Religion and Politics in Egypt

The Ulema of Al-Azhar, Radical Islam, and the State (1952–94)

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8965985
AutoresMalika Zeghal (autor correspondente)
Ano1999
Volume31
Fascículo3
Páginas371-399
Data de publicação1999-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743800055483
OpenAlexW2128739160
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas60
Referências citadas17

A vast literature has been produced since the 1980s on the emergence of Islamist movements in the Middle East. This literature offers different rationales for the emergence of new kinds of foes to the political regimes of the region. Filling the void left by the leftist opposition, the Islamist militants appeared around the 1970s as new political actors. They were expected neither by the state elites, which had initiated earlier modernizing political and social reforms, nor by political scientists who based their research on modernization-theory hypotheses. The former thought that their reform policies toward the religious institution would reinforce their control of the religious sphere, and the latter expected that secularization would accompany the modernization of society. The surprise brought by this new political phenomenon pushed observers to focus mainly on the Islamists and to overlook the role of the ulema, the specialists of the Islamic law, who were considered entirely submitted to the state

Islam · Left-wing politics · Modernization theory · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Secularization · Sociology · State (computer science · Surprise · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender