Remaking Muslim Politics

There is a struggle for the hearts and minds of Muslims unfolding across the Islamic world. The conflict pits Muslims who support pluralism and democracy against others who insist such institutions are antithetical to Islam. With some 1.3 billion people worldwide professing Islam, the outcome of this contest is sure to be one of the defining political events of the twenty-first century. Bringing together twelve engaging essays by leading specialists focusing on individual countries, this pioneering book examines the social origins of civil-democratic Islam, its long-term prospects, its implications for the West, and its lessons for our understanding of religion and politics in modern times. Although depicted by its opponents as the product of political ideas "made in the West" civil-democratic Islam represents an indigenous politics that seeks to build a distinctive Islamic modernity. In countries like Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia, it has become a major political force. Elsewhere its influence is apparent in efforts to devise Islamic grounds for women's rights, religious tolerance, and democratic citizenship. Everywhere it has generated fierce resistance from religious conservatives. Examining this high-stakes clash, Remaking Muslim Politics breaks new ground in the comparative study of Islam and democracy. The contributors are Bahman Baktiari, Thomas Barfield, John R. Bowen, Dale F. Eickelman, Robert W. Hefner, Peter Mandaville, Augustus Richard Norton, Gwenn Okruhlik, Michael G. Peletz, Diane Singerman, Jenny B. White, and Muhammad Qasim Zaman.

There is a struggle for the hearts and minds of Muslims unfolding across the Islamic world. The conflict pits Muslims who support pluralism and democracy against others who insist such institutions are antithetical to Islam. With some 1.3 billion people worldwide professing Islam, the outcome of this contest is sure to be one of the defining political events of the twenty-first century. Bringing together twelve engaging essays by leading specialists focusing on individual countries, this pioneering book examines the social origins of civil-democratic Islam, its long-term prospects, its implications for the West, and its lessons for our understanding of religion and politics in modern times. Although depicted by its opponents as the product of political ideas "e;made in the West"e; civil-democratic Islam represents an indigenous politics that seeks to build a distinctive Islamic modernity. In countries like Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia, it has become a major political force. Elsewhere its influence is apparent in efforts to devise Islamic grounds for women's rights, religious tolerance, and democratic citizenship. Everywhere it has generated fierce resistance from religious conservatives. Examining this high-stakes clash, Remaking Muslim Politics breaks new ground in the comparative study of Islam and democracy. The contributors are Bahman Baktiari, Thomas Barfield, John R. Bowen, Dale F. Eickelman, Robert W. Hefner, Peter Mandaville, Augustus Richard Norton, Gwenn Okruhlik, Michael G. Peletz, Diane Singerman, Jenny B. White, and Muhammad Qasim Zaman.

Acknowledgments viiNote on Transliteration ixContributors xiCHAPTER 1: Introduction: Modernity and the Remaking of Muslim Politics by Robert W. Hefner 1CHAPTER 2: New Media in the Arab Middle East and the Emergence of Open Societies by Dale F. Eickelman 37CHAPTER 3: Pluralism, Democracy, and the 'Ulama by Muhammad Qasim Zaman 60CHAPTER 4: The End of Islamism? Turkey's Muslimhood Model by Jenny B.White 87CHAPTER 5: Dilemmas of Reform and Democracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran by Bahman Baktiari 112CHAPTER 6: Thwarted Politics: The Case of Egypt's Hizb al-Wasat Augustus by Richard Norton 133CHAPTER 7: Rewriting Divorce in Egypt: Reclaiming Islam, Legal Activism, and Coalition Politics by Diane Singerman 161CHAPTER 8: Empowering Civility through Nationalism: Reformist Islam and Belonging in Saudi Arabia by Gwenn Okruhlik 189CHAPTER 9: An Islamic State Is a State Run by Good Muslims: Religion as a Way of Life and Not an Ideology in Afghanistan by Thomas Barfield 213CHAPTER 10: Islam and the Cultural Politics of Legitimacy: Malaysia in the Aftermath of September 11 by Michael G. Peletz 240CHAPTER 11: Muslim Democrats and Islamist Violence in Post-Soeharto Indonesia by Robert W. Hefner 273CHAPTER 12: Sufis and Salafis: The Political Discourse of Transnational Islam by Peter Mandaville 302CHAPTER 13: Pluralism and Normativity in French Islamic Reasoning by John R. Bowen 326Index 347