School of Social and Political Science
Politics and International Relations
University of Edinburgh
Political Islam
PLIT10089
Semester 2, 2012-2013
Course convenor: Dr Ewan Stein
ewan.stein@ed.ac.uk
Phone: 50 4264
Chrystal Macmillan Building, Room 4.27
Office hours: Wednesdays 2.30-4.30
Course secretary: Ms. Ruth Winkle
Ruth.Winkle@ed.ac.uk
Chrystal Macmillan Building, Room 1.11
Phone: 50 4253
I. Course Overview:
Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini proclaimed Iran an 'Islamic Republic' in 1979 political Islam
has seemed an unstoppable force. Though often accused of being ‘anti-democratic’
Islamists of various stripes have excelled in electoral politics. In 2002 the Justice and
Development Party swept to power in Turkey and played a key role in reinforcing the
‘civil’ nature of the Turkish state. In 2006 Islamist Hamas routed secular Fatah in
democratic elections in Palestine. In Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Yemen and elsewhere,
Islamists thrived as opposition forces under authoritarian rule and realised extensive
cultural gains. In early 2011 it was a largely secular wave of mass protest that toppled
dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt, but Islamism appears to be consolidating itself in each
of these states. So what is political Islam? Is it compatible with democracy? What are its
intellectual, social and historical roots? How do Islamists behave when in power and
why? These are some of the central questions to be addressed in this course.
II. Learning outcomes
1. Detailed knowledge of the main trends of political Islam in the Middle East
2. Ability to relate the ideological aspects of political Islam to political context
3. Critical understanding of different scholarly approaches and perspectives on
political Islam
4. Ability to discuss and debate political Islam with reference to broad academic
literature on the topic.
III. Teaching arrangements
The course will be via one weekly lecture and a weekly tutorial, with tutorials beginning in
Week 2. Students are expected to attend all lectures and tutorials, and are expected to complete
their coursework on time. It is expected that students will read all the required readings each
week. All students are expected to read in preparation for each tutorial so that they can
participate fully in class discussion. Please use the tutorial discussion questions as a guide for
reading and prepare some thoughts on those, and further questions based on your reading,
prior to each class.
Lecture: Thursdays, 12:10 - 13:00, Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 1
Tutorials: Fridays 10.00-.11.00 (2.3, 22 Buccleuch Place); 11.00-12.00 (2.3, 22 Buccleuch
Place); 12.00-1.00 (3.3, 22 Buccleuch Place); 2.00-3.00 (3.3, 22 Buccleuch Place); 2.00-3.00
(22 Buccleuch Place).
IV. Assessment
The course will be assessed as follows:
-
One 2000 word essay (40 %)
One final exam (60%)
Essay questions:
1. Do you agree that political inclusion leads to the moderation of Islamist
groups? Illustrate your answer with reference to at least two cases.
2. Is Islamist rule a threat to civil and political freedoms?
3. The best way to understand political Islam is to study Islamist ideology. Do
you agree?
4. Are women victims of, or a driving force behind, the ‘Islamic revival’ in the
Middle East?
5. Islamist governments represent a serious threat to Western interests in the
Middle East. Do you agree?
6. What explains the new prominence of apparently ‘apolitical’ Salafis in
contemporary Egyptian politics?
7. When Tunisians and Egyptians overthrew their leaders in early 2011, some
Iranian politicians saw their own ‘Islamic Revolution’ as the model. Were
they right?
8. To what extent has the ‘Arab Spring’ damaged or enhanced the prospects of
Al Qaeda?
V. Assessment Criteria
The following are the criteria through which the essay will be marked. However, it is
important to note that the overall mark is a result of a holistic assessment of the assignment
as a whole.






Does the assignment address the question set, and with sufficient focus?
Does the assignment show a grasp of the relevant concepts and
knowledge?
Does the assignment demonstrate a logical and effective pattern of
argument?
