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Arab Writings on Islamist Parties and Movements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 January 2011
Extract
The first wave of academic writings on Islamists emerged in the Arab world after the war of June 1967 and the subsequent resurfacing of religious ideologies and religiously inspired social and political movements. Examples in this first wave include works by the Syrian philosopher Sadiq Jalal al-ʿAzm, the Egyptian philosopher Hassan Hanafi, and the Moroccan historian ʿAbdullah al-ʿArawi. These writings advanced three insights. First, the rise of “religious movements,” “religious currents,” and “religious ideologies”—the term islāmī or Islamist was yet to be coined—was seen by some writers as a serious challenge to the legitimacy of the secular state and the secular idea of Pan-Arabism. Second, other writers accused Arab ruling establishments in modernizing countries—the reference was primarily to post-1967 Egypt—of using religious currents and ideologies to enhance the state's popularity and legitimacy in times of crisis. Third, Wahhabism and petrodollars were held responsible by some for the resurfacing of religious currents and their increased appeal in the contest with secular ideas. Most of the writings of the first wave were Egypt centered and were clearly inspired by an antireligious sentiment that saw religious movements and currents as representing an existential threat to secular modernization and progress.
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References
NOTES
1 al-ʿAzm, Sadiq Jalal, Naqd al-Fikr al-Dini (Critique of Religious Thought), 9th ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Taliʿa li-l-Tibaʿa wa-l-Nashar, 2003)Google Scholar; Hanafi, Hassan, al-Hiwar al-Dini wa-l-Thawra (Religious Dialogue and Revolution) (Cairo: al-Markaz al-ʿArabi li-l-Bahth wa-l-Nashar, 1977)Google Scholar; and al-ʿArawi, ʿAbdullah, al-Idiyulujiyya al-ʿArabiyya al-Muʿasira (Contemporary Arab Ideology) (Beirut: Dar al-Haqiqa, 1967)Google Scholar.
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4 In addition to the well-known Muhammad ʿImara and Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the International Institute for Islamic Thought promoted writings on Islamism and Islamist ideas. Examples include Saif al-Din ʿAbdul Fattah Ismaʿil, Nasr Muhammad ʿArif, and Hamid ʿAbdul Majid of the Department of Political Science at Cairo University.
5 al-ʿAnani, Khalil, al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi Misr: Shaykhukha Tusariʿ al-Zaman (Cairo: Maktabat al-Shuruq al-Dawliyya, 2008)Google Scholar.
6 Allani, Alaya, “The Islamists in Tunisia between Confrontation and Participation: 1980–2008,” Journal of North African Studies 14 (2009): 257–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Tozy, Mohamed, “Islamists, Technocrats, and the Palace,” Journal of Democracy 19 (2008): 34–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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9 Hroub, Khaled, Hamas: Political Thought and Practice (Paris: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2000)Google Scholar.
10 A notable exception is the study by the Egyptian political scientist ʿAmar ʿAli Hassan on Sufis in Egypt, al-Sufiya wa-l-Siyasa fi Misr (Sufism and Politics in Egypt) (Cairo: Dar Sharqiyat li-l-Tibaʿa wa-l-Nashar, 2007).