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Panel 5/9: General/Case Studies between IR & Islam: Foreign Policies and Dynamics of the Arab Spring Effect(s)

8th Pan – European Conference on International Relations
Theme: One International Relations or Many? Multiple Worlds, Multiple Crises
Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 September 2013
Warsaw, Poland
Organised by the ECPR Standing Group on International Relations and EISA in cooperation with the Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw and the Polish Association for International Studies.

This panel shows general and/or case studies between International Relations and Islam. 

Chair:Prof. Dr. Rodolfo Ragionieri (University of Sassari, Italy)
Discussant:Prof. Dr. Muhammad Zia Ul Haq (International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan)

Paper Presenters:

The Islamist Discourse under Scrutiny in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring: An Analysis of Key Islamist Conceptions of Political Life
Prof. Maria do Céu de Pinho Ferreira Pinto (University of Minho, Portugal)
For many decades, political Islamists have benefited from a privileged position, since they acted as the only option to the existing Arab regimes, building on the rejection of the status quo without elaborating on their alternative. They did not need to come up with specific policy prescriptions and, in fact, could hardly provide a clear scenario for society and the political process should they come to power. But once competing for elections and taking on the responsibility to govern, they will be forced to explain their political rationale. This paper offers a critical exploration of the impact the new political and social conditions are having on Islamist political concepts. The electoral success of Islamist parties will put pressure on them to, at long last, define the relation between theory and practice. We will reflect on the implications of the uprisings on the Islamist movements’ evolution, namely their concepts of democracy, the civil state, the separation of powers, and the Sharia and human rights.
The Impact of the Arabic-Islamic Spring on the GCC countries: The Case of Kuwait**
Dr. Haila Al-Mekaimi, Ph.D is the Head of Euro-Gulf Research Unit and Assistant Professor at Department of Political Science in the University of Kuwait.
Arab states across the region has been affected by the event of the Arab spring, which turned to be “An Islamic Spring” after the Islamist’s domination of the political Scene. Depite the massive Western Support for the Islamists in power, the Islamists particularly in Egypt and Tunisia failed to achieve the goals of the revolutionaries in economic and political reforms, which will have a great affect on the political future of the Islamists in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This paper is an attempt to evaluate the impact of the Arabic-Islamic Spring on the GCC countries, with a focus on the case of Kuwait. This paper asks what kind of affect of these political changes on the political movement in Kuwait? How the Kuwaiti Islamists responded to the different cases of the Arab spring including in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain and how the Islamist political mismanagement in these countries affect their counterparts in Kuwait.
**Withdrew her participation.

