MER Article Document: "Deficiencies in the Islamic Movement" (Rashid al-Ghannouchi) Rachid al-Ghannouchi: "Deficiencies in the Islamic movement" Although the Islamist movement has realized great accomplishments in its attempts to liberate the Islamic community from the legacy of decay and the remnants of destructive Western invasions, it is still far from realizing its ultimate go (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article "How Can a Muslim Live in This Era?" Shaikh Hamid al-Nayfar is a leading figure in Tunisia’s Islamist movement. Francois Burgat, who interviewed him in Tunis in 1985, works at the Centre de Recherches et d'Etudes sur les Societes Mediterraneennes (CRESM) in Aix-en-Provence, France. What is the meaning of the name of your magazine, (Author not identified) • 8 min read
MER Article Portrait of Rachid al-Ghannouchi Late last September, in the sweltering, heavily guarded State Security Court in Tunis, all eyes were fixed on Shaikh Rachid al-Ghannouchi as he concluded his impassioned defense: If God wishes me to become the martyr of the mosques, then let it be so. But I tell you that my death will not be in vai Linda G. Jones • 10 min read
MER Article The "Turkish-Islamic Synthesis" The Hearth of Intellectuals, a small organization comprising some 150 conservative journalists, academics and other intellectuals, has functioned as a sort of fountainhead for a new legitimizing ideology for the Turkish Republic. Gencay Şaylan refers to them as the “Turkish Opus Dei” in his 1988 boo Ömer Karasapan, Erkan Akin • 2 min read
MER Article Turkey's Tarikats Tarikats are religious orders established to “search for divine truth.” They have been part of Turkish cultural and social life for centuries. The groups discussed here are Sunni. Turkey’s Shi‘a do have their own religious orders, but as a result of the persecution they suffered during Ottoman rule Ömer Karasapan, Erkan Akin • 3 min read
MER Article The Rabita Affair The Rabita affair underlines the extent to which the post-1980 regime in Turkey has turned to Islam as a bulwark against the left. “Rabita” -- the Saudi-based Rabit’at al-Alam al-Islami (World Islamic League) -- advocates the establishment of a pan-Islamic federation based on the shari‘a. One would Ömer Karasapan, Erkan Akin • 2 min read
MER Article The Political Uses of Islam in Turkey For the past several years, the Turkish press has seemed obsessed with irtica, a word of Arabic origin meaning religious reaction and obscurantism. The media has reported incident after incident in which hoca and imam urged their followers not to stray from the path of true Islam, where men and wome Ronnie Margulies, Ergin Yildizoğlu • 12 min read
MER Article Muslim Women and Fundamentalism When analyzing the dynamics of the Muslim world, one has to discriminate between two distinct dimensions: what people actually do, the decisions they make, the aspirations they secretly entertain or display through their patterns of consumption, and the discourses they develop about themselves, more Fatima Mernissi • 10 min read
MER Article An Islamic State? How applicable are the classic concepts of “state” and “politics” to the world of Islam? The current prominence of Islamic politics and the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Iran poses this question anew. Sami Zubaida • 13 min read
MER Article From the Editors (July/August 1988) This issue continues MERIP’s inquiry into the dynamic relationship of religion and politics in the Middle East. Our authors pay particular attention to the various ways in which Islam, the dominant religion in the region, enters into the equations of state power and popular opposition in countries a The Editors • 2 min read
