Radicalism and political reform in the Islamic and western worlds / Kai Hafez ; translated by Alex Skinner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hafez, Kai, 1964-

Contributor:

Cambridge Books Online.

Standardized Title:

Heiliger Krieg und Demokratie. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Jihad.

Islam and politics.

Democracy.

Radicalism.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vi, 253 pages)

Edition:

First English edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

Translated from the German.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

"Over the last decade, political Islam has been denounced in the Western media and in the surrounding literature as a terrorist or fascist movement that is entirely at odds with Western democratic ideology. Kai Hafez's book overturns these arguments, contending that, despite its excesses, as a radical form of political opposition the movement plays a central role in the processes of democratization and modernization, and that these processes have direct parallels in the history and politics of the West. By analyzing the evolution of Christian democratization through the upheavals of the Reformation, colonisation, fascism, and totalitarianism, the book shows how radicalism and violence were constant accompaniments to political change, and that these components - despite assertions to the contrary - are still part of Western political culture to this day. In this way, the book draws hopeful conclusions about the potential for political, religious, and cultural transformation in the Islamic world, which is already exemplified by the cases of Turkey, Indonesia, and many parts of South Asia. The book marks an important development in the study of radical movements and their contribution to political change."

Contents:

Introduction. Radicalism and political change in the Islamic and Western worlds

- The globalization of the two velocities

Part I. Modernity. 1 Conceptions of Modernity: Reform, Reformation and Radicalism

- The minimum consensus of Western modernity

- Secularism and political Islam: ideological dualism

- Liberal reformist Islam: reformation without modernity?

- Conservative reformist Islam: a Lutheran logic

- The unintentional modernity of Islamic fundamentalism

- A comparative look at notions of modernity: the time-lapse of civilizational progress

2 Political Cultures and Social Movements: The Social Rationality of Cultural Change

- Western participation and Oriental fatalism?

- Re-Islamization: from religious stupor to active community

- Islamic fundamentalism as "radical Protestantism"

- The social rationality of cultural change

Part II. Democracy. 3 The Discourse of Democratization: Grey Zones at the Intersection of Religion and Secularism

- The "Christian democratization" of Islam?

- Muslim world: secular democracy on the margins of global society

4 Political System Change: The Radicals Democracy

- Stability and state collapse in the twenty-first century: the Middle Eastern Leviathan

- Democracy and a new social contract in the Middle East

- The oppositions capacity for political struggle: the crucial role of the Islamic fundamentalists

- Pacts among opposition groups: fundamentalists as (in- )calculable risk

- The international dimension of democratization

- Euro-Islam or Islam-oriented Ostpolitik: two models of transformation

Part III. Political violence. 5 Authoritarianism: Dictatorship Between Fascism and Modernization

- "Islamofascism": dead end of political rationality?

- Anti-Semitism or the risk of ethnicization

- Democratic polyarchies and the changing face of authoritarianism: dictatorial temptations

- Modern slavery: a common challenge

6 Imperialism: Autocracy, Democracy and Violence

- The West in the Middle East: a panoply of international violence

- Western democracy and international violence: from "eternal peace" to "humanitarian" imperialism

- Islamic imperialism: a cultural remnant

7 Terrorism and Non-violent Resistance: Extremism and Pacifism Across Cultures

- A typology of Islamic terrorism: Is terrorism typically Islamic?

- Causes of terrorism: holy war as a blend of madness and rationality

- Non-violent resistance in Islam and how the West ignores it

Conclusion From "Holy War" to Democracy? The Current State of Islamic and Western Modernity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-244) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9780521137119

052113711X

9780521763202

0521763207

9780511901850

0511901852

9780511797309

0511797303

9780511778957

0511778953

OCLC:

664682076

Publisher Number:

9786612749155

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.