Confronting the Other

Identity, Culture, Politics, and Conservative Islamism in Egypt

Bibliographic Data

ID8968052
AuthorsIsmail (0000-0001-6227-6297, University of Exeter, corresponding author), Salwa Ismail
Year1998
Volume30
Issue2
Pages199-225
Publication date1998-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743800065879
OpenAlexW2093091691
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited20

The rise of Islamist groups in Egypt's polity and society is given force through the articulation of a set of competing yet inter-linked discourses that challenge the authority of the post-independence secular nationalist discourse and attempt to reconstitute the field of struggle and domination in religious terms. Concurrently, these discourses seek authoritative status over the scope of meanings related to questions of identity, history, and the place of Islam in the world. The interpretations and definitions elaborated in reference to these questions by radical Islamist forces (the jihad groups and other militant Islamist elements) are often seen to dominate the entire field of meaning. However, claims to authority over issues of government, morality, identity, and Islam's relationship to the West are also made in and through a discourse that can appropriately be labeled “conservative Islamist.” The discourse and political role of conservative Islamism are the subject of this article

Aesthetics · Articulation (sociology · Identity (music · Islam · Militant · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Polity · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · Philosophy