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Articles on Political Islam

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Pakistani Islamists march to protest the Supreme Court lenient treatment of Asia Bibi, a Christian Pakistani woman accused of blasphemy, in Karachi, Feb. 1, 2019. ASIF HASSAN/AFP via Getty Images

Execution for a Facebook post? Why blasphemy is a capital offense in some Muslim countries

Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia all punish blasphemy harshly – even with death. Such laws have political as well as religious motives, says a scholar on Islamism: They’re a tool for crushing dissent.
Mohammed Morsi, a member of the controversial Islamist political organization the Muslim Brotherhood, was Egypt’s first democratically elected president. He was overthrown in a coup in 2013 and died on trial this June. Reuters/Amr Dalsh

How two Islamic groups fell from power to persecution: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey’s Gulenists

A few years ago, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey’s Gulenists were running the show. Now both religious movements face political repression. How did they fall so far, so fast?
Muslims attend a Defend Islam Action rally in Jakarta. The rallies show how political Islam utilises democracy to pursue a conservative religious agenda. Shutterstock

Political Islam navigates and changes Indonesia’s democratic landscape

Political Islam utilises Indonesia’s democracy to pursue its ideals, changing the democratic landscape. Attempts to exclude the movement from democracy are counterproductive. What to do?
The political crisis surrounding the 2012 ousting of Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed led to a return to authoritarian rule. Dying Regime/flickr

Does Islam have a problem with democracy? The case of the Maldives

Democracy did not fail in the Maldives because it clashed with Islam. Instead, a privileged and powerful elite helped topple the elected government, and nations that advocate democratic ideals did little to stop them.
This candlelit rally in Tunisia was one of the many condemnations from Muslim nations of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo. EPA/Mohamed Messara

All of Islam isn’t intolerant, nor did the West always accept blasphemy

The tradition of freedom of expression on religious matters is not quite so venerable as many seem to imagine in the outcry at the killing of Charlie Hebdo journalists and cartoonists in Paris. While modern…

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