1. Other traditions
Islamic systems

2. What is Islam? Is Islam really a unitary concept?
The areas where people who follow the Islamic religion live are far apart and have different cultures and histories

4. What is Islam? Is Islam really a unitary concept?
The areas where people who follow the Islamic religion live are far apart and have different cultures and cultures
In what sense can religious identity be said to be more important than class, gender, nation, culture or history, especially when discussing a political system?

5. 5 Pillars of Islam
Shahada: there is no God but God and Mohammed is his Prophet
Salat: prayer to be performed 5 times a day
Zakat: the giving of alms
Sawm: fasting during Ramadan
Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca
But what about Jihad?

6. Islam and politics
Is it true that there is no separation between religion and politics in Islam?
What is the role of the shari’a?
And what is the shari’a?
Is it laws derived from the Koran?
Or is it the body of laws developed over time by Muslim jurists/sages?
Shari’a fairly limted in scope: personal status, inheritance and some types of taxation
What is the status of laws that cannot be referred back to the Koran?

7. Different types of Islam
Sunni: associated with the Caliphs and the Ummayad dynasty. Majority of Muslims
Shia: followers of Ali. Minority of Muslims
Kharjites. Early fundamentalists
Ahmadiya/Qadia not regarded by other Muslims as Muslim. Modern
Alawi in dispute
Druze likewise
Ismaili
Nation of Islam US group Farakhan
Salafy
Sufi: mystics
Wahhabi first modern fundamentalists

8. Some important historical dates
571 birth of Mohammed [the Prophet]
622 the Hegira
632 death of the Prophet. Creation of the Caliphate [khalif=successor]
Koran produced under second and thir Caliphs
656 Ali became Caliph. Ummayad rebellion. Split into Sunni and Shia branches

9. More important historical dates
Abbasid dynasty Umayyads fled to Spain
1258 Mongols captured Baghdad. Abbasids fled to Egypt
Ottomans captured Egypt 1517 and held caliphate as sultans until abolished 1924
With dismembering of Turkish/Ottoman Empire, today’s “states” emerge

10. Some contemporary significant dates
Soviet “liberation” of Afghanistan
Iranian revolution
Hamah uprising and massacre in Syria 1982
Assassination of Sadat 1981
FIS electoral success in Algeria then covil war
Attack on World Trade Centre 1992 and 2001

11. Western perceptions
Tendency to think of Islam as a phenomenon of the Middle East. Untrue Indonesia largest Islamic state by population, followed by Pakistan and, surprisingly, India
Tendency to think of Islam as violent religion: assassains and terrorism
Since feminism, position of women unacceptable
Islam is somehow “international” in character [Al Qaeda is everywhere!]

12. “Islamism”
To distinguish between Muslims and violent sectarians the term “islamist” has been coined
This is regarded as a totalitarian ideology by many commentators
Islamists are concerned about social differences and poverty
They feel their culture is under threat from the West
They wish to recreate the Golden Age, but without rejecting modern technology
Iran and Sudan the type states

13. More on Islamists
Important movements in Jordan [where they are the majority party], Algeria, [where the military expelled them from government]
Began by calling for return to the Sharia, but have had to make ideas more concrete and modern.
Like market-oriented social democrats, but Old Labour in their attitudes to women. Definitely not “New Men”
“Islam reformulated as a modern ideology” Middle East Quarterly debate
Urban dwellers, not tribalists

14. Rise of Islamist Movements
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt early in 20th Century the first
Others emerge in the 1970s
Are they primarily religious?
Or primarily social or protest movements?
Or as Ulam suggests of Marxism-Leninism, ways of coping with rapid industrialistaion and modernisation?

15. Institutions
Caliphate. First four “the Patriarchs” –direct followers of Mohammed himself. Then the Ummayad dynasty
Tribes
Imam: spiritual leader originally Ali and his successors
Emirs: local governors who usurped the secular authority of the caliphs from the fall of the Abbasids in the 12th century.

16. Government of Saudi Arabia
Chief of State and Head of Government: the monarch
Crown Prince, Deputy PM and Heir apparent chosen by the monarch
Council of Ministers appointed by Monarch
Legislature: 90 member consultative council and chair[man] appointed by monarch
Constitution based on Shari’a and basic law of 1993

17. Government of Iran
Head of state: Leader of the Islamic revolution Ayatollah Khamenei, appointed for life by Assembly of Experts
President elected for four-year term by universal suffrage: Khatami
Legislature: 290 seat Islamic Consultative assembly [elected]
Guardian Council [responsible for ensuring all laws and practices are in accordance with Islam

18. Government of Sudan
Govt an alliance of the military and the National Congress Party [formerly the national islamic Front]
Chief of State and Head of Govt. Lt. Gen Bashir
Majority of Cabinet from NCP
Legislature: 270 popularly elected, 90 appointed. Elections widely regarded as rigged