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Original Articles

Islam and Politics: A Fixed Relationship?

Pages 19-35 | Published online: 19 Feb 2007
 

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges support form the Danish Social Science Foundation for his research project, Islamic Radicalism and the global Public Sphere, on which this article is based.

Notes

1 For an excellent critical survey of some books that appeared in the aftermath of September 11, see the two-part article by , ‘Which Way to Mecca? (Part I) ‘ New York Review of Books, 12 June 2003; and ‘Which Way to Mecca? (Part II)’, New York Review of Books, 3 July 2003.

2CitationFred Halliday, Islam & the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics in the Middle East (London: I.B. Tauris, 1995), p. 200.

3CitationJames Beckford, Social Theory & Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 11–29.

4CitationJames Piscatori, Islam in a World of Nation States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

5 See further CitationMark Arenhövel, ‘Die Erfindung der Pancasila: Zur Konstruktion einer staatsreligiösen Einheitsvision in Indonesien,’ in: Matthias Hildebrandt & Manfred Brocker (Eds), Unfriedliche Religionen? Das politische Gewalt- und Konfliktpotenzial von Religionen (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2005).

6CitationDietrich Jung et al., Kriege in der Weltgesellschaft. Strukturgeschichtliche Erklärung kriegerische Gewalt (1945–2002) (Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 2003), pp. 215–223.

7CitationJeff Haynes, Religion in Global Politics (London: Pearson/Longman, 1998), p. 41.

8CitationLiliane Voyé, ‘Secularization in a Context of Advanced Modernity,’ in Sociology of Religion, 60(3), 1999.

9 At least this applies to the more linear readings of secularization theory; for a brief discussion of different aspects of the privatization thesis, see CitationPeter Beyer, Religion and Globalization (London: Sage, 1994), pp. 70–77.

10CitationJosé Citation Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); and idem, ‘Civil Society and Religion: Retrospective Reflections on Catholicism and Prospective Reflections on Islam,’ in: Social Research 68(4), 2001, pp. 1048–1050.

11 This applies also to the staunchest critics of secularization theory, the so-called supply side or rational-choice approaches, as their concept of a free religious market relies on the legally grounded detachment of religion from the state; cf. Lawrence A. Young, Rational Choice Theory and Religion (London and New York: Routledge, 1997).

12 Cf. CitationDietrich Jung, ‘Globalization, State Formation and Religion in the Middle East. “Is Islam incompatible with democracy?”,’ in: Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 8, 2004.

13CitationWilliam H. Swatos and Kevin J. Cristiano, ‘Secularization Theory: the Course of a Concept,’ in Sociology of Religion, 60(3), 1999, p. 210.

14CitationPeter Berger, ‘Reflections on the Sociology of Religion Today,’ in: Sociology of Religion 63(4), 2001, pp. 443–454; and Thomas Luckmann, ‘Transformations of Religion and Morality in Modern Europe’, in Social Compass, 50(3), 2003, pp. 275–285.

15CitationOle Riis, ‘Religion Re-Emerging. The Role of Religion in Legitimating Integration and Power in Modern Societies,’ International Sociology, 13(2), 1998.

16CitationMax Weber, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 78.

17CitationHeinz Schilling, Religion, Political Culture and the Emergence of Early Modern Society: Essays in German and Dutch History (Leiden: Brill, 1992).

18CitationPhilip S. Gorski, ‘Historicizing the Secularization Debate: Church, State, and Society in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (ca 1300 to 1700),’ American Sociological Review, 65, 2000).

19CitationAlfred Stepan, ‘Religion, Democracy, and the “Twin Tolerations”,’ in: Journal of Democracy 11(4), 2000, p. 37.

20CitationFritz Steppat, ‘Der Muslim und die Obrigkeit,’ in Zeitschrift für Politik 12(4), 1965, p. 319.

21CitationGerhard Endress, Einführung in die islamische Geschichte (Munich: Beck, 1982), p. 65.

22CitationMontgomery W. Watt, Muhammad at Medina (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956).

