This research effort will analyze the level of female political participation within the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) before and after the January 25 revolution, and whether it has changed with the transformation of Egypt’s political climate, governing system and ruling elite. An assessment of the level of female participation within the MB and its political party will occur to determine which significant factors - such as governing regime, cultural influences, security issues - have attributed to the magnitude and level of the Muslim Sisters’ political exposure and electoral activities. More specifically, this research aims to ascertain if the Muslim Sisters experience their full rights as citizens under the leadership of the MB, and whether the MB’s willingness to nominate women is a step towards achieving equality or ‘complementarity’ within its ranks, or the process of fielding female candidates is nothing more than a “democratic façade.” Or is the issue more deeply rooted within the Egyptian, and predominantly Muslim, state and society, and its social norms and existing political structures? The historical context of post-colonial politics and the crisis of authoritarian secular politics will be reviewed as well, as it has contributed to the phenomenon of reinventing the rigid influence of tradition and religion.

This thesis examines Islamic reform as an intellectual-political movement that began in the first quarter of the 19th century and lasted until the first quarter of the 20th century. It was a philosophy founded by a group of Muslim-reformists as a result of their perception that degradation of Islamic civilisation and deterioration of the Islamic world had followed the so-called 'shock of modernity'. The investigation is based on the study of selected exponents of the Islamic reform movement. It examines the notions of political discourse of the Muslim-reformists, with particular reference to the problem that was central for Islamic reform: 'How did the political discourse of Islamic reform respond to the challenges of modernity at this early historic moment of opening up a communication with European modernity?' This discourse is examined through the texts that were produced by the Muslim-reformists following contact with European modernity and their realisation of the difference between the development of Europe and the retrogression of the Islamic world. The thesis sheds light on their attempts to find the causes of this retrogression and the ways to overcome it, examining their calls for a return to the Islamic ideals which are represented by the Qur'an and the Sunna and their interest in European modernity. This thesis also sets the Muslim-reformists' positions against the historical, political, and theological background that influenced their response: the French Revolution and Enlightenment philosophy on the one hand, and the theological tradition of Islam on the other hand. Emphasis is given to the ways in which they used both these traditions to offer original answers to the problems of the Islamic world. It is this common ground which, it is suggested, makes their political discourse intelligible and perhaps even essential, and gives a special interest to their interpretation.

Over the past two decades, both the British and Russian states have sought to institutionalise relations with their Muslim communities through Muslim councils. However, such attempts at institutionalisation raise challenges for these organisations, which need to balance state demands for incorporation into religious governance and Muslim community expectations for more inclusive representation. Challenges of integration and representation have received considerable coverage in Western and Russian studies. However, little comparative research has focused on the behaviour of Muslim councils and how this is affected by different institutional settings. In particular, theories of social movements and interest groups suggest that strategies for dealing with this tension between integration and representation vary between more corporatist and pluralist state-religion relations. Russia and Britain are taken as exemplars of the two traditions, and thus help us to understand how these tensions manifest themselves and are responded to in the two different contexts. The project provides a comparative analysis of the strategies and discourses used by the Muslim Council of Britain and the Russia Council of Muftis in 1997-2013. It explores the conditions under which the councils engage with or disengage from the state. It also examines how the two organisations respond to criticisms from Muslim communities and undertake internal reforms to improve their legitimacy. A detailed analysis of the councils’ engagement with state authorities and Muslim communities is used to unpack the challenges of Muslim collective representation. The thesis contributes to research by providing new empirical data and theoretical insights on Muslim national organisations. It offers an innovative analytical framework by revisiting the concepts of pluralism and corporatism and applying them to the institutional context of state-religion relations in Britain and Russia. It draws on social movement theories and institutionalist approaches to understand how Muslim organisations deal with the dual pressure of co-optation and representation. It examines how Muslim councils behave like interest group organisations and offers theoretical insights that can be extrapolated to other kinds of institutions. Finally, the thesis integrates Western and Russian scholarship on the role of interest groups in general and religious institutions in particular.

