This thesis examines the writings and ideas of Iranian revolutionary sociologist Ali Shari'ati (1933- 1977). He was the central figure in Iranian religious/Islamic intellectual circles before the revolution of 1979 and is acknowledged as the founder of the ideology of Iranian revolution in 1979. His political discourse and his narration of Islam as a revolutionary and political ideology have been received widely throughout the Islamic world, especially amongst religious and non-religious intellectuals and young educated people alike. He is well-known and highly regarded as a religious thinker who developed Islam as a modern and advanced political ideology. In Iranian religious intellectual society he is known as a teacher and a martyr; his name invested with highly positive historical, religious, and cultural significance.

Since the early 1990s, the Middle East has witnessed a renewed interest in the debate over the role of religion in the process of democratization. This study aims to examine the possibility of developing a democratic discourse within the Islamic context. It focuses on the evolution of the political thought in Shi'i Islam in the context of Iran after the Islamic revolution of 1979. The reconciliation between religion and democracy is argued to be a two-phase process: in the first phase, religion is integrated into the state in order to bring about a consensual political system and engage the people in the political process. Then, the religious worldview is developed in line with democracy. The study examines the socio-economic factors behind the emergence of the reformist discourse in Iran in the mid-1990s. It also reviews the evolution of that discourse compared with its conservative rival and highlights their approximate to the principles of democracy. Emphasizing the practical side of religion, the thesis concludes that the community's perception and application of the religious teachings have varied over the history to reflect the changing realities of the social life, far from the claim of religion being a fixed order of dogmas. The past twenty-five years witnessed major steps towards adapting the religious values to the modern patterns of socialization and politics. It was set off by the need of unifying the religious and political authorities within the state system. Later, the process was driven by the structural transformations ensued from the revolution and the state policies during the 1980s. The final phase came through the reformist's strategy to democratize the Islamic regime in the late 1990s. My general conclusion is that despite the tremble of the political reform, considerable works have been done, particularly on the structural level. The experience of the reformist rule indicates the possibility of developing a model of democracy appropriate to the local culture, especially the religious beliefs. It also indicates the capacity of the Islamic Republic to develop a democratic character, at least on the long term.

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This doctoral research, The Articulatory Practices of Islamism: A Focus on Space and Subjectivity, inquires into the role played by tradition, modernity and transmodernity qua symbolic reservoirs of Islamist discourses. By tackling Islamism from the theoretical and methodological perspective of discourse theory, my thesis will make a case for including within contemporary analyses of Islamism both a semiotic differentiation of Islamist articulatory practices (discourses) and a speculative assessment of their spatial representations and subjectivity formations. While the general framework of this study will be laid out in the Introduction (Chapter I), Part I of the thesis offers an examination of tradition, modernity and transmodernity in order to provide the reader with a conceptualisation of these key research categories. In addition to offering a reading of tradition and modernity crucial to a discourse-centred critique of Islamism, Chapter II will examine in detail the discourses of nationalism and pan-Islamism. Here the objective will be to uncover their deployment of two speculative paradigms in the construction of space and subjectivity; that is, dualism and universalism. Chapter III will then examine the emergence of key transmodern discourses such as globalism , universalism and virtualism tackling their relationship with globalisation. In Part II, I outline the main argument forwarded by my research. I will do so by examining the way three case studies engage with tradition, modernity and transmodernity. The discourse of three leading Islamist figures will be presented accompanied by textual examination and speculative analysis, the objective being to distinguish different discursive trajectories. I will strive to differentiate between a territorial trajectory of Islamism (Hasan al-Banna) in chapter IV; a transitional trajectory (Sayyid Qutb) in chapter V; and a transterritorial trajectory (Osama bin Laden) in chapter VI. Such an endeavour will help me to develop my main line of argument through an assessment of the role of symbolic reservoirs in the differentiation of Islamist discourses and in their construction of space and subjectivity. My conviction is that, while enlarging the space of academic debate on Islamism, such a theoretical approach could bring a new perspective to analytic inquiries into other discursive formations (liberalism, communism, anarchism etc), so helping analysts to differentiate between distinct trajectories within their respective discursive universe.