Does the assignment support arguments with relevant, accurate and
effective forms of evidence?
Does the assignment demonstrate reflexivity and critical thinking in
relation to arguments and evidence?
Is the assignment adequately presented in terms of: correct referencing
and quoting; spelling, grammar and style; layout and visual presentation.
Please see the ‘Honours Handbook’ for further information on submission of
coursework; ‘Late Penalty Waivers’; plagiarism; learning disabilities, special
circumstances; common marking descriptors, re-marking procedures and appeals”.
VI: Course Outline
Week 1, 17 January: Introduction to Political Islam
Part One: Trends in Political Islam
Week 2, 23 January: The Muslim Brotherhood
Week 3, 31 January: Salafism
Week 4, 7 February: Violent Islamism
Week 5, 14 February: The Iranian revolution and its impact
21 February: No lecture or classes (Innovative Learning Week)
Part Two: Themes in Political Islam
Week 6, 28 February: Islamism in opposition
Week 7, 7 March: Islamism in Power
Week 8, 14 March: Islamism and society: class, gender and culture
Week 9, 21 March: Geopolitics and International Relations
Week 10, 28 March: Revision session
VII: Course readings
Learn and Online Readings
This course is accompanied by a Learn page, which students can access through their
personal university accounts. Students can access Learn for a number of useful resources
related to this course, including weekly course notes, links to online readings and essay
questions.
There is a huge array of information and opinion on political Islam available online and
students are encouraged to make use of it. But web sources should be used critically.
This means being able to recognise bias, polemic and distortion. Journalistic sources are
often of very high quality and can be used as sources for empirical data and analysis. But
in seminar discussions and writings students should move beyond the journalistic register
and draw upon scholarly sources via journals and books.
Week 1
Introduction to Political Islam
This lecture will introduce political Islam in the Middle East. It will outline the main
currents within political Islam and introduce some important analytic issues that will
underpin the course.
No tutorial
Essential readings
Denoeux, Guilain. ‘The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam’. Middle East Policy 9,
no. 2 (June 1, 2002): 56–81. Also in Volpi, Critical Reader.
Sadowski, Yahya. ‘POLITICAL ISLAM: Asking the Wrong Questions?’ Annual Review of
Political Science 9, no. 1 (2006): 215–240.
Hamid, Shadi. ‘The Rise of the Islamists’. Foreign Affairs, June 1, 2011.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67696/shadi-hamid/the-rise-of-the-islamists.
Hroub, Khaled. ‘Introduction’. In Political Islam: Context Versus Ideology, edited by Khalid
Hroub. SOAS Middle East Issues. London: Saqi in association with London Middle
East Institute, SOAS, 2010.
Mandaville, Peter. Global Political Islam. Routledge, 2007. (Introduction)
Additional reading
Ayubi, Nazih N. M. Political Islam: religion and politics in the Arab world. Routledge, 1991.
Burgat, Francois, ‘From national struggle to the disillusionments of “recolonization”: the
triple temporality of Islamism.’ in Volpi, Frederic. Political Islam: A Critical Reader.
1st ed. Routledge, 2010.
Burgat, François. Face to Face with Political Islam. I.B.Tauris, 2003.
Davis, E. ‘The Concept of Revival and the Study of Islam and Politics’. In The Islamic
Impulse, edited by B.F. Stowasser. London: Croom Helm in association with Center
for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, 1987.
Eickelman, Dale F., James Piscatori, and James P. Piscatori. Muslim politics. Princeton
University Press, 2004.
Esposito, John L., and John L. Esposito John Obert Voll. Makers Of Contemporary Islam.
Oxford University Press, 2001.
Gellner, Ernest. Muslim society. Cambridge University Press, 1983. Chapter 1
Halliday, Fred. Islam and the myth of confrontation: religion and politics in the Middle
East. I.B.Tauris, 2003. [Chapter/article on Orientalism]
Ismail, Salwa. Rethinking Islamist Politics: Culture, the State and Islamism. I.B.Tauris,
2006.
