State and sufism in Iraq: building a "moderate Islam" under Saddam Husayn
Islam and the Decline of Sufism After the End of the Ottoman Empire -- The Rise of the Baʻth Party and its Early Nationalization of Islam -- Sufis Under the Early Baʻth : First Links to the Regime -- The Religious Propaganda of a Secular Regime -- The New Prominence of Sufi Scholars -- New Opportun...
| Résumé: | Islam and the Decline of Sufism After the End of the Ottoman Empire -- The Rise of the Baʻth Party and its Early Nationalization of Islam -- Sufis Under the Early Baʻth : First Links to the Regime -- The Religious Propaganda of a Secular Regime -- The New Prominence of Sufi Scholars -- New Opportunities for Sufi Orders -- Sufism to Counter Moral Decay and Wahhabism -- Sufi Ecumenism Against Sectarianism -- The Entanglement of Sufis with the State Elite -- Conclusion -- Afterword : The Naqshbandī Army and the Legacy of the Baʻth Regime's Sufi Revival After 2003 "State and Sufism in Iraq is the first comprehensive study of the Iraqi Baʻth regime's (r. 1968-2003) entanglement with Sufis and of Sunnī Sufi Islam in Iraq from the late Ottoman period until 2003 and beyond. For far too long, the secular and authoritarian Baʻth regime has been reduced to the dictator Saddam Husayn and portrayed as antireligious. Its growing political employment of Islam during the 1990s, in turn, has been interpreted either as an abstract Baʻthist-nationalist Islam or as an ideological U-turn from secularism to a form of Islamism that ultimately contributed to the spread of Islamist terrorism after 2003. Broadening the narrow focus on Saddam Husayn, this book analyses other leading regime figures, their close entanglement with Sufis, and Baʻth religious politics of a state-sponsored revival of Sufi Islam and Iraq's broad and distinct Sufi culture. It is the story of a secular regime's search for "moderate" Islam in order to overcome the challenges of radical Islamism and sectarianism in Iraq. The book's two-pronged interdisciplinary approach that deals equally with politics and Sufi Islam in Iraq makes it a valuable contribution to scholars and students in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Religious Anthropology and Sociology, Political Science, and International Relations"-- |
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| Description: | Includes bibliographical references and index |
| ISBN: | 1032118210 |
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.4324/9781003221661 |