This book offers a new interpretation of the rich narratives of Arab secularism, contending that secularism as a set of ideas and a social movement is destined to loom large on the political and legal horizon of most Arab states. Youssef M. Choueiri provides a study of three moments in the development of secularism in the Arab World, the Machiavellian, the Alfierian and the Gramscian. It is within such a scope that secularism in its interaction with state-building projects, women’s emancipation and religion is treated as an intellectual current and a discursive entity embedded in the political process of its diverse societies. Through the chapters, Choueiri demonstrates how secularism occupies a pivotal presence in the religious and political life of the Arab world, exploring such interrelated configurations as indigenous contributions, diverse reforms and the impact of Western states. He concludes that secularism has become a moral prerequisite and a required vehicle in creating the necessary conditions for the success of democracy in the Middle East. Narratives of Arab Secularism tackles the complexity and contemporary ramifications of the subject in a way that no previous single study has been able to. It will be relevant to both students and academics dealing with topics related to the Middle East including religion, politics, anthropology and history. Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Focusing on the 25 January 2011 Egyptian revolution, this book traces its affective and emotional dynamics into the local realties and everyday politics of the urban subaltern, exploring the impact of revolutionary participation on protestors' engagement in street politics. As well as investigating the affective dynamics of the revolution, the author analyses the spatiality of affect in the context of the Maspero Triangle neighbourhood, highlighting the disruption of the revolutionary moment and the evolution of informal political practices. In addition, the book focuses on state efforts to counter revolutionary street politics by co-opting and dismantling politicized local practices. It is argued that the appropriation by the state of the notion of the baltagi helped create narratives around 'thuggery' to undermine the politics of the urban poor. Based on empirical fieldwork, the book ultimately shows how the revolutionary moment informed subsequent local activism, illustrating that it was both disruptive and productive in terms of contentious street politics. Combining literature on affect and emotion, intersectional gender and everyday politics, the book yields innovative and renewed insights within the fields of political science and Middle East studies, and will prove valuable reading for anyone interested in the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath.

Reconsidering the European Union's secular identity

The title of the book is slightly deceptive in that for once it does not depict the Hindu as an arch villain in the attempts to destroy the Universal Panacea for the Indians that is Secularism. In fact the book's objective is to present what the Hindu perceives as injustice meted out to himself and his co-religionists in the skewed application of Secularism which involves the idea of New Poulism or Appeasement of the minorities. The objective again is to target the younger generation, the student audience and to present to them the other side of the story a variation of political history from the Hindu perspective as also Hindu grievances. The intent is certainly not to indoctrinate this segment of society but is an honest effort to bring it up to them knowledge about the events of the Medieval period in Indian history to which the apellation the "black hole" can be applied. The history of this period which saw the most barbaric attacks on Hindu society on an unprecedented scale any time in the history of mankind was a void which needed to be filled in so far as knowledge dissipation was concerned. There has been a deliberate attempt at ignoring the events which occurred both during Muslim invasions and that following the equally infamous British occupation. Modern historians by design were probably instructed by successive governments to draw a veil over these atrocities during this period in an effort at reducing social feuding among various communities. This book is also an effort to highlight some of the dangerous trends currently permeating through Indian society. The current narrative in this country is now moving in the direction of highlighting the effects of demographic changes, Islamic militancy, Christian evangelism and Maoism or Naxalism as it is commonly called. Of particular concern to the author is the uncontrolled migration of people from across our borders and Christian evangelism, this latter phenomenon threatening to destroy the social fabric and our native culture. This work attempts to highlight the fact that the Hindu society has unwittingly fallen into the technology trap with no safety net to protect our native culture.

This book explores the multifaceted dynamics between state and non-state actors in public policy during and after conflict in the Middle East and Africa. It offers case studies and policy-relevant ideas for conflict-affected areas to move forward in a more sustainable manner. Following the Arab Spring revolutions, civil wars have plagued the Middle East and North Africa region, along with other countries in Africa. The task of rebuilding peace and institutionalizing stability in conflict-affected countries or fragile states emerging from conflict is a daunting, uncertain, and context-specific task. Yet, focusing on understanding conflicts in the Middle East and Africa offers an important view of the role of non-state actors during conflicts. These regions feature the highest numbers of inter- and intra-state conflicts, and the governments are more often contested than in the rest of the world. The volume proposes different cases addressing the fundamental challenge of inclusion and cohesion of nonstate actors during conflicts. By providing a comprehensive exploration of diverse perspectives, it empowers readers to engage with the pressing issues facing these regions. This is a useful resource for students and researchers in public policy and governance studies, development studies and NGOs, and Middle East and African Studies.