Lewis, Bernard. ‘The Roots of Muslim Rage’. The Atlantic, September 1990.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1990/09/the-roots-of-muslimrage/304643/.
Roy, Olivier. Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers,
2004.
———. The Failure of Political Islam. I.B.Tauris, 1994.
Schulze, Reinhard. A Modern History of the Islamic World. New York: NYU Press, 2002.
(Chapters 1-3)
Hourani, Albert H. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. London; New York:
Oxford University Press, 1962. (Chapters 7 and 9)
Zubaida, Sami. ‘Is There a Muslim Society? Ernest Gellner’s Sociology of Islam’. Economy
and Society 24 (May 1995): 151–188.
———. Islam, the People and the State: Political Ideas and Movements in the Middle East.
New ed. I.B.Tauris, 1993.
Part1: Trends within Political Islam
Week 2
The Muslim Brotherhood
What were the original goals of the Muslim Brotherhood and how have they changed over
time? How important has been context in determining the ideology and behaviour of the
Muslim Brotherhood? What have been some of the tensions within the Egyptian Muslim
Brotherhood?
Essential readings
Brownlee, Jason. “The Muslim Brothers: Egypt’s Most Influential Pressure Group,” History
Compass 8, no. 5 (May 1, 2010): 419-430.
Kepel, Gilles. The Prophet and Pharaoh: Muslim Extremism in Contemporary Egypt.
London: Al Saqi Books, 1985. (Chapters 1 and 2)
Teitelbaum, Joshua. “The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, 1945-1958: Founding, Social
Origins, Ideology.” Middle East Journal 65, no. 2 (Spring2011): 213-233.
Zollner, Barbara. “Prison Talk: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Internal Struggle During Gamal
Abdel Nasser’s Persecution, 1954 to 1971.” International Journal of Middle East
Studies 39, no. 3 (2007): 411-433.
Additional readings
Al-Awadi, Hesham. In pursuit of legitimacy: the Muslim Brothers and Mubarak, 19822000. I.B.Tauris, 2004.
Baker, Raymond William. Islam Without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists. Harvard
University Press, 2006.
Johnston, David L. “Hassan al-Hudaybi and the Muslim Brotherhood: Can Islamic
Fundamentalism Eschew the Islamic State?” Comparative Islamic Studies 3, no. 1
(June 2007): 39-56.
Lia, Brynjar. The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: the Rise of an Islamic Mass
Movement 1928-1942. Reading: Garnet, 1998.
Mitchell, Richard P. The Society of the Muslim Brothers. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1993.
Soage, Ana Belén. “Hasan al-Banna or the Politicisation of Islam.” Totalitarian Movements
& Political Religions 9, no. 1 (June 2008): 21-42.
Week 3
Salafism
What are the defining characteristics of Salafist thought? How does Salafism compare
with the Muslim Brotherhood? What explains Salafist political engagement in the wake
of the ‘Arab Spring?’
Required readings
Haykal, Bernard. ‘On the Nature of Salafi Thought and Action’. In Global Salafism: Islam’s
New Religious Movement. Columbia University Press, 2009.
Lacroix, Stéphane. Sheikhs and Politicians: Inside the New Egyptian Salafism. Brookings
Doha Center Publications. Brookings Doha Center, June 11, 2012.
http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/06/07-egyptian-salafism-lacroix.
Meijer, Roel. ‘Salafism: Doctrine, Diversity and Practice’. In Political Islam: Context Versus
Ideology, edited by Khalid Hroub. SOAS Middle East Issues. London: Saqi in
association with London Middle East Institute, SOAS, 2010.
Various. The New Salafi Politics. POMEPS Briefing. Arab Uprisings. POMEPS, FP, October
16, 2012. (Please read at least 3 short articles).
Additional readings
Delong-Bas, Natana J. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. I.B.Tauris,
2007.
