Articles by Muhammad Amasha
Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies, 2023
Most academic accounts of the Arab Spring (ca. 2011–2013) politics of the 'ulamā' (Muslim religio... more Most academic accounts of the Arab Spring (ca. 2011–2013) politics of the 'ulamā' (Muslim religious scholars) explain their political stances in terms of the political ideals purportedly held by individual scholars. This article challenges this scholarly consensus through a detailed examination of the Arab Spring politics of three influential Egyptian 'ulamā'. Specifically, it demonstrates that Yusuf al-Qaraḍāwī (1926–2022), Aḥmad al-Ṭayyib (b. 1946), and 'Alī Gomaa's (b. 1952) political stances do not consistently follow any single political ideal attributed to them. Contrary to the literature, I show that al-Qaraḍāwī and al-Ṭayyib, despite their disagreements on the political situation in Egypt, took similar stances on all uprisings after the Egyptian uprising, including support for the Syrian, Libyan, and Yemeni uprisings, and their opposition to similar developments in Bahrain. I argue that their divergence regarding Egypt and their supposed inconsistency on Bahrain is primarily a result of their assessments of contemporaneous political situations and their contingent moral dilemmas. These two cases highlight an important aspect of the Islamic legal tradition that is influential in political moral deliberation: the legal maxims on balancing harms and benefits. To apply these legal maxims in concrete situations, contemporary 'ulamā' often rely on the concept of fiqh al-wāqiʿ (Islamic jurisprudence of reality), according to which contextual sociopolitical knowledge is considered as important as textual religious knowledge. Fiqh al-wāqiʿ however remains critically underdetermined, and, as this article argues, offers meager methodological tools for empirical understanding.
American Journal of Islam and Society, 2023
The academic literature equates the Arab Spring politics of Egypt’s two highest official religiou... more The academic literature equates the Arab Spring politics of Egypt’s two highest official religious figures – the Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib and Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa—as “anti-revolutionary.” This article argues that al-Tayyib and Gomaa’s politics are fundamentally different. While Gomaa’s politics are submissive to the state, al-Tayyib’s politics are a negotation without confrontation. I explain the former by Gomaa’s struggle for religious authority either by seeking official positions or obstructing the revealing of information harmful to his religious legitimacy. The statist legitimacy threat against Gomaa is central to understanding his politics. Defending al-Azhar, on the other hand, is what explains al-Tayyib’s fluctuating politics. Theoretically, I advocate that explaining intellectuals’ politics requires focusing on their political deliberation. Only with a methodologically rigorous reconstruction of the intellectuals’ political deliberation and its context, can we decide the relative relevance of factors like ideals, interests, and structures (e.g., the state). I establish this with more than a thousand chronologically ordered primary sources and twenty interviews with people in Gomaa and al-Tayyib’s circles.
Report by Muhammad Amasha
Stimulus Groups, 2024
مثلت النكسة عام ١٩٦٧ نقطة تحول في المشهد الثقافي العربي عامة، والمصري خاصة. إذ مثلت الهزيمة وما ت... more مثلت النكسة عام ١٩٦٧ نقطة تحول في المشهد الثقافي العربي عامة، والمصري خاصة. إذ مثلت الهزيمة وما تبعها من تغيرات سياسية مع السادات ضربة قاصمة للمشروع الناصري وأحدثت حالة جديدة من التساؤل العميق حول جذور الأزمة في بلادنا. صاحب هذا صعود المشروع الإسلامي مع جيل الصحوة بتنوعاته ليقدم إجابات ويملأ الفراغ، وظل صاعدًا حتى تقلد بعض ممثليه سدة الحكم مع محاولة الانتقال الديموقراطي التي صاحبت ثورة يناير ٢٠١١. لكن الثورة أيضًا فتحت الباب على مصراعيه لمساءلة أجوبة الحركات الإسلامية وتقديم أجوبة أخرى. لكن هذا الانفتاح السياسي والثقافي في المجال العام لم يستمر طويلًا مع انقلاب يوليو ٢٠١٣ وما صاحبه من تضييق على الحقوق والحريات، وستكون الحالة الدينية في مصر إحدى الجبهات التي يسعى للسيطرة عليها باعتبارها مساحة حَوَت عددًا كبيرًا من مناهضيه. لكن الحالة الدينية الإسلامية في مصر مكونة من خطابات وتفسيرات ومجموعات متنوعة اقتربت من الثورة والانقلاب بأشكال مختلفة وذهبت بها رياح السنين إلى اتجاهات عديدة. ولذا تحاول هذه المقالة أن تقدم مسحًا عامًا لخرائط الفاعلية الإسلامية الشابة منذ الربيع العربي.
