Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Islam and state – Arab countries'

This comparative study assesses the state of democracy and examines the process of democratization in the Arab World between the years 1980-1993. It addresses shortcomings in the mainstream democracy literature that excluded the Arab World from the global democratic revolution on political cultural grounds. To fulfil the objectives of this study, I employ both the qualitative and quantitative research approaches to test a number of hypothesized relationships. I hypothesize that transition to democracy is negatively associated with economic development, militarism, U.S. foreign policy, the political economy of oil, and dependency. I contend that emerging civil society institutions so far have had no significant effect on democratization in the Arab World. Finally, I hypothesize that the level of democracy in the Arab World is influenced greatly by the issue of civil rights. In order to investigate the hypothesized relationships, the following data sets have been used: Gastil's Freedom House Data set, "Repression and Freedom in the 1980s" data set, and Vanhanen's 1990 data set. The findings of this study support the aforementioned hypothesized relationships. I find that Arab countries, in general have made modest progress toward democracy, making the Arab World part of the global revolution.

Education in the Arab countries is discussed in the light of ongoing international educational reform. It is argued that education in the Arab/Muslim world faces serious problems. Educational reform cannot be achieved in isolation; it has to be part of a full scale reform that tackles social, economic and cultural issues. It is contended that cultural values, economic, social and political factors in the Arab/Muslim societies have contributed a great deal to the backwardness of education within Arab/Muslim societies. Questions such as whether Arabs/ Muslims could cope with the new trends in education, and whether they would be able to respond to the new ICT revolution and globalisation are addressed. It is also argued that Arabs/Muslims respond to globalisation and ICT in different ways each according to their perspective. This paper explores in detail the factors that shape education in the Arab world. It also attempts to shed light on relations between Arabs/Muslims and the West, considering how they have understood or misunderstood each other throughout the course of history. It is argued here that globalisation has been understood as Westernisation in the Arab/Islamic world due to a long history of mistrust and misunderstanding between the two. However, before undertaking this exploration, a brief summary of the historical background of Arabs I Muslims is provided.

The Arab Middle East began indigenous nation building relatively late in the twentieth century. Issues of legitimacy, identity, and conflicts with the West have plagued Arab nations. Arab states have espoused universal ideologies as solutions to the problems of Arab nation building. The two ideologies of Pan-Arabism and Islamic modernism provided universal solutions to the Arab states. Both Pan-Arabism and Islamic modernism gained validity in political polemics aimed against colonialism, imperialism, Zionism, and the West. Both ideologies promised simple solutions to complex questions of building modern Arab society. Irrespective of ideology, Arab states have always acted in self-interest to perceived external threats. The West has perpetuated universal solutions to Arab nation building through continued intervention in the Middle East. The Arabs perpetuated universal solutions to Arab- nation building as panacea to the problems of becoming modern nations.

This is an inquiry into cultural constructions of "Islamic violence" in dominant Northern discourses. Mainstream Canadian journalism's participation in these discourses is analyzed within the context of its cultural and structural integration into global media networks. Media materials are scrutinized using critical discourse, dramatistic, and ritual analysis methodologies. The thesis follows Hamid Mowlana's suggestion that inquiries into international communication flows should move beyond traditional paradigms of inter-national relations (in which nation-states are the primary objects of study) to consider intra- and transnational participants as well.
Borrowing from Jacques Ellul, this study examines the importance of myth as a fundamental basis of communication. However, unlike Ellul, it also explores alternatives to the operations of dominant communication structures. Edward Said's critique of Orientalism informs the analysis of Northern portrayals of Muslim societies; but the dissertation attempts to avoid overstating the Orientalist discourses' hegemony by proposing a model of competition among dominant, oppositional and alternative discourses on "Islam."
Mainstream media's adherence to dominant technological myths and their general reticence about the structural and direct violence of elite states are examined. Distinct similarities are found between the utopic orientations and technical operations of dominant Northern and Muslim discourses, as well as in Jewish, Christian and Muslim conceptions of holy/just war. The proliferation of contemporary Northern images about "Islam" are traced historically to four primary stereotypes about Muslims.
Examinations of the supposedly objective and secularist media reportage on terrorism show differences in portrayal according to the perpetrators' religions. Analyses of the coverage of wars involving peoples of Muslim backgrounds in the Middle East, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the former USSR demonstrate the tendency of dominant journalistic scripts to attribute diverse political, economic and territorial conflicts to a monolithic "lslam" The dissertation traces how the global media narrative's transformation of Saddam Hussein from an ally of the West to a demonic despot was aided by according him "Islamic" characteristics. It also looks at the emergence of "Islam" as a post-Cold War Other. Lastly, proposals made by scholars and journalists for enhancing inter-cultural communication between Northern and Muslim societies are considered.