23 The document most probably was written shortly after Muhammad's arrival in Medina and its authenticity is not questioned. However, the use of the modern concept of a constitution is certainly deceptive and does not reflect the tribal realities under which the document emerged. In this article I base my analysis on the versions of the document in CitationR. B. Serjeant, Studies in Arabian History and Civilisation, (London: Variorum, 1981); and CitationJulius Wellhausen, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten: Viertes Heft, Muhammads Gemeindeordnung von Medina (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1985).

24 In terms of exclusion, it was the Jewish tribes of Medina who suffered most, as they did not accept the Prophet's revelation; cf. CitationArent Jan Wensinck, Muhammad and the Jews of Medina: With an Excursus on Muhammad's Constitution of Medina by Julius Wellhausen (Freiburg: Schwarz, 1975).

25CitationAlbrecht Noth, ‘Früher Islam,’ in Ulrich Haarmann (Ed.), Geschichte der arabischen Welt, (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1987, p. 40).

26CitationMaurice Lombard, L'Islam dans sa première grandeur (Paris: Flammarion, 1971).

27 This also is documented by the growing legal body with which the regime in Saudi Arabia has extended its public laws, which formally are based on the Koran and the Wahhabi interpretation of the sunna.

28 Noth, ‘Früher Islam’, p. 74.

29CitationWerner Ende, ‘Der schiitische Islam,’ in: Werner Ende & Udo Steinbach (Eds), Der Islam in der Gegenwart (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1989).

30CitationImam Khomeini, Islam and Revolution: Writing and Declarations of Imam Khomeini (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1981).

31CitationSilvia Tellenbach, Strafgesetze der Islamischen Republik Iran (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1996).

32 For an English translation of the Iranian constitution, see: < http://www.iranologyfo.com/low-e01.htm>.

33 While the six religious members are appointed directly by the Religious Leader, the six lawyers are proposed by the Head of the Judiciary, with the consent of the Leader, and finally appointed by the parliament.

34CitationSilvia Tellenbach, Untersuchungen zur Verfassung der Islamischen Republik Iran vom 15. November 1979 (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1985), p. 267.

35CitationBernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 2.

36 See further CitationWilfried Buchta, Die iranische Schia und die islamische Einheit 1976–1996 (Hamburg: Deutsches Orient-Institut,1997); CitationKarl-Heinrich Göbel, Moderne schiitische Politik und Staatsidee (Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1984); CitationMehdi Moslem, Political Factionalism in Post-Khomeini Iran (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press 2002); and CitationAli R. Sheikholislami, ‘From Religious Accommodation to Religious Revolution: The Transformation of Shi'ism in Iran,’ in: A. Banuazzizi & M. Weiner, (Eds), The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986).

37CitationOlivier Roy, ‘The Crisis of Religious Legitimacy in Iran,’ Middle East Journal, 53(2), 1999, pp. 207–209; and CitationSami Zubaida, ‘Is Iran an Islamic State?,’ in J. Beinin & J. Stork (Eds), Political Islam (London: I. B. Tauris, 1997).

38 See further CitationGeneive Abdo, ‘Re-Thinking the Islamic Republic: A ‘Conversation’ with Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri,’ Middle East Journal, 55(1), 2001; and CitationAbdolkarim Soroush, Reason, Freedom, & Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

39 Ira CitationM. Lapidus, ‘The Separation of State and Religion in the Development of Early Islamic Society,’ International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 6, 1975.

40CitationGudrun Krämer, Gottes Staat als Republik. Reflexionen zeitgenössischer Muslime zu Islam, Menschenrechten und Demokratie (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1999), p. 34.

41CitationTilmann Nagel, ‘Gab es in der islamischen Geschichte Ansätze einer Säkularisierung?’ in: Hans Roemer & Albrecht Noth, (Eds), Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen Orients (Leiden: Brill, 1981), p. 277.

42CitationHamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Political Thought: The Response of the Shi'i and Sunni Muslims to the Twentieth Century (London: Macmillan Press, 1982).

