The issue will examine the recent scholarship on Islamically-based political movements and parties since 2011 as well as the new trends of research on religious nationalism and governance, with a special attention to Asia and Africa.

Dear Colleagues,

Since the 2011 Arab uprisings, new questions on the role of political Islam have emerged. The access to power of Islamic political parties, with very contrasted results across countries, have led to reconsider some dominant approaches, like the paradigm of inclusion-moderation or social movement theories. Common conceptions of Islam and the nation-state as incompatible or in conflict have come under review with the rise of ISIS and its attempt to create a caliphate, the distinctions between religion and politics, national and international have been more than ever challenged. This situation has created two threads of scholarship. First political Islam in this case also called “Islamism” describes a vast array of religiously based political movements or parties that oppose “secular” state power. Hence the never ending debate: Is political Islam decipherable through the tenets of the Islamic tradition—or is it a tool of secular actors who shrewdly misuse religious references? Is it an expression of modernity, or a return to the past? The second approach that has gained traction in the last decade, goes beyond Islamism to look into state actions and national cultures in the politicization of Islam. It then intersects with a broader argument on the nature of secularism and the role of religion in political development.

This special issue aims at discussing these two trends of scholarship across different national and political situations with special attention to Asia and Africa. It will revisit existing knowledge and present new research on islamic parties, social movements and globalization of politicized narratives of Islam since 2011. It will also explore new perspectives on religious nationalism, Islamic governance, religious populism, international and regional disparities of Islamic mobilization.

Prof. Dr. Jocelyne Cesari
Guest Editor

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• Islamism
• Religious Nationalism
• Globalization
• state-Islam relations
• secularism