This book is a translation of Aziz al-Azmeh's seminal work Al-'Ilmaniya min mandhur mukhtalif that was first published in Beirut in 1992. Both celebrated and criticised for its reflections on Arab secularisation and secularism in the modern history of the Arab World, it is the only study to date to approach its subject as a set of historical changes which affected the regulation of the social, political and cultural order, and which permeated the concrete workings of society, rather than as an ideological discussion framed from the outset by the assumed opposition between Islam and secularism. The author takes a comprehensive analytical perspective to show that an almost imperceptible yet real, multi-faceted and objective secularising process has been underway in the Arab world since the 1850s. The early onset was the result of adapting to systemic novelties introduced at the time and a reaction to the perceived European advance and local retardation. The need for meaningful reform, and the actions taken in order to put in place a new organisation of state and society based on modern organisational and educational criteria, rather than older, religious traditions, stemmed from the perceived weakness of Arab polities and from an internal drive to overcome this situation. The book follows these themes into the close of the 20th century, marked with the rise of Islamism. A preface to the English translation takes a retrospective look at the theme from the vantage point of social, political and intellectual issues of relevance today.

From nonviolent protests in Cairo and Manama to the ousting of Libya's Gaddafi and the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, the series of uprisings which swept through the Middle East and North Africa from late 2010 have been burdened with the collective hopes and expectations of the world. Western supporters quickly identified these uprisings as a collective 'awakening' - a move towards democracy - but the continued unrest in these regions defies many of these more optimistic contemporary predictions. As the region remains unstable, the US and their Western allies are faced with the challenging task of modifying their strategic foreign policy goals to suit the currently mercurial Arab World. The 'Arab Spring' and its failure exposed a new set of questions: What motivates American 'democracy promotion'? Does the US really want self-determination in the Middle-East and North Africa? Where did the expectations of the protestors fit into this narrative? U.S. Approaches to the Arab Uprisings provides a comprehensive assessment of Western foreign policy towards the Arab World today. With analysis on subjects as diverse as social media and Islamic centrism, and drawing from examples throughout the MENA region, the book deals with the perception of Arabs and Arab culture in the American psyche and its effect on East-West relations. By analyzing both Western responses to uprisings and the reactions of the protestors themselves, the contributors expose theoretical and practical inconsistencies that suggest a rising tension between those that promote democracy and those who practice it.

Over the last two centuries the Muslim world has undergone dramatic transformations, impacting the Islamic tradition and throwing into question our understanding of tradition. The notion of tradition as an unmoving edifice is contradicted by the very process of its transmission, and the complex role human beings play in creating and sustaining traditions is evident in the indigenous mechanisms of change within the Islamic tradition. Politics of the Islamic Tradition locates the work of Egyptian cleric Muhammad al-Ghazali within the context of this dynamic Islamic tradition, with special focus on his political thought. Al-Ghazali inherited a vast and diverse heritage which he managed to reinterpret in a changing world. An innovative exploration of the change and continuity present within Muslim discourses, this book brings together disparate threads of the Islamic tradition, religious exegesis, the contemporary Arab Middle East, the Islamic state and idea of renewal in al-Ghazali’s thought. As well as being one of the first complete treatments of al-Ghazali’s works, this book provides an original critical approach to tradition and its capability for innovation and change, countering the dichotomy between tradition and modernity that typically informs most scholarly studies on contemporary Islam. Offering highly original insights into Islamic thought and engaging with critical notions of tradition, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of Islamic Politics and History.

Due to the large-scale global transformations of the 20th century, migration literature has become a vibrant genre over the last decades. In these novels, issues of transcultural identity and belonging naturally feature prominently. This study takes a closer look at the ways in which the idea of family informs processes of identity construction. It explores changing roles and meanings of the diasporic family as well as intergenerational family relations in a migration setting in order to identify the specific challenges, problems, and possibilities that arise in this context. This book builds on insights from different fields of family research (e.g. sociology, psychology, communication studies, memory studies) to provide a conceptual framework for the investigation of synchronic and diachronic family constellations and connections. The approach developed in this study not only sheds new light on contemporary British migration literature but can also prove fruitful for analyses of families in literature more generally. By highlighting the relevance and multifaceted nature of doing family, this study also offers new perspectives for transcultural memory studies.

Interrogating Secularism is a call to rethink binary categories of “religion” and “secularism” in contemporary Arab American fiction and art. While most studies that explore the traffic between literature and issues of secularism emphasize how canonical texts naturalize and reinforce secular values, Interrogating Secularism approaches this nexus through novels written by and about ethnic and religious minorities. Haque juxtaposes accounts of secular experience in the writing of Arab Anglophone authors such as Mohja Kahf, Rabih Alameddine, Khaled Mattawa, Laila Lalami, and Rawi Hage, with Arab and Muslim artists such as Ninar Esber, Mounir Fatmi, Hasan Elahi, and Emily Jacir. Looking at multiple genres and modes of aesthetic production, including AIDS narratives, visual art, and digital media, Haque explores how their conventions are used to subvert the ideals tied to secularism and the various anxieties and investments that support secularism as a premise. These authors and artists critique Western iterations of secular thought in spaces such as art exhibits, airports, borders, and literary discourses to capture how the secularism thesis reproduces the exclusivity it intends to remedy.