Islam and the Political Economy of Meaning

To be a Muslim is to be a part of a culture with distinct beliefs, ideas, institutional forms and prescriptive roles. Yet there is a complex inter-relationship between a system of knowledge and belief, such as Islam, and the immediate political, economic and social context of its adherents. This book aims to improve understanding of Muslim social and political action by examining a broad spectrum of Muslim discourse, both written and spoken, to see how meaning is formed by context. It is a broad comparative study and examines discourses produced in opposition to government as well as those produced, in Iran or Pakistan for example, under an authoritarian Islamic state. Through cogent analyses of socio-historical contexts and textual materials from East Java, Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maghreb and Egypt, this book shows how to 'read' a familiar Islamic movement, period of change or textual source in a newer and better light. First published in 1987.

William Roff

Part 1. The Political Economy of Religious Culture 1. Changing Interpretations of Islamic Movements Dale F. Eickelman 2. Islamic Movements: One or Many? William R. Roff 3. The Political Economy of Islamic Conversion in Modern East Java Robert W. Hefner 4. Structural Determinants of Urban Islamic Protest in Northern Nigeria Paul M. Lubeck Part 2. Muslim Social Thought and the State 5. Revolution in Shi'ism Said Amir Arjomand 6. Islamic Arguments in Contemporary Pakistan Barbara D. Metcalf 7. Seduction and Sedition: Islamic Polemical Discourses in the Maghreb Jean-Claude Vatin 8. The Response of Muslim Youth Organizations to Political Change: HMI in Indonesia and ABIM in Malaysia Muhammad Kamal Hassan Part 3. Change and the Individual Voice 9. Authority and the Mosque in Upper Egypt: The Islamic Preacher as Image and Actor Patrick D. Gaffney 10. Three Islamic Voices in Contemporary Nigeria Allan Christelow 11. An Islamic System or Islamic Values? Nucleus of a Debate in Contemporary Indonesia A. H. Johns