Seminar- Religion and Politics
Religion and Politics in the Middle East
Professor Meir Litvak
Course Description
The course will deal with the interaction between Islam and politics in the modern Middle East (19th and 20th Centuries). It will analyze the formation of religious approaches to politics and government from the pre-modern period till the present, with an emphasis on the modern period; it will discuss the impact of political processes on the evolution of religious ideologies; the use of religion for political mobilization and alternatively as a source of political identity. Among others, the course will discuss the Muslim Brothers movements in various countries; the rise of the radical Salafi-jihadist movement; relations between clergy and state in Iran; the attitude of Islamist movements towards gender issues; the role of religion in the Arab-Israeli conflict and the dilemma of religious movements and democracy.
Course Policy
Smartphones and cellular phones should be shut during class. Laptops are allowed.
Course Requirements (see attached document including examination guidelines)
Mid Term Exam: 15%
Research paper (65%) on any topic related to the courses' general topic, subject to teacher's approval. Students who take the course as a seminar should write a seminar paper (18 and 25 pages excluding bibliography). Students who take the course as an elective should submit a Referat-paper (8 and 13 pages excluding bibliography). Submission dates are set by the University and the Liberal Arts program and must be respected.
Class Participation: 20%
Attendance and Participation:
Attendance to class is mandatory. Students who will miss more than three classes without a valid excuse will not be allowed to take the exam.
1: Islam and Politics: Introduction
Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 1-24.
Bernard Lewis, "The Roots of Muslim Rage," Atlantic Magazine (September 1990).
Ira Lapidus, "State and Religion in Islamic Societies," Past and Present, No. 155 (May 1996), pp. 3-27
2: Early Islamic Reformers
Ali Rahnema, Pioneers of Islamic Revival (New York, 1994), 11-63
Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, pp. 103-160, 171-209
3: Religion and State in Iran
Mansoor Moaddel, "The Shi'i Ulama and the State in Iran," Theory and Society, Vol. 15, No. 4. (Jul., 1986), pp. 519-556.
Janet Afary, "The place of Shi’i clerics in the first Iranian constitution," Critical Research on Religion, 1:3 (2013), pp. 327–346
4. The Muslim Brethren
David Commins, "Hassan al-Banna, 1906-1949," in Ali Rahnema (ed.), Pioneers of Islamic Revival (London, 1988), pp. 125-154.
Munson, Ziad. "Islamic Mobilization." The Sociological Quarterly 42:4 (2001), pp. 487-510.
5. What is Fundamentalism
Nikki Keddie, "The New Religious Politics: Where, When and Why Do Fundamentalisms' Appear?" Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 40, No. 4, (October 1998), pp. 696-723.
6. Sunni Radicalism
Guilain Denoeux, "The forgotten swamp: Navigating political Islam," Middle East Policy 9:2 (June 2002), pp. 56-81
Sayed Khatab, "Hakimiyyah" and "Jahiliyyah" in the Thought of Sayyid Qutb," Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 38, No. 3 (July, 2002), pp. 145-170
7. Shi`i Radicalism and the Iranian Revolution
Shahroukh Akhavi, "The Pahlavi Era," in S. H. Nasr et al. Expectations of the Millenium (Albani, 1989), pp. 218-229
Norman Calder, "Accommodation and Revolution in Imami Shi`i Jurisprudence: Khumayni and the Classical Tradition" Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 18(1982)
Yann Richard, "Modern Iranian Political Thought" in Keddie, Roots of Revolution (New Haven, 1981), pp. 213-230
Misagh Parsa, “Theories of Collective Action and the Iranian Revolution,” Sociological Forum, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Winter, 1988), pp. 44-71
Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown (Oxford, 1985), pp. 91-133.
8: Hizballah: The Party of God in Lebanon
E. Zisser, "Hizballah: Between Armed Struggle and Domestic Politics,” in Barry Rubin (ed.), Revolutionaries and Reformers: Contemporary Islamic Movements in the Middle East (Albany, 2003), pp. 91-104
Hilal Kashan, "Hizbullah’s Jihad Concept," Journal of Religion and Society Vol. 9(2007), pp. 1-19.
9. Islam and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Meir Litvak, "The Islamization of the Israeli-Arab Conflict: the Case of Hamas," Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 23 No. 1(1998), pp. 148-163
Shaul Mishal, "The Pragmatic Dimension of the Palestinian Hamas: A Network Perspective," Armed Forces & Society vol. 29 no. 4 (Summer 2003), pp. 569-589
10. Al-Qaida and Trans-National Terrorism
Quintan Wiktorowicz, "The New Global Threat: Transnational Salafis and Jihad," Middle East Policy Vol. 8, No. 4 (2001), pp. 18–38
Michael Doran, "The Pragmatic Fanaticism of al Qaeda: An Anatomy of Extremism in Middle Eastern Politics." Political Science Quarterly 117 (2), 2002: 177-190.
11. Islamism and Democracy: Compatibility or Conflict
Emmanuel Sivan, "Arabs and Democracy: Illusions of Change," Journal of Democracy 11:3 (July 2000)
Uriya Shavit, "Is Shura a Muslim Form of Democracy? Roots and Systemization of a Polemic," Middle Eastern Studies, 46:3 (2010), 349-374
J. Afary, “The War Against Feminism in the Name of the Almighty: Making Sense of Gender and Fundamentalism," New Left Review (July-August 1997): 89-110.
12. The Islamic Republic of Iran: Islamism or Populism
Mohsen Milani, "The Transformation of the Velayet-e Faqih Institution: From Khomeini to Khamene'i, The Muslim World 82 (1992), 175-190
Walter Posch, The Third World, Global Islam and Pragmatism: The Making of Iranian Foreign Policy, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Research Paper, 2013.
13. Religion and Politics in Iraq
Amatzia Baram, “The radical Shi'ite opposition movements in Iraq,” in Emmanuel Sivan and Menachem Friedman.(eds.), Religious radicalism and politics in the Middle East (Albany, NY , c1990), pp. 95-125
Nimrod Raphaeli, "Understanding Muqtada al-Sadr," Middle East Quarterly Fall 2004, pp. 33-42
14. Islamism and the Arab Spring
Samuel Tadros, "Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood After the Revolution," Current Trends in Islamist Ideology no. 12(2011), pp 5-20
Hassan Mneimneh," The Spring of a New Political Salafism?" Current Trends in Islamist Ideology no. 12(2011), pp. 21-36
Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, "The Dawn of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham," Current Trends in Islamist Ideology no. 16(2014), pp. 5-15.
