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Abstract
This article focuses on the protection of moral rights in Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, and the UAE. While moral rights are recognised in the four jurisdictions subject to this study, the level of protection is unsatisfactory. This article analyses the many defects surrounding the subsistence and exercise of moral rights and makes a host of suggestions to enhance the level of protection granted under national laws.
Abstract
The Middle East faces ongoing challenges in democratization and in corruption. This article examines the influence of wasta – a Middle Eastern form of clientelism – on citizens’ political attitudes. Although wasta is situated between citizen services and corruption, many citizens view wasta as corrupt. Using Arab Barometer survey data, this article shows that the widespread use of wasta in the Middle East makes citizens less satisfied with their current largely non-democratic governments. Wasta also increases their interest in democracy as an egalitarian alternative regime structure. Wasta users, however, are protective of the personal advantages that wasta networks afford them. Widespread wasta thus represents a challenge to democratization.
Abstract
Despite a growing reliance on quantitative methods in the study of mena politics globally, political scientists from the region have broadly resisted such trends. While mena scholars should not be beholden to methodological trends in other regions, there is a need to provide students with an interest in quantitative methods opportunities to receive such training in Arabic. The Summer School for Quantitative Methods was a virtual five-day program offered by the Arab Political Science Network (apsn) and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies from May 29 to June 2, 2022. The primary aim of ssqm was to address the gap noted above and introduce political science graduate students from the Arabic-speaking world to quantitative empirical analysis. The program accomplished its immediate goals, and the application process showed a significant demand for training in quantitative methods in the region, yet future projects should take into consideration the considerable challenges we faced.
Abstract
This article puts forth the justification for examining multiparty coalitions governments in the Arab world. Although mostly associated with governance in fully-fledged democracies, the Arab world is no stranger to multiparty coalitions and coalition governance. In its modern history, the region can boast, in fact, a surprisingly large and diverse number of such coalitions. Analysing them in detail employing the theories and concepts of broader comparative politics provides findings that can be compared to what we already know about coalition governments and contribute to render the region less ‘exceptional’.
Abstract
This article investigates a specific type of cabinet government in the Arab Middle East and North Africa (mena): the multiparty coalition. Although mostly associated with parliamentary democratic systems, coalition governments are not uncommon in the region, comprising in fact since 1990 a sizeable proportion of the cabinets formed post-election. Drawing on novel data collated by the authors, this article offers new macro-level comparative insights into some of the key parameters of coalition governance, including their formation, composition, and durability. In doing so, the article seeks not only to document and analyse the spectrum of multiparty governance in the Arab mena but advance the development of a research agenda on the subject that, whilst sensitive to local context, engages critically with, and feeds into, the broader coalitions literature.
Abstract
This article analyses the dynamics of post-election elite bargaining and coalition formation in the cases of Iraq and Morocco, demonstrating that, despite widely differing contexts, the outcome is often far removed from the election results. Recent works on political parties in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have alluded to this state of affairs, but, so far, the scholarship is missing in-depth comparative studies of the intricate dynamics of elite bargaining and coalition formation. Beyond not necessarily connecting to the election results, but rather being rooted in competition over access to patronage resources and power, our comparison demonstrates the negative impact that this state of affairs has on the government’s ability to govern.
Contributors
Amir Abbas Alizamani, Beate Anam, Hamed Arezaei, Asma Asadi, Pieter Coppens, Hans Daiber, Khalid Elzamzamy, Mohammed Ghaly, Hadil Lababidi, Shahaboddin Mahdavi, Aasim Padela, Rafaqat Rashid and Ayman Shabana.
المساهمون
حامد آرضائي، وأسماء أسدي، وبياته أنعم، وعاصم پادلا، وهانس دايبر، ورفقات رشيد، وخالد الزمزمي، وأمير عباس علي زماني، وأيمن شبانة، ومحمد غالي، وپيتر كوپنس، وهديل لبابيدي، وشهاب الدين مهدوي.
Contributors
Amir Abbas Alizamani, Beate Anam, Hamed Arezaei, Asma Asadi, Pieter Coppens, Hans Daiber, Khalid Elzamzamy, Mohammed Ghaly, Hadil Lababidi, Shahaboddin Mahdavi, Aasim Padela, Rafaqat Rashid and Ayman Shabana.
المساهمون
حامد آرضائي، وأسماء أسدي، وبياته أنعم، وعاصم پادلا، وهانس دايبر، ورفقات رشيد، وخالد الزمزمي، وأمير عباس علي زماني، وأيمن شبانة، ومحمد غالي، وپيتر كوپنس، وهديل لبابيدي، وشهاب الدين مهدوي.
