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901. Les Relations Entre Le Conseil Français Du Culte Musulman (Cfcm) Et L'état Quelle Nature?

Author:
Vianney Sevaistre
Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
Les deux urgences politiques sont de convaincre l'opinion publique que l'islam n'est pas un danger en soi et de convaincre les musulmans qu'ils ne sont pas la cible ou les ennemis des pouvoirs publics. Deux dangers guettent notre pays: la montée des intégrismes de toute nature, dont l'intégrisme laïque, et la confusion entre les intégrismes musulmans- dont le terrorisme islamiste est la forme la plus dangereuse-et l'islam, cette confusion étant entretenue autant par les adversaires de l'islam que par les intégristes musul-mans qui veulent voir la destruction de notre société.
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
France

902. Symptomatic Politics: The Banning of Islamic Head Scarves in French Public Schools

Author:
Joan W. Scott
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:
Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:
The controversies in 1989, 1994, and 2003 over the wearing of head scarves were in part a response to international and domestic political developments (including, most importantly, surprising showings of political strength at the polls by the Front National). But they were also symptomatic of a much larger problem, one that seems unresolvable within the context of republican universalism. That is the problem of reconciling the fact of the growing diversity of the French population (most of the Muslims in question in these affaires are French citizens) with a theory of citizenship and representation that defines the recognition of difference as antithetical to the unity of the nation. French republicans consider it a dangerous practice to grant political standing to groups. Representatives of concrete, social concerns do not belong in the public (legislative) arena, they argue, because it must be maintained as a realm of abstraction where decisions are made on behalf of the whole people, a people whose presumed commonality means that any elected representative represents them all. The head scarf is a tangible sign of intolerable difference and of failed integration. It defies the long- standing requirement that only when immigrants assimilate (practicing their beliefs in private) do they become fully "French." It stands for everything that is thought to be wrong with Islam: porous boundaries between public and private and between politics and religion; the supposed degradation of female sexuality and subordination of women. The head scarf in the public, secular school is a synecdoche for Islam in the body of the French nation-state.
Topic:
Islam and Politics
Political Geography:
France

903. L\\'humanitarisme islamique

Author:
Jonathan Benthall
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Cet article explique comment la recherche de l\\'auteur sur l\\'humanitaire islamique dérive d\\'une analyse de la sémiotique du croissant rouge dans le Mouvement International de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge. Cela le mène à explorer des tensions plus larges dans le domaine des associations caritatives islamiques par rapport au champ général de l\\'humanitaire, tout en identifiant leurs ressemblances les unes avec les autres. Elles peuvent être considérées aussi comme éléments dans le mouvement plus ample des ONG « confessionnelles ». L\\'article analyse ensuite le rapport entre d\\'une part, le droit humanitaire international et les droits de l\\'Homme, et d\\'autre part, la tradition islamique juridique. L\\'ensemble de l\\'argument de l\\'article est présenté comme exemple du dialogue anthropologique classique concernant l\\'universalisme, par contraste avec le relativisme, la doctrine islamique n\\'étant pas ici interprétée comme exception culturelle, mais comme universalisme alternatif. Cela devrait nous permettre d\\'envisager plus clairement à la fois la fragilité de l\\'universalisme occidental, et également le besoin d\\'explorer ce qu\\'ont en commun les deux traditions intellectuelles.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid and Islam

904. Uncovered: Arab Journalists Scrutinize Their Profession

Author:
Hafez al-Mirazi, Thomas Gorguissian, Rami Khouri, and Salameh Nematt
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
This conference is entitled “Uncovered: Arab Journalists Scrutinize Their Profession” because we want to dissect, uncover, and analyze the state of the Arab media. Four distinguished Arab journalists will lead us in that quest. They are insiders, people who really know the business, and I anticipate hearing some very insightful comments and views.
Topic:
Islam
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, and Arabia

905. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 40

Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Russian media have been reporting over the past week that large-scale security operations are continuing in Kabardino-Balkaria and elsewhere in the North Caucasus following the October 13 rebel attacks in Nalchik. Gazeta reported on October 26 that Ramazan Tembotov, a local legislator from the village of Khasnya in Nalchik's suburbs and a member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, was arrested without explanation on October 23 and taken to the headquarters of RUBOP, the anti-organized crime directorate, in Nalchik. "People in masks came flying in, they [treated me] like a criminal, with obscene language. It is a disgrace for me—after all, the treatment of a deputy is special, like [the treatment of] an attorney; everyone knows me in the village," Tembotov told the newspaper. "I, unlike others, was not beaten: they lead me around the rooms, the cellars, and showed what they were doing to other detainees: they were torturing people like the Gestapo. No lawyers, no interrogations—simply beating to death, until they confessed or pointed to others." Tembotov said that the police personnel displayed particular animosity toward anything connected to Islam. He was released on October 24, the day after his detention, and told Gazeta that he thought the only thing that saved him was a telephone call he had managed to make to an acquaintance who works for the Federal Security Service.
Topic:
Security, Ethnic Conflict, and Islam
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, Chechnya, and North Caucasus

906. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 31

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
The Council of Muftis of the Chechen Republic on August 4 officially declared a jihad against "Wahhabism." Interfax quoted Chechen Mufti Sultan Mirzaev as telling journalists that the decision had been announced during a meeting between representatives of the clergy and law-enforcement agencies in the village of Tsentoroi, which is the home village of the Kadyrov clan. Mirzaev said it was the largest such meeting since the death of Akhmad Kadyrov in May 2004. "Wahhabism is the plague of the 20th and the 21st centuries," he said. "All Arabic scholars have come to be unanimous that those fighting against Wahhabism are on the path of jihad, following the way of Allah." Wahhabis and terrorists, he said, "are bringing evil into the world and the entire world must oppose them. We adopted an official fatwa (a religious ruling in Islam – Interfax), so that those fighting terrorism and Wahhabism have no doubt that their cause is just. We have declared war on these phenomena. Those killing innocent people must be either stopped or put behind bars or exterminated. This has to be done by whatever method. Our fatwa is that those who have shed blood, those who do not want to stop must be killed by any method." Mirzaev said rebels had killed sixteen district imams in Chechnya and that he himself had been "seriously wounded" in a rebel attack. "Should I remain silent about this?" he said. "If it becomes necessary, I will take up arms and I am ready to fight against them."
Topic:
Security, Ethnic Conflict, Islam, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, and Chechnya

907. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 27

Publication Date:
07-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
The Sharia Jamaat on July 12 officially confirmed the death of its leader Rasul Makasharipov. “Praise Allah, on July 6 in the city of Shamilkal (formerly Makhachkala), during the defense of a mujahideen base in the course of a violent battle, the Emir of the Islamic Jamaat of Dagestan 'Sharia' Rasul Makasharipov (call sign 'Muslim'), Shamil Korodinsky (call sign 'Vakkas') and Zeid Korodinsky became shahids [martyrs-CW],” the group said in a statement posted on the separatist Kavkazcenter website. “The two remaining mujahideen broke the encirclement by the infidels and are alive and unharmed and are safely located at an operational base. No one was taken prisoner. During the course of the battle four infidels were annihilated and three wounded. Allahu Akbar!”
Topic:
Security, Ethnic Conflict, and Islam
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, and Chechnya

908. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 12

Publication Date:
03-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
A roundtable on Chechnya was held in Strasbourg under the auspices of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on March 21. The meeting, which was organized by Swiss parliamentarian Andreas Gross—with, according to Kommersant, “active help” from Russia's State Duma and presidential administration—went off “according to the Russian scenario,” Kommersant correspondent Alla Barakhova reported in the newspaper's March 22 edition.
Topic:
Security, Ethnic Conflict, Human Rights, Islam, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Asia, and Chechnya

909. Saudi Arabia's Debate on Women Driving Masks a Deeper Divide

Author:
Simon Henderson
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
During the last several months, the question of whether women in Saudi Arabia should be allowed to drive has become a lively topic of debate within the kingdom. Support for the issue has come from the newly enthroned King Abdullah; the most prominent opponent is the long-serving interior minister, Prince Nayef. The men are viewed as political rivals frequently at odds over a range of policies. Increasingly, women driving seems a metaphor for the series of security, economic, and educational challenges facing the kingdom—and therefore a tempting policy opportunity for the United States.
Topic:
International Relations, Gender Issues, Government, Islam, and Terrorism
Political Geography:
United States, Arabia, and Saudi Arabia

910. An "Invisible, Faceless" Enemy. Police, Intelligence and Anti-Terrorism Agencies post 9.11

Author:
Laurent Bonelli
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Following the spectacular and deadly September 11th, 2001 attacks in the US and the March 11th, 2004 attacks in Madrid, the western intelligence services have seen their role and weight increase in the fight against radical Islam. This text, based on a fieldwork on French, Spanish and British intelligence services aims at analysing the evolution of their missions and analysis of the question. Breaking with an overly-mechanical approach that would consider the transformation of these missions as the result of an "adaptation" to new threats, this text shows that their nature and form result both from the evolution of clandestine groups' activities and their perception; the effects of the continuity of their analysis grids and of the perpetual work of re-legitimisation that they lead among certain parts of the State apparatus. This article thereby contributes to shedding light on specific aspects of the practical modes of political violence regulation in the western democracies that are often underrated. Après les attentats spectaculaires et meurtriers du 11 septembre 2001 aux Etats-Unis, puis ceux du 11 mars 2004 à Madrid, les services de renseignement occidentaux ont vu leur rôle et leur poids s'accroître dans la lutte contre le radicalisme musulman. A partir d'une enquête portant sur les services français, espagnols et britanniques, cet article analyse les évolutions de leurs missions et de leurs analyses de cette question. Rompant avec une approche mécaniste, qui verrait dans la transformation de ces missions le simple fruit d'une « adaptation » à de nouvelles menaces, il montre que leur nature et leur forme résultent à la fois de l'évolution de l'activité des groupes clandestins et de leur perception ; des effets de la permanence des grilles d'analyse des services de renseignement qui avaient été forgées sur d'autres terrains ; et du travail perpétuel de relégitimation que ces services vont mener auprès de certains secteurs de l'appareil d'Etat. Il contribue de la sorte à éclairer certains aspects souvent méconnus des modes pratiques de régulation de la violence politique dans les démocraties occidentales.
Topic:
Islam