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The 'New Order' government, under President Suharto's leadership, has undertaken different initiatives in the face of both 'political' Islam and 'religious' Islam in Indonesia. Since coming into power in 1966, it has exercised strict control over 'political' Islam; on the other hand, its attitude towards 'religious' Islam has generally been tolerant and even supportive. The result has been a considerable weakening of Islamic political forces but a rapidly developing 'religious' Islam. This reality has forced the present-day generation of Indonesian Muslim thinkers to take an approach which is different from that of the previous generation in responding to the government's policies towards Islam. Unlike their predecessors, some of whom had too ideological and formalistic a conception of an Islamic state, the present Muslim thinkers take an approach which is for the most part politically non-partisan. There has been a growing tendency among them to denounce the efficacy of Islamic political parties. They see that the realization of an Islamic community and the well-being of the ummah will come about not through exclusive and uncompromising political actions but through socioeconomic and cultural means and the ability to be less exclusive and willing to work with those who share different ideas. As a result of efforts along these lines, the relationship between the Muslim community and the government has improved substantially. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether or not this developing 'religious' Islam will, at some future date, be transformed into a powerful 'political' Islam.

This thesis investigates the role played by the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a traditionalist Islamic organization established by K. H. Hasjim Asj'ari in 1926, in the development of Indonesian nationalism, elaborating in particular on its activities under the New Order (1980s and 1990s) after it implemented the Pancasila as the sole foundation for all political parties, social and mass organizations. As the largest Muslim traditionalist organization in Indonesia, the NU was originally founded to protect and promote the interests of Muslim traditionalists, who loyally followed the school of Ahlu al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah. The doctrines of the latter school are shown here to have largely influenced the organization's dealings both culturally, religiously and politically. / In order to fully understand the NUs view of Indonesian nationalism, this thesis examines the three phases of Indonesian nationalism, beginning with the rise of this organization, its involvement in the formation of the Indonesian state and its ideology, and the period after the country stipulated the sole foundation of Pancasila. It is from these three phases of Indonesian nationalism that this thesis shows the significance role played by the NU during the 1980s and 1990s. The NUs example in accepting the Pancasila as its sole basis served as an inspiration to other social and mass organizations in the country and represented one of its major contributions to the nation's welfare.

The socio-religious history of Algeria is characterised by a series of identity crises, to which the end of 20th century's civil war represents the paroxysm. Since the suppression of the marabout instances in the 19th and 20th centuries, the population was never able to find the right role of religion in society. The "second war of Algeria" does not only represent the climax of a series of identity crises, but also the result, the consequence, of all the ones which preceded it. The 1980 decade, which had preceded the civil war, was propitious to the growth of social protest in Algeria. Like in most of the social crises that Algeria had known, Islam was then the main vehicle for social protest. / This thesis intends to bring out the historical elements which had led to the civil war opposing religious groups and the government. Through four periods of the Algerian Islamic history, we will attempt to understand the evolution of the Algerian religiosity. A link between these four periods emerges: the quest for the national identity, to which a particular attention will be given. The goal of this thesis is then to bring out the principal events of the Algerian Islamic history in order to understand how a personal and dogmatic Islam became an ideological and political Islam in the 1980's and 1990's. / Therefore, this thesis will focus on Islam as a mobilisation, protestation and resistance agent for the Algerian civil society. More precisely this thesis will analyse how and why the Algerian Islam has been "instrumentalised" either by the government and the religious leaders of the society.

This thesis will examine the role of Islamist political parties and what effect their interpretation of national identity has played in dividing the people of Sudan, resulting in two civil wars. It will examine the manifestations and interpretations of Islam and pan-Arabism among the various Islamist parties of Northern Sudan, exploring the ethnic and religious factors which influence Islamist political groups, as well as their social bases which are tied to economics, language, and the conception of a distinctly "Arab" or "African" culture. This thesis will argue that the predominance of these Islamist political parties in the Sudanese government combined with the lack of a Sudanese identity and historical factors have combined to prevent the consolidation of state power, leading to situations of protracted conflict. The imposition, or attempted imposition, of an Islamic identity on the state as a whole prevents unity as it necessarily excludes certain parts of the population as well as disenfranchising those who, whilst they might be Muslim, do not subscribe to the same interpretation of Islamic identity.