Gauvain, Richard. ‘Salafism in Modern Egypt: Panacea or Pest?’ Political Theology 11, no.
6 (December 2010): 802–825.
Meijer, Roel. Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement. Columbia University
Press, 2009.
Wagemakers, Joas. A Quietist Jihadi. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
_________. ‘Framing the “Threat to Islam”: Al-wala’ wa Al-bara’ in Salafi Discourse’. Arab
Studies Quarterly (Fall 2008).
Week 4
Violent Islamism
Why have Islamists turned to violence? What explains the shift in target from the ‘near’
to the ‘far’ enemy? How important has local context versus jihadist ideology been for Al
Qaeda and/or other Islamist entities?
Essential Reading
Gerges, Fawaz A. The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. 2nd ed. Cambridge University
Press, 2009. Chapter 3.
Hafez, Mohammed M. Why Muslims Rebel: Repression and Resistance in the Islamic
World. New edition. Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc, 2004. (Chapters 1 and 2)
Jones, Clive. ‘The Tribes That Bind: Yemen and the Paradox of Political Violence’. Studies
in Conflict & Terrorism 34, no. 12 (2011): 902–916.
doi:10.1080/1057610X.2011.621117.
Wictorowicz, Quintan, “A genealogy of radical Islam” in Volpi, Frederic. Political Islam: A
Critical Reader. 1st ed. Routledge, 2010.
Additional reading
Abu Amr, Ziyad. Islamic fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood
and Islamic Jihad. Indiana University Press, 1994.
Ashour, Omar. The de-radicalization of Jihadists: transforming armed Islamist movements.
Taylor & Francis, 2009.
Bergen, Peter. Holy War, Inc. Free Press, 2001.
Burke, Jason. Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam. Penguin Books Ltd, 2004.
Calvert, John. Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism. C Hurst & Co Publishers
Ltd, 2010.
Dalacoura, Katerina. Islamist Terrorism and Democracy in the Middle East. Cambridge
University Press, 2011.
Devji, Faisal. Landscapes of the Jihad: militancy, morality, modernity. Hurst & Company,
2005.
Euben, Roxanne. Enemy in the mirror: Islamic fundamentalism and the limits of modern
rationalism: a work of comparative political theory. Princeton, N.J.; Chichester:
Princeton University Press, 1999.
Farrall, Leah. “How al Qaeda Works,” Foreign Affairs 90, no. 2 (Apr2011): 128-138.
Gerges, Fawaz A. “The decline of revolutionary Islam in Algeria and Egypt.” Survival 41,
no. 1 (Spring 1999): 113-25.
_________. The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press,
2009. (Chapter 3)
Goldberg, Ellis. “Smashing idols and the state: The Protestant ethic and Egyptian Sunni
radicalism.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 33, no. 1 (1991): 3-35.
Halliday, Fred. Two Hours That Shook the World: September 11, 2001 - Causes and
Consequences. Saqi Books, 2001.
Hegghammer, Thomas. Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979.
Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Kepel, Gilles. The Prophet and Pharaoh: Muslim Extremism in Contemporary Egypt.
London: Al Saqi Books, 1985.
Lindo, Samuel, Michael Schoder, and Tyler Jones. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
AQAM Futures Project case study series. Center for Strategic and International
Studies, July 2011.
Martinez, Luis. The Algerian Civil War: 1990-1998. London: C. Hurst in association with
the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, Paris, 2000.
McCants, William. “Al Qaeda’s Challenge.” Foreign Affairs 90, no. 5 (October 2011): 2032.
Meijer, Roel “The ‘cycle of contention’ and the limits of terrorism in Saudi Arabia” in
Aarts, Paul, and Gerd Nonneman eds. Saudi Arabia in the Balance: Political Economy,
Society, Foreign Affairs. New York University Press, 2007.
Mendelsohn, Barak. “Al-Qaeda’s Franchising Strategy,” Survival 53 (July 2011): 29-50.
