The Umma and the Dawla: the Nation State and the Arab Middle East * By TAMIM AL-BARGHOUTI
2009; Oxford University Press; Volume: 20; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/jis/etp033
ISSN1471-6917
Autores Tópico(s)Turkey's Politics and Society
ResumoThis is an interesting work in which al-Barghouti attempts to combine two incompatible narratives (from classical Orientalism and Dependency Theory) to offer an explanation of the current political crisis in the Middle East. In spite of some brilliant insights, the combination does not work overall. The starting point for al-Barghouti is the dual phenomenon of the failure of the modern Arab state and the proliferation of violent non-state actors such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc., which attempt to fill the vacuum left by incompetent states. He rejects the argument that failed states have produced violent non-state actors. Rather, he sees the problem going much deeper, in the incompatibility of the concept of the self among Muslims, and their understanding of their political heritage. For Muslims, the defining identity is that of belonging to the umma, ‘a people who follow the Imam, and the Imam is the guide of the Muslims, be that the ideal book-guide: the Qurʾān, or their ideal human guide: the Prophet.’ (p. 38) The community is thus defined in term of symbols and texts, and the ideals these texts prescribe. It is non-territorial and based on the self-perception of belonging to a collectivity on the basis of religion. That may sound tautological, but we will leave it for now.
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