The Religious Right and US Middle East Policy

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Publisher : Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research
ISBN 13 : 9948007328
Total Pages : 13 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (48 download)

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Book Synopsis The Religious Right and US Middle East Policy by : Josef Braml

Download or read book The Religious Right and US Middle East Policy written by Josef Braml and published by Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. This book was released on with total page 13 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Christian Right in the USA has developed considerable financial and organizational clout over the years. With George W. Bush's victory in 2000, for the first time, a Republican presidential victory rested on a religious, conservative, southern-centered coalition led by a bloc of white Protestant fundamentalists and Evangelical Christians. The election results in November 2004 confirmed this trend. In the U.S. system of checks and balances, networks have a central role in the legislative process. About one-third of the circles on both sides of the Capitol consist of Congressional staffers and about two-thirds of external, grassroots organizations, interest groups and think tanks. Thus, the Christian Right is an "issue network" or "advocacy coalition," comprising different individuals and organizations with common worldviews and interests. National security issues provide a sustainable platform for different conservative elites and voters, as well as a glue to strengthen the cohesion of a broader Republican majority. Karl Rove, Republican strategist and confidant of the President, is trying hard to establish a permanent Republican majority. Assuming that the fight against terror will continue for a long time, it is probable that Republican campaign strategists and above all the Christian Right will continue their efforts to keep "existential" issues of national security, as well as moral and religious concerns, high on the political agenda. The issue network of the Christian Right is increasingly concerned with security and foreign policy issues, especially when Israel's security is at stake. Both the Christian Right and neo-conservatives want to strengthen U.S. military ability and use this unrivaled power to create a world in which both the U.S. and Israel can feel secure against forces portrayed as "evil." They can also count on support from pro-Israeli PACs, especially the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). This situation has markedly reduced the American President's room for maneuver on Middle East policy.

Rulers, Religion, and Riches

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 110703681X
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Rulers, Religion, and Riches by : Jared Rubin

Download or read book Rulers, Religion, and Riches written by Jared Rubin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to explain the political and religious factors leading to the economic reversal of fortunes between Europe and the Middle East.

The Influence of Faith

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 0585381658
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis The Influence of Faith by : Elliott Abrams

Download or read book The Influence of Faith written by Elliott Abrams and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2002-05-30 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Realists have long argued that the international system must be based on hard calculations of power and interest. But in recent years, religion's role on the international scene has grown. The Influence of Faith examines religion as a growing factor in world politics and U.S. foreign policy. Particular attention is placed on the American reaction to the persecution of Christians and Jews overseas, as well as the role of faith-based groups such as missionary and relief organizations in the formulation and implementation of U.S. policy. The Influence of Faith considers these timely issues from diverse points of view, offering broad historical analysis as well as concrete examples taken from current affairs.

Jimmy Carter, the Politics of Family, and the Rise of the Religious Right

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Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 0820337706
Total Pages : 470 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Jimmy Carter, the Politics of Family, and the Rise of the Religious Right by : J. Brooks Flippen

Download or read book Jimmy Carter, the Politics of Family, and the Rise of the Religious Right written by J. Brooks Flippen and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Jimmy Carter ascended to the presidency the heir apparent to Democratic liberalism, he touted his background as a born-again evangelical. Once in office, his faith indeed helped form policy on a number of controversial moral issues. By acknowledging certain behaviors as sinful while insisting that they were private matters beyond government interference, J. Brooks Flippen argues, Carter unintentionally alienated both social liberals and conservative Christians, thus ensuring that the debate over these moral “family issues” acquired a new prominence in public and political life. The Carter era, according to Flippen, stood at a fault line in American culture, religion, and politics. In the wake of the 1960s, some Americans worried that the traditional family faced a grave crisis. This newly politicized constituency viewed secular humanism in education, the recognition of reproductive rights established by Roe v. Wade, feminism, and the struggle for homosexual rights as evidence of cultural decay and as a challenge to religious orthodoxy. Social liberals viewed Carter's faith with skepticism and took issue with his seeming unwillingness to build on recent progressive victories. Ultimately, Flippen argues, conservative Christians emerged as the Religious Right and were adopted into the Republican fold. Examining Carter's struggle to placate competing interests against the backdrop of difficult foreign and domestic issues—a struggling economy, the stalled Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, disputes in the Middle East, handover of the Panama Canal, and the Iranian hostage crisis—Flippen shows how a political dynamic was formed that continues to this day.

Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East

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Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791401583
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East by : Emmanuel Sivan

Download or read book Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East written by Emmanuel Sivan and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1990-01-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores in a comparative perspective two fundamentalist waves that have rolled over the Middle East during the last two decades. Jewish and Muslim extremism have had a profound impact on the culture and politics of this important region. One thinks immediately of the Guh Emunism settlements on the West Bank, the Iranian revolution, and the assassination of President Sadat. The authors highlight various facets of the phenomena, such as Haradi Jewish ultra-orthodoxy, the transformation of secular Israeli nationalism by the Gush, Iranian attempts to spread the revolutionary gospel to the Sunni world, and fundamentalism as the spearhead of the national uprising in the Gaza. The introduction outlines what the extremist movements in both religions have in common, where they diverge, and how they are shaping the future of the Middle East.

Religious Minorities in the Middle East

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004207422
Total Pages : 381 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Minorities in the Middle East by : Anh Nga Longva

Download or read book Religious Minorities in the Middle East written by Anh Nga Longva and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-11-11 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the situation of both Muslim and non-Muslim religious minorities in the Middle East, this volume offers an analysis of various strategies of resilience and accommodation from a historical as well a contemporary perspective.

Religious Statecraft

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231545061
Total Pages : 395 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Statecraft by : Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar

Download or read book Religious Statecraft written by Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1979 revolution, scholars and policy makers alike have tended to see Iranian political actors as religiously driven—dedicated to overturning the international order in line with a theologically prescribed outlook. This provocative book argues that such views have the link between religious ideology and political order in Iran backwards. Religious Statecraft examines the politics of Islam, rather than political Islam, to achieve a new understanding of Iranian politics and its ideological contradictions. Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar traces half a century of shifting Islamist doctrines against the backdrop of Iran’s factional and international politics, demonstrating that religious narratives in Iran can change rapidly, frequently, and dramatically in accordance with elites’ threat perceptions. He argues that the Islamists’ gambit to capture the state depended on attaining a monopoly over the use of religious narratives. Tabaar explains how competing political actors strategically develop and deploy Shi’a-inspired ideologies to gain credibility, constrain political rivals, and raise mass support. He also challenges readers to rethink conventional wisdom regarding the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, the U.S. embassy hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq War, the Green Movement, nuclear politics, and U.S.–Iran relations. Based on a micro-level analysis of postrevolutionary Iranian media and recently declassified documents as well as theological journals and political memoirs, Religious Statecraft constructs a new picture of Iranian politics in which power drives Islamist ideology.

Religious Freedom in Islam

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190908203
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Freedom in Islam by : Daniel Philpott

Download or read book Religious Freedom in Islam written by Daniel Philpott and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since at least the attacks of September 11, 2001, one of the most pressing political questions of the age has been whether Islam is hostile to religious freedom. Daniel Philpott examines conditions on the ground in forty-seven Muslim-majority countries today and offers an honest, clear-eyed answer to this urgent question. It is not, however, a simple answer. From a satellite view, the Muslim world looks unfree. But, Philpott shows, the truth is much more complex. Some one-fourth of Muslim-majority countries are in fact religiously free. Of the other countries, about forty percent are governed not by Islamists but by a hostile secularism imported from the West, while the other sixty percent are Islamist. The picture that emerges is both honest and hopeful. Yes, most Muslim-majority countries are lacking in religious freedom. But, Philpott argues, the Islamic tradition carries within it "seeds of freedom," and he offers guidance for how to cultivate those seeds in order to expand religious freedom in the Muslim world and the world at large. It is an urgent project. Religious freedom promotes goods like democracy and the advancement of women that are lacking in the Muslim-majority world and reduces ills like civil war, terrorism, and violence. Further, religious freedom is simply a matter of justice--not an exclusively Western value, but rather a universal right rooted in human nature. Its realization is critical to the aspirations of religious minorities and dissenters in Muslim countries, to Muslims living in non-Muslim countries or under secular dictatorships, and to relations between the West and the Muslim world. In this thoughtful book, Philpott seeks to establish a constructive middle ground in a fiery and long-lasting debate over Islam.

The Power Worshippers

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1635573459
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (355 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power Worshippers by : Katherine Stewart

Download or read book The Power Worshippers written by Katherine Stewart and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiration for the documentary God & Country For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right's rise to political power. For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America's religious nationalists aren't just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre of super-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today's Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding antidemocratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America's past. It forms common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far more organized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals. The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart's probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms.

Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present

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Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393341526
Total Pages : 1178 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (933 download)

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Book Synopsis Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present by : Michael B. Oren

Download or read book Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present written by Michael B. Oren and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2008-02-17 with total page 1178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Will shape our thinking about America and the Middle East for years.”—Christopher Dickey, Newsweek Power, Faith, and Fantasytells the remarkable story of America's 230-year relationship with the Middle East. Drawing on a vast range of government documents, personal correspondence, and the memoirs of merchants, missionaries, and travelers, Michael B. Oren narrates the unknown story of how the United States has interacted with this vibrant and turbulent region.

With God on Our Side

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Publisher : Broadway
ISBN 13 : 0767922573
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (679 download)

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Book Synopsis With God on Our Side by : William Curtis Martin

Download or read book With God on Our Side written by William Curtis Martin and published by Broadway. This book was released on 2005 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of the Religious Right is one of the most important political and cultural stories of our time. To many, this controversial movement threatens to upset the nation's delicate balance of religious and secular interests. To others, the Religious Right is valiantly struggling to preserve religious liberty and to prove itself as the last, best hope to save America's soul. In With God on Our Side --the first balanced account of conservative Christians' impact on post-war politics--William Martin paints a vivid and authoritative portrait of America's most powerful political interest group. Although its members now number between forty and sixty million people, the Religious Right has not always carried the tremendous--and growing--political clout it enjoys today. A hundred years ago, scattered groups of conservative Christians worked fervently to spread the Gospel, but their involvement in politics was marginal. Early in this century, however, a series of charismatic and ambitious leaders began transforming the movement; by the election of John F. Kennedy as our first Catholic president, the Religious Right had found its voice. Politics and religion began mixing as never before. From Richard Nixon's strategic manipulation of Graham's religious influence in the 1970s, to Ronald Reagan's association with Falwell's Moral Majority in the 1980s, to the Christian Coalition's emergence as a slick, sophisticated political machine, the line separating the pulpit from the presidency became increasingly blurred. Now, preachers such as Graham, Falwell, and Pat Robertson preside over ministries so vast and well organized that most politicians can ill afford to ignore their views--or lose their votes. In recent years, the Religious Right's political influence has propelled it into spheres beyond pure politics. Race relations, abortion and reproductive rights, school curricula, the nature and role of the family--conservative Christians have embraced all of these socially charged issues, and their activism has irrevocably altered the way America confronts its thorniest problems. How does a free society draw the line between Church and State without removing religious conviction from public life? What motivates individual Americans to do battle in the culture wars? Most importantly, when politicians and religiously motivated activists join forces, who holds the reins? Drawing on over 100 new interviews with key figures in the movement, William Martin brilliantly captures the spirit of the age as he explores both sides of this dramatic debate. Written in conjunction with the producers of the public television series of the same name, this landmark book is essential reading for all Americans--conservative and liberal, fundamentalist and atheist--who care about the spiritual health and political future of our country. From the Hardcover edition.

Beyond Religious Freedom

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691176221
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Religious Freedom by : Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

Download or read book Beyond Religious Freedom written by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, North American and European nations have sought to legally remake religion in other countries through an unprecedented array of international initiatives. Policymakers have rallied around the notion that the fostering of religious freedom, interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, and protections for religious minorities are the keys to combating persecution and discrimination. Beyond Religious Freedom persuasively argues that these initiatives create the very social tensions and divisions they are meant to overcome. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd looks at three critical channels of state-sponsored intervention: international religious freedom advocacy, development assistance and nation building, and international law. She shows how these initiatives make religious difference a matter of law, resulting in a divide that favors forms of religion authorized by those in power and excludes other ways of being and belonging. In exploring the dizzying power dynamics and blurred boundaries that characterize relations between "expert religion," "governed religion," and "lived religion," Hurd charts new territory in the study of religion in global politics. A forceful and timely critique of the politics of promoting religious freedom, Beyond Religious Freedom provides new insights into today's most pressing dilemmas of power, difference, and governance.

To Bring the Good News to All Nations

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501748939
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis To Bring the Good News to All Nations by : Lauren Frances Turek

Download or read book To Bring the Good News to All Nations written by Lauren Frances Turek and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When American evangelicals flocked to Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century to fulfill their Biblical mandate for global evangelism, their experiences abroad led them to engage more deeply in foreign policy activism at home. Lauren Frances Turek tracks these trends and illuminates the complex and significant ways in which religion shaped America's role in the late–Cold War world. In To Bring the Good News to All Nations, she examines the growth and influence of Christian foreign policy lobbying groups in the United States beginning in the 1970s, assesses the effectiveness of Christian efforts to attain foreign aid for favored regimes, and considers how those same groups promoted the imposition of economic and diplomatic sanctions on those nations that stifled evangelism. Using archival materials from both religious and government sources, To Bring the Good News to All Nations links the development of evangelical foreign policy lobbying to the overseas missionary agenda. Turek's case studies—Guatemala, South Africa, and the Soviet Union—reveal the extent of Christian influence on American foreign policy from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Evangelical policy work also reshaped the lives of Christians overseas and contributed to a reorientation of U.S. human rights policy. Efforts to promote global evangelism and support foreign brethren led activists to push Congress to grant aid to favored, yet repressive, regimes in countries such as Guatemala while imposing economic and diplomatic sanctions on nations that persecuted Christians, such as the Soviet Union. This advocacy shifted the definitions and priorities of U.S. human rights policies with lasting repercussions that can be traced into the twenty-first century.

