Jack Tannous
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691179094
- eISBN:
- 9780691184166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691179094.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter addresses how Muslims and non-Muslims lived together, side-by-side and having a shared experience. This was the case in Syria from the earliest period of Muslim rule. Arab Muslim ...
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This chapter addresses how Muslims and non-Muslims lived together, side-by-side and having a shared experience. This was the case in Syria from the earliest period of Muslim rule. Arab Muslim immigrants settled in preexisting towns and cities, and al-Jābiya and al-Ramla—two well-known Arab encampments—never took off as significant places of Muslim habitation. Outside Syria, one must also remember that the garrison cities in which Arab immigrants settled were themselves not hermetically sealed off from the populations around them. The chapter then considers some of the social milieux of exchange and vectors by which Muslims came into contact with non-Muslims—milieux where, through shared settings and shared experiences, non-Muslim ideas and practices came to be taken up by Muslims.Less
This chapter addresses how Muslims and non-Muslims lived together, side-by-side and having a shared experience. This was the case in Syria from the earliest period of Muslim rule. Arab Muslim immigrants settled in preexisting towns and cities, and al-Jābiya and al-Ramla—two well-known Arab encampments—never took off as significant places of Muslim habitation. Outside Syria, one must also remember that the garrison cities in which Arab immigrants settled were themselves not hermetically sealed off from the populations around them. The chapter then considers some of the social milieux of exchange and vectors by which Muslims came into contact with non-Muslims—milieux where, through shared settings and shared experiences, non-Muslim ideas and practices came to be taken up by Muslims.
Evelyn Alsultany
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479809769
- eISBN:
- 9781479893331
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479809769.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter maps out the representational strategies used by television writers and producers after 9/11 to represent Arabs and Muslims as terrorists while avoiding Arab/Muslim terrorist ...
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This chapter maps out the representational strategies used by television writers and producers after 9/11 to represent Arabs and Muslims as terrorists while avoiding Arab/Muslim terrorist stereotypes. It identifies a list of representational strategies used to illustrate how schematized they have become, and discusses the ideological work performed by them through “simplified complex representations”—the appearance of seemingly complex images and storylines that are in fact quite predictable and formulaic. While some of these strategies are used more frequently and more effectively than others, they all help to shape the many layers of simplified complexity. Simplified complex representations are the representational mode of the so-called post-race era, signifying a new era of racial representation. These representations appear to challenge or complicate former stereotypes and contribute to a multicultural post-race illusion or colorblindness.Less
This chapter maps out the representational strategies used by television writers and producers after 9/11 to represent Arabs and Muslims as terrorists while avoiding Arab/Muslim terrorist stereotypes. It identifies a list of representational strategies used to illustrate how schematized they have become, and discusses the ideological work performed by them through “simplified complex representations”—the appearance of seemingly complex images and storylines that are in fact quite predictable and formulaic. While some of these strategies are used more frequently and more effectively than others, they all help to shape the many layers of simplified complexity. Simplified complex representations are the representational mode of the so-called post-race era, signifying a new era of racial representation. These representations appear to challenge or complicate former stereotypes and contribute to a multicultural post-race illusion or colorblindness.
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.
Tim Aistrope
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099199
- eISBN:
- 9781526109729
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099199.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The purpose of this chapter is to situate the Arab-Muslim paranoia narrative in relation to a common-sense understanding of conspiracy theory pervasive in American culture. A crucial starting point ...
