Illumine, Vol. 09, No. 1 (2010)
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Item Negotiating Egyptian nationalism: Militant Islamist confrontations with the state and the fragmentation of political authority(Illumine, 2010) Musekamp, CatherineSince Egypt’s 1952 Free Officer coup d’état, Egypt has been governed by authoritarian regimes and nationalism has served as the central ideological basis for political authority. This paper explores the period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, when militant Islamist opposition toward the Sadat and Mubarak regimes was one of the most significant threats to state security and one of the biggest challenges to the ruling regimes’ hegemony over political authority. This paper argues that the negotiation of national identity was crucial to the Egyptian state’s confrontation with militant Islamist groups during the late Sadat presidency and the Mubarak era to the 1990s; however, the state’s endorsement of an “Islamized” Egyptian nationalism was co-opted by various state institutions and competing political groups, leading to a fragmentation of political authority.Item Notes on contributors(Illumine, 2010) Gordner, Matthew J.; Musekamp, Catherine; Dhillon, Balraj; Ching, Calvin; Rezamand, Ardalan; Shohadaei, SetarehItem Introduction(Illumine, 2010) Goode, MonaItem Islam/ism and democracy: Past the compatibiltiy problem and towards the Post-Islamist turn(Illumine, 2010) Gordner, Matthew J.This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on “Islam/ism and democracy” that result from questioning whether Islam/ism and democracy are compatible. I argue, contrary to the compatibility paradigm, that what is important is how Muslims believe in and practice democracy. I examine “post-Islamist” discourses and politics as potential democratizing movements that support an admixture of rights-based claims and Islamic legitimacy.Item Subaltern voices and perspectives: The poetry of Mahmoud Darwish(Illumine, 2010) Dhillon, BalrajThis paper examines the complex use of poetry, identity, myth, and history as a subaltern method of resistance. Edward Said, in Culture and Imperialism, argues that the culture of postcolonial resistance manifests itself in literature by pulling away from separatist nationalism—and moves toward a literature that is liberating for humans—a more integrative view of society. This article argues that Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry uses identity, myth, and history to emblematize a collective Palestinian voice. By doing this, Darwish becomes the epitome of Said’s discussion—he resists separatist discourses through this poetry but at the same time resists the hegemonic structures of Israel and the West.Item Ethnic tensions between the Han and the Hui: The Neo-Sufi Jahriyya movement of Ma Hua Long of the Late Qing period (1862-1871)(Illumine, 2010) Ching, CalvinThe historical study into the tensions of the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) between the Han and the Hui serves as a way to understand ethnic conflict in modern-day China. With an emphasis on the ideological and cultural differences between Islam and Confucianism, this paper will attempt to place the Neo-Sufi Jahriyyah movement of Ma Hua Long (d. 1871) into the historical framework of a deteriorating Qing Dynasty. Studies in this area have been challenging due to the paucity of resources on the subject and the tendency of mainstream academics during the time of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in China to favour the application of Marxist theory to the historiography of Qing Dynasty China. A more in-depth analysis is therefore required before one can start to uncover a more complete picture of the ethnic, religious, and political aspects of the rebellions.Item The sovereign confessions: International relations and the Iranian post-elections show-trials(Illumine, 2010) Shohadaei, SetarehFollowing the controversial 2009 presidential elections in Iran, a series of mass trials were conducted publicizing the confessions of key reformist figures as well as other dissidents. The confessions were widely criticized as theatrical, based on reports of human rights abuses, torture, and judicial procedural offences. This critique, however, often labelled the trials as either barbaric acts of terror, or at best as unintelligent failures of the Iranian government. In this paper, I engage with the most serious of such analyses, arguing that the show-trials are not mere strategic errors on the part of the regime; rather, a more in-depth structural analysis of the concept of sovereignty is required to understand the enabling condition of the trials.Item Use of religious doctrine and symbolism in the Iran-Iraq war(Illumine, 2010) Rezamand, ArdalanThe political and economic isolation of the Islamic Republic, brought on by its ideological rejection of Western and Soviet influences, gave greater weight to the use of religion in a pragmatic, compensatory fashion. In particular, political leaders of Iran used Islamic doctrines, symbolism, and language to legitimize their wartime policy. I argue that Iran’s political leaders specifically reconstructed certain Islamic tenets, both via the ahadith and juristic precedence, in order to justify military actions such as retaliation against non-combatants, human wave attacks, and economic warfare.