Are Arab States well-equipped to face the wave of religion-based political disputes, or in other words, who, during the past two decades, has succeeded in imposing itself as the main opposition force to the governing authorities? Is the panoply of State strategies of repression, embanking, co-optation or alliance the best solution to a deep-rooted crisis of legitimacy that has overshadowed these regimes? To what extent does the nature of the relationship between State and Islam determine the evolution of these power structures, the relationship with civil society and internal and external political choices, or in a single word, stability?

In its bid to find answers to these questions, this book, as opposed to most other works which mainly focus on the Islamist phenomenon, its nature, origins and importance, instead takes a look at the phenomenon through the eyes of the State actor. The legitimate but rather exclusive interest which has until now been aimed at the Islamist actor seemed to suggest that Islamist movements 'led the dance' before the Arab regimes that had lost their initiative on the field and who were content in selectively reacting to the aggressive remarks of an increasingly offensive dispute.

The ten case studies developed in this book- Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen- are a bid to analyze in detail the manner in which the State manages Islamist disputes and its direct implications on the legitimacy and stability of the powers in place. The diversity and complexity of experiences from one country to another as well as within the same country, suggest that there isn’t any particular 'golden key' that will open the door to managing a phenomenon which, far from being uniform and monolithic and thus foreseeable, henceforth gathers transparency and relevancy only when seen through the very national angle of the State.

About the authors : 

Ziad Abu-Amr is Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Birzeit (West Bank) and a member of the Palestinian Council.

Hélé Béji, writer and philosopher, has taught French literature at the University (Tunis).

Amina Bekkali, anthropologist, is the co-author of: Le Mouvement national marocain et la question arabe. Essai d'historisation 1947-1986, Beyrouth, 1992.

Nahla Chahal, is a Professor in Political Science at the Lebanese University.

May Chartouni-Dubarry is Research Fellow at Ifri (Middle East and Mediterranean issues).

Renaud Detalle is Research Fellow at the Centre français d'études yéménites (Sanaa, Yemen).

Bassma Kodmani-Darwish is Head of Arabic Studies at Ifri and a Professor at the University of Marne-la-Vallée.

Gema Martin-Munoz is Professor Sociology of the Arabic world at the Independent University of Madrid and the Director of the Maghreb/Middle East Department at the Centro Español de Relaciones Internacionales.

Madawi al-Rasheed, anthropologist, is Professor at the King’s College of the University of London.