Abstract
When it comes to religions and cultures, we need to be very careful and critical towards the language that dominates the political debate in our societies. The truth is that in the present world, all civilization should be considered as “hyphenated”. As for the identities, we should bear in mind that they are in themselves a product of our different affiliations and links. This truism obviously applies also to religions; however, fundamentalism denies the complexity of our societies.
Identity and pluralism are two defining challenges facing political Islam. Transnationalism and local political processes affects transitions to democracy in Arab countries in different ways and may produce high instability—like in Pakistan—when democracy is formally achieved but not consolidated in the political culture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Jürgen Habermas, The Divided West (Cambridge: Polity 2006).
John Collins and Ross Glover (ed.), Collateral Language: A User’s Guide to America’s New War (New York: New York University Press, 2002).
Massimo Cacciari, Geo-filosofia dell’Europa (Milano: Adelphi, 1994)
Pierre Erny, “La notion d’aire culturelle en ethnologie”, in Frontières visibles et invisibles. L’Europe des régions et des aires culturelles (Strasbourg: Conseil de l’Europe, Eurethno, 1990), 41–47
Florence Pizzorni, “Notre Matrie Europe, chacun en a sa part, et tous l’ont tuote entière”, in Les frontières de l’Europe, ed. Elie Barnavi, Paul Goossens (Bruxelles: De Boeck, 2001)
Martin W. Lewis and Karen E. Wigen, The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
Arnold Toynbee, The World and the West (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953).
Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996).
Richard Bulliet, The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004).
Samuel Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenge to America’s National Identity (New York, London, Toronto, Sydney: Simon and Schuster, 2004), 27.
Seyla Benhabib, The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era (Princeton: Princeton University Press 2002), 186.
Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong (New York: Penguin Books, 2003).
Michael Walzer, Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994).
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 83.
On this matter, the dangers arising from the “inflexibility”—that is, the virtual irreversibility—of legislative measures aimed at imposing Islamizing norms should be taken into account: a historical lesson comes from Pakistan and its turbulent history regarding the relationship between politics and religion (Husain Haqqani, “Islamists and Democracy: Cautions from Pakistan”, Journal of Democracy, 2 (2013), 5–14.
Anatol Lieven, Pakistan: A Hard Country (New York: Public Affairs, 2011).
Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (New York: Viking 2008), 33.
Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power (New York: Oxford University Press 2001), 76.
Vyacheslav Karpov, “Desecularization: A Conceptual Framework”, Journal of Church and State, Vol. 52, n. 2 (2010), 23.
George Lachmann Mosse, The Nationalization of the Masses: Political Symbolism and Mass Movements in Germany from the Napoleonic Wars through the Third Reich (New York: Howard Fertig, 1974).
José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 215.
Parag Khanna, The Second World. Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (New York: Random House 2008), 163–164.
James Piscatori, “Religious Transnationalism and Global Order, with Particular Consideration of Islam”, in Religion and Global Order, ed. John L. Esposito and Michael Watson (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000), 66–99
Jeffrey Haynes, Religion, Politics and International Relations. Selected Essays (London and New York: Routledge, 2011)
Mark Juergensmeyer, “Thinking Globally About Religion”, in Global Religions. An Introduction, ed. Mark Juergensmeyer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 7.
Olivier Roy, Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010).
Jeffrey Haynes, Transnational Religious Actors and Soft Power (Aldershot: Ashgate 2012).
Joseph Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004).
Jeffrey Haynes, An Introduction to International Relations and Religion (Edinburgh Gate, Harlow: Pearson Longman, 2007), 350.
Farzana Shaikh, Making Sense of Pakistan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 108.
Massimo Campanini, Islam e politica (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2003), 47
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Pasquale Ferrara
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ferrara, P. (2014). Islam between National and International Politics. In: Global Religions and International Relations: A Diplomatic Perspective. Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400826_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400826_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-48812-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40082-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political Science CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)