Political Islam

Catalog description

Some Muslims have turned to religion as a source for political identity in the modern world. How should we describe this phenomenon? Which groups have embraced the religio-political renewal? Why have they done so? What forms have the movements taken? How have they developed? What role, in particular, have modernizing states played in the instrumentalizing of Islamic institutions for purposes of control and legitimacy? How have non-state actors–the `ulama’, lay activists, social movements–responded to the conditions created by modernizing states? Addresses these questions by exploring a range of case studies in different national/cultural context–Africa (Morocco, Sudan, Somalia), Southeast Asia (Indonesia), Western Europe (France, Germany, the Netherlands), and North America (US and Canada). Through these case studies, probes what we mean by ‘political Islam’–but also the politics of Islam, and what the implications are for a wider globalized modernity.