Musallam, Adnan. From Secularism to Jihad: Sayyid Qutb and the Foundations of Radical
Islamism. Wesport, Conn; London: Praeger, 2005.
Phillips, Sarah. ‘Al-Qaeda and the Struggle for Yemen.’ Survival 53, no. 1 (20110201): 95.
Qutb, Sayyid. Milestones. American Trust, 1990.
Roy, Olivier. Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers,
2004.
Sageman, Marc. Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century
(Philadlephia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
Soriano, Manuel R. Torres. “The Evolution of the Discourse of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb: Themes, Countries and Individuals,” Mediterranean Politics 16 (July 2011):
279-298.
Stein, Ewan. “What does the Gama‘a Islamiyya want now?” Middle East Report 254
(Spring 2010).
_________. “An ‘uncivil’ partnership: Egypt’s Jama’a Islamiyya and the state after the
jihad.” Third World Quarterly 33, no. 5 (June 2011).
Wright, Lawrence. The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda’s Road to 9/11. Penguin, 2007.
Zayyat, Montasser al-. The Road to al-Qaeda: the Story of Bin Laden’s Right-Hand Man.
Pluto Press, 2004.
Week 5
The Iranian revolution and its impact
What were the social and ideological underpinnings of the Iranian revolution? What
influence did the Iranian Revolution have on the regional rise of political Islam from the
1980s?
Essential readings
Abdelnasser, Walid M. ‘Islamic Organizations in Egypt and the Iranian Revolution of 1979:
The Experience of the First...’ Arab Studies Quarterly 19, no. 2 (Spring97 1997): 25.
Alagha, Joseph. Hizbullah’s Documents: From the 1985 Manifesto to the 2009 Manifesto.
Amsterdam University Press, 2010. (Please read the 1985 and 2009 ‘manifestos’)
Hunter, Shireen T. ‘Iran and the Spread of Revolutionary Islam’. Third World Quarterly 10,
no. 2 (April 1, 1988): 730–749.
‘Khomeini: “We Shall Confront the World with Our Ideology”’. MERIP Reports no. 88 (June
1, 1980): 22-25. (Available here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3011306
Additional readings
Abrahamian, Ervand. Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic. University of California
Press, 1993.
___________. Iran between two revolutions. Princeton University Press, 1982.
Bayat, Asef. ‘Revolution Without Movement, Movement Without Revolution: Comparing
Islamic Activism in Iran and Egypt’. Comparative Studies in Society and History 40, no.
1 (January 1, 1998): 136–169.
Esposito, John L ed. The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact. International University
Press, 1990.
Halliday, Fred. Iran: Dictatorship and Development. Penguin Books Ltd, 1979.
Keddie, Nikki R., and Yann Richard. Modern Iran: roots and results of revolution. Yale
University Press, 2006.
Moaddel, Mansoor. “The Social Bases and Discursive Context of the Rise of Islamic
Fundamentalism: The Cases of Iran and Syria.” Sociological Inquiry 66, no. 3 (June
1996): 330-355.
Moghadam, Dr Valentine M. Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the
Middle East. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003. (Chapter 6)
Mottahedeh, Roy. The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran. Oneworld,
2000.
Zubaida, Sami. Islam, the People and the State: Political Ideas and Movements in the
Middle East. I.B.Tauris, 1993.
Week Commencing 18 February 2012
No Lecture or Classes: Innovative Learning Week
Part 2: Themes in Political Islam
Week 6
Islamists in opposition
Does political inclusion lead to moderation, and if so why? Why have Islamists competed
in elections in authoritarian states? How important is ideology versus other factors
in determining how Islamists behave when in power?
Albrecht, Holger. ‘How Can Opposition Support Authoritarianism? Lessons from Egypt’.
Democratization 12, no. 3 (June 2005): 378–397.
El-Ghobashy, Mona. “The Metamorphosis of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers.” International
Journal of Middle East Studies 37, no. 3 (2005): 373-395.
