Overview

This book offers a new interpretation of the rich narratives of Arab secularism, contending that secularism as a set of ideas and a social movement is destined to loom large on the political and legal horizon of most Arab states. Youssef M. Choueiri provides a study of three moments in the development of secularism in the Arab World, the Machiavellian, the Alfierian and the Gramscian. It is within such a scope that secularism in its interaction with state-building projects, women’s emancipation and religion is treated as an intellectual current and a discursive entity embedded in the political process of its diverse societies. Through the chapters, Choueiri demonstrates how secularism occupies a pivotal presence in the religious and political life of the Arab world, exploring such interrelated configurations as indigenous contributions, diverse reforms and the impact of Western states. He concludes that secularism has become a moral prerequisite and a required vehicle in creating the necessary conditions for the success of democracy in the Middle East. Narratives of Arab Secularism tackles the complexity and contemporary ramifications of the subject in a way that no previous single study has been able to. It will be relevant to both students and academics dealing with topics related to the Middle East including religion, politics, anthropology and history. Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

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Author Information

Youssef M. Choueiri is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK. He served as Reader (Associate Professor) in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter and the University of Manchester before joining the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies as Professor of History in 2015. He is the author or editor of a number of books, including Arab History and the Nation-State, A Companion to the History of the Middle East and Islamic Fundamentalism . His research interests span a cluster of inter-related Middle Eastern, Arab and Islamic topics: the emergence and development of modern Arab historiography, the notion of the nation-state, Arab nationalism, Middle Eastern modernity and Islamism.

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