Churches in Context: The Jesus Movement in the Roman World Reference library
Daniel N. Schowalter
Oxford History of the Biblical World
...Judaism began to develop in new directions under rabbinic leadership. Meanwhile, the churches continued to attract mostly Gentiles. Ten years later, after Titus's death in 81 ce , the churches and Judaism were evolving differently, but they both faced new challenges under the repressive policies of Vespasian's other son, Domitian. A Younger Brother's Revenge: The Reign of Domitian Many Romans greeted the accession of Domitian...
Authority and Legitimation Reference library
Knut S. Vikør
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World: Digital Collection
... This contestation of legitimacy is played out within an acceptance of state authority over the law. Thus, most Islamists who argue for a “return to” or “reintroduction of” their conception of Islamic law do so in the framework of a codified state law, where their Islamized rules are also not only imposed by the Islamic state’s repressive apparatus but also defined by the revolutionary state’s organs; the state becomes the collective mujtahid , which can thus dispose ...
Popular Culture and Religion in America Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Religion in America
...of the dominant groups and classes—in order to achieve the consent of the masses. 26 Louis Althusser, an Algerian-born French Marxist known for his structuralist distinction between what he called Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs) and Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs), advanced these ideas in his 1969 essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” RSAs comprise various governmental institutions that rely on force, coercion, and threats of violence. These include the army, police, courts, prisons, and administration. ISAs, however, operate...
Democratization Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World
...and Syria seem the most stagnant of the Arab authoritarian regimes with no openness to report and repressive security services fully in charge of domestic politics. A third group of Arab regimes comprises the Iraqi, Lebanese, and Palestinian cases. While various political parties and movements in these countries operate freely, their participation in politics takes place in a chaotic environment either because foreign occupation has caused the collapse of state institutions (Iraq and Palestine) or because continuing, intractable internal discord has constantly...
Baʿth Parties Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World
... the Baʿth consistently reaffirmed the domination of politics over religion. Although the Baʿthist party was obviously the major actor in Syrian and Iraqi politics at least until the last years of the twentieth century, proponents of its ideology (if not of the symbol of repressive rule associated with the persons of Assad and Hussein) attempted over the years to play a role in other political systems, most notably in Jordan and Lebanon. Specific characteristics governing the politics of other Arab countries, however, reduced this to a minor role when...
Baʿth Parties Reference library
Byron D. Cannon and Joseph A. Kéchichian
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics
...of politics over religion, which illustrated how Baghdad drifted from Baʿthism. Although the Baʿthist party was obviously the major actor in Syrian and Iraqi politics at least until the last years of the twentieth century, proponents of its ideology (if not of the symbol of repressive rule associated with the persons of Assad and Hussein) attempted over the years to play a role in other political systems, most notably in Jordan and Lebanon. Specific characteristics governing the politics of other Arab countries, however, reduced this to a minor role when...
Iran, Islamic Republic of Reference library
Mojtaba Mahdavi
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics
...a polity with the repressive apparatus of ideological, military, and economic control. The state not only kept the shah's military and police structures but created new revolutionary institutions to expand its control: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with some 100,000 members, the Basīji with over 300,000 armed men, a number of Islamic Associations in public administrations, universities, and workplaces, and formal and informal organized gangs called Hizbollahi groups (Rahnema and Moghissi. 2001 , p. 2). The state under Ayatollah Khomeini's...
Islam and Politics in Central Asia and the Caucasus Reference library
John Schoeberlein and David E. Merrell
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics
...some now view it as a danger for stability and a potential vector for international terrorism. Additionally, there is important new research that takes advantage of improved archival access to examine the complex relationship between Islam and the Soviet state—which was by no means exclusively repressive—as well as the religious positions and social agendas of Muslim leaders, both in official institutions that the Soviet regime supported and in the “underground.” Scholars also give much attention to the developments that were taking place in Islam in the...
Jamāʿat al-Islāmīyah, al- Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World
...in Egypt use the name al-Jamāʿat (al-Gamāʿa or al-Jamāʿah) al-Islāmīyah (Islamic Groups). Along with the Egyptian Islamic Jihād group, the Jamāʿat aims to overthrow the military government of President Hosni Mubarak , which it perceives as corrupt and repressive, and replace it with an Islamist state. Most Egyptian congregations operate primarily through independent mosques and student unions on university campuses and appeal primarily to Egyptian youths. There appears to be no unifying leadership; instead, the groups reflect the general trend in Egyptian...
Islamism Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World
...the articulation of scripturally based claims to justice. Such activities shape a “public Islam” more than a “political Islam.” They challenge the discourse of secular elites and the official, largely authoritarian, frames of legitimacy as well as the regulatory and repressive apparatus of state authorities, whose ideologies oscillate between a “weak secularism” and a selective and often instrumental incorporation of Islamic norms and symbols. Egalitarian and voluntaristic modes of interaction make Islamist movements effective and sometimes dominant within...
Tafsīr Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World
...called because it was published in the journal Al-shihāb ), are cases in point. Shawkānī uses the medium of tafsīr to make a severe criticism of taqlīd (unquestioning acceptance of authority). Tafsīr remains an important avenue for expressing dissident opinion in closed or repressive societies, and Muslim scholars are not afraid to exploit its potential. A notable feature of modern tafsīr is the assumption it makes of the Qurʿānic sūrah s as unities. The sūrah s in their received arrangement are believed to possess naẓm (order, coherence, or unity),...
Islam Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World
...being reconceptualized alternately as “un-Islamic” or as representing the true indigenous form of Islam. There is also important new research that takes advantage of improved archival access to look at the complex relationship between Islam and the Soviet state—which was by no means exclusively repressive—as well as the religious positions and social agendas of Muslim leadership figures both in the official institutions that the Soviet regime supported and in the “underground.” Recent scholarship has also given much attention to the developments that were...
Popular Religion Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
...at Mass, as observed by an Italian visitor in about 1500 , and by substantial individual and parochial expenditure on ritual apparatus, as recorded by many churchwardens' accounts. Lollard and Protestant hostility was again strongest in the southeast. As the Reformation proceeded, however, there was evidence of increasing attacks (even in Yorkshire) on the Catholic sacraments; of dwindling expenditure upon ritual apparatus, accompanied by frequent sale or embezzlement; and, in some places, of falling attendance at traditional services. These trends were...
