Sectarianism without sects / Azmi Bishara.
"This book develops a theory of sectarianism and its relationship with communities of shared religion and with the emergence of imagined communities of this kind. Distinguishing between social sectarianism and political sectarianism, it discusses the relationship of political sectarianism to co...
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| Format: | Electronic |
| Language: | English Arabic |
| Published: |
London :
Hurst & Company,
2021.
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| Online Access: | Click for online access |
| Uniform Title: | Ṭāʼifah, al-ṭāʼifīyah, al-ṭawāʼif al-mutakhayyalah. |
| Summary: | "This book develops a theory of sectarianism and its relationship with communities of shared religion and with the emergence of imagined communities of this kind. Distinguishing between social sectarianism and political sectarianism, it discusses the relationship of political sectarianism to communities of religion as pre-existing social-historical entities. The main concern of the study, however, is to investigate how modern sectarianism invents imagined religious communities, or ta'ifas in Arabic. It does this by exploring sectarianism in various Arab countries. The book puts forward five theses. First, political sectarianism is a modern phenomenon. Second, an 'imagined community of religion' is a modern social imaginary based on the sectarian conceptualization of a religious or confessional affiliation as an identity shared by people who have never formed a community in practice within a vast imagined community, built on a selective reading of history and legend. Third, religious communities do not produce sectarianism, but sectarianism reproduces these communities as imagined communities. Fourth, power in modern authoritarian regimes is not attained by sectarian (Khaldunian) 'asabiyya (group solidarity), but rather an authoritarian regime might use primordial ties to ensure loyalty and thereby produce sectarianism. Fifth, unlike a traditional community, an imagined community is not an ethical community"--Publisher's description. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xiv, 421 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780197610886 0197610889 |
| Language: | In English, translated from Arabic. |