Caliphates and Islamic Global Politics

Abstract

The events of the 2011 Arab Spring saw renewed hope for Arab Civil Society, at least in the eyes of Middle East observers. However, with the cases of Libya and Syria descending into civil war and chaos, and the Egyptian military still holding the country in a tight grip, the success of Civil Society at creating a space for itself is questionable. While the fall of seemingly immovable authoritarian regimes did not seem to profit much to Civil Society, Political Islamic movements took advantage of the vacuum to establish their bases and launch operations to implement their ideology. Two to three years after the first Uprisings, Islamist groups are making a strong comeback in certain middle east/north African countries. In Syria, Iraq, towns in Libya, and a town in Lebanon, groups like the Islamic State or Ansar al-Sharia are declaring caliphates in the territories they seize, in an attempt to fulfil the Political Islam ideal of a ‘global Islamic caliphate’ encompassing the entirety of the Muslim world. This edited collection aims to address common questions about Political Islam, as well as to provide an assessment of ISIS and finally challenge common understandings on the issue of Islam and democracy.

Keywords: Islamic Political Thought, Non-Western Political Thought, Islam, Islamic State, Caliphate