Based upon anthropological fieldwork and contemporary literature as well as an analysis of media reports and statements by government officials such as current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this thesis explores the interrelations between political discourses, lifestyle, and identity construction in contemporary Turkey. In the thesis, it is depicted how certain lifestyle choices are legally limited or (drawing on moral, religious, and nationalist discourses) labeled as 'bad' or 'wrong' by the current AKP government and certain parts of society. The informants interviewed for this thesis, mostly well-educated, young Turkish urbanites, feel like these restrictions of lifestyle choices limit their possibilities to freely construct and express their identities, which leads to feelings of resentment, unhappiness, and discomfort. By analyzing political developments in the 20th and 21st century, it is furthermore illustrated that authoritarianism has been a substantial part of the Turkish state project ever since the founding of the Turkish Republic. The current political events and conflicts about lifestyle and identity construction, it is argued, have to be understood in this context rather than depicting them as based upon a strict dividing line between 'secular' and 'religious' parts of society, as it is often depicted in Western media.

This dissertation is an examination of the UK’s counter-terrorism policies and practices that have been adopted since the attacks of 9/11 in the United States. Using a theoretical framework of ‘power’ and ‘hegemony’ to guide the research, and an investigative research approach, the dissertation examines how the UK has, in the name of confronting an ideologically and religiously motivated global opponent, enacted a two pronged approach that integrates key aspects of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice. The first ties into the use of ‘coercion’ that is undertaken under the policy heading of ‘Pursue’ and covers activities that revolve around the use of policing, military, juridical and executive powers to investigate, prosecute and take preventative and pre-emptive action against suspected terrorists and the second ties into the use of ‘propaganda’ and ‘communication’ that is undertaken through the ‘Prevent’ policy, which attempts to challenge and counter those individuals who do not promulgate unlawful or violent views but support al-Qaida’s grievances and ideology and are thus claimed to be more likely to become involved in terrorism. In order to inform Prevent activity, information and intelligence – a cardinal principle of counterinsurgency – is a prerequisite. This dissertation therefore shows how intelligence and information is collected and used by examining Prevent activity at UK universities. It then proceeds to contextualise counter-terrorism policy and practice through an examination of counterinsurgency doctrine, and in particular, ‘strategic communication’. The dissertation argues that the integration of key elements of counterinsurgency doctrine into counter-terrorism policy and practice suggests that the policy, rather than being a mere response to terrorism, is an organised and strategic effort to use coercion and propaganda to control the behaviour and activity of Muslim communities and thereby constitutes a form of state-terrorism.

The political theology of AÎmad Ibn Íanbal (d. 241/855( is analysed through comprehensive examination of the authenticity of theological and juridical books attributed to him. The eponym of the ÍanbalÐ school (madhhab) of law and theology, AÎmad’s importance lies in his teaching as a jurisprudent and his practices as a zÁhid (renunciant), which attracted many students to his circle. However, he is best known for his reputation as a defender of correct belief, and for firmly resisting the doctrine of three ÝAbbÁsid caliphs that the QurÞÁn was created, although he was imprisoned and beaten during the Inquisition known as al-MiÎnah (between 218/833 and c. 232/847). As a result of AÎmad’s importance, a variety of different opinions and epistles were ascribed to him. Theologically, the most important among these are the Six Creeds and al-Radd ÝalÁ al-ZanÁdiqah wa-al-JahmÐyah which is a polemical epistle. In jurisprudence there were response collections from AÎmad’s students called al-MasÁÞil, eight of which are still extant, either partly or completely. These works are examined in this thesis. AÎmad’s theo-political ideas are critical to understanding the political thought of Sunnism in general, and the study analyses his doctrines on the importance of the JamÁÝah (Community), ÓÁÝah (Obedience) and al-Amr bi-al-maÝrÙf wa-al-nahy Ýan al-munkar (commanding right and forbidding wrong). AÎmad was a quietist thinker, but the main purpose of his quietism was in fact to save the unity of the Muslim community from internal fighting and protect the common people who always lacked security and suffered from threats of looting of their shops and houses. Though a quietist, AÎmad was not in favour of the rulers and avoided all kinds of connections to them, including not accepting their gifts or working with them. He became angry with his family when they accepted the caliph’s money.