Modernity, Secularism and ‘Islamic’ Conceptions of Democracy: The Case of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
Prof. Dr. Katerina Dalacoura is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Is democracy a Western concept, inapplicable to other cultures? Are conceptions of democracy across the globe incongruous with one another? Such questions have long been debated but, more often than not, on rather abstract ideational, theological or philosophical levels. This paper complements these important discussions by focusing on concrete proposals by an Islamist political actor on how the term ‘democracy’ is understood. Specifically, the article draws material from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s reaction to the Bush administration’s democracy promotion policies in the Middle East in the post 9/11 period, and its 2007 political party platform, to demonstrate that an ‘Islamic’ conception of democracy is shaped by history and ideology in the modern and secular context of the nation-state.
Foreign Policy Dynamics of Regime Change from the Arab Spring: Is there an Islamist Threat?
Dr. Rolin Mainuddin is Associate Professor of political science at North Carolina Central University, USA.
Without ruling out democracy in Muslim societies, Samuel Huntington found “din wa-dawla”—the intermingling of religious and political communities—a major challenge. Hrair Dekmejian and Judith Miller had expressed fear, given the lack of a democratic tradition in the Middle East, that after coming to office through elections Muslim political parties—“Islamists”—will scuttle the democratic process itself to stay in power. Yet, the Justice and Democratic Party (AKP) in Turkey did not end democratic institutions following electoral victory in 2002. While denying the United States the use of its territory for military operations against an Arab Muslim country, and being assertive with Israel on regional issues, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not changed the basic security structure of Turkey’s membership in NATO. In spite of demonstrating pragmatism so far after winning the 2011 elections, will Mohamed Morsi and his Freedom and Justice Party—affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood—take Egypt on a divergent path? Is there any danger to the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty? What about United States relations with Turkey or the GCC countries? This paper will address the question of a perceived “Islamist” threat to United States national security interest in the MENA region.
Muslims and Foreign Policy in France and Great-Britain
Dr. Imène Ajala (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland)
A broad range of literature in the United States is dedicated to ethnic lobbying and foreign policy. In Europe, though the range of literature dedicated to Muslims is broad, it has never been looked at from this angle. The basic question guiding this paper, based on my doctoral dissertation, is thus: how have the presence and mobilization of Muslims in Europe affected foreign-policy making? To this end, two countries standing for two opposite models of integration, namely assimilation and multiculturalism, constitute the case studies and allow for a comparative study: France and Great Britain. A conceptual model based on basic game theoretical assumptions and instruments of measure of political influence is used as a grid to systematically analyze the case studies. A set of elements to be investigated empirically are derived from the model to guide the exploration of the case studies which constitute the focus of this paper. Empirical investigations look at the presence of Muslims in each country and their characteristics, the model of integration, the resources of the group in terms of electoral impact and institutional organization. Four elements are then emphasized to understand Muslim communities and their relation to foreign policy debates in both countries: their preferences, their influence attempts, their access to the decisions sphere and the reactions of decision-makers.

Panel 6/9: General/Case Studies between IR & Islam: Political Islam, Democracy, and Foreign Policy of Turkey

8th Pan – European Conference on International Relations
Theme: One International Relations or Many? Multiple Worlds, Multiple Crises
Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 September 2013
Warsaw, Poland
Organised by the ECPR Standing Group on International Relations and EISA in cooperation with the Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw and the Polish Association for International Studies.

This panel shows general and/or case studies between International Relations and Islam. 

Chair: Prof. Dr. Gül Ceylan Tok (Kocaeli University, Turkey)
Discussant: Prof. Dr. Can Zeyrek (University of Marburg, Germany)

Paper Presenters:

Turkey’s Political Islam and the West
Galip Dalay is working for Political Research Department of SETA Foundation and pursuing a PhD degree in International Relations at Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
From the Welfare Party (WP) to the Justice and Development Party (JDP), foreign policies of Islamic parties have attracted disproportionate scrutiny. One of the focal points has been their approach to the West and Western-oriented institutions.  This article, based on Jack S. Levy’s concept of learning in foreign policy, is divided into periods to better show the evolution of foreign policy perspectives: the Welfare Party period, the Virtue Party in transition, and the first (2002 – 2006), second (2006 – 2010/11), and third (2011 – ) periods of JDP rule. I argue that from WP rule until the JDP’s first period in power, these parties’ approach to the West has been largely motivated by domestic considerations for different reasons. The WP defined the West as its Islamist identity’s “other” and sought to create an alternative framework; the JDP regarded the West as an instrument to gain legitimacy, both domestically and internationally. Yet, in its second term, the JDP attempted to balance its Western focused foreign policy with alternative complementary frameworks to achieve a more prominent international role. However, the JDP’s third term has been shaped by the Arab Spring and characterised by uncertainty about Turkey’s relations with the west. Hence, JDP rule has seen the emergence of a newly outward-facing political Islam in Turkey.
Approaches to Political Islam in Turkey: A Gramscian Challenge
Gorkem Altinors (University of Nottingham, UK)
This presentation will demonstrate how the rise of political Islam in Turkey is understood by the mainstream academia and how Gramscian terminology (especially the integral state) would help us to illustrate power relations among neoliberal restructuring of the state within the state and civil society relations. Basically, existing literature on political Islam will be critically evaluated in this presentation. It would not be quite convenient to compare Turkey with other Islamic states because its own sui generis features such as its early and relatively high level of industrialisation, and its early but profound class contradictions and conflicts within it. Therefore this research will be primarily focussed on Turkish case and discussions among political Islam have been limited within the literature on Turkey in this research. The literature is separated into three basic subtitles as follows: state-centric approaches, society-centric approaches and institution-centric approaches. In the first one, there is an abstract assumption of strong state tradition which conflicts with civil society as if they are antagonistic entities. The second one accepts the strong state tradition as given, but there is more emphasis on civil society within identity-based issues. Finally, third one provides limited analysis of the fact since it is kept only within institutional level. The presentation will draw a Gramscian understanding of the state after the critical evaluation of mainstream approaches. In this context, it will be questioned that how the state and civil society relations should be considered in order to carry out a class-based analysis and how the rise of political Islam in Turkey should be comprehended within neoliberalism.
Islam and Democracy: Arab Spring and the Turkish Experience
Gökhan Duman is currently a PhD student in historical societies, land and heritage at the University of Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain. He is also one of the project researchers in UNESCO Chair of Intercultural Dialogue in the Mediterranean.
Uprisings in the Arab world make us question the concept of “democracy”. From a Western perspective, the concept of democracy has a significant importance on people’s govern. Since the Ottoman Empire period, Arab countries always had rulers.  Following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, they could not put have democracy in place. Some of them might have some sort of elections, but with missing crucial components such as the presence of a viable opposition group. Western scholars have always questioned the relationship between Islam and democracy. The ones belonging to the Orientalist camp claimed that Islam and democracy cannot coexist, since Islam and its legal system based on “Sharia”, is a method of governance itself, and it does not give any room democracy. On the contrary, modern Turkey proved that it is possible to have democracy and human rights in a Muslim society. The Republic of Turkey stands as an example whereby a country with an overwhelming (98%) Muslim majority and has a multi party political system with a functioning democracy. In this context, the Turkish case was widely debated following the Arab uprisings and the questions such as “Can Turkey be a role model to the Arab countries?” “Does Turkey have a “Western” democracy?” etc. asked frequently.  Besides these questions, there was an implicit assumption that the Arab countries need a role model in their quest of democracy. Turkey’s relations with its neighbors make her an ideal candidate for the debate of ‘role model’. Although Turkey might serve as a model with her democratic credentials, the Turkish trajectory should be studied closely to understand how she reached there. What are the fundamental characteristics of the Turkish Revolution (1923 – 1938)? What is the legacy of Ataturk?  How did he create a country from a scratch and more importantly how did he make democracy work in a country with a Muslim population?
Political Islam as Elite Ideology in Turkish Foreign Policy-Making?
Zenon Tziarras (University of Warwick, UK)
It has been widely debated whether the AKP and especially its leaders are ideologically driven. In this context, much has been written about how the writings of FM Davutoğlu, and the speeches of PM Erdoğan and President Gül, prove Turkey’s Islamic orientation and its leaders’ distinct perception of the West. Thus, although the AKP officially calls itself ‘conservative democrat’, many authors try either to prove the party’s ideological Islamist roots, or support its democratic character. To the end of contributing to this debate, this paper tries to answer two fundamental questions: what is the ideology of the AKP elite? To what extent does the AKP elite ideology influence Turkish foreign policy (TFP)? In answering the first question we first clarify whether there is an ideology or not; then, we make a distinction between the ideology of the AKP as a whole and the ideology of the policy-makers and officials, as expressed publicly. To examine the impact of ideology we empirically look at TFP towards Israel and Syria. The conclusion is that the AKP elite does have an ideology, based on political Islam; yet, its impact on foreign policy is limited as it is constrained by various material interests.
Turkey’s Recent Foreign Policy and Davutoğlu’s Role as an Islamic Intellectual
Prof. Dr. İştar Gözaydın is a professor of law and politics at Doğuş University, Istanbul.
There is little doubt that Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s current Minister of Foreign Affairs of pro-Islamic AKP (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi), is the major driving force of Turkey’s ‘proactive and multi-dimensional’ foreign policy, even though the foundations for his regional foreign policy go back to 1980’s. Yet, it was Ahmet Davutoğlu who embedded this Ottoman reference into a reconsideration of the role of the West and of Turkey from a decidedly Islamic or intellectual-Islamist position. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Davutoğlu, is also an academic of political science that has published several boks, and articles. Especially his book Strategic Depth is a very influential book in Turkey’s foreign policy orientation. He is very influential in the military, academic, and government triangle shaping Turkish foreign policy. Professor Davutoğlu was granted a title of ambassador by the joint decision of President then Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister at that time Abdullah Gül in 2003. As an ambassador Davutoğlu was one of the leading actors on behalf of the Turkish government during the shuttle diplomacy for the settlement of 2008 Israel–Gaza conflict. In this paper I will scrutinize through his works how Davutoğlu as a scholar perceives the fields of Islam and international relations.