Langohr, Vickie. ‘Of Islamists and Ballot Boxes: Rethinking the Relationship Between
Islamisms and Electoral Politics’. International Journal of Middle East Studies 33, no.
04 (2001): 591–610. doi:10.1017/S0020743801004068.
Schwedler, Jillian. ‘Can Islamists Become Moderates? Rethinking the InclusionModeration Hypothesis’. World Politics 63, no. 02 (2011): 347–376.
Willis, Michael. ‘Morocco’s Islamists and the Legislative Elections of 2002: The Strange
Case of the Party That Did Not Want to Win’. Mediterranean Politics 9, no. 1 (2004):
53–81.
Additional Readings
Baker, Raymond William. Islam Without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists. Harvard
University Press, 2006.
Cavatorta, Francesco. ‘Civil Society, Islamism and Democratisation: The Case of Morocco’.
The Journal of Modern African Studies 44, no. 02 (2006): 203–222.
Fadl, Khaled Abou El. Islam and the Challenge of Democracy. Edited by Joshua Cohen and
Deborah Chasman. Princeton University Press, 2004.
Heristchi, Claire. “The Islamist Discourse of the FIS and the Democratic Experiment in
Algeria.” Democratization 11, no. 4 (2004): 111-132.
Moaddel, Mansoor. “Religion and the State: The Singularity of the Jordanian Religious
Experience.” International Journal of Politics, Culture & Society 15, no. 4 (June 2002):
527.
Wickham, Carrie Rosefsky, “The Path to Moderation: Strategy and learning in the
formation of Egypt’s Wasat party” in Volpi, Frederic. Political Islam: A Critical Reader.
1st ed. Routledge, 2010.
Bayat, Asef ‘ The politics of presence’ in Volpi, Frederic. Political Islam: A Critical Reader.
1st ed. Routledge, 2010.
Brown, Nathan J., and Amr Hamzawy. Between Religion and Politics. Carnegie
Endowment, 2010.
___________. “Unrequited Moderation: Credible Commitments and State Repression in
Egypt.” Studies in Comparative International Development 45, no. 4 (December
2010): 468-489.
Entelis, John P. “Islam, Democracy, and the State: The Reemergence of Authoritarian
Politics in Algeria.” In Islamism and Secularism in North Africa, edited by John Ruedy.
Palgrave Macmillan, 1996.
Ghanem, As’ad, and Mohanad Mustafa. “Strategies of electoral participation by Islamic
movements: the Muslim Brotherhood and parliamentary elections in Egypt and
Jordan, November 2010.” Contemporary Politics 17, no. 4 (December 2011): 393409.
Roald, Anne Sofie. “From theocracy to democracy? Towards secularisation and
individualisation in the policy of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan.” Journal of
Arabic & Islamic Studies 8 (January 2008): 84-107.
Rutherford, Bruce K. Egypt after Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the Arab
World. Princeton University Press, 2008.
Sadiki, Larbi. “Reframing resistance and democracy: narratives from Hamas and
Hizbullah.” Democratization 17, no. 2 (April 2010): 350-376.
Wickham, Carrie Rosefsky. ‘The Path to Moderation: Strategy and Learning in the
Formation of Egypt’s Wasat Party’. Comparative Politics 36, no. 2 (January 1, 2004):
205–228.
Wiktorowicz, Quintan. The management of Islamic activism: Salafis, the Muslim
Brotherhood, and state power in Jordan. SUNY Press, 2001.
Week 7
Islamism in Power
How have Islamists behaved when in power? Does the manner in which Islamist groups
ascend to power influence the character of subsequent governments? What are the
implications of Islamist political ascent for Middle Eastern societies?
Abrahamian, Ervand. ‘Why the Islamic Republic Has Survived’. Middle East Report 39, no.
250 (Spring 2009). http://www.merip.org/mer/mer250/why-islamic-republic-hassurvived.