Résumé : Cette thèse s’intéresse à la question de la radicalisation violente chez les salafistes algériens. Elle tente de comprendre comment s’effectue le glissement d’un militantisme (ou d’une sympathie) en faveur d’un islam politique légal, vers un activisme clandestin versé dans l’action violente sous le seau du djihad armé. Saisir le cheminement de cette entrée en radicalité, nous amène d’abord à réfléchir sur la radicalisation de la pensée religieuse comme première étape du processus étudié. L’engagement au profit du djihad est ensuite tributaire d’une construction (ou reconstruction) identitaire fondée sur un renversement moral de l’ordre socioreligieux établi. Les représentationsqui en émanent sont le produit d’une socialisation de l’individu à une pensée radicalisée qui, lorsqu’elle est combinée à d’autres variables facilitatrices ou incitatrices, le prédispose à passer à l’acte. Ainsi, au niveau macro, les opportunités/menaces agissent comme des facteurs facilitateurs ou précipitateurs dans l’engagement armé ; la répression et la fermeture du champ politique sont à ce titre, les variables les plus redondantes dans l’explication de l’entrée en radicalité chez les salafistes algériens. Au niveau méso et micro, l’influence des réseaux préconstitués (organisations armées, réseaux de soutiens logistiques…) et des liens sociaux (amis, voisins, famille…) pèse lourdement sur le choix de l’engagement collectif et individuel. Enfin, les chocs moraux et les récits mémoriels sur la répression subie peuvent aussi nous éclairer à saisir un certain nombre de trajectoires de radicalisation violente chez les djihadistes algériens / Abstract : This thesis focuses on the issue of violent radicalization among Algerian Salafists. It tries to understand how is the shift of activism (or sympathy) for a legal political Islam to a clandestine activism poured into violent action in the bucket of armed jihad. Enter the path of the entry into radicalism, leads us first to reflect on the radicalization of religious thought as a first step in the process studied. The commitment in favor of jihad is then dependent on a construction (or reconstruction) of identity based on moral overthrow of the established socio-religious order. The representations that come in are the product of socialization of the individual to a radicalized thought which, when combined with other variables or incentive-facilitators, predisposes to pass the act. Thus, at the macro level, opportunities / threats act as facilitators factors or precipitators in the armed engagement; repression and the closure of the political field as such are the most redundant variables in explaining the entry into radicalism among Algerian Salafists. At the meso and micro level, the influence of pre-made networks (armed organizations, logistic support networks ...) and social connections (friends, neighbors, family ...) weighs heavily on the choice of the individual and collective commitment. Finally, moral shocks and stories on the memorial suffered repression may also enlighten us to enter a number of violent radicalization trajectories among Algerian jihadists.

This thesis is concerned with the 19th century politico-religious and intellectual aspects of the Dyula of Bondoukou and the career of al-Ḥājj Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad b. Uthmān of Jinini (d. 1932). Among the points of discussion are the establishment of the Gyaman Abron kingdom in northern Ivory Coast, the founding of a Dyula imamate and trading community within its frontiers, the impact of the Samorian and French subjugation of the territory, the intellectual activity of the Dyula, and the influence of al-Ḥājj Ṣāliḥ in Bondoukou, Jinini and Wenchi. Selected Dyula Arabic writings are included to give the reader an idea of the level of Dyula familiarity with the language and Islamic learning; this is not intended to be an exhaustive study of Dyula scholarship. To the degree which the sources permit, the focus of this study is upon the life of a little known scholar in the West, al-Ḥājj Ṣāliḥ.

This thesis discusses the revisions of the Egyptian Islamic Group and al-Jihād Organisation with a special focus on the theology and ideology of the two movements. The main question is: how could these groups revise their thought using Islamic theological arguments though their previous pro-violence thought was also based on Islamic theological arguments. Textual analysis, coupled with the relevant aspects of framing literature, is the main tool used to discuss the ideology of the two groups and answer the research questions. Yet, the thesis also provided extended literature review of the topic as well as historical sociopolitical and economic accounts of the two organisations in order situate the texts in their proper contexts and link thought to action. The thesis provides detailed description and analysis of the two groups’ ideologies and concludes that one of them has genuinely revised its thought while the other has not. After explaining how this change has happened in theological textual as well as in framing terms, the thesis provides an analysis on why one group could change while the other could not. The thesis shows the level of change in any Jihadist movement thought corresponds with the level of concepts it transfers from the static to the flexible sides of the Sharia, and that the nature and original objectives of each group at the time of its establishment play a great role in any revision process when violence proves counterproductive to the original objectives of that group. The thesis also proves that it is not just the ideas or ideological arguments that matter but also the process through which these ideas and arguments are framed. In addition, the fact that only one of the two groups has genuinely changed while both have undergone the same structural sociopolitical and economic conditions in the same country shows the failure of structural sociopolitical and economic approaches in explaining the reasons of violence and revisions of Islamist movements in causal terms, and illustrates the ability of the textual approach to reveal facts and secrets that other approaches could not.

