Navigating the Islamist Landscape

Research output

Complete citation

Poljarević, Emin. “Navigating the Islamist Landscape.” In Handbook of Civil Society in the Middle East and North Africa, edited by James N. Sater. Routledge, 2025. https://doi.org/10.4324/b23025-19.

Overview

This chapter maps the diversity of Islamist actors and examines reformist Islamism as a middle-ground political culture shaped by both civility and resistance. Rather than treating Islamism as a single ideology, it differentiates movements by their understandings of authority, social reform, public participation, and relations with state power. Particular attention is given to how reformist actors navigate repression, institutional politics, ethical commitments, and the demands of civil society. The analysis connects earlier research on Islamist mobilisation with later work on citizenship and political theology. Its main contribution is to clarify the Islamist landscape without collapsing its internal distinctions, showing how religious vocabularies can support disciplined civic engagement while also generating contested projects of political and moral transformation.

Research question or central concern

How can the diversity of Islamist movements be analysed without reducing them to either democratic moderation or anti-system opposition?

Main argument, approach, and contribution

The chapter uses comparative conceptual mapping to interpret reformist Islamism as a culture of civility and resistance. It argues that Islamist projects must be distinguished by their ethical vocabularies, institutional strategies, and relations to authority.

Keywords

Islamism; civil society; reformism; civility; resistance; Middle East and North Africa; political mobilisation

Links

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