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

Symposium on American Culture and Anti-Americanism in the Middle East

Streaming audio requires RealPlayer.The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Dale Eickelman is best known for his ethnographic field research in the Middle East, and he is the author of several books, including The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach, 4th ed. (Prentice Hall, 2002), Knowledge and Power in Morocco (Princeton University Press, 1985), and Muslim Politics, co-authored with James Piscatori (Princeton University Press, 1996). Eickelman is former president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, and recently completed a two-year Euro-American postdoctoral field-building project, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany), called "Public Spheres and Muslim Identities." Eickelman is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden. Jillian Schwedler is Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland at College Park. She received her PhD in Politics from New York University in September 2000. Dr. Schwedler's publications include three edited volumes, Understanding the Contemporary Middle East, 2nd ed., with Deborah J. Gerner (Lynne Rienner, 2003), Toward Civil Society in the Middle East? A Primer (Lynne Rienner, 1995), which she edited and for which she contributed the key article, and Islamist Movements in Jordan (Amman, 1997). Her articles have appeared in Journal of Democracy, Comparative Politics, Social Movement Studies, Journal of Palestine Studies, Middle East Report, and elsewhere, as well as in several edited volumes. Her book manuscript, Faith in Moderation: The Dynamics of Islamist Political Parties, is currently under review. Richard K. Herrmann is professor of political science and Director of the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. He has written widely on politics in the Middle East, international security, and American foreign policy. From 1989 to 1991, Herrmann served on Secretary of State James Baker’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and from 1991-1996, he served as coeditor of International Studies Quarterly, the flagship journal of the International Studies Association. Herrmann has been a frequent visitor to the Middle East, lecturing and conducting research in Israel and the West Bank, as well as in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. In 1996-97 he was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations of New York task force that produced the book Differentiated Containment: Rethinking U.S. Policy in the Gulf.Ohio State University. Middle East Studies CenterOhio State University. Mershon Center for International Security Studiesweb page announcement, event summary, streaming audios, photo

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