Fundamentalism, Bureaucratization, and the State's Co-Optation of Religion: A Jordanian Case Study

Abstract

In the Middle East over the past half-century, three religious processes have grown together. One, the growth of fundamentalism, has received worldwide attention both by academics and journalists. The others, the bureaucratization of religion and the state co-optation of religion, of equal duration but no less importance, have received much less attention. The bureaucratization of religion focuses on the hierarchicalization of religious specialists and state co-optation of religion focuses on their neutralization as political opponents. Few commentators link the three processes. In Jordan, fundamentalism, the bureaucratization of religion (BOR), and state co-optation of religion (SCR) have become entwined sometimes in mutually supportive and sometimes in antagonistic relations. The following case study will describe and analyze the implications of this mutual entanglement for the relations of state and civil society and for the human beings simultaneously bureaucratized and “fundamentalized.”

Reinforcing Charisma in the Bureaucratisation of Indonesian Islamic Organisations

“…Ricklefs 2012, which looks equally at state and society). This is reflected in the Islamic world more broadly, where most studies chronicling the recent history of the bureaucratisation of Islam in the 20 th century have focused on the state (e.g., Antoun 2006;Tasar 2018;Mohamad 2010).…”

The Islam of anthropology

“…A third issue is how the creation of a State‐approved and nationalised version of Islam in Turkey has established a causal relationship between secularism and authoritarianism. A similar production of Islamic orthodoxy by nationalist governments in every other Middle‐Eastern country has made for a crisis of democracy in them as well (see Antoun 2006 for Jordan). A fourth question is the process through which the deliberations of the Turkish Diyanet—for example on surrogacy, cosmetic surgery, or organ donation—might become law.…”

Ислам Антропологии

“…Третий вопрос: каким образом создание одобренной государством и национализированной версии ислама в Турции сформировало причинно-следственные отношения между секуляризмом и авторитаризмом. Аналогичное производство исламской ортодоксии националистическими правительствами во всех остальных ближневосточных странах привело также к кризису демократии в них (Antoun, 2006). Четвертый вопрос: процедура, посредством которой выводы турецкого Диянета, например, о суррогатном материнстве, косметической хирургии или пожертвовании органов могут обрести силу закона.…”