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Post-Islamism is a neologism in political science, the definition and applicability of which has led to an intellectual debate. Asef Bayat and Olivier Roy are among the main architects of the idea.[1]

The term has been used by Bayat to refer to "a tendency" towards resecularizing of Islam after the "exhaustion" of political Islam;[2] by Olivier Carré to refer to a premodern era of Islamic history where the political-military and religious realms were separated;[1] by Olivier Roy to a recognition that after repeated efforts Islamists had failed to establish a "concrete and viable blueprint for society".[3]

Terminology and definition

The term was coined by Iranian political sociologist Asef Bayat, then associate professor of sociology at The American University in Cairo in a 1996 essay published in the journal Middle East Critique.[4][5]

Bayat explained it as "a condition where, following a phase of experimentation, the appeal, energy, symbols and sources of legitimacy of Islamism get exhausted, even among its once-ardent supporters. As such, post-Islamism is not anti-Islamic, but rather reflects a tendency to resecularize religion." It originally pertained only to Iran, where "post-Islamism is expressed in the idea of fusion between Islam (as a personalized faith) and individual freedom and choice; and post-Islamism is associated with the values of democracy and aspects of modernity".[2] In this context, the prefix post- does not have historic connotation, but refers to the critical departure from Islamist discourse.[6] Bayat later pointed in 2007 that post-Islamism is both a "condition" and a "project".[1]

French politician Olivier Carré used the term in 1991 from a different perspective, to describe the period between the 10th and the 19th centuries, when both Shiite and Sunni Islam "separated the political-military from the religious realm, both theoretically and in practice".[1]

"Postmodern Islamism" and "New Age Islamism" are other terms interchangeably used.[7]

Olivier Roy argued in Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah in 2004 that "Islamists around the world" had been unable "to translate their ideology into a concrete and viable blueprint for society", leading "Muslim discourse" to enter "a new phase of post-Islamism".[3]

Cases

In Iran, the Reformists[8][9] and the group known as the Melli-Mazhabi (who are ideologically close to the Freedom Movement)[10] are described as post-Islamists.

The advent of moderate parties Al-Wasat Party in Egypt, as well as Justice and Development Party in Morocco appeared to resemble emergence of post-Islamism, however scholars rejected that they qualify as such.[11][12] A similar characterization applies to the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).[13]

A 2008 Lowy Institute for International Policy paper suggests that Prosperous Justice Party of Indonesia and Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey are post-Islamist.[14] According to Ahmet T. Kuru and Alfred Stepan (2012), many analysts consider Turkish AKP an example of post-Islamism, similar to Christian democratic parties, but Islamic.[15] However, some scholars such as Bassam Tibi dispute this.[16] İhsan Yılmaz argues that the party's ideology after 2011 is different from that of between 2001 and 2011.[17]

The idea has been used to describe the "ideological evolution" within the Ennahda of Tunisia.[18]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d Gómez García 2012.
  2. ^ a b Bayat 1996, p. 45.
  3. ^ a b Sinanovic, Ermin (2005). "[Book review] Post-Islamism: The Failure of Islamic Activism?". International Studies Review. 7: 433–436. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2486.2005.00508.x. JSTOR 3699758. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  4. ^ Mojahedi 2016, p. 52.
  5. ^ Badamchi 2017, p. 1.
  6. ^ Badamchi 2017, p. 4.
  7. ^ Ismail 2008, p. 626.
  8. ^ Fazeli 2006, p. 169.
  9. ^ Badamchi 2017, p. 3.
  10. ^ Shahibzadeh 2016, p. 103.
  11. ^ Stacher 2002, p. 432.
  12. ^ Lauzi`ere 2005, p. 242.
  13. ^ Muller 2013.
  14. ^ Bubalo, Fealy & Mason 2002, p. 51, 76.
  15. ^ Kuru & Stepan 2012, p. 172.
  16. ^ Hale & Ozbudun 2009, p. 148.
  17. ^ Yılmaz 2016, p. 115.
  18. ^ Cavatorta & Merone 2015.

Sources

  • Bayat, Asef (Fall 1996). "The Coming of a Post-Islamist Society". Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies. 5 (9): 43–52. doi:10.1080/10669929608720091.
  • Mojahedi (subscription required), Mohammad Mahdi (Autumn 2016). ""Is There Toleration in Islam?" Reframing a Post-Islamist Question in a Post-Secular Context". ReOrient. 2 (1): 51–72. doi:10.1080/10669929608720091. JSTOR 10.13169/reorient.2.1.0051.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Cavatorta, Francesco; Merone, Fabio (2015). "Post-Islamism, ideological evolution and 'la tunisianite´' of the Tunisian Islamist party al-Nahda". Journal of Political Ideologies. 20 (1): 27–42. doi:10.1080/13569317.2015.991508. S2CID 143777291.
  • Stacher (subscription required), Joshua A. (Summer 2002). "Post-Islamist Rumblings in Egypt: The Emergence of the Wasat Party". Middle East Journal. 56 (3): 415–432. doi:10.1080/10669929608720091. JSTOR 4329786.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Bubalo, Anthony; Fealy, Greg; Mason, Whit (2008). Zealous Democrats: Islamism and Democracy in Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey (PDF). Australia: Lowy Institute for International Policy. ISBN 9781921004353. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  • Badamchi, Meysam (2017). Post-Islamist Political Theory: Iranian Intellectuals and Political Liberalism in Dialogue. Philosophy and Politics – Critical Explorations. 5. Springer. ISBN 9783319594927.
  • Fazeli, Nematollah (2006). Politics of Culture in Iran. Routledge/BIPS Persian Studies Series. Routledge. ISBN 9781134200382.
  • Shahibzadeh, Yadullah (2016). Islamism and Post-Islamism in Iran: An Intellectual History. Springer. ISBN 9781137578259.
  • Lauzi`ere, Henri (2005). "Post-Islamism and Religious Discourse of al-Salam Yasin". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 37: 241–261. doi:10.1017/S0020743805372059. S2CID 163148619 – via Cambridge (subscription required).
  • Gómez García, Luz (2012). "Post-Islamism, the Failure of an Idea: Regards on Islam and Nationalism from Khomeini's Death to the Arab Revolts". Religion Compass. 6 (10): 451–466. doi:10.1111/rec3.12002.
  • Muller, Dominik M. (2013). "Post-Islamism or Pop-Islamism? Ethnographic observations of Muslim youth politics in Malaysia" (PDF). Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde. 6 (10): 261–284.
  • Kuru, Ahmet; Stepan, Alfred (2012). Democracy, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey. Religion, Culture, and Public Life. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231530255.
  • Hale, William; Ozbudun, Ergun (2009). Islamism, Democracy and Liberalism in Turkey: The Case of the AKP. Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics. Routledge. ISBN 9781135214920.
  • Yılmaz, İhsan (2016). "The Experience of the AKP". In Alessandro Ferrari (ed.). Religions and Constitutional Transitions in the Muslim Mediterranean: The Pluralistic Moment. ICLARS Series on Law and Religion. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317067122.
  • Ismail, Salwa (2008). "Being Muslim: Islam, Islamism and Identity Politics". In Laleh Khalili (ed.). Politics of the Modern Arab World. Critical concepts in the modern politics of the Middle East. Routledge. ISBN 9780415451598.
  • Dokhanchi, Milad (March 2020). "Post-Islamism Redefined: Towards a politics of post-Islamism". Journal of the Contemporary Study of Islam. 1 (1): 28–54. doi:10.37264/jcsi.v1i1.13.