Magdi Amin, Ragui Assaad, Nazar al-Baharna, Kemal Dervis, Raj M. Desai, Navtej S. Dhillon, Ahmed Galal, Hafez Ghanem, Carol Graham, and Daniel Kaufmann
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199924929
- eISBN:
- 9780199949427
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199924929.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
The Arab Spring constitutes perhaps the most far-reaching political and economic transition since the end of communism in Europe. For too long, the economic aspirations of the people in the region, ...
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The Arab Spring constitutes perhaps the most far-reaching political and economic transition since the end of communism in Europe. For too long, the economic aspirations of the people in the region, especially young people, have been ignored by leaders in Arab countries and abroad. Competing views as to how best to meet these aspirations are now being debated in the region. The outcome will shape Arab societies for generations to come. This book argues that significant economic reforms must accompany the major political transitions that are underway. Although each country has a different economic structure and history and must make its own way forward, there are spill-overs from trade and investment linkages, the contagion of news cycles, interaction of people and sharing of expectations that are too great to ignore. Some common foundation of the new Arab economies is needed. Towards that end, this volume addresses four central challenges of economic reform in the Arab world. First, with two-thirds of the population under the age of thirty, the disproportionate burdens of unemployment and poor education can no longer be heaped on youth. Second, while some government policies may have improved the living standards of Arab citizens in the past, they have also entrenched cronies, enriched a small elite, and become unaffordable. Third, if Arab economies are to compete in the 21st century they cannot depend solely on oil and gas money, remittances, and tourism, but will require active, independent private sectors. And finally, the relative isolation of Arab economies—both from each other and from the world—must end. Rather than providing specific lists of recommendations, this book sets forth a set of guidelines and priorities for reformers who will begin creating new opportunities for youth, rebuilding the institutions of the state, diversifying the private sector, and cooperating with each other and integrating with the world economy.Less
The Arab Spring constitutes perhaps the most far-reaching political and economic transition since the end of communism in Europe. For too long, the economic aspirations of the people in the region, especially young people, have been ignored by leaders in Arab countries and abroad. Competing views as to how best to meet these aspirations are now being debated in the region. The outcome will shape Arab societies for generations to come. This book argues that significant economic reforms must accompany the major political transitions that are underway. Although each country has a different economic structure and history and must make its own way forward, there are spill-overs from trade and investment linkages, the contagion of news cycles, interaction of people and sharing of expectations that are too great to ignore. Some common foundation of the new Arab economies is needed. Towards that end, this volume addresses four central challenges of economic reform in the Arab world. First, with two-thirds of the population under the age of thirty, the disproportionate burdens of unemployment and poor education can no longer be heaped on youth. Second, while some government policies may have improved the living standards of Arab citizens in the past, they have also entrenched cronies, enriched a small elite, and become unaffordable. Third, if Arab economies are to compete in the 21st century they cannot depend solely on oil and gas money, remittances, and tourism, but will require active, independent private sectors. And finally, the relative isolation of Arab economies—both from each other and from the world—must end. Rather than providing specific lists of recommendations, this book sets forth a set of guidelines and priorities for reformers who will begin creating new opportunities for youth, rebuilding the institutions of the state, diversifying the private sector, and cooperating with each other and integrating with the world economy.
Luca Ricolfi
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199276998
- eISBN:
- 9780191707735
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199276998.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines the suicide missions (SMs) related to the Arab-Israeli conflict that took place from 1981 to December 2003. SMs are a relatively recent phenomenon in the Middle East, with only ...
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This chapter examines the suicide missions (SMs) related to the Arab-Israeli conflict that took place from 1981 to December 2003. SMs are a relatively recent phenomenon in the Middle East, with only sporadic cases before 1981. In the two decades under examination, the great majority of the SMs related to the Arab-Israeli conflict took place in three geographic areas: Israel, the Occupied Territories (Gaza Strip and the West Bank), and Lebanon (primarily in the south). This concentration is largely due to the outcome of the 1967 war, the so-called Six Day War. Israel managed to sign effective peace agreements with its neighbours in the south (Egypt) and in the east (Jordan), but not in the north (Syria). Hence, a shift in the conflict towards the Occupied Territories and Lebanon, the latter squeezed between the Israeli army in the south and Syrian influence in the north.Less
This chapter examines the suicide missions (SMs) related to the Arab-Israeli conflict that took place from 1981 to December 2003. SMs are a relatively recent phenomenon in the Middle East, with only sporadic cases before 1981. In the two decades under examination, the great majority of the SMs related to the Arab-Israeli conflict took place in three geographic areas: Israel, the Occupied Territories (Gaza Strip and the West Bank), and Lebanon (primarily in the south). This concentration is largely due to the outcome of the 1967 war, the so-called Six Day War. Israel managed to sign effective peace agreements with its neighbours in the south (Egypt) and in the east (Jordan), but not in the north (Syria). Hence, a shift in the conflict towards the Occupied Territories and Lebanon, the latter squeezed between the Israeli army in the south and Syrian influence in the north.
