Islamist Movements in the Middle East

Dear Colleagues,

In virtually every country of the Middle East, Islamist movements have long been central to political and social development. Their critical—and highly contested—role came into sharp focus during and in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings, which shook the established political order in the region to its foundations. Despite the major authoritarian rollback and counterrevolutionary wave sweeping the region in recent years, the uprisings produced seismic shifts in perceived power relations and uprooted myths of stability. The legacies and repercussions of the Arab Spring are still unfolding, confronting the region’s Islamists not only with extreme repression but also with new opportunities. As a result, one has witnessed both fragmentation and pluralisation of Islamist movements, and a repositioning of individual movements.

In this Special Issue, we invite contributions that will improve our understanding of these developments by investigating Islamist movements in the Middle East along two main axes:
- synchronically, across countries and the various categories of movements, with a focus on developments since 2011;
- diachronically, through historical case studies, revisiting key issues in the earlier history of Islamism which are pivotal to our understanding of these movements.

Thematically, along both these axes, authors are encouraged to focus on one of two central topics:
1. How have Islamist movements over time and across national, sectarian and intra-Islamist ideological boundaries dealt with the question of democracy and power sharing? How have they envisaged the ideal form of political rule? How do they view the relationship between Sharia as God-given law and the legislative power of elected parliaments? What are their views on equal rights for women and for religious minorities?
2. How have the same movements understood the question of under which circumstances it is legitimate to apply violent actions for political purposes? How have they related to militant or “jihadi” Islamist movements over the past few decades, and to what degree has the proliferation of jihadism influenced contemporary mainstream Islamist movements?

The editors invite empirically informed case studies from the Middle East and North Africa, especially studies based on new or understudied primary sources.

Prof. Dr. Bjørn Olav Utvik
Prof. Dr. Brynjar Lia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.