Asad, Talal. ‘Fear and the Ruptured State: Reflections on Egypt after Mubarak’. Social
Research 79, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 271–298.
Gallab, Abdullahi A. ‘The Religious State in the Sudan: A Preliminary Characterization of
the Debacle’. New Political Science 23, no. 1 (March 2001): 11–24.
Milton-Edwards, Beverley. “The Ascendance of Political Islam: Hamas and consolidation in
the Gaza Strip.” Third World Quarterly 29, no. 8 (December 2008): 1585-1599.
Turunc, Hasan. ‘Islamicist or Democratic? The AKP’s Search for Identity in Turkish Politics’.
Journal of Contemporary European Studies 15, no. 1 (April 2007): 79–91.
doi:10.1080/14782800701273417.
Additional readings
Abu Munshar, Maher Y. ‘In the Shadow of the “Arab Spring”: The Fate of non-Muslims
Under Islamist Rule.’ Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 23, no. 4 (20121001): 487.
El-Affendi, Abdelwahab. Turabi’s Revolution: Islam and Power in Sudan. Grey Seal Islamic
Studies. London: Grey Seal, 1991.
Chehab, Zaki. Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of the Militant Islamic Movement. Nation
Books, 2007.
Gallab, Abdullahi A. The First Islamic Republic: Development and Disintegration of
Islamism in the Sudan. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.
Gunning, Jeroen. Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence. Columbia University
Press, 2010.
Hale, William. “Christian Democracy and the AKP: Parallels and Contrasts,” Turkish Studies
6, no. 2 (Summer2005): 293-310.
Jeffrey Haynes, “Politics, identity and religious nationalism in Turkey: from Ataturk to the
AKP,” Australian Journal of International Affairs 64, no. 3 (June 2010): 312-327.
Mecham, R. Quinn. “From the ashes of virtue, a promise of light: the transformation of
political Islam in Turkey.” Third World Quarterly 25, no. 2 (March 2004): 339-358.
Milton-Edwards, Beverley, and Stephen Farrell. Hamas: The Islamic Resistance
Movement. 1st ed. Polity, 2010.
Osman, Tarek. "Egypt's Islamists: asset and flaw", openDemocracy, 5 July 2011
(http://www.opendemocracy.net/tarek-osman/egypt%E2%80%99s-islamists-asset-andflaw)
Week 8
Islamism and society: class, gender and culture
What is the nature of Islamist politics at the societal level? How do social factors relate to
Islamist ideology and mobilisation strategies? What does ‘Islamic revival’ mean for
women in the Middle East?
Bayat, Asef. Making Islam democratic: social movements and the post-Islamist turn.
Stanford University Press, 2007. (Chapter 5)
Gumuscu, Sebnem. “Class, Status, and Party: The Changing Face of Political Islam in
Turkey and Egypt.” Comparative Political Studies 43, no. 7 (July 2010): 835-861.
Ismail, Salwa. Rethinking Islamist Politics: Culture, the State and Islamism. I.B.Tauris,
2006.
Mahmood, Saba. Politics of piety: the Islamic revival and the feminist subject. Princeton
University Press, 2005. Chapter 2.
Additional readings
Deeb, Lara. An enchanted modern: gender and public piety in Shi’i Lebanon. Princeton
University Press, 2006.
Eickelman, Dale F. and James P. Piscatori. Muslim politics. Princeton University Press,
2004. (Chapter 4)
Munson, Ziad. “Islamic Mobilisation: Social Movement Theory and the Egyptian Muslim
Brotherhood.” Sociological Quarterly 42, no. 4 (Fall 2001): 487.
Eickelman, Dale F. and James P. Piscatori. Muslim politics. Princeton University Press,
2004.
Gilsenan, Michael. Recognizing Islam: Religion and Society in the Modern Arab World. 1st
ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982.
Gole, Nilufer. “Islam in public: new visibilities and new imaginaries” in Volpi, Frederic.