Hanspeter Mattes
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198296454
- eISBN:
- 9780191600036
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198296452.003.0029
- Subject:
- Political Science, Reference
This chapter on elections and electoral systems in Libya follows the same format as all the other country chapters in the book. The first section is introductory and contains a historical overview, ...
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This chapter on elections and electoral systems in Libya follows the same format as all the other country chapters in the book. The first section is introductory and contains a historical overview, discussion of the evolution of electoral provisions, an account of the current electoral provisions, and a comment on the electoral statistics. The second section consists of ten tables. These are: 2.1 Dates of National Elections, Referendums, and Coups d’Etat; 2.2 Electoral Body 1971 (data on population size, registered voters, and votes cast); 2.3 Abbreviations (none given or used); 2.4 Electoral Participation of Parties and Alliances (no statistical data are available for the parliamentary elections held from 1952 to 1965, and neither presidential nor parliamentary elections have been held since the proclamation of the Libyan Arab Republic); 2.5 Referendum 1971 (details of registered voters and votes cast in the referendum on the foundation of the Federation of Arab Republics between Egypt, Libya, and Syria); 2.6 Elections for Constitutional Assembly (none held); 2.7 Parliamentary Elections (see note under 2.4); 2.8 Composition of Parliament (see note under 2.4); 2.9 Presidential Elections (see note under 2.4); and 2.10 List of Power Holders 1951–1998.Less
This chapter on elections and electoral systems in Libya follows the same format as all the other country chapters in the book. The first section is introductory and contains a historical overview, discussion of the evolution of electoral provisions, an account of the current electoral provisions, and a comment on the electoral statistics. The second section consists of ten tables. These are: 2.1 Dates of National Elections, Referendums, and Coups d’Etat; 2.2 Electoral Body 1971 (data on population size, registered voters, and votes cast); 2.3 Abbreviations (none given or used); 2.4 Electoral Participation of Parties and Alliances (no statistical data are available for the parliamentary elections held from 1952 to 1965, and neither presidential nor parliamentary elections have been held since the proclamation of the Libyan Arab Republic); 2.5 Referendum 1971 (details of registered voters and votes cast in the referendum on the foundation of the Federation of Arab Republics between Egypt, Libya, and Syria); 2.6 Elections for Constitutional Assembly (none held); 2.7 Parliamentary Elections (see note under 2.4); 2.8 Composition of Parliament (see note under 2.4); 2.9 Presidential Elections (see note under 2.4); and 2.10 List of Power Holders 1951–1998.
Alison Sharrock
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198277125
- eISBN:
- 9780191684159
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198277125.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of the book, which is about the political condition of the Arab Minority in the State of Israel during ...
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This introductory chapter explains the coverage of the book, which is about the political condition of the Arab Minority in the State of Israel during the period 1967—1991. This book examines various aspects of the process of alienation among a part of the Arab minority in terms of achieving full equality in Israel and promoting nationalist Arab aspirations. This study is based on observations of the political behaviour of the Arab minority in Israel, its electoral trends, problems of identity, and political organizations.Less
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of the book, which is about the political condition of the Arab Minority in the State of Israel during the period 1967—1991. This book examines various aspects of the process of alienation among a part of the Arab minority in terms of achieving full equality in Israel and promoting nationalist Arab aspirations. This study is based on observations of the political behaviour of the Arab minority in Israel, its electoral trends, problems of identity, and political organizations.
Bruce K. Rutherford
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158044
- eISBN:
- 9781400846146
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158044.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Which way will Egypt go now that Husni Mubarak's authoritarian regime has been swept from power? Will it become an Islamic theocracy similar to Iran? Will it embrace Western-style liberalism and ...
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Which way will Egypt go now that Husni Mubarak's authoritarian regime has been swept from power? Will it become an Islamic theocracy similar to Iran? Will it embrace Western-style liberalism and democracy? This book reveals that Egypt's secularists and Islamists may yet navigate a middle path that results in a uniquely Islamic form of liberalism and, perhaps, democracy. The book draws on in-depth interviews with Egyptian judges, lawyers, Islamic activists, politicians, and businesspeople. It utilizes major court rulings, political documents of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the writings of Egypt's leading contemporary Islamic thinkers. The book demonstrates that, in post-Mubarak Egypt, progress toward liberalism and democracy is likely to be slow. Essential reading on a subject of global importance, this edition includes a new introduction that takes stock of the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood's victories in the 2011–2012 elections.Less
Which way will Egypt go now that Husni Mubarak's authoritarian regime has been swept from power? Will it become an Islamic theocracy similar to Iran? Will it embrace Western-style liberalism and democracy? This book reveals that Egypt's secularists and Islamists may yet navigate a middle path that results in a uniquely Islamic form of liberalism and, perhaps, democracy. The book draws on in-depth interviews with Egyptian judges, lawyers, Islamic activists, politicians, and businesspeople. It utilizes major court rulings, political documents of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the writings of Egypt's leading contemporary Islamic thinkers. The book demonstrates that, in post-Mubarak Egypt, progress toward liberalism and democracy is likely to be slow. Essential reading on a subject of global importance, this edition includes a new introduction that takes stock of the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood's victories in the 2011–2012 elections.
