World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies

Barcelona, July 19th – 24th 2010

· NOT_DEFINED date: TUE 20, 11.30 am-1.30pm

· NOT_DEFINED institution: Muwatin, the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy / Chr. Michelsen Institute

· NOT_DEFINED organizer: May Jayyusi / Are Knudesn

· NOT_DEFINED sponsor: Muwatin, the Palerstinian Institute for the Study of Democracy / Chr. Michelsen Institute.

· NOT_DEFINED language: English

· NOT_DEFINED description: For the past thirty years the Middle East region has seen a resurgence of Islamist political movements occupying a wide spectrum of different approaches and practices to the crisis of state and society. These resurgent Islamist movements are part of the complex negotiations of these societies with modernity; their strong emergence has posed a challenge to uncritical notions of secularism, and to the nature of democratic politics. The challenge that the emergence of Islamism, as political movements, poses is playing itself across a range of issues, and in reality constitutes a challenge to both sides of the religious/secular divide. It turns out that the inclusion of political Islamists is not only dependent on the willingness of these parties themselves to accept the democratic rules of the political game but is also dependent on their secular counterparts, and on the international community, accepting them. Given that democratization can only work as an inclusive process can there be a democratic transformation in the region without some form of negotiation between Islamists and secularists? How have different Islamist parties negotiated the democratic challenge? What are the boundaries of citizenship that different Islamists draw? Can Islamists and secularists agree on some basic rules of the game? Can the boundaries of the “secular” public sphere be enlarged to accommodate such a debate? This panel will look at the trajectories of different Islamist movements regionally as well as focus on three case studies, the experience of Hamas in the aftermath of the 2006 elections, and the changing forms of political and social contestations in Iran and Turkey.

Chair: George Giacaman (Muwatin, the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy)

Paper presenter: Mouin Rabbani (Independent researcher), “Islamist Movements and Political Participation in the Arab World”
During the past quarter century, Islamism in its various forms has emerged as the primary ideology of opposition in the Arab world, displacing nationalist and leftist movements in authoritarian republics and conservative monarchies alike. The question of political participation, and by implication integration into existing political systems, has been a significant issue for Islamist movements. Some, opting for the role of a revolutionary vanguard, have rejected the concept of participation outright. Others, particularly those that have developed a broad popular base and operate in states where local or national elections are conducted, have invested heavily in participation, either as a method for achieving political power and integration into the existing system, or as a means to influence public policy. The examples of Hizbullah in Lebanon and more recently Hamas in Palestine furthermore demonstrate that the dichotomy between ballot and bullet is not always clear cut. This paper examines Islamist approaches to political participation and integration in the Arab world and asks whether regional trends can be discerned with respect to either the strategy of disparate movements or the challenges they confront in the various states in which they operate. By focusing on experiences in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Palestine, it also examines the effect various experiences of participation and integration have had on the individual movements concerned, and the broader Islamist trend in the Arab world.

Paper presenter: Basem Ezbidi (Birzeit University), “Hamas and the Un-making of Democracy in Palestine”
Hamas' victory in the 2006 elections has raised a range of questions about future development, both of the movement itself as well as of the relations between the movement and other players in the Palestinian political landscape. Issues of concern were whether the victorious movement will preserve the existing 'democratic' rules and abide by the guiding rules of the Oslo accords. But in fact, in its short reign so far, the movement was given neither the right nor the opportunity to concretely deal with such complex issues. This paper argues that the internal and external impediments placed before Hamas have led to conditions that prevented the movement from coherent positions regarding various issues that include democracy. The out-casting of Hamas has led into a condition that not only weakened; it even damaged the existing 'democratic' rules. In fact, it is the exclusion of the democratically elected Hamas that required the movement to place more weight on its political 'right' and on survival, than on expressing 'democratic' credentials. These developments have not only pushed Hamas large steps back on the issue of democracy, they also ill-serve the concerns of the secular players both inside and abroad. Hamas's perceived successes in Gaza are likely to harden the movement’s positions and to reinforce the notion 'democratic' conduct is not a successful option under the current power equation that favours political players for their serving mainly outside interests.

Paper presenter: Yildiz Atasoy (Simon Fraser University), “Negotiated Consent: The Islamic Unthinking of State-Centric Politics in Turkey”
Notions of sovereign state-rule and citizenship that rested on the twentieth century epistemology of state centrism defined the right to have rights as territorial, administered by the state and encased within its boundaries. The current state restructuring project underway through the Islam-sensitive policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is premised on globalized, interpretive frames of neoliberal market capitalism and the overreaching of state power. The AKP upholds Islamic moral principles of social justice in its policy deliberations while embodying globalized frames of a neoliberal knowledge culture. This paper examines the demystification of the historical epistemology of state centrism through the political mobilization of various Islamic social groups in Turkey. Such demystification includes an Islamic redefinition of citizenship as the right to have rights (Somers 2008) beyond the state territorial enclosure of the public political sphere. Central to this process is the growing demand by various Islamic groups for respect and recognition of their rights to self-definition, as well as the right to live with a particular moral, cultural and spiritual orientation. Still, these demands are articulated through political negotiations for consent-building within the privatizing norm-making frame of neoliberalism.

Paper presenter: Dr. Are Knudsen (Senior researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), "Islamism and Clientelism among Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon"
This paper analyses Hizbollah’s (Party of God) political patronage of the camp-based Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon number about 350,000 and are the second-largest Palestinian diaspora community in the Middle East. Since their forced exile from Palestine more than fifty years ago, the majority of the refugees (and their descendants) have been living in squalid shelters and cramped refugee camps. They now form a disenfranchised minority, suffering from economic marginalisation and fearing being excluded from future peace settlements, which would leave them exiled in Lebanon. Hizbollah is Lebanon’s pre-eminent Islamist movement and political party and has during the post-civil war period become the main protagonist of the Palestinian refugees’ quest for civil rights - rights that has been denied them since the arrival of the first refugees in Lebanon more than 50 years ago. However, recent studies have argued that Hizbollah has not only become a mouthpiece for dispossessed Palestinians but the movement’s relationship with the refugees is a lopsided one and biased towards Hizbollah’s own political agenda (e.g., Khalili, 2007). This paper aims to explicate Hizbollah’s political agenda vis-à-vis the refugees, a topic neither widely studied nor understood. Empirically, the paper draws on first-hand interviews with Hizbollah representatives and Palestinian and Lebanese officials. Additionally, the paper draws on the many studies on Hizbollah, the role of political and religious clientelism in Lebanon, as well as the extensive scholarship on Palestinian refugees. The main research question is to what degree Hizbollah has assumed the role of a political patron vis-à-vis the Palestinian clients and the transactional nature of this patron-client relationship. The secondary research question is whether Hizbollah’s patronage of Palestinian refugees renders them as subservient clients, subject to Hizbollah’s internal political agenda in Lebanon. These questions are of considerable importance considering the sensitivity of the Palestinian refugee problem in post-civil war Lebanon and the country’s struggle to overcome the years of civil war that have caused political instability, economic turmoil and increasing tensions between the country’s many confessional communities. Fieldwork for the paper was carried out in 2006, 2007 and 2008.