The first difficulty which confronts the student of the ideas of ʾAbd al-Raḥmān al-Kawākibi is the absence of a full biography of the man; al-Kawākibi did not have his Boswell, nor would his personality have attached a faithful and admiring disciple as Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍa. He is nevertheless a well thought of figure, and he appears in the standard literary and biographical dictionaries. It is to be noticed however that all the biographical notes which refer to him have one and the same source: the two official documents which Rashīd Riḍa, editor of al-Manār printed in his obituary notice about al-Kawākibi. These documents and the life of al-Kawākibi given in al-Manār were used by all subsequent writers and editors of biographical compilations.

No description available.

Cette thèse entend mettre en lumière la constitution de "visions du monde" qui se sont développées au regard des préceptes économiques de l'islam. Celles-ci révèleront des rapports fondamentalement transformés entre le politique, le droit, la morale, le savoir, l'histoire et la société. Une rupture cosmologique interviendra entre la période classique de l'islam et la modernité, laquelle fera advenir une conception renouvelée des principes religieux avec l'avènement de la "justice sociale". La "vision du monde" du Jamaat-i-islami aura pour prétention de mettre en oeuvre ce que ce courant politico-religieux dit être le "système économique de l'islam", qui sera déterminé lors de la confrontation avec les idéologies communistes, socialistes, national-socialiste, sécularistes, nationalistes, ainsi que les formes du capitalisme, au moment de la partition de l'Inde et du Pakistan. Cette conception du monde finira par être elle-même en concurrence avec ce qui se nommera la finance islamique à partir du milieu des années 70, donnant naissance à une définition inédite de la religion. / This thesis aims at highlighting "worldviews" appearing in relation to the economic precepts of Islam.They reveal fundamental transformations between politics, law, morality, knowledge, history and society.A cosmological shift will be shown to occur between the classical period of Islam and modernity, entailing a renewed conception of religious principles with the advent of "social justice". The "worldview" of Jamaat-i-islami claims to set up the "Economic system of Islam", which will be determined in confrontation with ideologies such as Communism, Socialism, National-socialism, Secularism, Nationalism,and Capitalism, during the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. This conception will ultimately be in conflict with a new one under the name of Islamic Finance in the mid-70s, giving birth to an unprecedented definition of this religion.

This study examines the rise of al-Adl wal-Ihsan in the early 1980s, its development, its attitude towards a number of Islamic and contemporary issues, and its strategy to take root in society and press for social and political reform in Morocco. The aim is to provide an account that reflects as far as possible what is perceived to be the true nature of al-Adl wal-Ihsan and, more importantly, to identify the factors behind its rapid growth and its ability to become the largest organized Islamic force in the country despite operating under an authoritarian regime and in an environment already populated by several Islamic groups. Drawing on the dialogic model of interpretation which entails, among things, presenting the Islamists’ ideas, experiences and arguments using their own terms and categories, this study has used a wide range of primary and secondary sources and benefited from interviews with a variety of people, including the movement’s founding leader, Sheikh Yassine, before he passed away on 13th December 2012, in order to achieve a better understanding of al-Adl wal-Ihsan. The major findings that come from this research demonstrate that al-Adl wal-Ihsan is a mere response, among others, based on Islamic sources and ijtihad, to legitimate demands of social, political and moral order. Hence, to exclude the moral and spiritual dimension from the analysis would not help to generate plausible explanations of the rise and nature of al-Adl wal-Ihsan or any other Islamic group for that matter. As for al-Adl’s rapid expansion, it has been found to be closely related to five basic factors: a charismatic leadership, an adequate organizational structure, a coherent theoretical framework, an appealing reform strategy and special emphasis on tarbiya [education]. Thus what becomes of al-Adl wal-Ihsan in the future seems to depend on its ability to maintain, if not to improve on what is deemed to be the source of its strength, which is a big challenge.