Jesse Ferris
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691155142
- eISBN:
- 9781400845231
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691155142.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This book draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention ...
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This book draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention in Yemen, which Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser later referred to as “my Vietnam.” The book argues that Nasser's attempt to export the Egyptian revolution to Yemen played a decisive role in destabilizing Egypt's relations with the Cold War powers, tarnishing its image in the Arab world, ruining its economy, and driving its rulers to instigate the fatal series of missteps that led to war with Israel in 1967. Viewing the Six Day War as an unintended consequence of the Saudi–Egyptian struggle over Yemen, the book demonstrates that the most important Cold War conflict in the Middle East was not the clash between Israel and its neighbors. It was the inter-Arab struggle between monarchies and republics over power and legitimacy. Egypt's defeat in the “Arab Cold War” set the stage for the rise of Saudi Arabia and political Islam. Bold and provocative, this book brings to life a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East. Its compelling analysis of Egypt's fall from power in the 1960s offers new insights into the decline of Arab nationalism, exposing the deep historical roots of the Arab Spring of 2011.Less
This book draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention in Yemen, which Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser later referred to as “my Vietnam.” The book argues that Nasser's attempt to export the Egyptian revolution to Yemen played a decisive role in destabilizing Egypt's relations with the Cold War powers, tarnishing its image in the Arab world, ruining its economy, and driving its rulers to instigate the fatal series of missteps that led to war with Israel in 1967. Viewing the Six Day War as an unintended consequence of the Saudi–Egyptian struggle over Yemen, the book demonstrates that the most important Cold War conflict in the Middle East was not the clash between Israel and its neighbors. It was the inter-Arab struggle between monarchies and republics over power and legitimacy. Egypt's defeat in the “Arab Cold War” set the stage for the rise of Saudi Arabia and political Islam. Bold and provocative, this book brings to life a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East. Its compelling analysis of Egypt's fall from power in the 1960s offers new insights into the decline of Arab nationalism, exposing the deep historical roots of the Arab Spring of 2011.
Tarek El-Ariss
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691181936
- eISBN:
- 9780691184913
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691181936.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In recent years, Arab activists have confronted authoritarian regimes both on the street and online, leaking videos and exposing atrocities, and demanding political rights. This book situates these ...
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In recent years, Arab activists have confronted authoritarian regimes both on the street and online, leaking videos and exposing atrocities, and demanding political rights. This book situates these critiques of power within a pervasive culture of scandal and leaks and shows how cultural production and political change in the contemporary Arab world are enabled by digital technology, yet emerge from traditional cultural models. Focusing on a new generation of activists and authors from Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, the book connects WikiLeaks to The Arabian Nights, Twitter to mystical revelation, cyberattacks to pre-Islamic tribal raids, and digital activism to the affective scene-making of Arab popular culture. It shifts the epistemological and historical frameworks from the postcolonial condition to the digital condition and shows how new media challenge the novel as the traditional vehicle for political consciousness and intellectual debate. Theorizing the rise of “the leaking subject” who reveals, contests, and writes through chaotic yet highly political means, the book investigates the digital consciousness, virality, and affective forms of knowledge that jolt and inform the public and that draw readers in to the unfolding fiction of scandal. The book maps the changing landscape of Arab modernity, or Nahda, in the digital age and traces how concepts such as the nation, community, power, the intellectual, the author, and the novel are hacked and recoded through new modes of confrontation, circulation, and dissent.Less
In recent years, Arab activists have confronted authoritarian regimes both on the street and online, leaking videos and exposing atrocities, and demanding political rights. This book situates these critiques of power within a pervasive culture of scandal and leaks and shows how cultural production and political change in the contemporary Arab world are enabled by digital technology, yet emerge from traditional cultural models. Focusing on a new generation of activists and authors from Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, the book connects WikiLeaks to The Arabian Nights, Twitter to mystical revelation, cyberattacks to pre-Islamic tribal raids, and digital activism to the affective scene-making of Arab popular culture. It shifts the epistemological and historical frameworks from the postcolonial condition to the digital condition and shows how new media challenge the novel as the traditional vehicle for political consciousness and intellectual debate. Theorizing the rise of “the leaking subject” who reveals, contests, and writes through chaotic yet highly political means, the book investigates the digital consciousness, virality, and affective forms of knowledge that jolt and inform the public and that draw readers in to the unfolding fiction of scandal. The book maps the changing landscape of Arab modernity, or Nahda, in the digital age and traces how concepts such as the nation, community, power, the intellectual, the author, and the novel are hacked and recoded through new modes of confrontation, circulation, and dissent.
Michael Frishkopf (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789774162930
- eISBN:
- 9781617970139
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774162930.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
Since the turn of the twentieth century the dramatic rise of mass media has profoundly transformed music practices in the Arab world. Music has adapted to successive forms of media dissemination — ...
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Since the turn of the twentieth century the dramatic rise of mass media has profoundly transformed music practices in the Arab world. Music has adapted to successive forms of media dissemination — from phonograph cylinders to MP3s — each subjected to the political and economic forces of its particular era and region. Carried by mass media, the broader culture of Arab music has been thoroughly transformed as well. Simultaneously, mass mediated music has become a powerful social force. While parallel processes have unfolded worldwide, their implications in the Arabic-speaking world have thus far received little scholarly attention. This volume features sixteen chapters examining these issues, especially televised music and the controversial new genre of the music video. Chapters display the textures of public Arabic discourse to an English readership. They address the key issues of contemporary Arab society — gender and sexuality, Islam, class, economy, power, and nation — as refracted through the culture of mediated music. Interconnected by a web of recurrent concepts, this collection transcends music to become an important resource for the study of contemporary Arab society and culture.Less
Since the turn of the twentieth century the dramatic rise of mass media has profoundly transformed music practices in the Arab world. Music has adapted to successive forms of media dissemination — from phonograph cylinders to MP3s — each subjected to the political and economic forces of its particular era and region. Carried by mass media, the broader culture of Arab music has been thoroughly transformed as well. Simultaneously, mass mediated music has become a powerful social force. While parallel processes have unfolded worldwide, their implications in the Arabic-speaking world have thus far received little scholarly attention. This volume features sixteen chapters examining these issues, especially televised music and the controversial new genre of the music video. Chapters display the textures of public Arabic discourse to an English readership. They address the key issues of contemporary Arab society — gender and sexuality, Islam, class, economy, power, and nation — as refracted through the culture of mediated music. Interconnected by a web of recurrent concepts, this collection transcends music to become an important resource for the study of contemporary Arab society and culture.
Amaney A. Jamal
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149646
- eISBN:
- 9781400845477
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149646.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
In the post-Cold War era, why has democratization been slow to arrive in the Arab world? This book argues that to understand support for the authoritarian status quo in parts of this region—and the ...
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In the post-Cold War era, why has democratization been slow to arrive in the Arab world? This book argues that to understand support for the authoritarian status quo in parts of this region—and the willingness of its citizens to compromise on core democratic principles—one must factor in how a strong U.S. presence and popular anti-Americanism weakens democratic voices. Examining such countries as Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, the book explores how Arab citizens decide whether to back existing regimes, regime transitions, and democratization projects, and how the global position of Arab states shapes people's attitudes toward their governments. While the Cold War's end reduced superpower hegemony in much of the developing world, the Arab region witnessed an increased security and economic dependence on the United States. As a result, the preferences of the United States matter greatly to middle-class Arab citizens, not just the elite, and citizens will restrain their pursuit of democratization, rationalizing their backing for the status quo because of U.S. geostrategic priorities. Demonstrating how the preferences of an international patron serve as a constraint or an opportunity to push for democracy, the book questions bottom-up approaches to democratization, which assume that states are autonomous units in the world order. It contends that even now, with the overthrow of some autocratic Arab regimes, the future course of Arab democratization will be influenced by the perception of American reactions. Concurrently, the United States must address the troubling sources of the region's rising anti-Americanism.Less
In the post-Cold War era, why has democratization been slow to arrive in the Arab world? This book argues that to understand support for the authoritarian status quo in parts of this region—and the willingness of its citizens to compromise on core democratic principles—one must factor in how a strong U.S. presence and popular anti-Americanism weakens democratic voices. Examining such countries as Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, the book explores how Arab citizens decide whether to back existing regimes, regime transitions, and democratization projects, and how the global position of Arab states shapes people's attitudes toward their governments. While the Cold War's end reduced superpower hegemony in much of the developing world, the Arab region witnessed an increased security and economic dependence on the United States. As a result, the preferences of the United States matter greatly to middle-class Arab citizens, not just the elite, and citizens will restrain their pursuit of democratization, rationalizing their backing for the status quo because of U.S. geostrategic priorities. Demonstrating how the preferences of an international patron serve as a constraint or an opportunity to push for democracy, the book questions bottom-up approaches to democratization, which assume that states are autonomous units in the world order. It contends that even now, with the overthrow of some autocratic Arab regimes, the future course of Arab democratization will be influenced by the perception of American reactions. Concurrently, the United States must address the troubling sources of the region's rising anti-Americanism.
Marcia C. Inhorn
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148885
- eISBN:
- 9781400842629
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148885.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Middle Eastern Muslim men have been widely vilified as terrorists, religious zealots, and brutal oppressors of women. This book challenges these stereotypes with the stories of ordinary Middle ...
