Islam and Political Violence

Political Islam and Militancy: a Political Economy Approach

Given inevitable constraints of the fiscal year framework for development planning, not to mention the day to day rush of project design and implementation, development policymakers and practitioners often simply lack the time to engage in longer term strategic planning. While there is usually a general sense of what they want to see happen 10 years down the line, there is still a need to think...

Misunderstanding Islam on the Use of Violence

Islam remains misunderstood by many in the West essentially because it has not been part of the Western cultural tradition. Negative perceptions in the West are enhanced by popular reactions to abhorrent practices committed by some Muslims, even when those practices clearly contradict the teachings of Islam.1 These negative perceptions are also enhanced by Islamophobia.2 Conversely, the West’s ...

Islam ’ s Bloody Innards ? Religion and Political Terror , 1980 – 2000

Culturalists claim that political outcomes, such as respect for human rights, are deeply rooted in culture. Some have singled out Islam as particularly problematic. We assess whether Muslim societies suffer higher levels of political terror compared with others. Our results show that countries containing larger shares of Catholics, and those dominated by Catholics, fare the worst. The share of ...

Political Islam and Popular Order in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Political Islam in Iran, which initially formed in the guise of Sultāni order, experiences its second form after 1979 Revolution, named popular order. While in both forms, the authority of religion has been accepted in political life, these types of order demonstrate two different experiences of political Islam in Iran. Thus, the comprehension of this new experience of political Islam after the...

Studying Oil, Islam, and Women as if Political Institutions Mattered