This book provides an excellent handbook to the Islamic movements in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya and fills a major gap in the scholarship on Islam and the Arab West.

This book provides an excellent handbook to the Islamic movements in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya and fills a major gap in the scholarship on Islam and the Arab West.

In the Middle East, Western-inspired secularism, as implemented by Atatürk, Bourguiba and others, is increasingly cited by Islamist intellectuals as the source of the region's social dislocation and political instability. This book contributes to the debate, examining the origins and growth of the movement to abolish the secularising reforms of the past century by creating a political order guided by Shariah law. Other questions addressed include: how plausible is Islam's challenge to the ideal and reality of secularism, and what are its chances of success? How significant is the rising trend of 'spiritual politics' in the West? And are we witnessing the beginning of an age of post-secularism which may lead to genuin social and political reform?

Islam's relationship to liberal-democratic politics has emerged as one of the most pressing and contentious issues in international affairs. In Islam, Secularism, and Liberal Democracy, Nader Hashemi challenges the widely held belief among social scientists that religious politics and liberal-democratic development are structurally incompatible. This book argues for a rethinking of democratic theory so that it incorporates the variable of religion in the development of liberal democracy. In the process, it proves that an indigenous theory of Muslim secularism is not only possible, but is a necessary requirement for the advancement of liberal democracy in Muslim societies.

This book provides in-depth examination of the recent confrontation between Islamists and secularists in Egypt and Tunisia. Presenting a new approach to understand Islamism and secularism, the research addresses the variables that could affect the outcome of transitional negotiations. The secularist-Islamist conflict proved to be a major hindrance for democratisation and a main source of political instability in the Middle East. During the Arab Spring, disputes between both political trends sparked shortly after getting rid of their common enemy: the autocratic rulers. First, they disagreed on how to lead the transitional period. Then, polarisation grew deeper with the political competition in the parliamentary and presidential elections and the ideological disagreements during the drafting of the constitution. Eventually, this conflict put Tunisia at a verge of civil strife in the summer of 2013 and led to collapse of the transitional process in Egypt after the military coup. Examining the causes of the conflict between the secularists and the Islamists during the transitional period, the work provides new insights from the Arab Spring experience. Updating the transition literature, the book is a key resource to academics and students interested in democratization theory and Middle East politics.

This book engages with recent philosophical interventions into democracy, equality, and human rights to demonstrate their relevance to the field of Francophone Postcolonial Studies. The book explores the relationship between aesthetics and politics in the postcolonial Algerian novel.

Reconsidering the European Union's secular identity

This book examines the process of secularisation in the Middle East in the late 19th century and early 20th century that transformed the Ottoman Empire and led to the abolition of the Caliphate.

This volume serves to make sense of the political, cultural, and social change that has occurred in North Africa since the Arab Spring. It includes a number of contributions which address the issue of democracy and cultural identity. The book points to the fact that North Africa needs a workable paradigm for political order, which answers to the economic, social, and cultural challenges and peculiarities of African society in an increasingly globalizing world. This will require that we eschew a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. The book, which targets students, academia, and civil society, argues that North Africa’s solutions must be defined and advised by policies which reflect the cultural realities of the society they are intended to serve.

How safe is Turkey's liberal democracy? The rise to power in 2002 of the right-leaning Islamic Justice and Development Party ignited fears in the West that Turkey could no longer be relied upon to provide a buffer against the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East. Once hailed by the West as a model of secularism and moderation in the Muslim world, Turkey is now seen to be under the influence of the 'creeping Islamisation' of the JDP (or AKP as it is known in Turkey). Yet to what extent has this affected the lives of Turkish citizens? Evangelia Axiarlis here explores the contribution of the JDP to civil liberties and basic freedoms, long suppressed by secular and statist Kemalist ideology, and how this has remained unexamined despite more than a decade in government. In this - the first detailed study of the policies and ideology of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's government - the author examines the extent to which the JDP has worked to improve civil life in Turkey and critically addresses whether a government built on Islamic principles can champion political reform. Exploring how Islam and democracy are neither monoliths nor mutually exclusive, this is a timely contribution to the wider understanding of political Islam.