Rethinking Islamic Politics in Tunisia - (Critical Studies on Islamism) by Fabio Merone & Francesco Cavatorta (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The emergence of Islamist and Salafi movements - the actors of Islamist Politics - has been a critical area of scholarship on the Middle East and North Africa. But there is no theoretical framework to understand political Islam as a phenomenon that includes both Islamic ideology and modern activism. This book uses the Gramscian concept of political activism to provide this much-needed perspective. As Arab societies have had a similar historical development and trajectory to the society Gramsci was analyzing, his ideas are shown to be particularly relevant for understanding the post-2011 democratization and politicization of Islamist and Salafi movements.
Based on the case study of the Tunisian Islamist movement, al-Nahda, and the Tunisian Salafi movement, Ansar al-Sharia, political Islam is given a useful explanatory framework to explain how the ideological/theological side of Islamic activism realizes itself into practical political action. The book establishes the term 'Islamic politics' to describe this combination of socio-religious mobilization - commonly defined as dawa - and political organization, including party or revolutionary organizations. Furthermore, the authors show that Islamists and Salafists can be described as 'post-Islamist' in the same way communist parties became 'post-communist' and 'post-ideological'.
Written by two renowned experts on political Islam, the innovative theoretical framework used here can explain the development and behaviour of Islamist groups in other contexts, moving scholarship beyond traditional approaches.

Review Quotes

"Accomplished and original, this book sheds vital new light on diverse strands of Islamic politics in Tunisia through a Gramscian framework connecting religious ideology to politics. Making a provocative comparison between Islamism and socialism, this rich intervention advances our understanding of revolutionary and reformist dynamics in global and comparative perspective. A must read in Middle East Studies - and for all those engaging with Gramscian approaches to politics." --John Chalcraft, Professor of Middle East History and Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

"In this refreshingly original book, Merone and Cavatorta combine wide-ranging empirical fieldwork with informed theoretical analysis to give us a powerful way of understanding the course, and fate of Islamic politics in Tunisia. Drawing considerable strength from their critical reading of Gramsci, they deploy his insights into the complex relationship between praxis and ideology in the field of political organisation to throw light on the transformational potential, but also limitations of al-Nahda and its salafi contenders." --Charles Tripp, Professor Emeritus, SOAS, UK

About the Author

Fabio Merone is Research Fellow at University of Rome 3 and Associate Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Africa and the Middle East at Laval University, Canada. He holds a PhD from Ghent University, Belgium.
Francesco Cavatorta is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science, Laval University, Canada. He has worked on the politics of the Arab world for over twenty years. He holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.