Politics: The Limits and Potential of Islamist Movements |