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Middle Eastern Muslim men have been widely vilified as terrorists, religious zealots, and brutal oppressors of women. This book challenges these stereotypes with the stories of ordinary Middle Eastern men as they struggle to overcome infertility and childlessness through assisted reproduction. Drawing on two decades of ethnographic research across the Middle East with hundreds of men from a variety of social and religious backgrounds, the book shows how the new Arab man is self-consciously rethinking the patriarchal masculinity of his forefathers and unseating received wisdoms. This is especially true in childless Middle Eastern marriages where, contrary to popular belief, infertility is more common among men than women. The book captures the marital, moral, and material commitments of couples undergoing assisted reproduction, revealing how new technologies are transforming their lives and religious sensibilities. And it looks at the changing manhood of husbands who undertake transnational “egg quests”—set against the backdrop of war and economic uncertainty—out of devotion to the infertile wives they love. Trenchant and emotionally gripping, the book traces the emergence of new masculinities in the Middle East in the era of biotechnology.Less
Middle Eastern Muslim men have been widely vilified as terrorists, religious zealots, and brutal oppressors of women. This book challenges these stereotypes with the stories of ordinary Middle Eastern men as they struggle to overcome infertility and childlessness through assisted reproduction. Drawing on two decades of ethnographic research across the Middle East with hundreds of men from a variety of social and religious backgrounds, the book shows how the new Arab man is self-consciously rethinking the patriarchal masculinity of his forefathers and unseating received wisdoms. This is especially true in childless Middle Eastern marriages where, contrary to popular belief, infertility is more common among men than women. The book captures the marital, moral, and material commitments of couples undergoing assisted reproduction, revealing how new technologies are transforming their lives and religious sensibilities. And it looks at the changing manhood of husbands who undertake transnational “egg quests”—set against the backdrop of war and economic uncertainty—out of devotion to the infertile wives they love. Trenchant and emotionally gripping, the book traces the emergence of new masculinities in the Middle East in the era of biotechnology.
Avi Max Spiegel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159843
- eISBN:
- 9781400866434
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159843.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
Today, two-thirds of all Arab Muslims are under the age of thirty. This book takes readers inside the evolving competition for their support—a competition not simply between Islamism and the secular ...
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Today, two-thirds of all Arab Muslims are under the age of thirty. This book takes readers inside the evolving competition for their support—a competition not simply between Islamism and the secular world, but between different and often conflicting visions of Islam itself. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research among rank-and-file activists in Morocco, the book shows how Islamist movements are encountering opposition from an unexpected source—each other. In vivid detail, the book describes the conflicts that arise as Islamist groups vie with one another for new recruits, and the unprecedented fragmentation that occurs as members wrangle over a shared urbanized base. Looking carefully at how political Islam is lived, expressed, and understood by young people, the book moves beyond the top-down focus of current research. Instead, it makes the compelling case that Islamist actors are shaped more by their relationships to each other than by their relationships to the state or even to religious ideology. By focusing not only on the texts of aging elites but also on the voices of diverse and sophisticated Muslim youths, the book exposes the shifting and contested nature of Islamist movements today—movements that are being reimagined from the bottom up by young Islam. This book, the first to shed light on this new and uncharted era of Islamist pluralism in the Middle East and North Africa, uncovers the rivalries that are redefining the next generation of political Islam.Less
Today, two-thirds of all Arab Muslims are under the age of thirty. This book takes readers inside the evolving competition for their support—a competition not simply between Islamism and the secular world, but between different and often conflicting visions of Islam itself. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research among rank-and-file activists in Morocco, the book shows how Islamist movements are encountering opposition from an unexpected source—each other. In vivid detail, the book describes the conflicts that arise as Islamist groups vie with one another for new recruits, and the unprecedented fragmentation that occurs as members wrangle over a shared urbanized base. Looking carefully at how political Islam is lived, expressed, and understood by young people, the book moves beyond the top-down focus of current research. Instead, it makes the compelling case that Islamist actors are shaped more by their relationships to each other than by their relationships to the state or even to religious ideology. By focusing not only on the texts of aging elites but also on the voices of diverse and sophisticated Muslim youths, the book exposes the shifting and contested nature of Islamist movements today—movements that are being reimagined from the bottom up by young Islam. This book, the first to shed light on this new and uncharted era of Islamist pluralism in the Middle East and North Africa, uncovers the rivalries that are redefining the next generation of political Islam.
Harald Schüler
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249589
- eISBN:
- 9780191600029
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924958X.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, Reference
As no national elections and referendums have been held in the United Arab Emirates, the chapter gives an overview of the political institutions and history of the Emirates. The legal provisions ...
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As no national elections and referendums have been held in the United Arab Emirates, the chapter gives an overview of the political institutions and history of the Emirates. The legal provisions governing the activities of the appointed Federal National Council are presented in detail.Less
As no national elections and referendums have been held in the United Arab Emirates, the chapter gives an overview of the political institutions and history of the Emirates. The legal provisions governing the activities of the appointed Federal National Council are presented in detail.