Dans un essai qui aurait tout aussi bien pu s'intituler « L'islam chiite entre la politique et la religion, le cas du Liban », une analyse de l'islam politique demeure nécessaire pour mettre la lumière sur la différence entre islamisme et religion musulmane. Avec un peu moins de deux milliards de musulmans dans le monde, la religion musulmane est devenue la première religion pratiquée dans le monde actuel. Le dynamique de cette religion a permis la création d'un immense empire aux populations hétérogènes. Ainsi que, la coexistence entre religion et régime politique a provoquée de véritables luttes armées entre les grandes familles politico-religieuses, notamment le sunnisme et le chiisme. Le sunnisme ayant souvent l'étiquette d'orthodoxie a gardé cette aspect alors que le chiisme devint autres chose ce qu'il était à l'origine, lorsqu'on y voyait seulement le parti qui s'était rassemblé autour d'Ali ibn Abî Tâlib, cousin et gendre du prophète Mohammad. Dans ses quelques traitements de la doctrine islamique nous constatons que ces familles politico-religieuses, tant sunnites que chiites, proliférèrent les unes à côté des autres en même temps qu'elles se combattirent et souvent se condamnèrent réciproquement. Ceci est dû au fait qu'en l'islam, il n'y a jamais eu de pouvoir interprétatif qualifié, individuel ou collégial capable de s'imposer sans conteste.L'effondrement de l'Empire Ottoman donna l'occasion à la France et la Grande-Bretagne de partager le monde arabe sur la base des fameux accords Sykes-picot. La France va restructurer les territoires syrien et libanais, elle établit la structure constitutionnelle confessionnelle complexe du Liban, faisant du pays de Cèdre le plus grand laboratoire du communautarisme. Dans le Liban d'après-guerre, le communautarisme va de soi, il reflète l'état de la société et celle de la conciliation entre spécificités confessionnelle et principe fondamental de l'Etat nation. Le communautarisme libanais va évoluer à travers des mutations économiques, sociales et politiques, notamment chez la communauté chiite. Nous présenterons l'évolution de la communauté chiite dans cet environnement, ainsi que le rôle fondamental joué par Moussa el-Sadr dans la libération de la communauté chiite. Son objectif étant une réaction à la conscience politique du «Metwali». Sa première action était la lutte contre les inégalités sociales et devait s'engager avec l'Etat libanais dans une série d'affrontements qui couvraient souvent un aspect spectaculaire: grève générale en 1970, avertissement au gouvernement et à la réunion de 1974 à Baalbeck que Moussa-El -Sadr a annoncé la naissance du mouvement AMAL. Ce mouvement joue un rôle essentiel dans la vie politique libanaise. Enfin, nous consacrons une partie de ce travail à l'émergence d'une milice radicale pro-iranienne chiite, le Hezbollah, qui a pénétré le système politique libanais. Sa place est privilégiée à cause de ses succès dans la résistance contre Israël, de ses actions sociales et humaines et de ses organisations. La timide participation du « parti de Dieu » au parlement libanais constituait un premier pas vers la « libanisation » du parti. En 2012, le parti chiite annonce sa participation aux combats en Syrie à côté de l'armée de Bachar el-Assad, freinant ainsi le processus de libanisation. Le Hezbollah devient un des acteurs incontournables de la géopolitique du Moyen Orient et retourne en force sur la scène politique libanaise pour s'inscrire dans le cadre d'un chiisme politique international
In an essay that might as well have been entitled "Shia Islam between politics and religion, the case of Lebanon", an analysis of political Islam remains necessary to shed light on the difference between Islamism and religion Muslim. With just under two billion Muslims in the world, the Muslim religion has become the first religion practiced in the world today.The dynamics of this religion allowed the creation of an immense empire with heterogeneous populations. As well as, the coexistence between religion and political regime provoked real armed struggles between the big politico-religious families, notably Sunnism and Shiism.Sunnism often had the label of orthodoxy, but Shiism became something else that it was originally when one saw only the party that had gathered around Ali ibn Abi. Tâlib, cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Mohammad. In his few treatments of Islamic doctrine we find that these politico-religious families, both Sunni and Shiite, proliferated alongside each other at the same time that they fought each other and often condemned each other. This is due to the fact that in Islam there has never been a qualified, individual or collegiate interpretative power capable of imposing itself unquestionably.The collapse of the Ottoman Empire gave France and Britain the opportunity to share the Arab world on the basis of the famous Sykes-picot agreements. France will restructure the Syrian and Lebanese territories, it establishes the complex confessional constitutional structure of Lebanon, making the country of Cedar the largest laboratory of communitarianism. In post-war Lebanon, communitarianism is self-evident, reflecting the state of society and the reconciliation of confessional specificities with the fundamental principle of the nation-state. Lebanese communitarianism will evolve through economic, social and political changes, especially among the Shia community.We will present the evolution of the Shiite community in this environment, as well as the fundamental role played by Moussa el-Sadr in the liberation of the Shia community. His goal is a reaction to the political conscience of "Metwali". Its first action was the fight against social inequalities and was to engage with the Lebanese State in a series of clashes that often covered a spectacular aspect: general strike in 1970, warning to the government and to the 1974 meeting in Baalbeck that Moussa-El -Sadr announced the birth of the AMAL movement. This movement plays a vital role in Lebanese politics. Finally, we devote part of this work to the emergence of a radical pro-Iranian Shiite militia, Hezbollah, which has penetrated the Lebanese political system. His place is privileged because of his successes in the resistance against Israel, his social and human actions and his organizations. The timid participation of the "party of God" in the Lebanese parliament was a first step towards the "libanization" of the party. In 2012, the Shiite party announced its participation in the fighting in Syria next to the army of Bashar al-Assad, thus curbing the process of Lebanization. Hezbollah becomes one of the key players in the geopolitics of the Middle East and returns in force on the Lebanese political scene to be part of an international political Shiism

