The Arab “Street” and the Middle East’s Democracy Deficit

Rising education, easier travel, new communications media, and liberalizing voices are quickly making the Arab “street” a true “public sphere”—a force with which governments, and the West, will have to reckon. The good news, argues a scholar of the Muslim world, is that channels exist by which the West can address the Arab public. But that public, better informed, will be quick to notice gaps between statement and action

Religious revelation, secrecy and the limits of visual representation

This article seeks to contribute to a more adequate understanding of the adoption of modern audiovisual mass media by contemporary religious groups. It does so by examining Pentecostal-charismatic churches as well as the Christian mass culture instigated by its popularity, and so-called traditional religion in Ghana, which develop markedly different attitudes towards audiovisual mass media and assume different positions in the public sphere. Taking into account the complicated entanglement of traditional religion and Pentecostalism, approaching both religions from a perspective of mediation which regards media as intrinsic to religion, and seeking to avoid the pitfall of overestimating the power of modern mass media to determine the world, this article seeks to move beyond an unproductive recurrence to oppositions such as tradition and modernity, or religion and technology. It is argued that instead of taking as a point of departure more or less set ideas about the nexus of vision and modernity, the adoption of new mass media by religious groups needs to be analyzed by a detailed ethnographic investigation of how these new media transform existing practices of religious mediation. Special emphasis is placed on the tension between the possibilities of gaining public presence through new media, and the difficulty in authorizing these media, and the experiences they induce, as authentic. Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications

The public sphere and Muslim identities

The historical and contemporary development of certain informal and formal articulations of Muslim social and political identities and forms of association in Muslim-majority and Arab societies has facilitated the emergence of a public sphere and limited the coercive power of state authority. This article suggests how a greater focus on religious ideas and forms of association can enhance the concept of the public sphere so that it better accounts for developments in these societies and in European societies themselves.Peer Reviewe

Ekspresi Politik Muslim

251

Ekspresi politik muslim

251 p. ; 24 cm

Politik Muslim Wacana Kekuasaan dan Hegemoni dalam Masyarakat Muslim

260 hlm, 21c

Print, islam, and the prospects for civic pluralism: new religious writings and their audiences.

Donated by Klaus KreiserReprinted from : Journal of Islamic Studies 8, 1997

Politik Muslim Wacana Kekuasaan dan Hegemoni dalam Masyarakat Muslim

260 hlm, 21c

Ekspresi politik muslim/ Eickelman

251 hal.; 23 cm