Contributors
Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir, Nuha Alshaar, Safwan Amir, Khairil Husaini Bin Jamil, Pieter Coppens, Chafik Graiguer, M. Imran Khan, Mutaz al-Khatib, Salahudheen Kozhithodi and Ali Altaf Mian.
المساهمون
شفيق اكّريكّر، وصفوان أمير، وخَيرئيل حسيني بن جميل، ومحمد عمران خان، ومعتز الخطيب، ونهى الشعار، وفقيه الدين عبد القدير، وپيتر كوپنس، وصلاح الدين كوزيتودي، وعلي ألطاف ميان.
Contributors
Faqihuddin Abdul Kodir, Nuha Alshaar, Safwan Amir, Khairil Husaini Bin Jamil, Pieter Coppens, Chafik Graiguer, M. Imran Khan, Mutaz al-Khatib, Salahudheen Kozhithodi and Ali Altaf Mian.
المساهمون
شفيق اكّريكّر، وصفوان أمير، وخَيرئيل حسيني بن جميل، ومحمد عمران خان، ومعتز الخطيب، ونهى الشعار، وفقيه الدين عبد القدير، وپيتر كوپنس، وصلاح الدين كوزيتودي، وعلي ألطاف ميان.
Abstract
This chapter aims to tackle the question of how the ḥadīth can been reinterpreted for egalitarian gender ethics, through an analysis of the methodological approach of ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Muḥammad Abū Shuqqa (d. 1995) in his work Taḥrīr al-Marʾa fī ʿAṣr al-Risāla: Dirāsa ʿan al-Marʾa Jāmiʿa li-Nuṣūṣ al-Qurʾān wa-Ṣaḥīḥay al-Bukhārī wa-Muslim (“The Liberation of Women at the Time of the Message: A Study on Women Composed of Qurʾānic Texts, and the Ṣaḥīḥs of al-Bukhārī and Muslim,” 1990). I argue that his work can be regarded as a genre of “conflicting ḥadīths” (mukhtalif al-ḥadīth) in the sciences of ḥadīth (ʿulūm al-ḥadīth) since it prefers to circumvent the seemingly harsh element of literal meanings of some ḥadīth and attempts to present an ethical message to draw a conclusion in a women-friendly interpretation. Overall, the methodological approach of Abū Shuqqa revolves around five approaches: (1) an inclusive definition of the ḥadīth for female Companions’ experiences; (2) the pairing of the ḥadīth with the Qurʾān; (3) a reorganisation of themes of the ḥadīth (tarājim al-abwāb); (4) establishing a hermeneutics of equality (musāwāt); and (5) reinterpreting problematic ḥadīth (taʾwīl mushkil al-ḥadīth). Thus, Abū Shuqqa’s approach may answer ethical questions regarding egalitarian gender relations in contemporary reinterpretation of the ḥadīth, as his work suggests that to argue for a ḥadīth-based mutual and reciprocal relationship between women and men is possible.
Abstract
In this chapter, I explore the authority of the heart (qalb) as a potential locus for individual moral knowledge and normativity in Islamic ethics. To do so, I discuss two ḥadīths that ostensibly suggest one’s “self” as a source of moral judgment. These ḥadīths raise renewed questions about the sources of moral judgment, the nature of moral judgment, and the ethical capacity of the “self” (conscience) – “consult your heart and consult your self …”; “righteousness is good conduct, and sin is that which rankles in your chest and which you would hate for other people to look upon.” There are rich debates in the Islamic tradition on the place and authority of the bāṭin (inward) in generating moral knowledge, which correspond to contemporary discourses in Western ethics on the conscience’s place in the moral formation of the individual. I argue that although the Islamic legal tradition as a discipline has focused on qualified external actions of individuals and the ijtihād (independent legal reasoning) of mujtahids (jurists), it did not ignore the authority of the bāṭin for moral assessment and the ijtihād of common individuals. I propose that the inward dimension has always occupied an important space within the interdisciplinary field of Islamic ethics, but has been overshadowed by the overarching theological disputes between the Muʿtazilīs and Ashʿarīs over sources of knowledge.
The chapter starts by exploring the relevant aḥādīth (reports) and their interpretation in ḥadīth commentaries, followed by an analysis of discussions in the fields of Islamic jurisprudence and Sufism.