On the face of it, 30 June was a "coup": the army intervenes to remove an elected president, annul the constitution, and oversee an interim government to undertake new elections for president, parliament, and a new constitution. But what if this is (...)
The presence of religion in public space challenges our ideas about the roles of faith in our lives and politics. Over the last centuries, proponents of secularization have claimed that as societies modernize, the role of religion in public and (...)
Serious concerns are expressed currently in Tunisia and Egypt about the sabotage of the defeated elites. Many in the revolutionary and pro-democracy circles speak of a creeping counter-revolution. This is not surprising. If revolutions are about (...)
Discussions of a democratic deficit in the Middle East are not new. What is novel is the persistent claim that Islam hinders democratic reform; with its emphasis on God s sovereignty and its patriarchal cultures, Islam is argued to be essentially (...)
Faith and fun; can one have it all? Asef Bayat* writes on the nature of the "new" political Islam
Understandably, the 11 September terrorist attacks in the USA have reinforced more than ever Western anxieties over the "threat" of "Islamic (...)
By Asef Bayat *
The Middle East seems, once again, on the verge of yet another war. The current mood in the region speaks of a deep concern for the spectre of an impending stand-off between two Muslim nations. Iran is said to back Afghanistan's (...)