Panel 7/9: General/Case Studies between IR & Islam: Politics of Gender and Desecuritization in Turkey and its Relations with the East-West Dichotomy

8th Pan – European Conference on International Relations
Theme: One International Relations or Many? Multiple Worlds, Multiple Crises
Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 September 2013
Warsaw, Poland
Organised by the ECPR Standing Group on International Relations and EISA in cooperation with the Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw and the Polish Association for International Studies.

This panel shows general and/or case studies between International Relations and Islam. 
Chair: Mr. Gorkem Altinors (University of Nottingham, UK)
Discussant:Prof. Dr. İştar Gözaydın is a professor of law and politics at Doğuş University, Istanbul.

Paper Presenters:

The Patriarch’s Guidance to Europe? – The ‘Post-Political’ Rise of Islamic Collective Identity in Turkey & Gradual Manifestation of Modern Neo-Patrimonialism at the Governance Level
Dr. Can Zeyrek (University of Marburg, Germany)
Modern Neo-Patrimonialism and Post-Politics. These are theoretical approaches discussed to a lesser extent in the EU candidate country Turkey in comparison to the discourse in Western Europe. But there is also a lack of in-depth transformation studies on Turkey resorting pre-eminently to the above mentioned approaches and theories of transformation studies and autocracy research in the West. This paper relies upon theories of political transition and autocracy research with a specific focus on the ‘post-political’ rise or Zeitgeist of Islam and its impact on the regime in times of (power) change at the Bosphorus. Now, Post-Politics describes a ‘consensual’ form of democracy with an anti-political vision, refusing the acknowledgement of the antagonistic dimension constitutive of ‘the political’. Its aim is the establishment of a world ‘beyond left and right’ and ‘beyond antagonism’. In the specific case of Turkey, political Islam seems to serve the gradual curtailment of the antagonistic potential existing in society through government’s strong hand. As a consequence, neo-patrimonial elements are gradually creeping in and manifesting itself at the regime level. In this paper the impact of the features of ‘Post-Political’ Islam on the antagonism in the area of politics and society will be analyzed.
Gender Ideology of Turkey’s AKP: ‘the Good and Bad Daughters’ in Perspective
Dr. Gül Ceylan Tok (Kocaeli University, Turkey)
Turkey’s AKP which is conventionally portrayed as the most successful example of ‘moderate’ political Islam has demonstrated significant difference from earlier Islamist parties by electing significant number of women to the parliament since 2002 elections (13 in 2002, 29 in 2007 and 45 in 2011). This paper seeks to provide an in-depth analysis about the gender ideology of the AKP by dealing with the following questions: ‘How has the AKP approached to the gender equality?’, ‘What kinds of policies have been adopted by the AKP government in order to dis/empower women in education, employment and political participation?’ This paper demonstrates that the gender ideology of the AKP depicts motherhood as an ideal role for women, and since the education of women is in conformity with this ideology, the government has introduced measures to promote higher education of women. However it has not introduced any significant measure to encourage female labor participation and political participation as women working outside the house does not comply with its ideology. The paper illustrates the discursive formation in Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements about the ‘good daughters’ who accept the ideal role of motherhood and ‘bad daughters’ who resist this role and ask for gender equality. An interesting finding of this paper is that even the headscarved women can be depicted as ‘bad daughters’ in the AKP’s discourse when a group of headscarved women launched a campaign for the election of covered women to the parliament before 2011 national elections.
Feminism, Islam and the West**
Ana Belén Soage (University of Granada / Hassan II, Casablanca, Spain)
Islam recognized important rights to women; whilst in the pre-Islamic period they were often a part of the inheritance, they went on to inherit, own property, administer their belongings, ask for a divorce… On the other hand, both the Koran and, particularly, the Sunna, manifest misogynistic stances, as in the hadith: “Women lack intelligence and faith” (Al-nisâ’ nâqisât ‘aql wa-dîn). In second half of the XIX century a number of Muslim men influenced by the West, like Rifa‘at al-Tahtawi, Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi, claimed that the marginalization of women from public life contributed to the Islamic world’s weakness and backwardness. And from the last decade of the XIX century, some Muslim women started to argue that the problem did not lie with Islam but with its ulema, who throughout the centuries had codified an Islamic law or Shari‘a detrimental to them. From early feminists Hind Nawal or Amiira Zayn al-Diin to present-day intellectuals Fatema Mernissi and Nadia Yassine, the Islamic world has witnessed the appearance and development of its own version of feminism. My presentation would deal with how feminism has developed in the Islamic world, from the early “pioneers” to modern-day feminists, Islamist or simply Muslim. It would also examine the difficulties of feminism’s implantation – it being considered a “Western import”, which often leads women to reject the label. Finally, it would go into how Muslim female campaigners have contributed to the democratisation of their societies, since they have pushed for the recognition of female rights while adopting an Islamic perspective.

