Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in Egypt / Edition 1

by Carrie Rosefsky Wickham

Overview

Mobilizing Islam explores how and why Islamic groups succeeded in galvanizing educated youth into politics under the shadow of Egypt's authoritarian state, offering important and surprising answers to a series of pressing questions. Under what conditions does mobilization by opposition groups become possible in authoritarian settings? Why did Islamist groups have more success attracting recruits and overcoming governmental restraints than their secular rivals? And finally, how can Islamist mobilization contribute to broader and more enduring forms of political change throughout the Muslim world?

Moving beyond the simplistic accounts of "Islamic fundamentalism" offered by much of the Western media, Mobilizing Islam offers a balanced and persuasive explanation of the Islamic movement's dramatic growth in the world's largest Arab state.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231125734
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/17/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 8.96(h) x 0.59(d)
Lexile:	1600L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Carrie Rosefsky Wickham is associate professor of political science at Emory University. Her current project examines new trends in Islamic political thought and practice throughout the Middle East.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Nasser and the Silencing of Protest
3. Educated and Under-Employed: The Rise of the Lumpen-Intelligentsia
4. Parties Without Participation
5. The Parallel Islamic Sector
6. "The Call to God": The Islamist Project of Ideological Outreach
7. Explaining the Success of Islamist Outreach
8. From the Periphery to the Center: The Islamic Trend in Egypt's Professional Associations
9. Cycles of Mobilization Under Authoritarian Rule
10. Postscript: The Muslim Brotherhood and the Mubarak Regime, 1995-2001

What People are Saying About This

John L. Esposito

In the aftermath of 9/11, with the need to distinguish mainstream Islam and Islamic movements from terrorist movements in the Muslim world, Carrie Wickham's book takes on even greater significance. An insightful and sophisticated analysis of the roles of cultural identity, political economy, and mobilization in the development of a pioneering and trend-setting Islamic social movement, Mobilizing Islam will be welcomed by experts, policymakers, journalists and students of Muslim politics and comparative politics alike.

Joel S. Migdal

I cannot imagine a more important time for Carrie Wickham's book to appear. It tackles head-on the extraordinary capability of Islamic groups to mobilize a broad public, even in the face of an antagonistic and punitive authoritarian secular government.... The lessons Wickham draws from Egypt are a window into the broader popularity of militant and moderate forms of Islam in authoritarian states in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

John P. Entelis

Never have people more needed a rational, comprehensive, detailed, and empathetic accounting of the Islamist phenomenon as now. Both general readers and area specialists alike, therefore, will be well informed by this brilliant accounting of political Islam's organization, operation, and motivation in modern Egypt as presented by one of America's leading scholars of the subject.

— John P. Entelis, director, Middle East Studies Program, Fordham University

Editorial Reviews

This book has at least four great strengths... clarity... revives interest... effectively focused... content has enormous appeal.

Journal of Islamic Studies - Mohamed El Sayed Said

Intellectually ambitious.

Middle East Journal

The book is one of the best texts available for studying a major Islamic political movement in its proper context.

— Kristin Tassin

Arab Studies Journal

This book has at least four great strengths... clarity... revives interest... effectively focused... content has enormous appeal.

— Mohamed El Sayed Said

Journal of Islamic Studies

Mobilizing Islam is easily one of the best books on Islamic activism. Wickham's use of social movement theory and remarkable fieldwork produced a book that speaks to area specialists and students of contentious politics alike. Amidst the onslaught of ill-informed books on Islam in the post-September 11 period, Wickham provides a refreshing reminder that there is rigorous scholarship on Islamic activism.

— Quintan Wiktorowicz

Perspectives on Politics

The book is one of the best texts available for studying a major Islamic political movement in its proper context.

Arab Studies Journal - Kristin Tassin

Mobilizing Islam is easily one of the best books on Islamic activism. Wickham's use of social movement theory and remarkable fieldwork produced a book that speaks to area specialists and students of contentious politics alike. Amidst the onslaught of ill-informed books on Islam in the post-September 11 period, Wickham provides a refreshing reminder that there is rigorous scholarship on Islamic activism.

Perspectives on Politics - Quintan Wiktorowicz

Mobilizing Islam is easily one of the best books on Islamic activism. Wickham's use of social movement theory and remarkable fieldwork produced a book that speaks to area specialists and students of contentious politics alike. Amidst the onslaught of ill-informed books on Islam in the post-September 11 period, Wickham provides a refreshing reminder that there is rigorous scholarship on Islamic activism.

Quintan Wiktorowicz