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The purpose of this chapter is to situate the Arab-Muslim paranoia narrative in relation to a common-sense understanding of conspiracy theory pervasive in American culture. A crucial starting point here is Richard Hofstadter’s paradigmatic account of ‘The Paranoid Style in American Politics’, which locates conspiracy theories on the periphery of pluralistic American democracy as the irrational pathology of angry extremists, and contrasts it with a rational political centre where sensible politics occurs. I identify a powerful dynamic of ideological reproduction embedded in the Arab-Muslim paranoia narrative, which delegitimises Arab-Muslims and affirms a particular Western liberal identity. I show how the paranoid style framework is reinforced by an influential orientalist narrative prominently forwarded by Bernard Lewis and likeminded Arabist scholars, which situates Arab-Muslim culture as fundamentally anti-modernist and points to a culture of bitterness, self-denial and blame as an explanation for resentment towards the West.Less
The purpose of this chapter is to situate the Arab-Muslim paranoia narrative in relation to a common-sense understanding of conspiracy theory pervasive in American culture. A crucial starting point here is Richard Hofstadter’s paradigmatic account of ‘The Paranoid Style in American Politics’, which locates conspiracy theories on the periphery of pluralistic American democracy as the irrational pathology of angry extremists, and contrasts it with a rational political centre where sensible politics occurs. I identify a powerful dynamic of ideological reproduction embedded in the Arab-Muslim paranoia narrative, which delegitimises Arab-Muslims and affirms a particular Western liberal identity. I show how the paranoid style framework is reinforced by an influential orientalist narrative prominently forwarded by Bernard Lewis and likeminded Arabist scholars, which situates Arab-Muslim culture as fundamentally anti-modernist and points to a culture of bitterness, self-denial and blame as an explanation for resentment towards the West.
John V. Tolan
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032221
- eISBN:
- 9780813038964
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032221.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
“Sons of Ishmael” is the epithet that many Christian writers of the Middle Ages gave to Muslims. This book focuses on the history of conflict and convergence between Latin Christendom and the Arab ...
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“Sons of Ishmael” is the epithet that many Christian writers of the Middle Ages gave to Muslims. This book focuses on the history of conflict and convergence between Latin Christendom and the Arab Muslim world during this period. These eleven essays explore, in greater depth than the author's previous books, a wide variety of topics. The Bible and Qur'an agree that Arabs were the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar. Ishmael is described in Genesis as “a wild man; his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him.” To many medieval Christians, this was a prophecy of the violence and enmity between Ishmael's progeny and the Christians—spiritual descendants of his half-brother Isaac. Yet the author also discusses areas of convergence between Christendom and Islam such as the devotion to the Virgin Mary in twelfth-century Syria and Egypt and the chivalrous myths surrounding Muslim princes, especially Saladin. By providing a closer look at the ways Europeans perceived Islam and Muslims in the Middle Ages, the author opens a window into understanding the roots of current stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in Western culture.Less
“Sons of Ishmael” is the epithet that many Christian writers of the Middle Ages gave to Muslims. This book focuses on the history of conflict and convergence between Latin Christendom and the Arab Muslim world during this period. These eleven essays explore, in greater depth than the author's previous books, a wide variety of topics. The Bible and Qur'an agree that Arabs were the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar. Ishmael is described in Genesis as “a wild man; his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him.” To many medieval Christians, this was a prophecy of the violence and enmity between Ishmael's progeny and the Christians—spiritual descendants of his half-brother Isaac. Yet the author also discusses areas of convergence between Christendom and Islam such as the devotion to the Virgin Mary in twelfth-century Syria and Egypt and the chivalrous myths surrounding Muslim princes, especially Saladin. By providing a closer look at the ways Europeans perceived Islam and Muslims in the Middle Ages, the author opens a window into understanding the roots of current stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs in Western culture.
Lawrence Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226726168
- eISBN:
- 9780226726182
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226726182.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology
This book focuses on Arab Muslims and aspects of their lives that are, at first glance, perplexing to Westerners. It ranges over such diverse topics as why Arabs eschew portraiture, why a Muslim ...
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This book focuses on Arab Muslims and aspects of their lives that are, at first glance, perplexing to Westerners. It ranges over such diverse topics as why Arabs eschew portraiture, why a Muslim scientist might be attracted to fundamentalism, and why the Prophet must be protected from blasphemous cartoons. What connects these seemingly disparate features of Arab social, political, and cultural life? The book argues that the common thread is the importance Arabs place on the negotiation of interpersonal relationships—a link that helps to explain actions as seemingly unfathomable as suicide bombing and as elusive as the interpretation of the Quran.Less
This book focuses on Arab Muslims and aspects of their lives that are, at first glance, perplexing to Westerners. It ranges over such diverse topics as why Arabs eschew portraiture, why a Muslim scientist might be attracted to fundamentalism, and why the Prophet must be protected from blasphemous cartoons. What connects these seemingly disparate features of Arab social, political, and cultural life? The book argues that the common thread is the importance Arabs place on the negotiation of interpersonal relationships—a link that helps to explain actions as seemingly unfathomable as suicide bombing and as elusive as the interpretation of the Quran.