**Withdrew due to financial constraint.

From Threat Perception to the Model Collaboration: Desecuritisation of the Relationship between Turkey and other Islamic Countries
Dr. Fikret Birdişli (Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Turkey)
Ottoman Empire has been a kind of “Security Community” by taking of the most of Islamic Countries under its sovereignty for a long time. So It can be said that Ottoman Empire has achieved Karl W. Deutch’s economic orientated “Security Community” model in the context of political scene. But mutual socio economic and politic relationship between Turkey and other Islamic Countries has been at the minimal level after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Founders of Republic was percept the cultural and traditional legacy of the Ottoman Empire as a threat to the ideal of Westernization. Other Islamic countries also not welcome the new policies of Republic of Turkey because they perceived Turkey is turning his face from Islamic traditions. Disconnection between Middle Eastern countries and Turkey causes to two main problems. First, rising of the radicalism and second, regional insecurity. But as a parallel of conjectural changing in Middle East in the last decade, the relationship getting better between Turkey and other Islamic Countries. So this paper focused on question of “How to effect this development rising of the radicalism and the regional security”. This research depends on constructivist approach and used Securisation, Regional Security Complex Theory and Security Community Theory” of Karl W. Deutch.
Turkey: Where East and West Meet***
Didem Doğanyılmaz is currently a PhD candidate in Historical Societies at Rovira I Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain. She is also one of the project researchers in UNESCO Chair of Intercultural Dialogue in the Mediterranean.
“The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, laic and social state governed by the rule of law…” When the first constitution of the republic was declared in 1924, aforementioned second article used to have religious definition of newborn republic: “The religion of Turkish State is Islam…” Apart from the minorities who were defined within religious distinction, society was mobilized with a common religious identity and hereby the Muslim subjects of the abolished Ottoman Empire became the ethnic Muslims of the Republic. M.K. Atatürk Government made a series of reforms on legal, educational and sociological orders in order to form a new state, and the most important reform became the abolishment of definition of the “religion of state” from the constitution in 1928 which should be considered as a huge progress on the way of laicization. Eventually in 1937, the article ended up with its final version that defines Turkey as a laic, democratic and social republic. Herewith, the newborn republic possessed a westernized characteristic both with regulations and this final description, while society has its own cultural and religious traditions. In other words, Turkey became a country where a majorly Muslim society welcomes western values as a unique example in the world and a bridge between two continents; Turkey possessed a challenging role to connect two different worlds. Today, with its powerful economy and active political relations not only with its neighbors but also with EU and with Middle East, Turkey plays a significant role in world orders. Within this role what is the importance of Islam? Is it a tool to improve relations? Even better; within its strong historical relations with West and its territorial connections to East, with the perspectives of both Western and Islamic world, how do “they” define Turkey’s role on international relations?