Margaret Litvin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691137803
- eISBN:
- 9781400840106
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137803.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This introductory chapter summarizes the journey of Shakespeare's Hamlet through the post-1952 Arab world and discusses this study's contributions to Arab politics and literary studies in general. ...
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This introductory chapter summarizes the journey of Shakespeare's Hamlet through the post-1952 Arab world and discusses this study's contributions to Arab politics and literary studies in general. Here, the chapter shows how the character Hamlet's central concern is the problem of historical agency. He asks what it means “to be” rather than “not to be” in a world where “the time is out of joint” and one's very existence as a historical actor is threatened. He thus encapsulates a debate coeval with and largely constitutive of modern Arab identity: the problem of self-determination and authenticity. Following Hamlet's Arab journey, the chapter attempts to clarify one of the most central and widely misunderstood preoccupations of modern Arab politics.Less
This introductory chapter summarizes the journey of Shakespeare's Hamlet through the post-1952 Arab world and discusses this study's contributions to Arab politics and literary studies in general. Here, the chapter shows how the character Hamlet's central concern is the problem of historical agency. He asks what it means “to be” rather than “not to be” in a world where “the time is out of joint” and one's very existence as a historical actor is threatened. He thus encapsulates a debate coeval with and largely constitutive of modern Arab identity: the problem of self-determination and authenticity. Following Hamlet's Arab journey, the chapter attempts to clarify one of the most central and widely misunderstood preoccupations of modern Arab politics.
Arieh Bruce Saposnik
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195331219
- eISBN:
- 9780199868100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331219.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Continuing with the theme of Orient and Occident in Zionist culture, this chapter examines the ways in which competing conceptions helped determine the role of Oriental Jews and Palestinian Arabs in ...
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Continuing with the theme of Orient and Occident in Zionist culture, this chapter examines the ways in which competing conceptions helped determine the role of Oriental Jews and Palestinian Arabs in the emerging Hebrew nationhood. Arguing against a historiography that correlates Zionism with an oversimplified version of European Orientalism, the chapter contends that, within Zionist culture, a myth of Sephardic supremacy coexisted with a sense of Ashkenazi superiority to shape the roles envisioned for the nation's Jewish ethnic groups. Similarly, romantic images of Arabs as racial counterparts and as models for the new Hebrews clashed with a view of the Arab as primitive and responsible for the land's desolation in a time of nascent national conflict. Especially in the wake of the Young Turk revolution, these conceptual divisions informed the Yishuv's language, music, celebrations, public spaces, economic and political orientations, immigration policy, and even bodily comportment.Less
Continuing with the theme of Orient and Occident in Zionist culture, this chapter examines the ways in which competing conceptions helped determine the role of Oriental Jews and Palestinian Arabs in the emerging Hebrew nationhood. Arguing against a historiography that correlates Zionism with an oversimplified version of European Orientalism, the chapter contends that, within Zionist culture, a myth of Sephardic supremacy coexisted with a sense of Ashkenazi superiority to shape the roles envisioned for the nation's Jewish ethnic groups. Similarly, romantic images of Arabs as racial counterparts and as models for the new Hebrews clashed with a view of the Arab as primitive and responsible for the land's desolation in a time of nascent national conflict. Especially in the wake of the Young Turk revolution, these conceptual divisions informed the Yishuv's language, music, celebrations, public spaces, economic and political orientations, immigration policy, and even bodily comportment.
Margaret Litvin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691137803
- eISBN:
- 9781400840106
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137803.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
For the past five decades, Arab intellectuals have seen themselves in Shakespeare's Hamlet: their times “out of joint,” their political hopes frustrated by a corrupt older generation. This book ...