To what extent does Islam help explain the dynamics of a participatory civil society in the post-Soviet Muslim-majority Central Asia? More specifically, to what extent does the variation in Islam (personal religiosity) and political Islam (support for Islam’s role in politics) help predict the propensity to engage in elite-challenging collective political actions, rooted in self-assertive social capital? Grounded in emancipative social capital theory, this article embarks on an individual-level quantitative analysis to systematically examine the variation in self-assertive collective action in four Central Asian republics. This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the empirical nexus between general religiosity (Islam), Islamism (Political Islam), and elite-challenging collective actions and offers new clues on the empirical interactions between resurgent Islam and collective political participation in the post-Communist Muslim world.

Although Islamism could be traced back to the seventh century when prophet Mohamad died and conflict between Shia and Sunni started, the recent growth of Islamism and emerging of new phenomena such as establishing Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1920s, Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979, and some other Islamists groups like Hezbollah, and Al-Qaida highlighted the importance of Islamism. Moreover, forming the new Islamists in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen after the Arab uprising in 2010 which intensified the conflict between Shia and Sunni increased the concerns over increase in sectarianism in the Middle East. Considering the significance of Shia groups in recent movements, it is important to have a deep and comprehensive understanding of the nature and function of Shia Political Islam. Despite internal and external concerns, Shia Political Islam has emerged and continued to have control over power in Iran for more than four decades. The post-revolutionary Islamic government has been able to keep its power through reviving the Shia Movement since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Therefore, this thesis asks ‘how has Shia political Islam managed to survive in Iran over the past four decades? The answer to this question relies specifically on understanding the nature of Shia ideology and how the Shia control entities’ access to petrodollars. The study aims to clarify the concept of Shiism and explain the mechanism of the survival and continuation of the Shia movement in Iran through the lens of Social Movement Theory. This thesis argues that the essential mobilisers of the Shia Movement like the IRGC, the Basij and mosques have succeeded in sustaining the survival of the Shia Political Islam. The durability of this political approach lies in actively reviving the origins of the Shia movement, utilising Shia values, religious symbols and holy events such as Ashura, and financially rewarding the Movement with petrodollars. The mobilisers, especially the IRGC, use these values as a steering fuel to run the Shia Movement and suppress any security threat to its survival. For instance, after the 2009 presidential elections, the Green Movement was a serious security threat to the Islamic Republic and the political approach Shia political Islam. However, the IRGC and the Basij employed Shia symbols to mobilise their social base in a counter-movement in 2019 to overcome the threat of the Green Movement. The thesis concludes that if the Shia mobiliser organisations keep supporting the Shia Movement by utilising Shia values, religious symbols, and available economic resources such as petrodollars, Shia political Islam will stay resilient and survive.

This dissertation aims to understand how Islamist ideology differs across Islamist political parties in majority-Muslim countries. It asks why, despite drawing from the same religious source, the ideology of Islamist parties differs significantly and ranges from a wide spectrum, reaching from rigid conservative ideologies to flexible and even liberal. In order to address this question, the first step I pursue is to create a classification of different types of Islamism based on a spectrum of Islamist thought and behavior. I call the most literalist approach which aims at top-down Islamization Traditionalist Islamism, while the most flexible variety which argues for a bottom-up approach and relies on secular civil law is is labelled Neo-Islamism. Political parties that do not clearly fall under any of these categories and mix characteristics of both are grouped under the Hybrid Islamism category. I argue that if they could, all Islamist parties would moderate their ideology in order to achieve electoral success. However, both the position of the party vis-a-vis other parties in the system, and a high degree of dependence on an internal clique or an external movement create constraints and limitations which prevent parties from moderating their ideological profile. I find support for my argument by comparing five different Islamist parties in Indonesia. I further strengthen my case by introducing several hadow cases from Turkey, Malaysia and Tajikistan (under the authoritarian regime).

