by Adam Weinstein

Islamic Exceptionalism is definitely an expansion of a quarrel earlier asserted by Hamid that will be that democracy in a Muslim society will hardly ever create a liberal culture, but might rather further introduce Islam into general public life. That is stated with all the reminder that Islam – even Islamism – is certainly not monolithic. As Hamid describes ‘for many Muslims, the idea of Islam is the fact that it really is available and simple, at the very least with its broad outlines’ (p. 42). Maybe for this reason rigid works such as for instance Ibn Taymiyyah’s Al-Aqidah Al-Waasitiyyah have actually gained a great deal appeal in modern times and also the Western image of Islam is regarded as a harsh and ideology that is uncompromising. But Hamid reminds us that an even more nuanced way of Islam lurks within the past that is recent. He cites scholars that are 20thcentury such as for instance Sudan’s Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, who distinguished the sacred through the profane components of the Quran in defiance of this literalism motivated by Hanbalis and insisted upon by Salafis.

Hamid juxtapositions instead than compares the development that is early of with this of Islam to raised comparison the 2 faiths. The real history of Christianity since the faith of salvation through elegance, which in its formative infancy existed being a refused cult, is very distinct from Islam, which enjoyed great success that is political inception. Consequently, the thought of separation of mosque and state is in contradiction because of the really essence of Islam, which will be both a religious and faith that is legalistic. An overarching assertion of Hamid’s tasks are that politics and Islam are to stay connected when it comes to future that is foreseeable.

The bulk of the guide is specialized in the scenario studies of this Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey while the AKP, democracy in Tunisia, additionally the Islamic State. The chapter regarding the Muslim Brotherhood especially stands apart. Hamid portrays the conflict that emerges when the discipline of a elder leadership within the Brotherhood, who believes in years, is calculated up against the discontents of a more youthful Facebook generation that steps amount of time in hours. Hamid points out that in Egypt, the older leadership adopted gradualism simply because they ‘prioritized organizational survival first and foremost else’ (p. 119). The tragedy of General el-Sisi’s coup is the fact that it will probably forever push the Brotherhood towards the right. This new generation, having lost faith into the democratic procedure, will now view energy as being a zero-sum game. To illustrate this aspect, Hamid recounts their talks with Brotherhood official and journalist Asmaa Shokr, whom in retrospect, thought the Brotherhood must have ‘purified state organizations’ and, if offered the chance to increase to energy once again, should agree to ‘revolutionary courts, studies for army leaders – including needless to say, Sissi – and overhauling their state’ (p. 122). Hamid appears to involve some sympathies that are restrained the Brotherhood, maybe not because of its ideology, but undoubtedly for the people. From the one hand, this might be a welcome modification because he humanises an frequently misinterpreted motion. Nevertheless, in some instances, he appears to naively genuinely believe that more extreme components of the organization are only a response to collapse that is democratic Egypt, in place of a core ideology that will have increased to the outer lining with or without democracy.

Then the Islamic State’s model of success is the complete opposite if the Brotherhood’s recipe for long-term success was until recently its ability to compromise. an essential caveat right here that Hamid usually covers on Twitter is Islamic law is voluminous, contradictory and ready to accept interpretations. The Islamic State is applicable a form that is fastidiously literal of legislation and, in performing this, rejects centuries of Islamic thought. In accordance with Hamid, the rise in fetlife app apk download popularity of the Islamic State is partly an answer into the humiliation Muslims face both into the western and within secular Arab dictatorships and thus theodicy plays a role that is central their recruitment procedure (pp. 222–23). Hamid reminds your reader that Tunisia had been the Arab state that combined the most brutal combination of dictatorship by having a campaign of secularisation. Maybe for this reason a lot of Tunisians have actually joined the Islamic State.

As he closes their chapter regarding the Islamic State, Hamid writes so it has ‘benefited significantly through the manifest problems of Arab governance, of a outdated local purchase, and of a worldwide community which was reluctant to do something as Syria descended into savage repression and civil war’ (pg. 237). This point that is last addressed more directly and clarified by Hamid away from their guide it is necessary to understanding their world view. Hamid is certainly a proponent of United states interventionism and has now clearly stated therefore. In a discussion that is recent pondered whether it’s possible to ‘retroactively negate’ the morality of an intervention like Iraq or Libya due to the fact the aftermath is bloody. He minimises the Iraq experience up to a negative intervention, but will not believe that it is an instance against all interventions. He could be a defender of US intervention in Libya and proponent of it in Syria.

Islamic Exceptionalism overlooks two case that is important. First, Iran additionally the greater Shi’a community have previously grappled with numerous for the concerns raised in this guide. Hamid warrants this exclusion by writing that ‘Iran, nevertheless, is outside of the range of the study, since its theological orientation – one based from the revolutionary and reasonably new Shiite doctrine of ‘guardianship of this clerics’ – has not been really tried elsewhere and it is anathema towards the Sunni Islamists that are the main focus with this book'(p. 31). It is a fact that Khomeini’s notion of guardianship or faqih that is velayat-e unique even to Shi’ism however it is essential to see there is a number of clerical viewpoints about this subject that grapple with similar concerns Hamid seeks to resolve. You will find most likely parallels and appropriate evaluations that may be drawn involving the Shi’a connection with the final century – specially in Iran – and much more current Sunni styles.