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882. Baghdad Neighborhood Project: Washash and Iskan
- Author:
- Patrick Gaughen
- Publication Date:
- 09-2007
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for the Study of War
- Abstract:
- The neighborhoods of Washash and Iskan are located in the northeast corner of the Mansour Security District in Baghdad. These historically mixed areas lay on the fault line between Shia-dominated neighborhoods to the north in Hurriya and Kadhimiyah and Sunni-dominated neighborhoods to the west and south, including the Sunni strongholds of 'Adl, Jamia, Khadra, and al-Mutannabi. As such, they have witnessed vicious sectarian cleansing by Shia militias anreprisal operations likely conducted by Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) or other Sunni insurgent groups.
- Topic:
- Islam, Sectarianism, and Sectarian violence
- Political Geography:
- Iraq and Middle East
883. Islamist Movements in the Arab World and the 2006 Lebanon War
- Author:
- Amr Hamzawy and Dina Bishara
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- The 2006 Lebanon war has had a profound effect on Islamist movements that have chosen to compete as legal parties in the political systems of their countries, testing their relationship with the ruling regimes as well as their respect for pluralism and tolerance.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Islam, Religion, and War
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Arabia, Arab Countries, and Lebanon
884. Jordan and Its Islamic Movement: The Limits of Inclusion?
- Author:
- Nathan J. Brown
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- Recent election results in several Arab countries have transformed formerly theoretical questions into pressing policy concerns: Can Islamist political parties operate within the boundaries of a democratic system? Will participation breed moderation? Strong showings by Hizbollah in Lebanon and by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt have made these questions seem less speculative. And the victory of Hamas in the first election it contested has made the questions impossible to avoid.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Government, Islam, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Arabia, Jordan, and Mumbai
885. Islam, Militarism, and the 2007-2008 Elections in Pakistan
- Author:
- Frédéric Grare
- Publication Date:
- 07-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- The year 2007 will be crucial for the future of democracy in Pakistan. If the election schedule announced by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afghan Niazi is followed, presidential elections will be held in the fall and the general and provincial elections will be held on January 30, 2008. All these elections will be carefully scrutinized by many in the United States and elsewhere, not least because they will include, among other political forces, a coalition of religious political parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Many commentators in the West believe that the Pakistani regime will portray the elections as a contest between Islamists represented by the MMA and the enlightened moderation of President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan Army. However, the reality is that the Islamic forces will not be a defining factor. They are a dependent variable whose power is largely determined by the army. The only real questions are whether the army's tactics for manipulating the 2007–2008 elections will differ from those used in 2002 and what role the Islamic parties will play in the process.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Islam, Politics, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, and Asia
886. Islamist Movements and the Democratic Process in the Arab World: Exploring Gray Zones
- Author:
- Nathan J. Brown, Amr Hamzawy, and Marina S. Ottaway
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Abstract:
- In today's Arab world, Islamists have assumed the role once played by national liberation movements and leftist parties. They are the mass movements of the twenty-first century. They are well embedded in the social fabric, understand the importance of good organization, and are thus able to mobilize considerable constituencies. Their ideology prescribes a simple solution to the persistent crises of contemporary Arab societies—a return to the fundamentals, or true spirit, of Islam. Indeed, “Islam is the solution” has been the longtime slogan of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Like all successful movements, Islamists have been able to distill a long, complex philosophical tradition into simple slogans that have quickly supplanted the Pan-Arabism and socialism that dominated the region until the 1970s. As a result, in most countries Islamists represent the only viable opposition forces to existing undemocratic regimes.
- Topic:
- Government, Human Rights, Islam, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Arabia, and Arab Countries
887. What's in a Scarf? The Debate on Laïcité in France
- Author:
- Nicolas Weill
- Publication Date:
- 03-2006
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- French Politics, Culture Society
- Institution:
- Conference Group on French Politics Society
- Abstract:
- The issue of the Islamic headscarf has troubled French society since the end of the 1980s and led to legislation, enacted on 15 March 2004, proscribing the wearing of headscarves or any other "conspicuous" religious symbol in schools. But what strained relationship between the state and religions, and more generally minorities, is hidden by this long controversy that preceded the centennial of the 1905 law separating church and state? This article aims to summarize for American readers the stakes involved in this long debate while putting it into historical perspective by trying to clear up misunderstandings that may crop up in discussions (on both sides of the Atlantic) of a subject where the famous "French exception" seems to be crystallized, that is, the practice of laïcité. Underlying these discussions, one must locate the treatment of religious minorities as put into place during the Napoleonic era in the case of the Jews, which has remained, mutatis mutandis, a model for the organization of Islam in the Hexagon at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Such a model is one of an assignment community, organized with the goal, inherited from the Revolution, of emancipating its members and responding to questions of public order.
- Topic:
- Islam
- Political Geography:
- America and France
888. Mapping the Jihadist Threat: The War on Terror Since 9/11
- Author:
- Kurt M. Campbell and Willow Darsie
- Publication Date:
- 08-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Aspen Institute
- Abstract:
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously bemoaned the challenges of measuring success in a long twilight struggle with Islamic fundamentalists. There are the “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns” that confront the United States in the most unfamiliar set of foreign policy challenges in the country's history. In addition to the difficulties of establishing “metrics” – as Rumsfeld would put it – in our war on terror, there is also the intrinsically related and perhaps more vexing question of how the global ideological virus of Islamic fundamentalism is morphing and evolving. An influential and well-funded cohort of radicalized Islamists, seizing upon an unyielding interpretation of religious text (a kind of Koranic original intent), has been at war with the West for nearly a generation, and the pace of operations globally is accelerating. According to recently released U.S. government reports, there has been a sharp surge in the number of global terrorist attacks in recent years, a tally substantially comprised of incidents initiated by Islamist instigators. Taken in its totality with all its many manifestations, the jihadist challenge stretches from the Taliban strongholds in the rugged Afghan mountains and the dense jungle hideouts of the Philippines, to the ornate mosques of Saudi Arabia, from a quiet neighborhood in Leeds, England to, just possibly, a place near you.
- Topic:
- Islam, Terrorism, and War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, and Middle East
889. Proportionality and Sustainable Peace in the Mideast
- Author:
- Mary Ellen O'Connell
- Publication Date:
- 08-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
- Abstract:
- When Israel reacted with military force to the Hamas and Hezbollah raids of June and July, world leaders recognized Israel's right to respond, but some charged it was using disproportionate force. International law supports both points. States may take defensive measures, but every use of force must be proportionate to the harm inflicted. These rules are found in the law regulating resort to force (jus ad bellum) and the law regulating the conduct of force (jus in bello). The most important rule in either category may w ell be the principle of proportionality. Respect for proportionality in the use of force can help foster stable, long-term peace.
- Topic:
- Islam, Terrorism, War, and Armed Struggle
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Arabia
890. The Miniskirt and the Veil: Aid and Islam in Bulgaria
- Author:
- Dana Steinberg (ed)
- Publication Date:
- 02-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- In 1989, while traveling through Spain, Kristen Ghodsee stared in disbelief at the television in the bus station in Barcelona as images appeared of the Berlin Wall crumbling. A year later, she backpacked through Eastern Europe to witness the unprecedented changes in the region. But these countries that held such promise soon suffered economic collapse, and Ghodsee wondered what went wrong.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Islam, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and Bulgaria