Por meio de dois artigos, um de revisão bibliográfica e outro de pesquisa empírica, este trabalho busca examinar os impactos para o Egito, e as repercussões para o Oriente Médio, da ascensão da Irmandade Muçulmana ao poder após a deposição de Hosni Mubarak, ditador egípcio durante três décadas. O caso do Egito é o objeto da pesquisa pois exemplifica de forma cristalina como as aberturas democráticas nos países árabe-muçulmanos representam um enorme desafio para essas sociedades. A atuação da Irmandade Muçulmana em um ambiente de liberdade era aguardada por observadores dentro e fora do Oriente Médio pois, como principal movimento adepto do chamado islã político, seu sucesso ou fracasso poderiam indicar a possibilidade de êxito na construção das democracias locais, uma vez que parece inevitável o islamismo, como sinônimo de islã político, ser o primordial beneficiário da ruína dos regimes despóticos que grassam na região. Como base para esta análise, o primeiro artigo busca, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica da história e da ideologia da Irmandade Muçulmana, desde sua fundação, em 1928, as explicações para o comportamento do grupo após a queda de Mubarak. O segundo artigo, por sua vez, estuda a conduta da política externa do Egito e reconstrói a forma como a ditadura de Mubarak desempenhava suas relações exteriores, comparando esta com a política externa do Egito durante o governo de Mohamed Morsi, irmão muçulmano eleito presidente do país em junho de 2012. Por fim, o segundo artigo busca entender os impactos provocados pelo período de governo da Irmandade Muçulmana na política externa do Egito na fase seguinte, após a deposição de Morsi (julho de 2013), em que o país passou a ser liderado pelo marechal Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, cujas ações na seara internacional são manifestamente tomadas em oposição não apenas à Irmandade Muçulmana, mas a qualquer elemento que possa ser identificado com o islã político. / Through two articles, a literature review and an empirical analysis, this paper seeks to examine the impacts to Egypt, and the implications for the Middle East, of the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian dictator for three decades. The case of Egypt is the object of research because it exemplifies in a crystalline way how the democratic openings in the Arab-Muslim countries represent a huge challenge for these societies. The performance of the Muslim Brotherhood in a freer environment was expected by observers inside and outside the Middle East because, as the main supporter of the movement called political Islam, its success or failure could indicate the possibility of success in the construction of local democracies, since it seems inevitable that Islamism, as synonymous with political Islam, be the primary beneficiary of the ruin of the despotic regimes that are rife in the region. As a basis for this analysis, the first article seeks, through a literature review of the history and ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, since its founding in 1928, the explanations for the behavior of the group after the fall of Mubarak. The second article, in turn, studies the conduct of foreign policy of Egypt and reconstructs how the dictatorship of Mubarak played its foreign relations, comparing this with the foreign policy of Egypt during the reign of Mohamed Morsi, muslim brother elected president of the country in June 2012. Finally, the second article seeks to understand the impacts caused by the period of government of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt\'s foreign policy in the next stage, after the deposition of Morsi (July 2013), in which the country was led by Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, whose actions in the international arena are clearly taken in opposition not only to the Muslim Brotherhood, but the elements which can be identified with political Islam.

