Stemming from U.S.'s ongoing war in the Middle East, this report details the foreign policy of three non-democratic states: Pakistan, Iran and Syria. Foreign policy is affected by many factors within the borders of a state, some of which include: power of the ruler, religion, extent of civil liberties, economy and the state's history. All of these factors, along with a number of others aid in understanding how non-democratic states form their foreign policy. Moreover, a detailed analysis of past conflicts is provided in order to represent how the antagonism came about, the reasons for warfare, the methods used and any attempts at reconciliation. This research has shown that at least in the cases of Pakistan, Iran and Syria, the political and religious leaders have had enormous influence in choosing battles. Although a similar conclusion cannot and should not be made about other states in the Middle East and South Asia, this methodology can be used in assessing foreign policy of other non-democratic states in the area as well. Thus, based on the findings in this thesis, one can infer that non-democratic states have been involved in much warfare due mostly to their rulers. There have been little or no attempts at diplomacy, and these states have almost always resorted to violence. Also, the power of the extremists in these countries is incomparable to the power of any given group around the world. This analysis may be used in efforts to better understand the region, which would aid U.S. in better cooperating with it.

Social capital research has traditionally been conducted in western and Christian settings as a precursor of changes such as democratization and development. This paper focuses on Islamic religious engagement and its potential to foster social capital. The model presented here is designed to suggest whether the Islam's influence occurs through doctrinal channels, or through Islam's capacity to organize social structures. The analysis conducted is a linear regression model with measures of social capital as dependent variables and measures of religious engagement as independent variables. The analysis is conducted on data from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey. Results suggest that religious engagement and social capital have both belief and behavioral elements that should be treated as separate entities in quantitative research.

Thesis (MPhil (Political Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / Sudan, Africa’s largest country has been plagued by civil war for more than fifty years. The war broke out before independence in 1956 and the last round of talks ended in a peace agreement early in 2005. The war started as a war between two different religions embedded in different cultures. The Islamic government constitutionalised their religious beliefs and imposed them on the whole country. This triggered heavy reaction from the Christian and animist people in the South. They were not willing to adhere to strict marginalising Islamic laws that created cleavages in society. The Anya-Anya was the first rebel group to violently oppose the government and they fought until the Addis Ababa peace accord that was reached in 1972. After the peace agreement there was relative peace before the government went against the peace agreement and again started enforcing their religious laws on the people in the South. This new wave of Islamisation sparked renewed tension between the North and the south that culminated in Dr John Garang and his SPLM/A restarting the conflict with the government in 1982. This war between the SPLA and the government lasted 22 years and only ended at the beginning of 2005. The significance of this second wave in the conflict is that it coincided with the discovery of oil in the South. Since the discovery of oil the whole focus of the war changed and oil became the centre around which the war revolved. Through this research I intend to look at the significance of oil in the conflict. The research question: how religious is Sudan’ Religious war? asks the question whether resources have become more important than religion.

The purpose for undertaking this case study of the Shi'a in Lebanon is threefold. First, as a hypothesis-generating case study, its objective is to formulate relevant hypotheses about religious resurgence and religious terrorism. This study achieves this objective by formulating 14 general and nine special hypotheses, and testing and confirming the latter. Second, the purpose of this study is also to explore the trajectory of the Lebanese Shi'a's sectarian mobilization. This exploration permits the conceptualization of geocultural immobility and its effect upon a religious minority. It deduces that the Lebanese Shiga's geo-cultural immobility is directly related to their active religious resurgence. The third purpose is to study the changes in the objectives and tactics of a religious minority, that of the Muslim Shi'a in Lebanon. This research is able, via its primary and secondary data, to show a relationship between the Lebanese Shiga's religious resurgence and their use of religious terrorism. This study introduces the concept of geo-cultural immobility. A minority's geo-cultural immobility is identified as an imposed low geographic mobility within a nation with low cultural pluralism. It establishes the Lebanese Shi'a's geo-cultural immobility, to which it attributes their religious resurgence. This Lebanese Shi'a religious resurgence is proven in this research to produce zealots needed by religious terrorist organizations. This study also introduces and defines religious terrorism as violent acts performed by elements of a religious organization or sect, growing out of a commitment to communicate a divine message. It distinguishes between religious terrorism, secular terrorism, and fighters for religious freedom, which are based on the actors' motives, affinities, and consciousness of the maliciousness of their acts. The primary and secondary data and the quasi-experiment in this research support its special hypotheses. They indicate a statistical correlation between eight Lebanese Shi'a cultural and religious attributes: (1) age, (2) marital status, (3) extent of Shi'a Imam's militancy, (4) personal religious commitment and religious resurgence, (5) zealotry, (6) geo-cultural immobility, (7) imprisonment of family members, and (8) willingness to commit terrorism.

