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Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ARA2028: Islamist Movements: From the Muslim Brothers to the Islamic State

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims at presenting the major movements affiliated with both Shiite and Sunnite political Islam in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. By familiarising you with the history, beliefs and practices of Islamist movements, it seeks to help you understand their action rationale and interactions, adopting a cross-regional comparative analysis.

You will also learn to engage critically with the historiographic debates surrounding the interpretations of the causes and the political consequences of the rise of Islamist movements in the Muslim-majority states – with a particular focus on the period ushered by the Arab uprisings.

Finally the module aims at having you reflect on the role of Islamist movements in the political dynamics of the Middle East, such as revolutions, civil wars, armed insurgencies, democratic transitions and civil resistance to authoritarianism.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction to the Study of Islamist Movements: Historical and theoretical background
• The Birth of Modern Islamism
• The Muslim Brotherhood: from Egypt to the rest of the world
• Saudi Arabia and the export of Salafism
• Al Qaeda and the rise of global jihadism
• Shiite political Islam
• The post-Islamism debate
• Islamists in the Arab Spring
• Jihadism Reloaded: The Islamic State
• Secular Islamism? The Case of Turkey
• Islamism and Feminism

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

You are encouraged to look at:

The International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, MERIP (Middle East Research and Information project), POMEPS (Project on Middle East Political Science), as well as Jadaliyya website, Brookings and Carnegie Papers

Other Learning Resources

Abu Rabi’, Ibrahim (ed.). The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam, London: Pluto Press, 2010.

Bayat, Asef Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn, Stanford University Press, 2007.

Bayat Asef (ed.) Post-Islamism: the Changing Face of political Islam, Oxford University Press 2013.

Beinin, Joel and Joe Stork (eds.) Political Islam: Essays from Middle East Report, University of California Press, 1996.

Brenner, Bjorn, Gaza under Hamas: from Islamic democracy to Islamist Governance, London: IB Tauris, 2016.

Bonney, Richard Jihad: From Qu'ran to Bin Laden, Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan.=, 2004.

Brown, Nathan J. When Victory Is Not An Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2012.

Byman, Daniel Al-Qaeda, The Islamic State and the Global Jihadist Movements, Oxford: Oxford University Press in 2015. 

Devji, Faisal The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam andGlobal Politics Columbia University Press, 2008.

Freer, Courtney, Rentier Islamism: The Role of Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Filiu, Jean-Pierre From Deep State to Islamic State: The Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Legacy, Oxford University Press, 2015.

Gerges, Fawaz, ISIS: A History, Princeton University Press, 2012.

Gerges, Fawaz, The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda, Oxford University Press, 2011.

Gleis, Joshua and Benedetta Berti Hezbollah and Hamas: A Comparative Study, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012

Hroub. Khaled, Hamas : A Beginner’s Guide, London: Pluto Press, 2006.

Lacroix, Stéphane, Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia, Harvard University Press, 2011.

Lia, Brynjar, Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of al-Qaida strategist Abu Mus‘al-Suri.  London: Hurst, 2007.

Lister, Charles, The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency, London: Hurst, 2015.

Louër, Laurence Transnational Shia Politics: Religious and Political Networks in the Gulf, Hurst, 2008.

Mamdani, Mahmood, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, Doubleday 2004.

McCants, Will, The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State, Saint Martin’s Press, 2015.

Meijer, Roel Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement, Columbia University Press, 2009.

Norton, Augustus Richard, Hezbollah: A Short History, Princeton University Press. 2007

Roy, Olivier, Globalizing Islam, Columbia University Press, 2004.

Volpi, Frédéric, Political Islam Observed, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

Wiktorowicz, Quintan, Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach, Indiana University Press, 2003.

Wolf, Anne Political Islam in Tunisia: the History of Ennahda, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Latest publications on the topic:

Brooke, Steven Winning Hearts and Votes: Social Services and the Islamist Political Advantage, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2019.

Buehler, Matt, Why Alliances Fail: Islamist and Leftist Coalitions in North Africa, Syracuse University Press, 2019.

For original texts of Islamist thinkers:

Euben Roxanna L and Muhammad Qasim Zaman Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden Princeton: University Press 2009.

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Re-assessment notes

In case a student misses most of the seminars and is unable to present, they will be able to send the material they would have used in the class setting for the seminar teacher to evaluate.

Indicative Reading List

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