La thèse porte sur la manière dont la figure du Juif est perçue et représentée dans le discours islamiste en Turquie entre 1946 et 1980, alors que la pensée et le mouvement islamiste évoluent d’un courant de pensée vers une politique active. Choisie à dessein, cette période permet d’appréhender la manière dont la pensée islamiste commence à apparaître plus librement, depuis l’avènement du système démocratique en 1946 jusqu’au coup d’État de 1980 qui interrompt, pour un temps, la vie politique en Turquie. Essentiellement fondée sur l’activité de la presse islamiste de l’époque, cette étude observe comment la pensée islamiste crée et incorpore ses propres concepts antisémites dans sa vision de la chute de l’Empire Ottoman et des réformes modernistes, qui débutent sous l’ère des Tanzimat et composent plus tard le socle de la République turque. Dans cette perspective, la place de la communauté Dönme est observée car décrite comme une « communauté juive secrète » responsable du mouvement de modernisation, lequel est considéré comme hostile aux valeurs islamiques traditionnelles. Nous examinerons comment les relations turco-israéliennes et arabo-israéliennes affectent la perception des Juifs, en particulier à partir de la guerre des Six Jours, et comment l'islamisme turc s’est imprégné des penseurs islamistes arabes, surtout durant les années soixante. Enfin, la recherche se concentre sur la façon dont les théories du complot tirées du discours antisémite européen, telles que la domination mondiale par les juifs, se transforment en outil de propagande politique du discours islamiste dès lors que l’Islamisme fait son entrée en politique au cours des années soixante-dix. / The subject of the thesis centers around how the Jew as a figure is seen and represented in the Islamist discourse in Turkey throughout the years between 1946 and 1980 while the Islamist thinking and movement is developing from an intellectual form to a politically active one. This particular period is chosen with a view to analyzing how the Islamist thinking starts to manifest itself more freely after the transition to democratic system in 1946 until the coup d’état of 1980, which interrupts the political life in Turkey for a certain period. Taking as its reference the Islamist press activity during the era, the research studies how the Islamist thinking created its own antisemitic concepts in its perception of the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the modernist reforms, which began in the Tanzimat era and later composed the identity of the newly created Turkish Republic. In this connection, the thesis also studies the "Dönme community", perceived as a "secret jewish community" by the Islamist discourse and held responsible for the modernization movement, which is seen as hostile towards traditional Islamic values. The research also discusses how the Turkish-Israeli and Arab-Israeli relations affect the perception of Jews especially around the period of the Six Days War, also helping to see how the Arab Islamist thinkers became more influential over the Turkish Islamism particularly in the sixties. Moreover, the research focuses on how the conspiracy theories regenerating from the European antisemitic discourse, such as Jewish world domination, transforms into a political propaganda tool for the Islamic discourse, especially in the seventies once the Islamism enters into the political arena.

This thesis challenges the conventional wisdom that tends to conflate Arab foreign fighters with Islamist terrorists, and ‘martyrdom operations' with ‘suicide attacks.' Overlaps notwithstanding, it aims to draw distinctions between Arab foreign fighters engaged in defensive jihad defending co-religionists against a military foe, and Islamist terrorists engaged in terrorism that indiscriminately targets civilians and non-combatants. Critically, while disaggregating the two transnational cohorts, this thesis also illuminates the nexus between them. It draws on a thesis dataset of 3,010 Arab foreign fighters compiled using biographies, martyrdom eulogies, and postings on ‘jihadi' websites, in both English and Arabic. This dataset is then used to support three case studies involving the defensive jihads in 1980s Afghanistan, Iraq (post 2003), and Syria (post 2011). It leverages a theoretical framework based on the concept of radicalisation and the language of political Islam, whilst concurrently drawing on theories from psychology and historical military examples of combat, germane to defensive jihad and Islamist terrorism. The thesis concludes that Arab foreign fighters involved in defensive jihad employ martyrdom operations against military targets, through tactical necessity. Conversely, Islamist terrorists employ suicide attacks against civilians and non-combatants, through ideological necessity. The trajectory between the two transnational mobilisations appears to be broadly underpinned by facets of the Lucifer Effect – the situational factors encountered whilst participating in defensive jihad, including but not limited to, the experience of close combat in a war zone; being subjected to ideological indoctrination; and being exposed to charismatic authority and obedience to it. This suggests that subsequent involvement in Islamist terrorism by some Arab foreign fighters is primarily forged in the crucible of defensive jihad. Such findings should result in the crafting of more individualised de-radicalisation and rehabilitation programmes for returning foreign fighters, in both the West and the Arab world.

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.