Radical Arab nationalism and political Islam / Lahouari Addi ; translated by Anthony Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Addi, Lahouari, 1949- author.

Contributor:

Roberts, Anthony (Translator), translator.

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Arab nationalism.

Islam and politics--Arab countries.

Islam and politics.

Arab countries.

Arab countries--Politics and government.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xii, 275 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press : The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, [2017]

Summary:

Radical Arab nationalism emerged in the modern era as a response to European political and cultural domination, culminating in a series of military coups in the mid-20th century in Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. This movement heralded the dawn of modern, independent nations that would close the economic, social, scientific, and military gaps with the West while building a unity of Arab nations. But this dream failed. In fact, radical Arab nationalism became a barrier to civil peace and national cohesion, most tragically demonstrated in the case of Syria, for two reasons: 1) national armies militarized nationalism and its political objectives; 2) these nations did not keep pace with the intellectual and political and cultural and social progress of European nations that offered, for example, freedom of speech and thought. It was the failure of radical Arab nationalism, Addi contends, that made the more recent political Islam so popular. But if radical nationalism militarized politics, the Islamists politicized religion. Today, the prevailing medieval interpretation of Islam, defended by the Islamists, prevents these nations from making progress and achieving the kind of social justice that radical Arab nationalism once promised. Will political Islam fail, too? Can nations ruled by political Islam accommodate modernity? Their success or failure, Addi writes, depends upon this question.

Contents:

Origins and perspectives of Arab nationalism

The emergence and development of Arab nationalism

Wahhabism as a proto-nationalism

Liberal nationalism in Egypt

From liberal Arabism to radical Arab nationalism

The ideological limitations of radical Arab nationalism

Radical Arab nationalism against the market

Populism against society

Economism as a response to cultural crisis

Nationalism and nation

The militarization of politics

The aggressive nature of nationalism

What is a nation if its people are not sovereign?

The ideological and political dynamics of Islamism

Islamism as cultural representation and ideological will

The cultural roots of Islamism

The making of Islamist ideology : Sayyid Qutb and Abul A'la Mawdudi

Toward post-Islamism?

Islamism and democracy

Democracy and political participation

The Al Hakimiyya li Allah slogan

The question of Sharia

The ideological and political perspectives of Islamism

The cultural heterogeneity of contemporary Arab society

Al-nahda, Sufism, and Islamism

Eventful regression.

Notes:

Translated from the French.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Addi, Lahouari, 1949- Radical Arab nationalism and political Islam.

ISBN:

9781626164499

1626164495

9781626164505

1626164509

OCLC:

965759768