Abstract
By emphasizing civil society’s ambiguous relationship with modernity, the author proposes a discursive definition of civil society that draws on conflict theory. The author distinguishes between a civil society and a sectarian approach to politics from a theoretical perspective. Accordingly, a juxtaposition of the Muslim Brotherhood and its splinter groups in the Egyptian political arena epitomizes the opposing ideals of a civil society and a good society. Thus, the author moves away from the theoretical debate on the compatibility of Islam and democracy and suggests the possibility of a learning process of democratic practices by means of participating in the public sphere.
Résumé
Par la mise en exergue de la relation ambiguë qu’entretient la société civile avec la modernité, je propose une définition discursive de la société civile s’inspirant de la théorie du conflit. J’établis une distinction entre une société civile et une approche sectaire de la politique d’un point de vue théorique. En conséquence, une juxtaposition des Frères Musulmans et de ses groupes dissidents sur la scène politique égyptienne incarne les idéaux opposés d’une société civile et d’une bonne société. Je me distancie donc du débat théorique sur la compatibilité de l’Islam et de la démocratie et je suggère la possibilité d’un processus d’apprentissage des pratiques démocratiques au moyen d’une participation à la sphère publique.
Zusammenfassung
Ich betone die mehrdeutige Beziehung zwischen Bürgergesellschaft und Modernität und schlage eine diskursive Definition der Bürgergesellschaft vor, die sich auf die Konflikttheorie stützt. Ich unterscheide hierbei zwischen einer Bürgergesellschaft und einem sektiererischen Denkansatz zur Politik aus einer theoretischen Perspektive. Dementsprechend verkörpert eine Gegenüberstellung der Muslimbrüderschaft und ihrer Splittergruppen auf der politischen Bühne in Ägypten die gegensätzlichen Ideale einer Bürgergesellschaft und einer guten Gesellschaft. Ich entferne mich von der theoretischen Diskussion über die Kompatibilität des Islams mit der Demokratie und weise auf die Möglichkeit eines Prozesses zur Erlernung demokratischer Praktiken durch eine Teilnahme an der Öffentlichkeit hin.
Resumen
Al destacar la ambigua relación de la sociedad civil con la modernidad, propongo una definición discursiva de la sociedad civil que recurre a la teoría del conflicto. Distingo entre un enfoque de la sociedad civil y un enfoque sectario de la política desde una perspectiva teórica. Consecuentemente, una yuxtaposición de los Hermanos Musulmanes y sus grupos escindidos en la arena política egipcia es la personificación de los ideales opuestos de una sociedad civil y de una buena sociedad. Por lo tanto, me alejo del debate teórico sobre la compatibilidad del Islam y de la democracia y sugiero la posibilidad de un proceso de aprendizaje de prácticas democráticas mediante la participación en la esfera pública.
摘要
通过强调公民社会与现代发展之间的模糊联系,我利用冲突理论提出了公民社会的推论性定义。从理论角度,我分析了公民社会与宗派政治的区别。通过比较埃及政坛上的穆斯林兄弟会与其分支派别,我们可以了解“公民社会”与“良好社会”之间的某些对立观点。因此,我放弃了关于伊斯兰教与民主制度的相容性的理论辩论,转而提出,伊斯兰组织可能可以通过参与公共领域的工作而学习一些民主实践。
ملخص
بالتأكيد على علاقة المجتمع المدني الغامضة مع الأشياء العصرية، أنا أقترح تعريف منطقي للمجتمع المدني الذي يعتمد على نظرية الصراع. أنا أفرق بين المجتمع المدني و النهج الطائفي للسياسة من منظور نظري. وفقا˝ لذلك، وضع الإخوان المسلمين بجانب الجماعات المنشقة منه في الساحة السياسية المصرية يمثل نموذج مثالي للمعارضة المثالية للمجتمع المدني و المجتمع الصالح. بالتالي، أنا إبتعدت عن الجدل النظري حول التوافق بين الإسلام والديمقراطية وأقترح إلى إحتمال وجود عملية التعلم من الممارسات الديمقراطية من خلال المشاركة في المجال العام.