This thesis proposes to deal with the Iraqi Nationalist movement from its emergence after the First World War to the establishment of an independent Iraq in 1932. During these years the British controlled Iraq under a mandate granted by the League of Nations. This, in spite of the simultaneous creation of an Iraqi monarchy. Neither the new monarch nor the people were content with the political arrangement, based as it was on foreign control, but the drive for independence emanated from a small group of political activists. Both major religious sects of Islam, Sunni and Shi'a, played a leading role in the nationalist movement; in fact, the movement cannot be understood without an appreciation of Islam, and its major variations, in Iraqi life. / A historical background highlights the conditions which allowed Iraqism to take precedent over Arabism after the war and examines the reactions of Iraqis to the invasion by modern conquerors and their later occupation. Additionally, it provides a chronological account of the important events during the mandate period and the buildup of Iraqi resentment of foreign control which precipitated their demand for self-government. / This thesis is a broad study of the nascent nationalist movement in postwar Iraq which engaged in a desperate battle to transform a mandated territory into a sovereign state. Focus is on the role religion played in its beginnings and on the contribution of both Shi'is and Sunnis whose combined and independent efforts led to the formation of modern Iraq.

This thesis examines whether Muslims qua Muslims can regard as legitimate the demands of citizenship in a non-Muslim liberal democracy. This involves asking whether requirements such as living in and being loyal to a non-Muslim state, regarding non- Muslims as political equals with whom one might co-operate socially and politically, contributing to non-Muslim welfare and participating in non-Muslim political systems can be regarded as legitimate practices. It is an exercise in what John Rawls referred to as 'conjecture', or the attempt to examine and argue for the existence of an overlapping consensus between a liberal political conception of justice or citizenship and a particular comprehensive ethical doctrine. Chapter One examines the status of conjecture in political theory and the place of the idea of an overlapping consensus in liberal justification, followed by a proposal for a methodology for this type of comparative political theory. Chapter Two deals with the precise demands liberalism places on citizens, and the particular concerns of Muslims living in non-Muslim states. I show that before we can discuss the central liberal concerns of justifying state neutrality and individual freedoms to revise one's conception of the good, it is necessary to look at a series of questions related to Muslim belonging, loyalty and solidarity in a non-Muslim state. I then present and defend a conception of liberal citizenship in response to certain challenges and concerns of Islamic political ethics. Chapters Three through Five then deal with the range of Islamic responses to the demands of liberal citizenship as I presented them. Chapter Three considers the question of residence in a non-Muslim state and whether the most common justifications for such residence can be considered compatible with liberal conceptions of a well-ordered society. Chapter Four examines the problems of political obligation and loyalty - whether Muslims can in good faith meet their obligations of loyalty to both the global community of fellow believers and their state of citizenship. Chapter Five deals with questions of recognition and solidarity - whether Muslims can recognise non-Muslims as political equals, form relationships based on justice, contribute to their welfare and participate in a common political system. All three chapters demonstrate that very strong and authentically Islamic arguments exist for accepting all of the above demands of citizenship, many being found even in medieval works of Islamic jurisprudence. Crucially, Islamic arguments shown to support the idea of an overlapping consensus also vindicate many of the claims of Rawlsian political liberalism to be a more appealing form of liberalism to non-liberals precisely because of its abstention from claims to metaphysical truth.

In 1992, Algeria's government held its first ever democratic elections. With the Front Islamique du Salut poised to win the elections overwhelmingly, the Algerian military cancelled the democratic process and imposed military rule. Soon afterward, Algeria plunged into a civil war that claimed upward of 100,000 lives. Despite very significant popular support for the Islamist insurgency aiming to violently overthrow the Algerian government, the insurgency ultimately failed. Why? This paper will argue that while structural and actor-oriented approaches to understanding revolution are certainly important, they focus inadequate attention on contingencies that arise during a conflict, which in turn, affect structural and actor-oriented variables. Furthermore, a process-level approach enables us to factor in actor-oriented and structural variables dynamically, and is necessary to understanding the ultimate failure of the Islamist insurgency in Algeria.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies, Faculty of Arts, 2002. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 463-491).

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2007. / Thesis Advisor(s): Malley, Michael. "December 2007." Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Apr 11, 2008). AD-A475 759. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-75). Also available via the World Wide Web.