La protection constitutionnelle des droits de l’homme dans le monde arabe repose sur un processus complexe de démocratisation qui s’est accéléré après le Printemps arabe de 2011. L’émergence des droits de l’Homme s’impose comme un projet politique fort dans tous les pays qui sont l’objet de notre étude (Tunisie, Égypte, Algérie, Maroc) et nous démontre que le concept démocratique, dans son acception universaliste, n’est pas incompatible avec l’Islam. La constitutionnalisation des droits de l’Homme reste un apport majeur des mouvements constitutionnalistes qui ont érigé la constitution au rang de norme suprême de l’État de droit. Malgré l’instrumentalisation des constitutions par les dirigeants arabes et l’utilisation abusive de l’état d’urgence, nous assistons au rôle croissant du juge constitutionnel dans la protection des libertés fondamentales (contrôle constitutionnel) sous l’œil vigilent de la société civile et de la communauté internationale
The constitutional protection of human rights in the Arab world is based on a complex process of democratization that has accelerated after the Arab Spring of 2011. The emergence of human rights is a strong political project in all the countries that are the subject of our study (Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco) and shows us that the democratic concept, in its universalist sense, is not incompatible with Islam. The constitutionalization of human rights remains a major contribution of the constitutionalist movements that have made the constitution a supreme norm of the rule of law. Despite the instrumentalization of constitutions by Arab leaders and the misuse of the state of emergency, we are witnessing the growing role of the constitutional judge in the protection of fundamental freedoms (constitutional control) under the watchful eye of civil society and international community

Defence date: 17 October 2013
Examining Board: Professor Donatella della Porta, European University Institute (Supervisor) Professor Olivier Roy, European University Institute (Co-supervisor) Professor Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University Professor Farhad Khosrokhavar, École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.
First made available online on 28 January 2019
This thesis explores the contemporary Islamist project-constituted by those that mobilize to restructure public life according to Islamic norms-in the context of the 2011-2013 "Arab Spring".The thesis has two interrelated aims. First, it aims to empirically explore changing interactions between Islamist mobilization in politic and in society,and examine the position state in stitutions have within these changes. Second, it aims to apply insights of studies on social movements and contentious mobilization in the analysis of these interactions. The thesis'main contentions are, first,that in their practice Islamist movements face a dilemma in how to react to a context that is ever more strictly divided between a social and political arena:either mobilization is aimed at societal change through organizing as social associations, or it is aimed at maximizing political influence through organizing as political parties. Irrespective of what their ideology is, all movements face the dilemma of how to reconcile a vision of a complete Islamic system with day-to-day realities. Second, I argue that common strategies addressing the perceived "secularity" of state bureaucracies and public institutions can be the basis of a shared goal for mobilization and thereby ensure the unity of the Islamist project. Two specific debates on contentious mobilization-relating to dilemmas of strategic action and the social process of "upward scale shift"-are then used in conjuncture with one another to provide insights into how these state institutions can influence the relation between Islamist mobilization in society and politics. I substantiate these claims through a paired comparison between Syria and Tunisia. The comparison builds on, first, extensive fieldwork over the course of four years in the Arab world (mainly Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Jordan) in whic haround 180 individuals have been interviewed. Second, it draws on a content analysis of primary sources from Islamist associations, state institutions, and individual autobiographies of (Islamist)actors; third, it uses secondary sources from local, Arab and international newspapers as the empirical basis for the analysis.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
While the Arab spring succeeded in ousting the long-term dictator led governments from power in many Arab countries, leading the way to a new democratic process to develop in the Arab world, it did not end the old suspicions between Arab Muslims and the West. This research investigates the beginning of the relations between the Arab Muslims and the West as they have developed over time, and then focuses its analysis on perceptions from both sides beginning with 9/11 through the events known as the Arab spring. The framework for analysis is a communication perspective, as embodied in the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM). According to CMM, communication can be understood as forms of interactions that both constitute and frame reality. The study posits the analysis that the current Arab Muslim-West divide, is often a conversation that is consistent with what CMM labels as the ethnocentric pattern. This analysis will suggest a new pathway, one that follows the CMM cosmopolitan form, as a more fruitful pattern for the future of Arab Muslim-West relations. This research emphasizes the factors fueling this ethnocentric pattern, in addition to ways of bringing the Islamic world and the West to understand each other with a more cosmopolitan approach, which, among other things, accepts mutual differences while fostering agreements. To reach this core, the study will apply a direct communicative engagement between the Islamic world and the West to foster trusted relations, between the two.

