Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf (Columbia/Hurst) - Hardcover

Louër, Laurence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231700407 ISBN 13: 9780231700405

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Laurence Louër, author of the critically acclaimed To Be an Arab in Israel, brings her extensive knowledge of the Middle East to an analysis of the historical origins and present situation of militant Shia transnational networks. She focuses on three key countries in the gulf: Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, whose Shia Islamic groups are the offspring of various Iraqi movements that have surfaced over recent decades. Louër explains how these groups first penetrated local societies by espousing the networks of Shiite clergymen. She then describes the role of factional quarrels and the Iranian revolution of 1979 in defining the present landscape of Shiite Islamic activism in the Gulf monarchies.

The reshaping of geopolitics after the Gulf War and the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 had a profound impact on transnational Shiite networks. New political opportunities encouraged these groups to concentrate on national issues, such as becoming fierce opponents of the Saudi monarchy. Yet the question still remains: How deeply have these new beliefs taken root in Islamic society? Are Shiites Saudi or Bahraini patriots?

Louër's book also considers the transformation of Shia movements in relation to central religious authority. While they strive to formulate independent political agendas, Shia networks remain linked to religious authorities ( marja') who reside either in Iraq or Iran. This connection becomes all the more problematic should the marja' also be the head of a state, as with Iran's Ali Khamenei. In conclusion, Louër argues that the Shia will one day achieve political autonomy, especially as the marja', in order to retain transnational religious authority, begin to meddle less and less in the political affairs of other countries.

About this title

About the Author:

An Arabist who specializes in Middle East studies, Laurence Louër is a researcher at the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI) in Paris and the author of To Be an Arab in Israel.

Review:

Laurence Louër looks at the increasing visibility of Shiism beyond the stereotyped narratives of sectarian conflict, minority identity, and Iranian policy that are generally invoked to describe the character of Arab Shiism. She gives us a fascinating account of the related yet different historical processes that define Shiite politics and identity in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. From the economic and educational opportunities that ARAMCO offered its Shiite workers in Saudi Arabia to the nativist politics of Bahrain's majority; and from the merchant-led mobilization of Kuwaiti Shiism to the clerical origins of sectarian politics in Iraq, we are offered an incredibly detailed and refreshingly original narrative of Shiite activism in the region.

(Faisal Devji, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, author of The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics)

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0231700407
• ISBN 13: 9780231700405
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256