Bahgat Korany and Ali E. Hillal Dessouki
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789774163609
- eISBN:
- 9781617970375
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774163609.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Morocco faces difficult foreign policy challenges. Saddled with serious security and territorial integrity concerns, it faces an uphill task to ensure that its existence is not threatened. However, ...
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Morocco faces difficult foreign policy challenges. Saddled with serious security and territorial integrity concerns, it faces an uphill task to ensure that its existence is not threatened. However, Morocco's strong historical tradition as a monarchy is helpful in, and inextricably linked to, facing such policy challenges. Morocco can afford political pluralism and free competition because it has a monarchy that holds the political system together; the national integrity issue is the base on which the monarchy stands. Morocco can decree economic reform because the monarchy is the ultimate and unaccountable authority, but a failure in the returns on economic liberalization would suddenly make the monarchy dramatically accountable. More than in many countries, foreign policy and domestic stability are mutually dependent in Morocco.Less
Morocco faces difficult foreign policy challenges. Saddled with serious security and territorial integrity concerns, it faces an uphill task to ensure that its existence is not threatened. However, Morocco's strong historical tradition as a monarchy is helpful in, and inextricably linked to, facing such policy challenges. Morocco can afford political pluralism and free competition because it has a monarchy that holds the political system together; the national integrity issue is the base on which the monarchy stands. Morocco can decree economic reform because the monarchy is the ultimate and unaccountable authority, but a failure in the returns on economic liberalization would suddenly make the monarchy dramatically accountable. More than in many countries, foreign policy and domestic stability are mutually dependent in Morocco.
Viola Shafik
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789774160530
- eISBN:
- 9781617970108
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774160530.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
The status of women and the issue of gender inequality have been among the most negotiated and controversial of questions relating to modern Arab-Muslim culture. By reviewing and comparing Islamist ...
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The status of women and the issue of gender inequality have been among the most negotiated and controversial of questions relating to modern Arab-Muslim culture. By reviewing and comparing Islamist and modernist discourses, scholars have been able to work out their common undercurrent, often heavily gendered antagonization of East and West, progress and underdevelopment, acculturation and traditionality. Feminism and femininity were first polarized through the idea of female labor. The Nasserist period brought about a distinct, though not really dominant, politically committed cinema that voiced nationalist, socialist, and also feminist interests, in often contradictory ways. Female liberation and the prise de conscience are thus additionally mapped out as part of the nationalist agenda. The French Revolution leaders mobilized women in large numbers to create an “image of a national alliance of comrades in arms, mothers, sisters, and children.”Less
The status of women and the issue of gender inequality have been among the most negotiated and controversial of questions relating to modern Arab-Muslim culture. By reviewing and comparing Islamist and modernist discourses, scholars have been able to work out their common undercurrent, often heavily gendered antagonization of East and West, progress and underdevelopment, acculturation and traditionality. Feminism and femininity were first polarized through the idea of female labor. The Nasserist period brought about a distinct, though not really dominant, politically committed cinema that voiced nationalist, socialist, and also feminist interests, in often contradictory ways. Female liberation and the prise de conscience are thus additionally mapped out as part of the nationalist agenda. The French Revolution leaders mobilized women in large numbers to create an “image of a national alliance of comrades in arms, mothers, sisters, and children.”
Richard E. Payne
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520286191
- eISBN:
- 9780520961531
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520286191.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This concluding chapter traces the development of the relationship between the Church of the East and the Iranian Empire, which took shape over the course of two centuries. It details how Christians ...
