The recent resurgence of Islam in the Middle East is a far more complex phenomenon than is often suggested by those analyses which reduce recent developments in the area to no more than an intensification of religiosity. Islam and Politics in the Modern Middle East challenges that perception of the contemporary Middle East. It explores the nature of the Islamic revival and attempts to establish the original impulse behind particular instances of Islamic resurgence. It also examines the degree to which religious institutions have served as a mechanism for expressing secular demands and frustrations and investigates to what extent politics is a functional alternative to religion. First published in 1984.

The continued prominence of Islam in the struggle for democracy in the Muslim world has confounded Western democracy theorists who largely consider secularism a prerequisite for democratic transitions. Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai offer a comprehensive view of the complex nature of contemporary political Islam and its relationship to democracy.

Some of the most pressing questions in the Middle East and North Africa today revolve around the proper place of Islamic institutions and authorities in governance and political affairs. Drawing on data from 42 surveys carried out in fifteen countries between 1988 and 2011, representing the opinions of more than 60,000 men and women, this study investigates the reasons that some individuals support a central role for Islam in government while others favor a separation of religion and politics. Utilizing his newly constructed Carnegie Middle East Governance and Islam Dataset, which has been placed in the public domain for use by other researchers, Mark Tessler formulates and tests hypotheses about the views held by ordinary citizens, offering insights into the individual and country-level factors that shape attitudes toward political Islam.

From the foreword: "The 'clash of civilizations' thesis is a gimmick, like 'The War of the Worlds,' better for reinforcing defensive self-pride than for critical understanding of the bewildering interdependence of our time. This book, in focusing on the 'self' and the 'other' in Jewish and Muslim thought, is an attempt in this direction." Although the "politicization" of religion or "sacrilization" of politics is not restricted to the Middle East, this phenomenon found its most spectacular expressions in the region. These essays examine, in an original and innovative manner, the complex relation between political and national identity and the three major religions of the contemporary Middle East--Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Although the focus is on Palestinian-Israeli relations, the study is relevant to the entire history of the modern Middle East. Discussions of the Palestinian-Israeli arena include the conflictive relations between the two national communities and the political role played by religion in shaping the conflict, the escalation of the conflict, and possible avenues for reaching a peace agreement. The contributors, an international group of scholars from Israel, Palestine, Europe, and the United States, explore common theological and political ground shared by Jews and Muslims, a novel comparative approach that could lead to future dialogue along theological as well as political lines. Contents Foreword: Adrift in Similarity, by Edward Said Introduction, by John Bunzl Part I. On Islam and Judaism, Muslims and Jews 1. A Religion's Self-Conception of "Religion": The Case of Judaism and Islam, by Hans-Michael Haussig 2. Islam and Judaism: Cultural Relations and Interaction through the Ages, by Nissim Rejwan Part II. Negotiating Religions and Identities 3. National Identity and the Role of the "Other" in Existential Conflicts: The Israeli-Palestinian Case, by Herbert Kelman 4. The Politicization of Muslim-Christian Relations in the Palestinian National Movement, by Helga Baumgarten Part III. Progressive Potentials within Religious Traditions 5. Democracy without Secularism? Reflections on the Idea of Islamic Democracy, by Raja Bahlul 6. Religious Roots of Tolerance with Special Reference to Judaism and Islam, by Adam Seligman Part IV. On the Use of Religion in Contemporary Middle Eastern Politics 7. Imposed Normalization and Cultural Transgression: Cultural Politics in Egypt and Israel since the 1979 Peace Treaty, by Joel Beinin 8. Islamic Themes in Palestinian Political Thought, by Alexander Flores 9. Israel, Religion, and Peace, by Avishai Ehrlich John Bunzl is a member of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs

This volume explores the relationship between religion and politics generally, as well as the global wave of democratization in the late twentieth century, as background to different interpretations of political Islam. It analyzes the role of these movements in Iran, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, the Persian Gulf (especially Saudi Arabia), and the Palestinian community.

The Iranian Revolution has catalysed the preconceptions holding sway in the Western World about the character of Islam and its politics, based as they are on a mixture of imagined cultural superiority and a latent fear of a resurgence similar to the Arab conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries of the long Ottoman domination of Eastern Europe. This book constitutes a counterweight to such monolithic perceptions of Islam. It surveys the nature of opinion and of government in the larger Muslim regions of the world, and the position of Muslims in states where they are not the dominant population. Each contributor expresses his own assessment of the regional data, and the editor’s concluding chapter draws together the threads of a work which will form an important contribution to international understanding and a first breach in the ‘Green Curtain’ dividing East and West. First published in 1981.