In the early twenty-first century, it is now clear that religion is increasingly influential in the political realm in ways which call into question the principles and practices of secularism. The Iranian revolution of 1978-9 marked the decisive ‘reappearance’ of political religion in global politics, highlighting a major development which is the subject of this edited volume. Addressing a highly salient and timely topic, this book examines the consequences of political interactions involving the state and religious actors in Christian, Muslim and Judaist contexts. Building on research, the basic premise of this text is that religious actors – including Islamist groups, the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox churches – pose various challenges for citizenship, democracy, and secularisation in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The key questions on which the book focuses are: Why, how, and when do religious actors seek to influence political outcomes in these regions? Providing a survey of what is happening in relation to the interaction of religion and politics, both domestically and internationally, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, religion, European and Middle East studies.

This short, jargon-free primer provides readers with the basic background in the geography, history, politics, and religion of the Middle East and North Africa that they need to truly understand this fascinating region. The perfect book for any introductory topic on Middle Eastern or comparative politics. This accessible primer gives readers the background and context they need to study the changing political institutions and processes of the region. This objective, clearly-written overview of the Middle East and North Africa is organized into chapters covering regions, settings, political geography, religion, and history. For those interested in Middle East politics, comparative politics.

1. Multiple faces of Islam, R. Hrair Dekmejian

This book seeks to explain the political and religious factors leading to the economic reversal of fortunes between Europe and the Middle East.

This book brings a crucial perspective to the examination of religion and politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by focusing on the roles that Christian communities play in this region. Acknowledging and exploring their political activity represents a much-needed contribution to the MENA literature, which overwhelmingly focuses on Islam. Through a collection of country case studies utilizing a variety of analytic methods, the contributors to this collection demonstrate how various Christian groups act as rational, strategic political actors seeking to protect and promote the interests of their organizations and members. The cases explored here elaborate upon how Christians in the MENA region navigate their minority status and respond to local ideas of citizenship that often relegate them to second-class status. The chapters also examine how MENA Churches draw on transnational networks to augment their local political influence. This volume is an important work for understanding contemporary politics in the MENA region, and advances the study of religion’s role in politics more generally. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Religion, State and Society.

In recent years, Islam has become a more visible force, not only in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, but also in Western Europe and the United States. Greater attention to religious observance (prayer, fasting, dress, pilgrimage) has accompanied the creation of new institutions (mosques, finance houses, insurance companies, schools, clinics, and hospitals). Religiously inspired social and political movements have proliferated. Only a few decades ago, Muslims were virtually invisible in Europe and America. Today, increased immigration has changed the religious landscape of the West. Mosques and Islamic centers are found in European and American cities and towns. Muslims are visible in nearly every area of social and political life. A list of major Islamic cities and populations today must include not only Cairo, Tunis, Damascus, and Islamabad, but also Paris, London, New York, and Detroit. This demographic and cultural shift requires that we speak not only of the relationship between the traditional Islamic world and the West, but also about Islam in the West. It has also meant that Islam has been obliged to modernize, to grapple with its status as a minority religion in some parts of the world and a majority one in others. Modernizing Islam speaks to the significance, origins, influences, and implications of Islam's changes, and thus to the various ways in which this religion is becoming a truly global force, shaping such realms as law, politics, education, and ethics, among many others