Christian Martyrs Under Islam

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069120313X
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Christian Martyrs Under Islam by : Christian C. Sahner

Download or read book Christian Martyrs Under Islam written by Christian C. Sahner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A look at the developing conflicts in Christian-Muslim relations during late antiquity and the early Islamic era How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? Christian Martyrs under Islam explains how Christians across the early Islamic caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy. Using previously untapped sources in a range of Middle Eastern languages, Christian Sahner introduces an unknown group of martyrs who were executed at the hands of Muslim officials between the seventh and ninth centuries CE. Found in places as diverse as Syria, Spain, Egypt, and Armenia, they include an alleged descendant of Muhammad who converted to Christianity, high-ranking Christian secretaries of the Muslim state who viciously insulted the Prophet, and the children of mixed marriages between Muslims and Christians. Sahner argues that Christians never experienced systematic persecution under the early caliphs, and indeed, they remained the largest portion of the population in the greater Middle East for centuries after the Arab conquest. Still, episodes of ferocious violence contributed to the spread of Islam within Christian societies, and memories of this bloodshed played a key role in shaping Christian identity in the new Islamic empire. Christian Martyrs under Islam examines how violence against Christians ended the age of porous religious boundaries and laid the foundations for more antagonistic Muslim-Christian relations in the centuries to come.

Making the New Middle East

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Publisher : Syracuse University Press
ISBN 13 : 081565457X
Total Pages : 503 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (156 download)

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Book Synopsis Making the New Middle East by : Valerie J. Hoffman

Download or read book Making the New Middle East written by Valerie J. Hoffman and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-28 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demands for freedom, justice, and dignity have animated protests and revolutions across the Middle East in recent years, from the Iranian Green Movement and the Arab Spring uprisings to Turkey’s March for Justice and the ongoing struggle in Palestine. Although expectations raised by the Arab Spring were largely disappointed and protests that toppled entrenched rulers unleashed vicious counterrevolutionary forces, there is no doubt that the landscape of the Middle East has changed. Drawing from diverse disciplines, this volume offers critical perspectives on these changes, covering politics, religion, gender dynamics, human rights, media, literature, and music. What ultimately has changed in "the new Middle East"? Who are the actors pushing the direction of change? How are aspirations for change being expressed through media and the arts? With extensive analysis and thoughtful reflection, this book gives readers an in-depth portrayal of a modernizing Middle East.

Rethinking Political Islam

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190649208
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis Rethinking Political Islam by : Shadi Hamid

Download or read book Rethinking Political Islam written by Shadi Hamid and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rethinking Political Islam offers a fine-grained and definitive overview of the changing world of political Islam in the post-Arab Uprising era.

Sectarian Politics in the Gulf

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Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231536100
Total Pages : 351 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Sectarian Politics in the Gulf by : Frederic M. Wehrey

Download or read book Sectarian Politics in the Gulf written by Frederic M. Wehrey and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Foreign Policy's Best Five Books of 2013, chosen by Marc Lynch of The Middle East Channel Beginning with the 2003 invasion of Iraq and concluding with the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings, Frederic M. Wehrey investigates the roots of the Shi'a-Sunni divide now dominating the Persian Gulf's political landscape. Focusing on three Gulf states affected most by sectarian tensions—Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait—Wehrey identifies the factors that have exacerbated or tempered sectarianism, including domestic political institutions, the media, clerical establishments, and the contagion effect of external regional events, such as the Iraq war, the 2006 Lebanon conflict, the Arab uprisings, and Syria's civil war. In addition to his analysis, Wehrey builds a historical narrative of Shi'a activism in the Arab Gulf since 2003, linking regional events to the development of local Shi'a strategies and attitudes toward citizenship, political reform, and transnational identity. He finds that, while the Gulf Shi'a were inspired by their coreligionists in Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon, they ultimately pursued greater rights through a nonsectarian, nationalist approach. He also discovers that sectarianism in the region has largely been the product of the institutional weaknesses of Gulf states, leading to excessive alarm by entrenched Sunni elites and calculated attempts by regimes to discredit Shi'a political actors as proxies for Iran, Iraq, or Lebanese Hizballah. Wehrey conducts interviews with nearly every major Shi'a leader, opinion shaper, and activist in the Gulf Arab states, as well as prominent Sunni voices, and consults diverse Arabic-language sources.