[Discussion] book review - Civil Society in the Muslim World:

[sule tarakcioglu]

  *Amyn B. Sajoo, ed.* /Civil Society in the Muslim World: Contemporary 
Perspectives//. /Published in association with The Institute of Ismaili 
Studies. London: I. B. Tauris Publishers, 2002. xix + 339 pp. 
Bibliography, index. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 1-8606-4858-4.

Reviewed by *Dawn Chatty*, Refugee Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth 
House, University of Oxford.
Published by H-Gender-MidEast <http://www.h-net.msu.edu/%7Egend-mid/> 
(February, 2004)


*Reconsidering the "Civil" in Muslim Society*

This volume is the result of a year-long project which found closure in 
a series of seminars on civil society hosted by the Institute of Ismaili 
Studies, London. Although it explores the now decades-old debate about 
whether civil society exists in the Muslim world, it also raises issues 
which extend far beyond the Near and Middle East, Central Asia, Eastern 
and Western Africa, and Southeast Asia. This is a useful guide to the 
debate about the origins and philosophical antecedents of civil society, 
and explores a number of discourses about Muslim society in specific 
communities. The volume consists of eleven chapters which include a 
solid introduction outlining the general themes raised in the book. 
Contrary to much Western polemical positioning with regards to the lack 
of civil society in Muslim cultures, the volume explores the deep civic 
sensibility which has pervaded the history of most Muslim civilizations. 
The persistence and relevance of ethical concerns in Muslim society is 
developed in several chapters and is viewed as a cornerstone for the 
potential development of mature citizenship. One significant aim of the 
volume is to challenge the deterministic logic which compels some 
Western analysts to regard civil society and civic culture as peculiarly 
Western-based.

The contents of the chapters range from overview discussions of civil 
society in Islamic contexts to the specifics of civil society debate in 
particular regions or countries. The contents include discussions 
involving gender in post-revolutionary Iran, sociological perspectives 
on civic culture in post-Soviet Azerbaijan, reflections on civil society 
in the Maghreb, and examinations of civil society in Pakistan, Turkey, 
Tajikistan, and Central Asia in general.

What is particularly valuable about this volume is the way in which it 
overcomes the general tendency to focus on the Arab Middle East when 
engaged in discussions as to whether there is or is not a model of 
"civil society" in the Muslim world. As the editor points out, there are 
nearly 1.2 billion Muslims in the world today, and the majority inhabit 
the four South-Asian countries of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and 
Pakistan. Hence, what is often perceived as the "Islamic heartland" in 
the Arabian Peninsula represents, in fact, only a small minority of the 
world's Muslims. Even when the term Middle East is conceived more 
broadly, the largest concentration of Muslims is then in Iran and in 
Turkey, rather than in the "Arab" world. What the editor and 
contributors to the volume clearly show is the complexity of Islam in 
its various forms and practices, and, as such, its challenge to the 
essentialism which marks the works of Ernest Gellner, Samuel Huntington, 
and other like-minded authors.

Furthermore, the volume challenges the modern concept and praxis of 
civil society as springing forth wholly formed in eighteenth-century 
Europe and North America. What the volume reveals is substantial 
evidence of civic institutional and cultural elements in Muslim 
societies, even if the development of civil society as understood today 
has lagged behind. Building on the work by Marshall Hodgson, Ellis 
Goldberg, and Masoud Kamali, the volume editor turns to Dale Eickelman 
and Jon Anderson for a contemporary definition of "civic Islam" qua 
non-state-controlled citizen action that is directly germane to modern 
civil society, the emerging public sphere. A number of the volume 
chapters contribute to these complex definitional concepts. Some of 
these include the very specific civic antecedents spelled out in Abdou 
Filali-Ansary's chapter on the Maghreb. Ziba Mir-Hosseini explores the 
public sphere in Iran in the context of gender and press freedom. Shirin 
Aknir explores the post-Soviet Tajikistan where the legacy of indigenous 
Sufi-oriented Muslim traditions has been pushed aside, but where the 
ethos of self-help has been boosted by the external support from the Aga 
Khan Development Network. Olivier Roy in Central Asia expresses concern 
over the creation of formal, Western-type associations favored by 
international aid agencies while indigenous civic institutions are often 
ignored.

The volume does not put forward a single particular perspective on what 
the salient features of civil society in the Muslim world might be. 
Instead it raises the issues, delivers the debates, and shows the limits 
of particular formats as well as the provisionality of the conclusions 
that can be reached in a too-rapidly changing universe. The concept and 
praxis of civil society can be applied to Islam and the Muslim world, 
even if with a significant degree of slipperiness. What this volume 
shows is the extent of the energetic discussions about civil society 
which echo in halls, salons, and conferences in Tehran, Sarajevo, 
Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, Algiers, Singapore, and Lagos. These 
discussions in themselves can be seen as contributing vitally to 
fostering the associational life and intellectual autonomy of modern 
civic culture. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in 
contemporary civil society discourses in the West and in Muslim societies.

*Library of Congress call number:* JC337 .C585 2002
*Subjects:*

    * Civil society--Islamic countries.
    * Political culture--Islamic countries.
    * Islam and politics


	


*Citation:* Dawn Chatty. "Review of Amyn B. Sajoo, ed, /Civil Society in 
the Muslim World: Contemporary Perspectives/," H-Gender-MidEast, H-Net 
Reviews, February, 2004. URL: 
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=160901080786918.