Modernization, Democracy, and Islam / Edition 1

by Shireen T. Hunter, Huma Malick

Overview

The Islamic world has a poor record in terms of modernization and democracy. However, the source of this situation is not religion, but factors including colonialism, international economic and trading systems, and the role of the military, among others. Recognizing these themes allows the consideration of possible remedies for change in the Muslim world.

The Islamic world has a poor record in terms of modernization and democracy. However, the source of this situation is not religion—Islam—but rather factors including colonialism, international economic and trading systems, and the role of the military, among others. Recognizing these themes allows the consideration of possible remedies for change in the Muslim world.

The distinguished scholars contributing to this volume identify key factors—some intrinsic to the Muslim world, and some external—that contribute to Islam's current predicament. Contrary to much prevailing thought and opinion, Islam is neither monolithic nor impervious to change. It is neither anti-democratic nor inherently anti-modernization. Islam itself, as this book shows, is not the root cause of the malaise of the Islamic world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275985301
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/30/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

Shireen T. Hunter is Director of the Islam Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Her areas of expertise include the Middle East—especially the Persian Gulf region—and Islam—particularly in Russia, Europe, and the United States. She is the author of The Future of Islam and the West: Clash of Civilizations or Peaceful Coexistence? (CSIS/Praeger, 1998) and editor of Islam: Europe's Second Religion (Praeger, 2002).

Huma Malik is a fellow in the CSIS Islam Program. Her research focuses on ethnic and sectarian conflicts in South Asia. She is the co-editor of two reports for CSIS, Islam in Europe and the United States: A Comparative Perspective and Integrating Muslim Communities in Europe and the United States (2003).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Culture and Development by Heather Deegan
Development and Democracy: The Muslim World in Comparative Perspective by Mehran Kamrava
Is Gender Inequality a Barrier to Modernization and Democratization? by Valentine Moghadam
Islam and Modernity by Tamara Sonn
Islam and Democracy: Is Modernization a Barrier? by John Voll
Responses to Modernization: Muslim Experience in Comparative Perspective by Tim McDaniel
Military Establishment and the Challenge of Reformism by Elizabeth Picard
Economic Foundations of States and Democratisation: Shifting Political Geography of the Arab Private Sector by Giacomo Luciani
Demographic, Economic, and Social Conditions in Muslim Majority Countries: Prospects for Democratization by Ibrahim Oweiss
The Legacy of Colonialism: Impact on the Modernization and Democratization of the Muslim World by Ayesha Jalal
The Muslim World's Poor Democratic Record: The Interplay of External and Internal Factors by Mohammad Ayoob
Systemic Factors and Economic Development in Islamic Countries by Peter Nunnenkamp
The Roots of Sub-Saharan Africa's Modernization and Democratization Dilemmas by Chuka Onwumechili
Arab Liberal Legacies Full Circle by Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Central Asia and Azerbaijan by Mehrdad Haghyeghi
The Case of Pakistan by Mumtaz Ahmad
Malaysia's Path to Modernization and Democratization by Osman Bakar
Islam, Modernization and Democratization: The Case of Iran by Shireen Hunter & Nasser Hadian
A Secular Democracy in the Muslim World: The Turkish Model by Binnaz Toprak
Conclusions

Editorial Reviews

This book may mark a transition in scholarly usage: 7 of the 19 articles collected here use both "modernization" and "democracy" (or "democratization") in their title, and one entire section of five articles is entitled "Factors Influencing Modernization and the Development of Democracy." In any case, a book with the tripartite title Modernization, Democracy, and Islam may be said to cover all bases, and it does just that. The quality articles treat such diverse subjects as the econometric dimension, the role of the military, comparisons between the Middle East and Latin America, and gender inequality. There are also several abstract takes, and the final section contains seven country or regional case studies, ranging from sub-Saharan Africa to Indonesia, reflecting the growing tendency to treat not the Middle East alone but the entire Muslim world. An effort to tie all this together is made by Hunter in her very short "Conclusion and Suggested Readings," but most readers will probably pick and choose. They may well decide to choose many.

Foreign Affairs

Recommended. General readers, secondary school students, and lower-division undergraduates.” —Choice

“[A] book with the tripartite title Modernization, Democracy, and Islam may be said to cover all bases, and it does just that. The quality articles treat such diverse subjects as the econometric dimension, the role of the military, comparisons between the Middle East and Latin America, and gender inequality.” —Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher