Politique 45

“Islam and the State”.

Conversation with Vali Nasr (1). Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. 10/3/02 1-Background Vali, welcome to Berkeley. Thank you. Tell us a little about your background. Where were you born and raised? I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. I got my primary and secondary education in Iran, and in England. My family migrated to the United […].

“The Political Imagination of Islam “.

Conversation with Olivier Roy (1). Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. 4/16/02 1-Background Olivier, welcome to Berkeley. Thank you. Where were you born and raised? I was born in La Rochelle in France, on the Atlantic coast, in ’49. Looking back, how do you think your parents shaped your character? Fortunately, my parents don’t unders […].

Dynamiques identitaires et géopolitiques dans les relations entre le Monde arabe et l’Europe.

Dans les jeux de la géopolitique et des identités collectives, les Arabes sont passés d’une situation de conscience identitaire éclatée et dormante au début du XIXe siècle à l’affirmation d’une identité nationale forte au milieu du XXe siècle, puis à un nouveau reflux qui entraîne une involution de la conscience collective sous le coup des défaites milita […].

Whither Political Islam?

Thinking of modern jihad as simply a cultural extension of Islam is a common, and unfortunate, mistake. Two new books by Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy offer better historical and sociological explanations, but they are only a start. The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West. By Gilles Kepel. Cambridge: Belknap, 2004, 336 pp. $23.95. Globalized Islam: […].

The Rise and Fall of Political Islam

Porsesh : What is your interpretation of concepts such as Islamic fundamentalism and political Islam ? What is the difference between the two ? Mansoor Hekmat : I do not use the expression Islamic fundamentalism because I believe it is a calculated Right wing interpretation, which deliberately presents a misleading image of contemporary Islam and Islamic […].

Intellectually Victorious, but Politically Defeated

A wave of hope carried the reformist Mohammed Khatami into the office of president. But since then resignation has spread among the Iranian people as well as among critical religious leaders. An inside report from Ghom by Navid Kermani Mohammed Mojtahed Shabestari is careful when he speaks or writes: although he knows precisely what the political implica […].