No description available.

At the close of the eighth century the third of the Umawi amirs ascended the throne of al-Andalus to be greeted immediately by a rebellion in one of his major towns. This set the stage for a reign which was filled with rebellion and unrest. The border Marches revolted as their governors sought to make themselves independent, a mob of his subjects stormed his palace in Cordoba and almost succeeded in capturing it, he was jeered at when he walked through the streets of Cordoba to the mosque, and at one point he uncovered a plot involving some of the leading scholars in the country to depose him and replace him with his cousin. [...]

Cette these a pour objet la description de la société Musulmane à Java. Elle attire particulierement l'attention sur deux groupes typologiquement distinct: le santri et le abangan. Meme si la recherche étudie l'origine de ces deux groupes, elle va essayer d'analyser le santri et le abangan dans leurs deux aspects essentiels, premierement comme groupes socio-religieux, et deuxiemement comme pouvoirs sooio-politiques. Elle insiste aussi sur le processus par lequel la querelle entre le santri et le abangan, par rapport a la concurence des différentes idéologies politiques, devient un des déterminants essentiels dans la politique indonesienne. Même si la distinction socio-religieuse de ces deux groupes est ignore pour une raison quelconque, la différence entre les deux entraine des consequences politiques tres différentes. Par conséquent l'étude du santri et du abangan a Java, rend possible une meilleure compréhension de l'Islam tel que pratiqué dans cette ile. / This thesis is concerned with the description of Muslim society in contemporary Java, and pays particular attention to the two typologically distinctive groups, the so-called santri and abangan. While investigation is made into the origin of these two groups, this study is attempting to elucidate santri and abangan in their two essential aspects; firstly as socio-religious groups and secondly as socio-political powers. It also stresses the process by which the struggle of santri and abangan vis-a-vis the strife between different political ideologies becomes one of the basic determinants in Indonesian politics.

Islam was drastically altered in Iran as a result of the 1978/79 Revolution. This thesis looks at the political aspects of contemporary Imami Shi'ism by comparing the ideas of three leading mujtahids of the day: Ayatullah Shari 'atmadari, Ayatullah Khumayni, and Ayatullah Taliqani. This study points out the wide divergences of ideas present within the religious class, ranging in the political spectrum, from conservative to radical. A comparison of these three figures highlights the differences between "Traditionalist" Islam, as put forth by Shari 'atmadari, and "Fundamentalist" Islam, as proposed by Khumayni and Taliqani. Further differences within the fundamentalist "camp" are demonstrated through Taliqani 's progressive all-inclusive "Liberation Theology" and Khumayni 's equally all-encompassing "religion of militant individuals".

The advent of Ahmad Kasravi (1890--1946) and his Pakdini movement represents one of the most important developments in the history of socio-religious thought in Iran in the Pahlavi era (1925--1979). It was one of the greatest home-grown ideological challenges to Shi'ism and Shi'i clergy in the twentieth century. / The present thesis aims to analyze Kasravi's religious ideology. It examines first the historical factors that played a significant role in the development of Kasravi's socio-religious consciousness and his keen interest in religion. Secondly, it explores the intellectual contexts of his religious thought---its origins, the controversial nature of it, the original aspects of it, the reaction of the clergy and intellectuals of the time to it, and its significance and impact on the coming generations. Finally, the key concepts of Kasravi's socio-religious ideology and some major current misunderstandings of them are examined. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

No description available.