43 See further CitationHamid Algar, Religion and State in Iran (1785–1906): The Role of the Ulama in the Qajar Period (Berkely and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969).

44CitationRobert H. Jackson, Quasi-States: Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Third World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

45 cf. CitationCharles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1990 (Oxford: Basic Blackwell, 1990).

46 For constitutional developments in the Arab world, see CitationGeorge N. Sfeir, Modernization of the Law in Arab States: An Investigation into Current Civil, Criminal and Constitutional Law in the Arab World (San Francisco: Austin & Winfield, 1998); the history of Saudi Arabian state formation is described by CitationBayly Winder, Saudi Arabia in the Nineteenth Century (London: Macmillan,1965).

47CitationBarber Johansen, Contingency in a Sacred Law: Legal and Ethical Norms in the Muslim Fiqh (Leiden: Brill, 1999), p. 275).

48 This argument confirms James Beckford's critique of viewing Islamist movements as fundamentalist resistance to modernity alone, although turning his phrasing of ‘religious movements as social movements’ up-side down; see Beckford, Social Theory & Religion.

49CitationBertrand Badie, Le État importé: L'occidentalisation de l'ordre politique (Paris: Fayard, 1992).

50 Cf. CitationAlbert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962).

51 See further CitationDietrich Jung, ‘Der Islam gegen den Westen: Zur Genealogie eines internationalen Konfliktparadigmas,’ in Mathias Hildebrandt & Manfred Brocker (Eds): Unfriedliche Religionen? Das politische Gewalt- und Konfliktpotenzial von Religionen (Wiesbaden VS: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2005).

52CitationCarl Brown, Religion and State: The Muslim Approach to Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000).

53 A good overview of Islamic law and the relationship between sharia and fiqh is given in CitationK. M. Kamali, ‘Law and Society, The Interplay of Revelation and reason in the Sharia, in: J. L. Esposito (Ed.) The Oxford History of Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

54CitationJoseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965), p. 74. Unlike the mufti, the judge (qadi) was appointed by the political authorities.

55CitationAlbrecht Noth, ‘Die Scharia, das religiöse Gesetz des Islam - Wandlungsmöglichkeiten, Anwendung und Wirkung,’ in: W. Fikentscher, W. Franke & H. Köhler, (Eds), Entstehung und Wandel rechtlicher Traditionen (Freiburg and Munich: Alber, 1980), p. 426.

56 Johansen, Contingency in a Sacred Law, p. 268.

57 In fact, the concept of kanun in the Ottoman Empire comprised both state legislation and rulings according to established forms of customary law; see CitationMaurus Reinkowski, ‘Gewohnheitsrecht im multinationalen Staat: Die Osmanen und der albanische Kanun,’ in: M. Kemper & M. Reinkowski, (Eds), Rechtspluralismus in der Islamischen Welt. Gewohnheitsrecht zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), p. 130.

58 For a more detailed analysis of the Ottoman reform process, see CitationJung, Turkey at the Crossroads (ZED: London), pp. 28–58.

59 Schacht, Introduction, pp. 89 ff.

60CitationRudolph Peters, ‘The Islamization of Criminal Law: A Comparative Analysis,’ in: Die Welt des Islams 34, 1994.

61 Cf. CitationOussama Arabi, ‘The Dawning of the Third Millennium on Shari'a: Egypt's Law No. 1 of 2000, or Women May Divorce at Will,’ in: Arab Law Quarterly, 16(1), 2001.

62 See further CitationIhsan Dagi, ‘Rethinking Human Rights, Democracy, and the West: Post-Islamist Intellectuals in Turkey,’ in: Critique, 13(2), 2004.

63 Cf. CitationReinhard Schulze, A Modern History of the Islamic World (New York: New York University Press, 2002).

64 Schacht, An Introduction, p. 1.

65 Krämer Gottes Staat als Republik, p. 58.

66CitationBrinkley Messick, The Calligraphic State. Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), p. 3.

67 Soroush, Reason, Freedom & Democracy.

68 Schacht, An Introduction, p. 1.

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