Abstract:Reflecting on the current spate of protests across the Middle East, this article explores four key questions about the contestation of religious identities in political projects, more commonly referred to as de-sectarianization. Engaging with definitional questions, spatial dimensions, the agency of protesters, and the aims of de-sectarianization, the article argues that a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the contestation of religious identities in the Middle East is required in an effort to underst… Show more
“…The main thesis of sectarianism is the nurturing of ingroup versus an outgroup identity and, from this premise, identities are mobilized for a particular goal based on sect not ethnicity (Mabon, 2019). Sectarianism, however, has been instrumentalized by different regimes to divide the society or to mobilize against other countries in the Middle East (Mabon, 2020). The process of sectarianization is defined as “an active process shaped by political actors operating within specific contexts, pursuing political goals that involve the mobilization of popular sentiments around particular identity markers” (Hashemi & Postel, 2017, p. 3).…”
This article theorizes the role of the elite in a sectarianized political system with a rentier economy. It argues that by virtue of the sectarian and ethnic representation of the sub‐identities, the long‐term interests of society are neglected. The reliance on natural resources creates a competition within the elite to seize the state's revenue for narrow interests. Finally, in such a setting, the elite attempts the monopolization of the flow of information to the public to shore up its legitimacy. The case study is Iraq since it is one of the few, if not the sole, sectarianized political system with a rentier economy. The political elite, despite an abysmal performance for nearly two decades, has been resilient and garnered more power. The continuous malpractice encompasses all the political players who agree on the governing rules by which they maintain their position within the system, and with limited circulation of the elite.Related ArticlesAli, Hamid E., and Shahjahan Bhuiyan. 2022. “Governance, Natural Resources Rent, and Infrastructure Development: Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa.” Politics & Policy 50(2): 408–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12451.Howie, Peter. 2018. “Policy Transfer and Diversification in Resource‐Dependent Economies: Lessons for Kazakhstan from Alberta.” Politics & Policy 46(1): 110–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12239.Khodr, Hiba. 2014. “A Preliminary Comparative Study of Policy Making in Two GCC Countries—Qatar and Kuwait: Processes, Politics, and Participants.” Politics & Policy 42(2): 271–310. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12068.
“…The main thesis of sectarianism is the nurturing of ingroup versus an outgroup identity and, from this premise, identities are mobilized for a particular goal based on sect not ethnicity (Mabon, 2019). Sectarianism, however, has been instrumentalized by different regimes to divide the society or to mobilize against other countries in the Middle East (Mabon, 2020). The process of sectarianization is defined as “an active process shaped by political actors operating within specific contexts, pursuing political goals that involve the mobilization of popular sentiments around particular identity markers” (Hashemi & Postel, 2017, p. 3).…”
This article theorizes the role of the elite in a sectarianized political system with a rentier economy. It argues that by virtue of the sectarian and ethnic representation of the sub‐identities, the long‐term interests of society are neglected. The reliance on natural resources creates a competition within the elite to seize the state's revenue for narrow interests. Finally, in such a setting, the elite attempts the monopolization of the flow of information to the public to shore up its legitimacy. The case study is Iraq since it is one of the few, if not the sole, sectarianized political system with a rentier economy. The political elite, despite an abysmal performance for nearly two decades, has been resilient and garnered more power. The continuous malpractice encompasses all the political players who agree on the governing rules by which they maintain their position within the system, and with limited circulation of the elite.Related ArticlesAli, Hamid E., and Shahjahan Bhuiyan. 2022. “Governance, Natural Resources Rent, and Infrastructure Development: Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa.” Politics & Policy 50(2): 408–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12451.Howie, Peter. 2018. “Policy Transfer and Diversification in Resource‐Dependent Economies: Lessons for Kazakhstan from Alberta.” Politics & Policy 46(1): 110–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12239.Khodr, Hiba. 2014. “A Preliminary Comparative Study of Policy Making in Two GCC Countries—Qatar and Kuwait: Processes, Politics, and Participants.” Politics & Policy 42(2): 271–310. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12068.
“…The mission can be misleading, reductionist, and erroneous if it includes attempts to reach fixated or essentialist explanations, as evidenced in the “ancient hatreds” thesis defining sectarianism as an extension or a consequence of the specific event of the Battle of Karbala in 680 in the early stages of Islam pitting Sunni against Shia. This has led to a new trend in analyzing sectarianism as a complex multi‐directional process requiring the need to move away from what is sectarianism to “ where does desectarianization occur and how ” (Mabon, 2020c, p. 4. Italics added).…”
“…The same applies to desectarianization, based on reforming the political landscape as a strategy to bring in commonality and reduce differences as part of “accommodating the plurality of society by guaranteeing political representation to adversarial ethnic groups” (Mabon, 2020b, p. 31). Mabon thus conceptualized desectarianization as a moment constituting the “re‐imagining of political life” (Mabon, 2020c, p. 2). These imaginings are always attached to identity, itself an “imagined” concept always drawn on attempts for distinction and uniqueness from others (Jaspal & Breakwell, 2014).…”
The study seeks to resolve a conundrum in Syrian politics: the ruling regime has always claimed and celebrated a harmonious social fabric, national unity, and a long‐standing tradition of coexistence despite the prevalence of an opposite grim reality marked by sectarian divisions and factionalism which the regime itself mainly created or sustained. I explore the process of acting “as if not” by analyzing the speeches of Syria's President Bashar al‐Assad since the eruption of the conflict in 2011, a period when the country has been buffeted by extreme sectarian waves. The process shows how Assad has constructed a process of desectarianization based on repetition, frequency, and resonance of specific frames in his speeches, and also based on building an image of an idealized present of internal unity and integration. The process includes externalizing sectarianization as a “western” import and emphasizing the regime's ideologies of pan‐Arab nationalism and secularism as bulwarks against it. Furthermore, the Assad regime has taken credit as a “desectarianization guardian” in different ways including maintaining the status quo and consolidating the impression of his active positive leadership drawn on taking the country down the path of unity and solidarity. However, ironically, desectarianization has also entrenched the very sectarian practices which it claimed its mission to stand against. Sectarianisation and desectarianization are both sides of the same coin in Syria's politics of authoritarianism.
“…For KSA,[T]he cultivation of sectarian differences has served as a means of… operating to ensure their survival, with religious identities mapping onto socio‐economic contexts, creating a complex web of forces regulating life. (Mabon, 2020, p. 1)…”
This paper provides an innovative approach to visual analysis in the Middle East. It addresses a fundamental problem in the fields of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Securitization Theory (ST): they largely ignore the visual. This project develops a methodology for visual analysis. Its utility is demonstrated through an examination of a Saudi propaganda video, entitled “Saudi Strike Force Video.” When observing the Saudi‐Iranian rivalry on social media, there is a prevalence of visceral visual propaganda. Thus, the need for the construction of a systematic model for its analysis is important in addressing this conceptual gap. CDA and ST are aligned on an essential belief that discourse is a power‐laden process, and that to affect change, scholars must attempt to understand its production, articulation, and impact. Yet, both of these approaches tend to focus on the written and spoken word, negating the importance of the visual. This paper contends that the visual is equally power‐laden, having a profound effect as a tool of propaganda
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