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Notes
Against this theoretical background, scholars cannot be blamed for devoting much of their intellectual attention to explorations of civil society’s intellectual origins (Taylor 1990; Seligman 1992; Colas 1997; Edwards 2004; for the Aristotelian notion of Koinonìa Politikè, see Hallberg and Wittrock 2006). These intellectual histories notwithstanding, the Tocquevillian approach may still be considered the contested orthodoxy in civil society studies. Inspired by Alexis de Tocqueville, scholars describe voluntary associations as “schools of democracy,” where individuals learn to compromise and thus restrain their private interests (de Tocqueville 2006, p. 522; for a neo-Tocquevillian approach, see Putnam 1993, 2000). The existence of voluntary associations such as terrorist groups and mafia-kind organizations, however, led to a relativization of Tocqueville’s dogma. As a result, scholars coined the apparent antinomy “bad civil society” (Chambers and Kopstein 2001), pointed out to the importance of the institutional framework (Berman 1997), or shifted the attention from the value of associations to the experience of membership (Rosenblum 1998).
Modernity, modernization, and modernism are complex concepts. Scholars have criticized these concepts for a certain vagueness and for their often underlying normative assumption that elevates the West European experience to a model and point of reference for extra-European countries. The special AHR Roundtable (American Historical Review, 116(3)) discusses the merits and challenges of the question of modernity for historians.
Other approaches, in particular neo-Gramscian and contentious politics, have been used to account for the competing interests in civil society. In contrast to conflict theory, however, neo-Gramscian frameworks and contentious politics focus on political change, protest (and social) movements, and democratization and assign to the government or state a central role in the interaction between different competing actors. Neo-Gramscian approaches, in particular, have been largely used in the civil society and philanthropic studies literature. Whether it has been used by East European dissident intellectuals to challenge states’ authority, by scholars to explain the demise of Communist regimes (e.g., Weigle and Butterfield 1992), or by critics to denounce the role of philanthropic foundations in maintaining the status quo (Kay 1997), this approach has traditionally focused on the relationship between associational life and state. In other words, Gramscian approaches—in line with the Hegelian and Marxist tradition—reserve a central role to the state in the conflicts between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces. As a different approach, contentious politics has been invoked as a useful framework to understand East European civil society without falling into the normative distinction between civil and uncivil societies (Kopecky and Mudde 2003).
In contrast to most of the studies I have consulted, Khatab (2001) argues that Preacher, Not Judges was attributed to al-Hudaybi and not his original work.
Contrasts had already emerged in January 1979 when al-Da’wa published a CIA report (attributed to Prof. Mitchell) that documented an alleged American request to crack down all Islamic organizations (Ramadan 1993, p. 169). Against the background of an already tense climate of accusation and counteraccusations between the Brotherhood and the regime, Sadat reacted to clashes between Coops and Muslims in Cairo on June 17, 1981 by striking at the Brotherhood.
With the relaxation of the crackdown that had initially followed Sadat’s assassination, jihad leaders released from jail (around 1984–1985) formed a new radical group. From 1989 onwards, Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya was progressively drawn into international activities through its connections with Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, with which they formally merged in 1998. This re-orientation of al-Jihad to the external and international sphere has been largely associated with the figure of Ayman al-Zawahiri (ICG 2004, p. 5; Wright 2007).
The editor of Ikhwanweb (the Muslim Brotherhood’s Official English Website) stressed the Brotherhood’s belief “in political pluralism and … [its] alliances with political trends that although don’t necessarily have same vision, but share with us the concern for country’s best interests and wellbeing” (Malky 2011).
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Weber, P.C. Modernity, Civil Society, and Sectarianism: The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Takfir Groups. Voluntas 24, 509–527 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-012-9299-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-012-9299-4