***Withdrew her participation.

Panel 8/9: General/Case Studies between IR & Islam: Human Rights, Freedom of Expression, Justice, and Islamophobia

8th Pan – European Conference on International Relations
Theme: One International Relations or Many? Multiple Worlds, Multiple Crises
Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 September 2013
Warsaw, Poland
Organised by the ECPR Standing Group on International Relations and EISA in cooperation with the Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw and the Polish Association for International Studies.

This panel shows general and/or case studies between International Relations and Islam. 

Chair: Prof. Dr. Julien Pelissier (University of Tehran, Iran)*
Discussant: Prof. Dr. Naveed Sheikh (Keele University, UK)

*In case Prof. Dr. Pelissier may not be able to attend, Dr. Filippo Dionigi will be the new chair.

Paper Presenters:

Human Rights, the Arab Revolutions and the Problem of Cultural Incommensurability
Dr. Stefan Borg (Swedish Institute for International Affairs, Sweden)
A fair amount of the official statements from governments, media coverage, as well as policy analysis undertaken by think-tanks in the West, have tended to perceive the Arab Revolutions as manifestations of long repressed desires for human rights and individual dignity. The – rather unproblematic- remedy for those localities then become Western-style liberal democracies and free market economies. Various critical observers have been skeptical of such interpretive dispositions, and tended to view them as appropriations of a Liberal Reason which respects no epistemic or ethical boundaries. The paper seeks to clarify what is at stake in those starkly different positions. No doubt, when observers interpret the Arab Revolutions in a vocabulary of human rights, democracy, and secularism derived from the Western experience of secular modernity, this may obscure the ontotheological roots of such notions themselves. It is far from clear that the language of human rights is easily translatable to cultural settings rooted in Islamic cosmologies. However, rather than lapsing into a facile relativism, what I would like to do in this paper, is to explore the possibilities of inter-cultural communication that is attentive to the inherent power/knowledge nexus, but at the same time seeks communicative openings, and even commonalities in how contested signifiers such as human rights are understood.
Depiction of Prophet Muhammad and the Right to Freedom of Expression
Dr. Mahmoud Hegazy Bassal (Faculty of Law, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt)
The right to freedom of expression as stated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), which is subject to limitations to be determined by law, as stated in Article 29 of the UDHR and Article 19 of ICCPR. In practice questions were raised concerning the right to freedom of expression, namely: Does the depiction of Prophet Muhammad, in the west, constitute an abuse of the right to freedom of expression, in international Human Rights Law and Islamic Law “Sharia”? And if so, did the concerned states fulfill their international obligations with this regard? On the other side, was Muslims’ reaction Consistent with the provisions of Islamic law and international law? The answer of the above mentioned questions will be the subject matter of a paper that will try to shed light on the depiction of Prophet Muhammad in the west in accordance to International Human Rights Law and Sharia Law.
Languages of Justice: Islam, Human Rights, and the International Promotion of the Rule of Law in Bangladesh
Tobias Berger (Berlin Graduate School for Transnational Studies, Germany)