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This concluding chapter traces the development of the relationship between the Church of the East and the Iranian Empire, which took shape over the course of two centuries. It details how Christians were the unwavering allies of Iran, even potentially more committed to the Sasanian dynasty than the Iranian aristocrats who had abandoned Yazdgird III, the last king of kings. It also discusses the integration of Christian elites and institutions into the imperial network during the reign of Husraw II; East Syrian elites' participation in Iranian political culture; and how East Syrians were as much the heirs of Iran as were their Zoroastrian peers.Less
This concluding chapter traces the development of the relationship between the Church of the East and the Iranian Empire, which took shape over the course of two centuries. It details how Christians were the unwavering allies of Iran, even potentially more committed to the Sasanian dynasty than the Iranian aristocrats who had abandoned Yazdgird III, the last king of kings. It also discusses the integration of Christian elites and institutions into the imperial network during the reign of Husraw II; East Syrian elites' participation in Iranian political culture; and how East Syrians were as much the heirs of Iran as were their Zoroastrian peers.
Fida J. Adely
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226006901
- eISBN:
- 9780226006925
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226006925.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter focuses on the representation of women’s educational attainment as a development paradox in Jordan and the Middle East. The paradox is in keeping with a larger industry of defining Arab ...
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This chapter focuses on the representation of women’s educational attainment as a development paradox in Jordan and the Middle East. The paradox is in keeping with a larger industry of defining Arab Muslim women in terms of development problems to be addressed through the expertise of development institutions. It is also clearly linked to a persistent and historical discourse about the Middle East, which characterizes its women as oppressed and powerless victims and its culture as retrograde. The global preoccupation with education in the region has figured strongly in such representations, with the state of education being linked to extremism, cultural backwardness, and even violence. Despite the important contributions of scholars studying women in the region over the past few decades, the popular image of Arab Muslim women continues to be that they are oppressed, weak, and passive victims.Less
This chapter focuses on the representation of women’s educational attainment as a development paradox in Jordan and the Middle East. The paradox is in keeping with a larger industry of defining Arab Muslim women in terms of development problems to be addressed through the expertise of development institutions. It is also clearly linked to a persistent and historical discourse about the Middle East, which characterizes its women as oppressed and powerless victims and its culture as retrograde. The global preoccupation with education in the region has figured strongly in such representations, with the state of education being linked to extremism, cultural backwardness, and even violence. Despite the important contributions of scholars studying women in the region over the past few decades, the popular image of Arab Muslim women continues to be that they are oppressed, weak, and passive victims.
Nicolas Blarel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199450626
- eISBN:
- 9780199084968
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199450626.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The conclusion summarizes the findings of the books and then explores further avenues of research. This chapter explains how one needs to look at India’s Israel policy more like a segmented foreign ...
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The conclusion summarizes the findings of the books and then explores further avenues of research. This chapter explains how one needs to look at India’s Israel policy more like a segmented foreign policy-making process with different actors, levels of analysis, and niched interests. At the political-state level, there has always been an impression of policy continuity, because the Indian government followed its historical and principled pro-Palestine policy to satisfy historically-held ideological principles, domestic constituencies and its Arab and Muslim allies in the region. The new Israel policy compromise is now defined by an emerging ‘coalition’ of technical-military experts who appreciate the Israeli military industry’s unique expertise and assistance, and of domestic political and economic actors who benefit from specialised joint ventures (in irrigation technology for example) with Israeli private actors.Less
The conclusion summarizes the findings of the books and then explores further avenues of research. This chapter explains how one needs to look at India’s Israel policy more like a segmented foreign policy-making process with different actors, levels of analysis, and niched interests. At the political-state level, there has always been an impression of policy continuity, because the Indian government followed its historical and principled pro-Palestine policy to satisfy historically-held ideological principles, domestic constituencies and its Arab and Muslim allies in the region. The new Israel policy compromise is now defined by an emerging ‘coalition’ of technical-military experts who appreciate the Israeli military industry’s unique expertise and assistance, and of domestic political and economic actors who benefit from specialised joint ventures (in irrigation technology for example) with Israeli private actors.