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For the past five decades, Arab intellectuals have seen themselves in Shakespeare's Hamlet: their times “out of joint,” their political hopes frustrated by a corrupt older generation. This book traces the uses of Hamlet in Arabic theatre and political rhetoric, and asks how Shakespeare's play developed into a musical with a happy ending in 1901 and grew to become the most obsessively quoted literary work in Arab politics today. Explaining the Arab Hamlet tradition, the book also illuminates the “to be or not to be” politics that have turned Shakespeare's tragedy into the essential Arab political text, cited by Arab liberals, nationalists, and Islamists alike. On the Arab stage, Hamlet has been an operetta hero, a firebrand revolutionary, and a muzzled dissident. Analyzing productions from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait, the book follows the distinct phases of Hamlet's naturalization as an Arab. The book uses personal interviews as well as scripts and videos, reviews, and detailed comparisons with French and Russian Hamlets. The result shows Arab theatre in a new light. It identifies the French source of the earliest Arabic Hamlet, shows the outsize influence of Soviet and East European Shakespeare, and explores the deep cultural link between Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser and the ghost of Hamlet's father. Documenting how global sources and models helped nurture a distinct Arab Hamlet tradition, this book represents a new approach to the study of international Shakespeare appropriation.Less
For the past five decades, Arab intellectuals have seen themselves in Shakespeare's Hamlet: their times “out of joint,” their political hopes frustrated by a corrupt older generation. This book traces the uses of Hamlet in Arabic theatre and political rhetoric, and asks how Shakespeare's play developed into a musical with a happy ending in 1901 and grew to become the most obsessively quoted literary work in Arab politics today. Explaining the Arab Hamlet tradition, the book also illuminates the “to be or not to be” politics that have turned Shakespeare's tragedy into the essential Arab political text, cited by Arab liberals, nationalists, and Islamists alike. On the Arab stage, Hamlet has been an operetta hero, a firebrand revolutionary, and a muzzled dissident. Analyzing productions from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait, the book follows the distinct phases of Hamlet's naturalization as an Arab. The book uses personal interviews as well as scripts and videos, reviews, and detailed comparisons with French and Russian Hamlets. The result shows Arab theatre in a new light. It identifies the French source of the earliest Arabic Hamlet, shows the outsize influence of Soviet and East European Shakespeare, and explores the deep cultural link between Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser and the ghost of Hamlet's father. Documenting how global sources and models helped nurture a distinct Arab Hamlet tradition, this book represents a new approach to the study of international Shakespeare appropriation.
Marc Lynch
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199244904
- eISBN:
- 9780191600050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199244901.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Marc Lynch examines the Jordanian disengagement from the West Bank in 1988 as a case of state downsizing. The author focuses on international factors and elite politics on both sides of the Jordan ...
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Marc Lynch examines the Jordanian disengagement from the West Bank in 1988 as a case of state downsizing. The author focuses on international factors and elite politics on both sides of the Jordan River, drawing conclusions on the influences of state downsizing on the changing character of the Jordanian political regime under King Hussein and his son, Abdullah. The author examines the role of public sphere changes and the political identity, the entrepreneurs played in the process, and he outlines the reflexive institutional relationship of the disengagement on state institutions, political parties, the press, and professional organizations. Finally, he examines the role of the Arab–Israeli peace process for the formula of separation between Jordan and Palestine.Less
Marc Lynch examines the Jordanian disengagement from the West Bank in 1988 as a case of state downsizing. The author focuses on international factors and elite politics on both sides of the Jordan River, drawing conclusions on the influences of state downsizing on the changing character of the Jordanian political regime under King Hussein and his son, Abdullah. The author examines the role of public sphere changes and the political identity, the entrepreneurs played in the process, and he outlines the reflexive institutional relationship of the disengagement on state institutions, political parties, the press, and professional organizations. Finally, he examines the role of the Arab–Israeli peace process for the formula of separation between Jordan and Palestine.
Avi Max Spiegel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159843
- eISBN:
- 9781400866434
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159843.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. The book attempts to unlock the incipient industry of Islamism. This is, at its core, a work of political sociology, ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. The book attempts to unlock the incipient industry of Islamism. This is, at its core, a work of political sociology, informed, most of all, by scholarship in social movement theory, comparative politics, and the sociology of religion. To make the material accessible to a wide variety of readers, the author has aimed to write in a lucid, narrative style. In his nearly four years in Morocco, he witnessed firsthand the development of political Islam in one place. But these experiences also shed light on what is happening in other parts of the Arab world.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. The book attempts to unlock the incipient industry of Islamism. This is, at its core, a work of political sociology, informed, most of all, by scholarship in social movement theory, comparative politics, and the sociology of religion. To make the material accessible to a wide variety of readers, the author has aimed to write in a lucid, narrative style. In his nearly four years in Morocco, he witnessed firsthand the development of political Islam in one place. But these experiences also shed light on what is happening in other parts of the Arab world.
Avi Max Spiegel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159843
- eISBN:
- 9781400866434
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159843.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter considers the question of how an authoritarian Arab state enables or encumbers Islamist mobilization. It elucidates a different model of state action—different in both content and form: ...
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This chapter considers the question of how an authoritarian Arab state enables or encumbers Islamist mobilization. It elucidates a different model of state action—different in both content and form: in what policies are pursued and in how they are implemented. The chapter suggests that the Moroccan state under King Mohammed VI has not simply elevated one Islamist group at the expense of the other, but rather, it has aimed to impede and impel distinct forms of activism within groups—in this case, attempting to draw new divides between religious and political modes of activism. These are policies that can be understood not simply by the old theory of divide and conquer, but by one more aptly conceptualized as selective suppression.Less
This chapter considers the question of how an authoritarian Arab state enables or encumbers Islamist mobilization. It elucidates a different model of state action—different in both content and form: in what policies are pursued and in how they are implemented. The chapter suggests that the Moroccan state under King Mohammed VI has not simply elevated one Islamist group at the expense of the other, but rather, it has aimed to impede and impel distinct forms of activism within groups—in this case, attempting to draw new divides between religious and political modes of activism. These are policies that can be understood not simply by the old theory of divide and conquer, but by one more aptly conceptualized as selective suppression.