Over the past decade, international efforts of strengthening and promoting the Rule of Law have increasingly tried to reform informal dispute resolution mechanisms, called shalish are informal legal mechanisms in Bangladesh. Similar to Indian panchayats, these village courts negotiate and rule in all kinds of conflicts, ranging from petty disputes to violent crimes. In the normative evaluation of shalish by international donor agencies a peculiar dichotomy emerges: on the one hand, shalish is seen as a ‘local’ and ‘authentic’ alternative to the alien and corrupt state and its justice system, which is incapable of delivering justice to the poor and marginalised. On the other hand, shalish is also seen as a regressive institution, perpetuating patriarchy and being the obstacle to women’s right in rural Bangladesh. Whereas in the first case, the notion of shalish is conceptually linked to human rights, the rule of law, and democracy, in the second case, it is portrayed as a manifestation of Islamic fundamentalism. Thus, at the international level, ‘good governance’ is constituted as a secular moral order that is defined against Islam. After having reconstructed this secular development discourse, my paper is going to show how this juxtaposition of Islam and Human Rights dissolves on grassroots levels in Bangladesh, where NGO staff (often on the payrolls of international donor agencies), translate this dichotomy into a contestation over who has the right to interpret Islamic principles themselves. In these contestations, the notion of ‘religion’ as antithesis to the moral order of ‘good governance’ that emanates from Western donors disappears entirely.
Islamophobia: Implications on Muslim World
Zahid Latif (M.Phil Research Scholar, Department of International Relations, University of Peshawar, Pakistan)
International relations though not a new field for the Muslim world holds added significance and it has been struggling for reordering the world particularly in the 21st century. Relations between communities, nations, religions are being redefined in the present century, in particular after the incident of 9/11. The racist tendencies and Islamophobia challenges the exercise of fundamental human rights and freedoms particularly in Europe. In eliminating such discrimination, many states of the world still experience new and rising waves of biasness, hate, alienation and racist violence.  Unipolarism, abuse of power, military and nuclear deterrence and control over the world resources are the hot issues of the present day inside the nations of the world. The need for the mutual understanding and tolerance among varying people and religions of the world has increased in the present age, shrinking distances and looming dangers. Nowadays questions have been raised about Islam and its compatibility with other religions. Today globalization, faster communication, weapons of mass destruction, war against terrorism etc. have highly influenced the religions. Islam believes in tolerance, peaceful coexistence, respect of humanity and, all other religions and their followers and having a role model of a civilized society. The perception of most of the European IR scholars about Islam is unfortunately not clear and after 9/11 the misperception has further increased. On the other hand, a large number of Muslim scholars have ignored the essential role of modern IR scholars in the society and human development. Unfortunately, a part of Western media broadcasts negative images of Islam and Muslims. All this provides some useful grounds for racist discrimination and Islamophobia in the West. In addition, majority of European governments do not track the record of anti-Muslim incidents via their official complaint system. This study examines the rise of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic racism in Western countries.

Panel 9/9: General/Case Studies between IR & Islam: Iranian’s Nuclear Issue, Islamic Norms, and Islamist Militancy

8th Pan – European Conference on International Relations
Theme: One International Relations or Many? Multiple Worlds, Multiple Crises
Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 September 2013
Warsaw, Poland
Organised by the ECPR Standing Group on International Relations and EISA in cooperation with the Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw and the Polish Association for International Studies.

This panel shows general and/or case studies between International Relations and Islam. 

Chair: Prof. Dr. Stefan Borg (Swedish Institute for International Affairs, Sweden)
Discussant: Prof. Dr. Raffaele Mauriello (Sapienza, University of Rome, Italy)

Paper Presenters:

A Constructivist Study on the Israeli-Iranian Nuclear Problem
Seyed Hossein Zarhani, M.A. (PhD Researcher, Department of Political Science, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University)
This study seeks to examine how constructivism can help to deep our understanding of the Israeli-Iranian conflict over Iran’s nuclear program. In doing so, the basic tenets of constructivism is unpacked to identify which aspects of the constructivist approach to seeing social reality as derived from the shared understandings of actors would be most suited to this particular case study. Focusing on the manner in which actors create and maintain identities, both for themselves and others, through language use in realm of discourse, the identities of Iran and the Israel is shown to be mutually constituted; that is, the identity of one was, in part (for given contexts), formed in relation to the identity of the other. The central question that this study seeks to answer is: how can the application of a social constructivist approach to the Israeli-Iranian conflict over Iran’s nuclear program enhance our understanding of the nature of this conflict? This study goes beyond Realism to explore the dynamics of the cultural and religious underpinnings of the “clash of narratives” that shape the dynamics of nuclear confrontation between Israel and Iran. This paper compares the ways in which Israelis and Iranians utilize sacred text, myths, tradition, national-religious historiography, and “selective memory” to construct and promote their identification with ancient cultures, traditions, and historic grievances. In addition, this study highlights the ways in which Israelis and Iranians use the negative stereotypes of one another especially in nuclear issues to brand and demonize the opponents. This study finally shows the constructivist approach to the Israeli-Iranian conflict over Iran’s nuclear program can expand our understanding of that encounter by underlining the ways in which actors and their representations of any given situation are constructed, rather than being objectively given.
Velayate-E Faqih and the Nuclear Issue
Dr. Rania Mohamed Taher Abdul-Wahab (Ain Shams University, Egypt)
There has been an increasing assertion of the velayat-e-faqih in Iranian politics in recent years. This has led to tensions between them and the presidential office in Iran. Against this backdrop, this article seeks to analyse the constitutional position of the velayat-e-faqih and how it has interacted with other institutions to shape Iranian foreign policy and taking a decisions in nuclear issue. The article critically analyses the relationship between the velayat-e-faqih and different popularly elected presidents. so this study will consists of the following:
first: historical background of Iranian nuclear program and its developments.
second:motivations that encourged iran to acquire nuclear program
third:the role of velayate-e faqih in building iranian nuclear program
fourth: International responses toward Iranian nuclear program
conclusion.
Islamic Norms and Values in International Relations
Dr. Lili Yulyadi Arnakim (Visiting Scholar, Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia)
The relationship between Islam and the state has been extensively written on by many scholars. Islam as a comprehensive way of life has a worldview and a system in which religion and state is not separated. It believes that the public life, or the state, should embrace Islamic values. In international relations, Islam has its own norms and prescriptions for the relations between a Muslim country and other Muslim countries, and between a Muslim country and non-Muslim countries. Islam, which upholds values such as mutual sympathy, self-sufficiency, solidarity, mutual trust and help, and mutual advice and justice, does not conflict with universally-held values in the matter. Using the textual as well as contextual approaches on the understanding the norms and values of Islamic theory of International relations (siyar), this paper attempts to locate the significance of Islamic norms and values in the present global political system. It further examines the strategic roles of the Muslim countries in upholding the Islamic norms and values in the present global political challenges and to foresee the prospects of its values in establishing the future of the aspired global political system.
Deciphering Ideas on Islamist Militancy
Ridwan Landasan is currently a Master student in International Relations at Istanbul University.
Throughout history, Islam has been interpreted in various often discordant and conflicting ways. The debates over the question of authority and legitimacy to speak for and thus define Islam are particularly intense in contemporary times. As a result, confusion and perplexed comprehensions exist among Muslims and non-Muslims alike as to what ‘Islam’s position on a number of different issues such as human rights, democracy, international cooperation, and etc. One nature of this recent phenomenon is ‘Islamist Militancy’. There are various ideologies spurred the channels and apparatuses in describing, defining, delineating Islamist militancy with Islam. Islam is seen in differing prisms and schemata that resulted to incongruent perceptions among peoples with different cultural and upbringing backgrounds particularly the geographical imaginary division of the ‘West’ and ‘East’ set by traditional orientalist scholars. The West sees Islam as a religion similar with Christianity though not at the same level of respect they regard Christianity or Judaism. They perceives Islam as the Other, totally indifferent with their cultural understanding. While the East regards Islam, not only as a religion, but a total way of life that governs every aspects of human existence. However, it is the same perception that they consider Christianity and Judaism as also the Other.