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17 pages, 318 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Long Arm of the State: Transnational Repression against Exiled Activists from the Arab Gulf States

by Noor J. E. Abushammalah

Soc. Sci. 2023, 12(12), 669; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120669 - 4 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3589

The Arab Spring was a period of intense activism demanding democracy and freedom that swept across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. While previous research has focused on the role of diaspora communities in the uprisings and the strategies employed by regimes to suppress them, it has primarily centered on countries that experienced large-scale revolutions and endured severe consequences. Consequently, the current literature has failed to explore the situation of Arab Gulf dissidents living in exile, instead focusing on a few isolated incidents. This paper examines the transnational repression (TR) campaign of the Arab Gulf states (AGSs). Drawing on the literature about the long arm of authoritarianism and TR, this paper explores the various TR methods employed by the AGSs to silence activists living abroad. The paper finds that the nature of TR in the Arab Gulf region is unique when compared with other MENA countries. The TR campaign of AGSs is alarmingly expanding, using various mechanisms and resources, making the region one of the world’s leading perpetrators. The methods employed by the AGSs include travel bans as part of their coercion by proxy, digital transnational repression, and the use of multilateral organizations as tools of repression. Additionally, this paper highlights the AGSs’ support of other countries’ TR. Full article

24 pages, 344 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Counter Corporate Litigation: Remedy, Regulation, and Repression in the Struggle for a Just Transition

by Mark B. Taylor

Sustainability 2021, 13(19), 10742; https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910742 - 27 Sep 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4695

Abstract

Hundreds of human rights and environmental cases against corporations have been launched in countries around the world in the past two decades. This body of counter corporate litigation—legal actions that involve attempts to enforce legal or normative standards against business entities—forms a significant part of the legal struggles shaping the transition to a sustainable economy. However, the question remains—how does litigation against companies fit with the larger patterns of reform? In this paper, I draw on a taxonomy of sustainability litigation to describe three functions of counter corporate litigation: remedy, the search for justice through legal action; regulation, the enforcement of legal standards through the courts; and repression, the proscription of predatory business models. I argue that research into counter corporate litigation helps to illuminate the priorities for legal reform, including the integration of human rights and the environment into legal instruments governing corporate activities, transnational approaches to corporate accountability, and a willingness to challenge unsustainable business models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Business, Human Rights and the Environment)

22 pages, 368 KiB

Open AccessArticle

NGOization of Islamic Education: The Post-Coup Turkish State and Sufi Orders in Africa South of the Sahara

by Ezgi Guner

Religions 2021, 12(1), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12010024 - 30 Dec 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6039

Abstract

This article analyzes the recently formed transnational networks of Islamic education between Turkey and Africa south of the Sahara through the study of the neglected case of Erenköy Cemaati. The expansion of the schools affiliated with Erenköy Cemaati cannot be divorced from Turkey’s Africa strategy and the growing importance of education within it since the late 2000s. Although Sufi orders and state institutions historically represent two divergent and conflicting streams of Islamic education in Turkey, the analysis of Erenköy Cemaati’s schools in Africa south of the Sahara reveal their rapprochement in novel ways. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey, Tanzania, and Senegal, this article shows that the complex relations between the Turkish state and Sufi orders in the field of education in Africa are facilitated by a constellation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Situating ethnographic data in historical context, it argues that the Islamic schools of Erenköy Cemaati are produced by the overlapping processes of the NGOization of Sufi orders in response to earlier state repression in Turkey and the NGOization of education in the wake of the neoliberal restructuring in Africa. While contributing to our understanding of post-coup Turkey and its evolving relations with Africa south of the Sahara, this article provides at the same time a new window into the NGOization of Islamic education on the continent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Africa, Globalization and the Muslim Worlds)

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