CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Yousefian Jazi, Navid |
|---|---|
| Title | Islamic Identities as Positioned Power Relations: The Case of Turkey and Iran |
| Summary | Islamism and fundamentalism have been falsely taken to be the same, distorting our perception of Muslim identities. However, the new forms of being Muslim are highly adapted to the prerequisites of the modern life. Islamism takes different shapes and is highly embedded in the sociopolitical context and power relations within societies. This research’s main question is ‘what is it to be politically Muslim?’ Although it seeks to present a typology of Muslim identities ranging from Islamists to non-believer seculars, it finds the literature of identity politics reductionist in order to give a comprehensive picture of diverse narratives of being Muslim. The logic of identity politics asks us to disregard the multi-dimensional character of religious and political identities and instead assume that Muslims are only differentiated based on their belief in the broad and vague concept of the Islamic state. This research is a comparative study of political Muslims in Turkey and Iran, comprising fourteen in-depth interviews whose findings depict the impossibility of categorizing Muslims in existing identity groups. The ethnographical approach of this research, followed by a thematic analysis of the narratives, results in an interpretative understanding of the actual beliefs, values, and performances in the Muslim world. In line with Talal Asad’s conception of religion, the research claims that the construction of different Muslim identities dynamically occurs through the cultural hegemonies, dominating discourses, and power struggles within the society, rather than by theological discourses representing different interpretations of Islam. Therefore, Muslim identities are the points of reference for positioned power relations, which get heterogeneous shapes based on different social and political contexts. |
| Supervisor | Matteo Fumagalli |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/jazi_navid.pdf |
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