Al Sharq Strategic Research, 2020
Jadaliyya, 2020
In the early stages of the Arab uprisings, one of the questions frequently posed in the analysis ... more In the early stages of the Arab uprisings, one of the questions frequently posed in the analysis of the mass mobilizations revolved around the role that Islamists would play in post-authoritarian transitions. To that end, when the Critical Currents in Islam page launched in 2013, it featured a roundtable exploring Islamism as a political force that presented a popular challenge to authoritarian rule. As events unfolded and gains of revolutionary movements were rolled back, however, the conversation shifted to the fallout from a resurgent authoritarian wave and its impact on forces of political Islam moving forward. In the interim, a phenomenon that came to demand more attention from observers was the construction of theological arguments and the enlisting of Islamic institutions in support of the authoritarian resurgence. This roundtable facilitates critical discussion on the state of this question ten years after the Arab uprisings.
الشرق للأبحاث الاستراتيجية, 2020
المحتوى ٣ المقدمة ٤ الجزائر في اإلسالمي السياسي المشهد تطور ٩ اإلسالمية السياس... more المحتوى ٣ المقدمة ٤ الجزائر في اإلسالمي السياسي المشهد تطور ٩ اإلسالمية السياسية الساحة على االنقسامات ١١ المئوية) (بالنسبة اإلسالمية لألحزاب االنتخابية النتائج ١٣ الجزائر في اإلسالمية األحزاب خريطة ١٣ الجزائر ربيع أجل من النضال : الشعبي الحراك ١٥ االنتفاضة خالل اإلسالمية األحزاب ١٥ االنتفاضة خالل اإلسالمية لألحزاب السياسي الموقف ١٨ الخاتمة ٢٠ الختامية التعليقات ٢٤ ن ْ ي َ الكاتب عن ٢٤ االستراتيجية لألبحاث الشرق عن الشرق منتدى موقع عن االنجليزية اللغة من مترجم الموضوع هذا
The Maydan, 2020
“It is an irony that the UAE is sponsoring two Muslim discourses that reside on the opposite end ... more “It is an irony that the UAE is sponsoring two Muslim discourses that reside on the opposite end of the axis of tradition: (neo-)traditionalism and anti-traditionalism (progressivism). The efforts of each are actually meant to negate the religious authority of the other … But what unites both discourses is their enmity to the activist Muslim discourses which the UAE severely antagonizes.“
Al Sharq Strategic Research, 2020
This paper focuses on the position of Islamist political parties participating in
the constitutio... more This paper focuses on the position of Islamist political parties participating in
the constitutional political process vis-à-vis the Hirak movement. It analyzes
the positions, actions, and discourses of Islamist political parties with respect
to Hirak. To do so, the paper first provides a brief historical context to explain
the Algerian Islamist movements and parties emergence, organization and
evolution, which focuses on the switch to multiparty politics, its subsequent
breakdown and the ensuing civil war and Bouteflika’s rule. Against this
backdrop, the paper then discusses the main questions and issues faced by
Islamist political parties with respect to the Hirak movement.