Political Islam: A Critical Reader. 1st ed. Routledge, 2010.
Haenni, Patrick. L’ordre des caïds, conjurer la dissidence urbaine au Caire. Cairo:
KARTHALA (CEDEJ), 2005.
Ismail, Salwa. Political life in Cairo’s new quarters: encountering the everyday state. U of
Minnesota Press, 2006.
Meneley, Anne. “Fashions and fundamentalisms in fin de siècle Yemen: Chador Barbie
and Islamic Socks.” Cultural Anthropology 22, no. 2 (May 1, 2007): 214-243.
Rougier, Bernard. Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam among Palestinians in
Lebanon. Harvard University Press, 2008.
Roy, Sara. Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector. Princeton
University Press, 2011.
Tammam, Husam and Patrick Haenni, "Egypt: Islam in the insurrection", Religioscope, 22
February 2011. (http://religion.info/english/articles/article_519.shtml)
Wickham, Carrie Rosefsky. Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in
Egypt. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
Week 9
Geopolitics and International Relations
How has political Islam related to regional and global politics? Is Islamism a revolt against
the West or a partner with imperialism, or both, or neither?
Essential readings
Nahas, Maridi, ‘State-Systems and Revolutionary Challenge: Nasser, Khomeini, and the
Middle East’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 17:4 (November 1985), pp.
507–27.
Amin, Samir. ‘An Arab Springtime?’ Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist Magazine
63, no. 5 (October 2011): 8–28.
Fuller, Graham E. ‘A Global Convergence against Globalization?’ New Perspectives
Quarterly 26, no. 3 (2009): 20–31.
Mamdani, Mahmood, “Good Muslim, bad Muslim: A political perspective on culture and
terrorism’ in Volpi, Frederic. Political Islam: A Critical Reader. 1st ed. Routledge,
2010.
Qassem, Sheikh Naim. ‘Hezbollah: Islamist Resistance Comes of Age’. New Perspectives
Quarterly 26, no. 3 (2009): 8–11.
El Husseini, Rola. ‘Hezbollah and the Axis of Refusal: Hamas, Iran and Syria’. Third World
Quarterly 31, no. 5 (July 2010): 803–815.
Additional Readings
Kamrava, Mehran. ‘The Arab Spring and the Saudi-Led Counterrevolution’. Orbis 56, no. 1
(2012): 96–104.
Nasr, Vali. The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future. W. W.
Norton & Co., 2006.
Piscatori, James. “Religion and Realpolitik: Islamic responses to the Gulf War” in Volpi,
Frederic. Political Islam: A Critical Reader. 1st ed. Routledge, 2010.
__________, Islam in a World of Nation-States (Cambridge University Press, 1986).
Reza Pankhurst, “Muslim contestations over religion and the state in the Middle East,”
Political Theology 11, no. 6 (December 2010): 826-845.
Pinto, Maria do Céu. Political Islam and the United States: a study of U.S. policy towards
Islamist movements in the Middle East. Ithaca Press, 1999.
Qassem, Naim. Hizbullah: the story from within. Saqi, 2009.
Shakman Hurd, Elizabeth The politics of secularism in international relations (Princeton
University Press, 2007).
Visser, Reidar. ‘Taming the Hegemonic Power: SCIRI and the Evolution of US Policy in
Iraq’. International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies 2, no. 1 (January 2008): 31–
51.
Yamao, Dai. ‘Iraqi Islamist Parties in International Politics: The Impact of Historical and
International Politics on Political Conflict in Post-war Iraq’. International Journal of
Contemporary Iraqi Studies 6, no. 1 (January 2012): 27–52.
Volpi, Frédéric. Political Islam Observed: Disciplinary Perspectives. Columbia University
Press, 2010. Chapter 3.
Willis, John. “Debating the Caliphate: Islam and Nation in the Work of Rashid Rida and
Abul Kalam Azad,” The International History Review 32 (December 2010): 711-732.
Week 10
Revision session