The Islamic Movement


Book Description

This concise but enormously valuable work lays down the nature, logic and dynamic of the Islamic movement in the context of Iman and Jihad.




Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire


Book Description

In response to the events of 9/11, the Bush administration launched a "war on terror" ushering in an era of anti-Muslim racism, or Islamophobia. However, 9/11 alone did not create Islamophobia. This book examines the current backlash within the context of Islamophobia's origins, in the historic relationship between East and West. Deepa Kumar is an associate professor of media studies and Middle East studies at Rutgers University and the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike. Kumar has contributed to numerous outlets including the BBC, USA Today, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.




Training Guide for Islamic Workers


Book Description

Now more than ever before, Muslim young men and women need to improve not only their personal skills but also their group performance. This Guide presents easy-to-follow instructions which can be used by those who desire to acquire these skills. This Guide focuses on the training needs of Muslim young men and women by providing the experience acquired by Muslim leaders over the last several decades. Thus, the new generation of leaders will be able to start from where their leaders left off, rather than having to duplicate their predecessors’ successes and/or failures. Using a simple Do’s and Don’t’s format, this Guide enables the user to optimize his/her understanding of the art and science of da’wah and how it can be applied in today’s world. Like genius, leadership entails harder work for the one who was born without this skill. It is to such people that this Guide is addressed. We are confident that, with the help of Allah, the user will be able to make a quantum leap forward in the areas of growth and improvement through the proper use of the methods outlined in this Guide. Over time, there will be noticeable improvements in the areas of concepts, management, administration, and communication as well as the skills needed for conducting camps, conferences, and meetings. This Guide is supplemented by suggested workbooks which will lead to an even deeper understanding of the skills needed for successful leaders.




Guide to Islamist Movements


Book Description

This is the first comprehensive guide to today's most important, yet least understood transnational ideology -- political Islamism. The movement takes many forms, ranging from electoral participation to revolutionary terrorism and global jihad, and influences the politics of virtually every country around the globe. The guide examines the movement's diverse groups, ideas, and activities, including the beliefs, organizational structures, and interactions of the different groups. It focuses on thinkers and ideologies, movements and parties, and responding government policies and repression. The guide begins with two general essays. The first is an overview of contemporary Islamism that assesses its roots in the history of Islam and traces the rise of Islamist thought through the twentieth century to contemporary times. The second essay addresses the concept of global jihad and jihadist movements, especially in relationship to terrorism, and provides background to the various groups and movements discussed in the book. Following these introductions, sections are organized geographically and cover the areas of intense, and known, Islamist activity -- Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere. Essays within the sections examine specific countries and regions, and detail the groups and activities within these areas. The essays include detailed bibliographic information for further research.




The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West


Book Description

In both Europe and North America, organizations tracing their origins back to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements have rapidly evolved into multifunctional, richly funded organizations. They now compete to become the major representatives of Western Muslim communities and government interlocutors. Some analysts and policy makers see these organizations as positive forces encouraging integration. Others treat them as modern-day Trojan horses that feign moderation while radicalizing Western Muslims. Lorenzo Vidino brokers a third and more informed view. Having completed more than a decade of research on political Islam in the West, Vidino is keenly qualified to analyze a movement that is as controversial as it is unknown. Conducting in-depth interviews on four continents and sourcing documents in ten languages, Vidino shares the history, methods, views, and goals of the Western Brothers, as well as their phenomenal growth. He then flips the perspective, examining the response to these groups by Western governments, concentrating specifically on Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. Highly informed and thoughtfully presented, Vidino's work sheds light on a critical juncture in Muslim-Western relations and the role Islam plays for a variety of uprooted individuals.




The Other Muslims


Book Description

This book is a unique collection of alternative Muslim voices, predominantly from Europe, who come from a variety of backgrounds - academia, theology, acting, activism - and who make a transformational contribution to the debate of the future of Islam and Muslims in the West.




Islam and the Trajectory of Globalization


Book Description

The book examines the growing tension between social movements that embrace egalitarian and inclusivist views of national and global politics, most notably classical liberalism, and those that advance social hierarchy and national exclusivism, such as neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and national populism. In exploring issues relating to tensions and conflicts around globalization, the book identifies historical patterns of convergence and divergence rooted in the monotheistic traditions, beginning with the ancient Israelites that dominated the Near East during the Axial age, through Islamic civilization, and finally by considering the idealism-realism tensions in modern times. One thing remained constant throughout the various historical stages that preceded our current moment of global convergence: a recurring tension between transcendental idealism and various forms of realism. Transcendental idealism, which prioritize egalitarian and universal values, pushed periodically against the forces of realism that privilege established law and power structure. Equipped with the idealism-realism framework, the book examines the consequences of European realism that justified the imperialistic venture into Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America in the name of liberation and liberalization. The ill-conceived strategy has, ironically, engendered the very dysfunctional societies that produce the waves of immigrants in constant motion from the South to the North, simultaneously as it fostered the social hierarchy that transfer external tensions into identity politics within the countries of the North. The book focuses particularly on the role played historically by Islamic rationalism in translating the monotheistic egalitarian outlook into the institutions of religious pluralism, legislative and legal autonomy, and scientific enterprise at the foundation of modern society. It concludes by shedding light on the significance of the Muslim presence in Western cultures as humanity draws slowly but consistently towards what we may come to recognize as the Global Age. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003203360, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.




Islamist Radicalisation


Book Description

"Issues relating to political Islam continue to present challenges to European foreign policies in the Middle East and North Africa. In this volume, European and regional experts analyse trends driving the radicalisation of political Islam as well as the contrary trend of de-radicalisation observed in some countries where Islamist parties have secured democratic political participation. The question underlying the book is whether the ED should engage more specifically with the 'moderate' Islamist parties, and at least recognise radical Islamist movements that achieve democratic electoral success and legitimacy, such as the Palestinian Hamas. Current EU policies are largely negative on both accounts. The conclusions of the book argue for a change in this stance, with a three-dimensional approach: a) to put pressure on incumbent regimes to abandon the repression of moderate Islamist movements, b) to influence the legal and political frameworks regulating social and political participation in a more open way and c) to engage in dialogue with non-violent opposition forces - both Islamist and non-Islamist. In the absence of such policies, the EU risks contributing to a re-radicalisation of movements that have become disillusioned with the failure of their political moderation to produce results." --Book Jacket.