Islamism – from the 1980s to the present

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The key concepts in Islam on which the Islamist parties rely to justify their claims
• The historical and socio-political contexts within which Islamist movements took shape
• Major sources including primary sources and recent scholarship that will equip you with an scholarly understanding of Islam and Islamism
• The latest debates on the historical and socio-political factors behind the rise of Islamism

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Read primary and secondary sources critically
• Structure your ideas and research findings into well-ordered essays
• Express your own view when engaged in scholarly debate
• Explain, and engage with, the different historiographical approaches, in writing

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Communicate a coherent and convincing argument in written formats
• Critically analyse a diverse range of source material
• Use a range of perspectives in problem-solving
• Organise and structure material to write and present confidently

This module will study the development of Islamism at state level (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and Turkey) in the last 40 years within the wider historical and geopolitical contexts since the early twentieth century. As a post-Cold War phenomenon, Islamism is different from the pan- Islamism of the nineteenth century that combined Western science with traditional Islam in order to fight back the spread of Western imperialism. The module will examine these differences, both politically and ideologically. Drawing on some historical cases and contexts, for instance the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Khomeinism in Iran, and Moslem Brotherhood in Egypt, it will analyse the ideological and political differences of Islamism, or political Islam, with traditional Islam. It will also explore the political and ideological roots of Islamist terrorist groups as one of the components of the rise of Islamism. Throughout the module the hypothesis that Islamism has been a direct result of ‘modernism’ and ‘modernisation’, in other words, Western influence, will be tested and discussed. Islamism, unlike the common wisdom, is not a mere cultural or political reaction to modernisation or Western influence, but the very product of Western influence.

The idea of ‘revolution’ did not exist in traditional Islam. Although there are concepts of terror (qatala= killing) in the term jihad (endeavour, effort, fight for Islam), terrorism as practised by the Islamist groups is a legacy of the ‘communist’ liberation guerrillas during the twentieth century under the Cold War period. The module will examine cases like Ali Shariati in Iran (a Sorbonne- educated historian and sociologist, died in Southampton in June 1976 and known as the ideological father of the Islamic Revolution), and the Palestinian Liberation Movement that blended Islamic ideology with Marxism and/or Socialism to provide a new ‘revolutionary’ and ‘bloody’ picture of Islam. For Shariati this was ‘Modern Islam’ as opposed to ‘Traditional, or ‘Apolitic

Islam’. For Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic regime in Iran and the erstwhile follower of Shariati, “political Islam is killing, is giving blood, and is to be killed. Political Islam and its discourse are, and have to be, parts and parcels of all religious festivals, rituals and ceremonies” (Khamenei, Tehran, Dec. 2013). The module will also examine how modern institutions, such as parliament, Constitution, Fundamental Law, universal suffrage, referendum, and even the women’s emancipation and their right to take part in social activities, have become the very legitimating tools for the Islamists to recruit and to take power.

Seminar topics will likely include:

Religion and politics in Islam From Pan-Islamism to Islamism Islam and Modernity

Political Islam and its different persuasions in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and North Africa

Islamist guerrillas and proxy war (Al-Qaeda, Salafite and Taliban, as political and military arms of the regional powers)

Teaching methods include

• Short Lectures
• Seminar Discussions

Learning activities include

• Independent reading using resources available in the library
• Using and examining primary sources
• Note-taking in lectures
• Active participation in class discussions

You will use reading lists provided by the module convener to guide your reading and preparation for weekly seminars. You will be expected to make contributions to seminar discussions based on your preparatory reading.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.