هذه الدراسة تزعم أن ما يحكم علاقة الإمارات (و سلطة الانقلاب في مصر) بالخطابات الدينية هي علاقة مص... more هذه الدراسة تزعم أن ما يحكم علاقة الإمارات (و سلطة الانقلاب في مصر) بالخطابات الدينية هي علاقة مصلحية يحافظ بها النظام السياسي على بقائه و تعظيم منافعه و تقليل خسائره؛ و على هذا الأساس تتأسس علاقته بالصوفيين. ندّعي أيضًا أن هناك صوفيتان في مصر: صوفية أسميناها الإماراتية، و أخرى طُرُقِيَّة تقليدية (و كلاهما مرتبط ارتباطًا عضويًّا بالأزهر و قياداته)؛ و أن الإمارات و نظام الانقلاب يدعمانهما لمواجهة تهديد سياسي من خطاب سياسي ديني (متمثل في الإسلام السياسي في الأساس)، حتى يصل الدعم إلى تمكين هذا الخطاب الصوفي (خاصة الصوفية الإماراتية) ليكون الخطاب الرسمي في مصر، بل و في العالم السني. في المقابل، فإن الصوفية تلعب دورًا وظيفيًّا مهمًا لتثبيت أركان هذا النظام السياسي و ضمان بقائه عن طريق شرعنته، و تحريم الخروج عليه، و الحفاظ على الوضع القائم تحت دعاوى الاستقرار. فهي علاقة تبادل تنتفع فيها الصوفية في نشر أفكارها، و تنتفع بها الدول في تثبيت أركان حكمها.
Book Reviews by Muhammad Amasha
American Journal of Islam and Society, 2023
David H. Warren enriches the rising literature on ʿulamaʾ and the “Arab Spring” with his first bo... more David H. Warren enriches the rising literature on ʿulamaʾ and the “Arab Spring” with his first book, which provides an overview of the history of Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Abdullah Bin Bayyah’s relations with Qatar and the UAE, respectively; both ʿulamaʾ and states’ engagement with the “Arab Spring”; and the political thought of both ʿulamaʾ and its connection to both states’ foreign policy. After describing the book’s structure here, I discuss the book’s methods and core arguments. I then engage methodologically with some of its arguments and conclude with why this book is a good model for scholarship on the ʿulamaʾ.
American Journal of Islam and Society, 2021
The academic literature on the ulama and the Arab uprisings has been strangely silent about al-Az... more The academic literature on the ulama and the Arab uprisings has been strangely silent about al-Azhar and its shaykh Dr. Ahmad al-Tayyeb, with very few exceptions. Though largely neglected (mostly because it is written in Arabic), Saṭwat al-Naṣ: Khiṭāb al-Azhar wa Azmat al-Ḥukm (The Power of the Text: Al-Azhar’s Discourse and the Rule Crisis) provides a valuable contribution to the literature in that regard, on the level of data, methods, and analysis.
Op-ed by Muhammad Amasha
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Articles by Muhammad Amasha
Report by Muhammad Amasha
the constitutional political process vis-à-vis the Hirak movement. It analyzes
the positions, actions, and discourses of Islamist political parties with respect
to Hirak. To do so, the paper first provides a brief historical context to explain
the Algerian Islamist movements and parties emergence, organization and
evolution, which focuses on the switch to multiparty politics, its subsequent
breakdown and the ensuing civil war and Bouteflika’s rule. Against this
backdrop, the paper then discusses the main questions and issues faced by
Islamist political parties with respect to the Hirak movement.
Book Reviews by Muhammad Amasha
Op-ed by Muhammad Amasha
the constitutional political process vis-à-vis the Hirak movement. It analyzes
the positions, actions, and discourses of Islamist political parties with respect
to Hirak. To do so, the paper first provides a brief historical context to explain
the Algerian Islamist movements and parties emergence, organization and
evolution, which focuses on the switch to multiparty politics, its subsequent
breakdown and the ensuing civil war and Bouteflika’s rule. Against this
backdrop, the paper then discusses the main questions and issues faced by
Islamist political parties with respect to the Hirak movement.