D.Litt. et Phil.
Shûrâ (consultation) as prescribed conduct is found in the Qur'ân (3:159, 42:36-38, 2:33). The Sunnah also refers to several occasions where the Prophet (S.A.W.) sought the advice of his companions. In his own life the principle was thus put to practice. The same custom was also, in varying degrees, part of Islâmic governance during the period of the rightly guided caliphs and in the subsequent Umayyad and Abbasid eras. Seen from a political perspective, the question researched in the thesis is what guidelines tradition provides for conducting shûrâ in its institutionalised or political form, namely majlis (gathering). A scrutiny of history showed that in the Prophetic epoch the consultative setting varied considerably and the advice of both the minority and the majority was accepted. A kernel group can, however, be discerned with whom the Prophet consulted regularly. Members of this majlis also played a role in the election of three of the rightly guided caliphs. However, in their time, due to the considerable expansion of the Islâmic Empire, several structures came into being, which competed with the existing majlis. In the subsequent Umayyad and Abbasid era, bureaucratic organisations seemingly completely overshadowed the consultative assembly. Due to the hereditary succession, the majlis, for example, played very little, if any, role in the appointment of the caliphs. Endeavours to rule according to the Sharî`ah was however a constant factor at all times. Deriving principles from history is difficult, particularly the modern world where Western political institutions and procedures have become established even in Muslim states. The question is whether the Western heritage should be accepted or Islamised. An obvious choice is the last-mentioned one. For the purpose of the thesis majlis is thus related to Parliament and ijmâ` to majority rule. The role of President and Prime Minister is correlated with that of the traditional Amîr. For all the procedures, institutions and functions, however, an attempt is made towards an Islâmic adaptation. For this purpose a study is first of all made of Saudi Arabia (Sunnite) and Iran (Shi`ite). Both have, as one of their governing institutions, a Majlis al-Shûrâ. In Saudi Arabia it is appointed by the king, in Iran it is elected by popular vote but remains under constant scrutiny of the Guardian Council. Although both the said systems of government are exemplary in many aspects, an alternative version is suggested in the thesis in order to overcome some shortcomings in the two systems. In describing the alternative system, attention is paid to questions such as the relationship of the people, the majlis and the amîr (leader). It is argued that the majlis should be chosen through general elections and that they, in turn, should elect the amîr. The principle of majority rule is thus accepted, but with a strong accent upon the requirement of moral and religious values and striving towards consensus in decisions. Arbitration is suggested in the case of disagreement between the amîr and the people, or a referendum in which case the people are directly consulted. A separate majlis for men and women respectively is suggested (without denying alternatives). The study, however, accepts the fluidity of any idealised majlis or proposed governmental structure. Principles precede and supersede practice. What remains are the challenges toward Islâmic governance, to work towards furthering of Dîn (religion) and the benefit of the people through insistence upon adherence to the Sharî`ah. At the same time it should be remembered that governance is a combined effort where the amîr has the right to a final decision, but also the obligation to rule through consultation. The thesis of this study is therefore that: - Modern democratic institutions are, with the necessary Islamic orientations, legitimate expressions of shûrâ in its institutionalised form, - The parliamentary systems in modern Islâmic states may be regarded as heirs of the majlis in early Islâmic history The above contentions do not mean that political dimension of shûrâ supersedes all others. It is only one of the forms in which shûrâ is put into practice. It does not agree with the view that the principle of shûrâ was revitalised in modern times to provide an Islâmic orientation for majority or parliamentary rule. Neither does it accept the contention that shûrâ (formally Majlis al-Shûrâ) was adhered to only in the initial period and naîâh later.