Practicing Islam in Egypt

From its earliest days as a momentous sociopolitical force that commanded immediate media attention and instant expert analyses, the Islamic revival that took root in the late 1970s has since developed into a scholarly field of study in its own right. Owing to major events such as the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the launch of a jihad in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the assassination of President Anwar al-Sadat by the Egyptian al-Jihad organization, scholars of Islam and Middle East politics alike scrambled to offer explanations for the perceived rise in mass mobilization and religiously-inspired political expression on the part of Muslim populations. The bulk of the analysis, much of it correct though incomplete, pointed to the failures of state modernization projects and the inability of nationalist currents to supplant religious identities, particularly among populations that did not reap the rewards of a shrinking network of beneficiaries

Islam · Media studies · Middle East · Modernization theory · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Islamic Studies and History · Middle East Politics and Society · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious Studies