Notre recherche aborde la question de l'État dans la pensée islamique moderne chez les réformateurs du 19ème siècle et les islamistes du 20ème siècle selon une approche pluridisciplinaire. Le réformisme musulman a mené le combat entre le despotisme, contre l'ignorance des populations et contre les ingérences européennes. Il était plus ouvert au constitutionnalisme qui ne diffère pas de la shûra et des finalités de la charî'a.C'est dans ce sillage que se forme la pensée des théoriciens islamistes, du moins au début avant de s'en détacher car par la suite les islamistes entreront en conflit avec le nationalisme arabe ainsi qu'avec la pensée libérale, voire avec l'État-nation. Par conséquent deux logiques s'affrontent sur la nature de l'État, les limites des pouvoirs, la légitimité, et concernant essentiellement la relation entre État national et la religion, point de la discorde. Cette relations est restée ambiguë depuis un siècle. Il en est né un État national ni religieux ni laïque mais qui a modernisé le droit des emprunts à la juridiction occidentale, sans appliquer toutefois une vraie démocratie qui respecterait les droits de l'homme et de la citoyenneté. Il y a une laïcité et une sécularisation de fait au niveau individuel comme au niveau sociétal en pays arabo-musulmans sans que cela touche le dogme, malgré les tentatives de modernisation. Mais à partir des années quatre-vingt-dix un courant émerge appelé les néo-réformateurs, qui acceptent le jeu démocratique et la souveraineté populaire. Cela constituera un grand tournant dans la pensée politique islamique. / Our research deals with the subject of the State in 19th and 20th century Islamic modern reformist thought in accordance with a multidisciplinary approach. Islamic reformism has fought against despotism, ignorance of the populace and European interference. It was open to constitutionalism which is not different from the Shura system and goals of the Shariia. The thinking of Muslim theorists took shape within this framework, at least for a while before Islamists decided to break with it. Later, Islamists relations with both Arabic nationalism and liberal thinking, indeed with the Nation-State as a whole, became conflictual.Thus, two points of view concerning the nature of the State, the limits of power, legitimacy, and essentially the very controversial relationship between the Nation State and religion confronted each other. This relationship remained ambiguous for a century. The product has been a Nation State that is neither religious nor secular, but which has modernized the law by borrowing from the Western judicial system, without, however, applying real democracy able to respect human rights and citizenship. A de facto, secularism does exist on an individual and social level in Arab-Muslim countries without influencing the dogma, despite attempts at modernization. But from the 1990s on, a neo-reformist current of thought has emerged, which accepts democracy and sovereignty of the people. This will constitute a big turning point in Arab-Muslim political thought.

My doctoral thesis analyses the political ideology of Islamism by taking the case study of a major Islamist organization, namely the Jamaat-e-Islami in contemporary India and Bangladesh. In doing so, I try to understand the similarities and differences of the ideological articulations of Islamism in a Muslim minority context of India and in a Muslim majority context of Bangladesh. The thesis is written from a political theory perspective in general and within the realm of ideology studies in particular. The study analyses how and why the Jamaat is responding to the economic and cultural issues of neoliberal India and Bangladesh. One cannot possibly ignore the neoliberal context within which Islamists are generating markedly new kinds of political articulations with an unprecedented set of political demands, never seen before in the history of Islamist movements. The ideological articulations of Jamaat have been studied by analyzing various primary sources—organisational literature, the party constitution, policy resolutions, press releases, election manifestos and political pamphlets of Jamaat-e-Islami. In addition, this dissertation has also relied on field interviews with the Jamaat leadership in India and Bangladesh. Magazines and internet sources have been also helpful for this study. My thesis analyses Islamist responses to neoliberalism by discussing the contrasting conditions of contemporary India and Bangladesh. In doing so, I conclude that in India, Jamaat is opposed to neoliberalism whereas in Bangladesh, it has a ambiguous character vis-à-vis neoliberalism. However, Islamists in both these countries are opposed to cultural issues like atheism, ‘blasphemous’ views, live-in relationships and homosexuality, which they construe as the products of ‘western cultural globalization’. In this respect, I try to analyse why the Islamists are opposed to ‘western cultural globalization’. Finally, I also explain how Islamism, as a politico-ideological project of populist mobilization is facing a crisis in contemporary India and Bangladesh.