Ellen Anne McLarney
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158488
- eISBN:
- 9781400866441
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158488.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
In the decades leading up to the Arab Spring in 2011, when Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime was swept from power in Egypt, Muslim women took a leading role in developing a robust Islamist ...
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In the decades leading up to the Arab Spring in 2011, when Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime was swept from power in Egypt, Muslim women took a leading role in developing a robust Islamist presence in the country's public sphere. This book examines the writings and activism of these women—including scholars, preachers, journalists, critics, actors, and public intellectuals—who envisioned an Islamic awakening in which women's rights and the family, equality, and emancipation were at the center. Challenging Western conceptions of Muslim women as being oppressed by Islam, this book shows how women used “soft force”—a women's jihad characterized by nonviolent protest—to oppose secular dictatorship and articulate a public sphere that was both Islamic and democratic. The book draws on memoirs, political essays, sermons, newspaper articles, and other writings to explore how these women imagined the home and the family as sites of the free practice of religion in a climate where Islamists were under siege by the secular state. While they seem to reinforce women's traditional roles in a male-dominated society, these Islamist writers also reoriented Islamist politics in domains coded as feminine, putting women at the very forefront in imagining an Islamic polity. The book transforms our understanding of women's rights, women's liberation, and women's equality in Egypt's Islamic revival.Less
In the decades leading up to the Arab Spring in 2011, when Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime was swept from power in Egypt, Muslim women took a leading role in developing a robust Islamist presence in the country's public sphere. This book examines the writings and activism of these women—including scholars, preachers, journalists, critics, actors, and public intellectuals—who envisioned an Islamic awakening in which women's rights and the family, equality, and emancipation were at the center. Challenging Western conceptions of Muslim women as being oppressed by Islam, this book shows how women used “soft force”—a women's jihad characterized by nonviolent protest—to oppose secular dictatorship and articulate a public sphere that was both Islamic and democratic. The book draws on memoirs, political essays, sermons, newspaper articles, and other writings to explore how these women imagined the home and the family as sites of the free practice of religion in a climate where Islamists were under siege by the secular state. While they seem to reinforce women's traditional roles in a male-dominated society, these Islamist writers also reoriented Islamist politics in domains coded as feminine, putting women at the very forefront in imagining an Islamic polity. The book transforms our understanding of women's rights, women's liberation, and women's equality in Egypt's Islamic revival.
Benjamin Gidron, Stanley N. Katz, and Yeheskel Hasenfeld
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195125924
- eISBN:
- 9780199833894
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195125924.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Despite employing a variety of strategies to maintain white supremacy, the South African government could not prevent the rise of a black resistance movement or of predominantly white nongovernmental ...
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Despite employing a variety of strategies to maintain white supremacy, the South African government could not prevent the rise of a black resistance movement or of predominantly white nongovernmental organizations that opposed apartheid. Such challenges to apartheid, economic difficulties, international pressure, and behind‐the‐scenes negotiations led to regime change and democratic elections in 1994. In Northern Ireland, Catholic–Protestant antagonism has roots in many centuries of English colonialism, aggravated by mutual distrust and segregation, limited citizen control over government, intermittent economic stagnation, and sectarian prejudices, but only in the late 1960s did violence become a part of everyday life. Although bloodshed continued, progress toward a solution began in the 1980s and continued into the 1990s. When Israel was founded in 1948, Arab–Jewish hostility already existed, and grew in the following decades, which saw five wars between Israel and Arab states, as well as political organizations, sometimes leading to violence, by Palestinian Arabs living. Domestic pressure for reform in the late 1970s and intense Palestinian resistance in the late 1980s forced Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians, although prospects for peace remained bleak. All three conflicts shared features: disputes over land; forced settlements; ethnonational divisions; and the intersection of class and race.Less
Despite employing a variety of strategies to maintain white supremacy, the South African government could not prevent the rise of a black resistance movement or of predominantly white nongovernmental organizations that opposed apartheid. Such challenges to apartheid, economic difficulties, international pressure, and behind‐the‐scenes negotiations led to regime change and democratic elections in 1994. In Northern Ireland, Catholic–Protestant antagonism has roots in many centuries of English colonialism, aggravated by mutual distrust and segregation, limited citizen control over government, intermittent economic stagnation, and sectarian prejudices, but only in the late 1960s did violence become a part of everyday life. Although bloodshed continued, progress toward a solution began in the 1980s and continued into the 1990s. When Israel was founded in 1948, Arab–Jewish hostility already existed, and grew in the following decades, which saw five wars between Israel and Arab states, as well as political organizations, sometimes leading to violence, by Palestinian Arabs living. Domestic pressure for reform in the late 1970s and intense Palestinian resistance in the late 1980s forced Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians, although prospects for peace remained bleak. All three conflicts shared features: disputes over land; forced settlements; ethnonational divisions; and the intersection of class and race.
