Islam as statecraft: How governments use religion in foreign policy

The paper explores the religious dimensions of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry, looking at howthe Islamic outreach strategies of the two governments have evolved in response tochanging regional and global environments. We assess the much-discussed phenomenonof Saudi Arabia's export of Wahhabism, arguing that the nature and effects of Saudireligious influence around the world are more complicated than we ordinarily think

Reimagining the Umma : translocal space and the changing boundaries of Muslim political community.

A wide variety of 'translocal' forces - diasporic peoples, transnational social movements, global & migratory cities, post-national institutions, information technologies - are challenging the traditional state-centrism of International Relations' political imaginary. Moreover, just as people are translocal, so are their theories. This thesis analyses Islam as a form of 'travelling theory' in the context of the global transformations outlined above. It seeks to understand how globalising processes are manifested as lived experience through a discussion of debates over the meaning of Muslim identity, political community an the emergence of something like a 'critical Islam.' After a critique of state-centric thinking in International Relations, the thesis goes on to suggest that more sophisticated treatments of translocal politics can be found in the literatures of anthropology, postcolonial and cultural studies. A non-essentialist conception of Islam is introduced, followed by a discussion of the conditions under which Muslim discourses on the umma (the world community of believers) have historically been produced. Three key theoretical tropes - travelling theory, hybridity and diaspora - are then discussed as framing devices for understanding translocal politics. Two case study chapters, one on the politics of Muslim diaspora communities and the other on Muslim uses of communications and information technologies, are presented. The first focuses on debates with Muslim communities as to the nature and meaning of modern Islam, the reformulation of Muslim thought on politics, community and gender and the implications of travelling Islam's return journey to its various original settings. The second case study highlights the changing boundaries of religious knowledge by demonstrating how information technologies have been deployed as a mean by which to contest traditional sources of Islamic authority. In the concluding chapter it is argued that translocal forces are leading to the emergence of a wider Muslim public sphere. Futhermore, the critical discourses enabled by this translocal space amount to a reconceptualisation and reimagining of the umma

The Golden Rule:Interfaith Peacemaking and the Charter for Compassion

The Charter for Compassion has been signed by over two million people from around the world and partnered with hundreds of interfaith organizations and cities seeking to put into practice the Golden Rule, common to the main faith traditions, of doing unto others as you would be done by. This article sets the Charter within the context of a post secular international society and faith-based diplomacy, in which religious interreligious initiatives emerge as serious, rather than peripheral, actors in developing sustainable peace making through bottom-up approaches. The article critically engages with the Charter's claim that ‘any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate’ while accepting that peaceful interpretations of scriptures are helpful to peace processes where religious actors are involved. The article explores the claims of the Charter for Compassion International as they seek to make peace through compassion, before concluding that the Charter for Compassion is a long-term project aimed at changing hearts and minds but has had limited substantive impact to date

Territory and translocality: Discrepant idioms of political identity

This article argues that international political theory requires better ways of thinking about the formation of transnational (or, as it is suggested, translocal) political identities in the wake of changing configurations of territory/political space. More specifically it identifies discrepant forms of political practice-typified by transnational communities, borderzone identities, and spiritualist movements-whose political practices problematise the dominant statist assumption of equivalence between territorial situatedness and political identity

Global political islam/ Mandaville

xv, 388 hal.: tab.; 23 cm

Islam and politics

Buku ini memberikan informasi mengenai politik islam di abad ke-21 dan perkembangannya di Timur Tengah. Fokus pembahasan diperluas dengan penjelasan tentang dampak politik islami memengaruhi ekonomi di suatu negara, studi kasus politik islam di kancah internasional dan sejumlah aspek penting yang berperan dalam perkembangan dunia politik