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In this book, Shaul Mishal and Ori Goldberg explore the ways in which Shiite leaderships in Iran and Lebanon approach themselves and their world. Contrary to the violent and radical image of religious leaderships in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Lebanese Hizballah, the political vision and practice of these leaderships view the world as a middle ground, shying away from absolutist and extremist tendencies. The political leadership assumed by Shiite religious scholars in Iran and Lebanon has transformed Shiite Islam from a marginalized minority to a highly politicized avant garde of Muslim presence, revitalized the practice and causes of political Islam in its struggle for legitimacy and authority, and reshaped the politics of the Middle East and the globe in its image. Utilizing approaches from social theory, history, theology, and literary criticism, the book presents these leaderships as pragmatic, interpretative entities with the potential to form fruitful relationships between Shiite leadership and the non-Shiite world.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Introduction; 1. Leadership as interpretation; 2. The quest for authority; 3. Void and spaces; 4. Khomeini's middle ground; 5. Forming the middle ground: intra-Shiite issues; 6. Seeking the middle ground: extra-Shiite issues; 7. The struggle for the middle ground: the 2009 presidential elections; 8. Middle ground as resistance: Lebanese Hizballah; 9. HB and the temperate city; Epilogue: Shiite leadership and the emergence of the middle ground regime.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Shaul Mishal is Associate Professor at Tel Aviv University and visiting professor at Yale University. He is the author of West Bank/East Bank: The Palestinian in Jordan, 1949-1967 and The PLO under Arafat: Between Gun and Olive Branch.
Zusammenfassung
Shaul Mishal and Ori Goldberg explore the ways in which Shiite leaderships in Iran and Lebanon approach themselves and their world. Utilizing approaches from social theory, history, theology, and literary criticism, the book presents these leaderships as pragmatic, interpretative entities with the potential to form fruitful relationships between Shiite leadership and the non-Shiite world.
Zusatztext
'This study is bound to give rise to the usual academic hullabaloo in light of its attempt to constructively assess what is at stake in our understanding of political radicalism and religious fundamentalism, the two easy labels of dismissing serious appreciation of the political consciousness at work in Iranian and other Shiite communities of the Middle East.' Abdulaziz Sachedina, IIIT Chair in Islamic Studies, George Mason University, Virginia
