The Clash of Values: Islamic Fundamentalism Versus Liberal Nationalism

by Mansoor Moaddel

Much of the Middle East and North Africa still appears to be in a transitional period set in motion by the 2011 Arab uprisings, and the political trajectory of the region remains difficult to grasp. In The Clash of Values , Mansoor Moaddel provides groundbreaking empirical data to demonstrate how the collision between Islamic fundamentalism and liberal nationalism explains the region’s present and will determine its future.

Analyzing data from over 60,000 face-to-face interviews of nationally representative samples of people in seven countries―Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey―Moaddel reveals the depth and breadth of the conflict of values. He develops measures of expressive individualism, gender equality, secularism, and religious fundamentalism and shows that the factors that strengthen liberal values also weaken fundamentalism. Moaddel highlights longitudinal data showing changes in orientations toward secular politics, Western-type government, religious tolerance, national identity, and to a limited extent gender equality, as well as a significant decline in support for political Islam, over the past decade. Focusing on these trends, he contends that the Arab Spring represents a new phase of collective action rooted in the spread of the belief in individual liberty. Offering a rigorous and deeply researched perspective on social change, The Clash of Values disentangles the Middle East and North Africa’s political complexity and pinpoints a crucial trend toward liberal nationalism.

336 pages, Hardcover

Published March 17, 2020

About the author

Dr. Moaddel studies culture, ideology, political conflict, revolution and social change. His work currently focuses on the causes and consequences of values and attitudes of the Middle Eastern and Islamic publics. He has carried out values surveys in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. He has also carried out youth surveys in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His previous research project analyzed the determinants of ideological production in the Islamic world. He teaches sociology of religion, ideology, revolution, Islam and the Middle East. He also teaches statistics and research methods.

(from http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/people/p...)

Reviews

[Ali Hassan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The political conditions of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa appear complicated and therefore hard to grasp. This book attempts to reduce this complexity by highlighting the opposition between Islamic fundamentalism and liberal nationalism as the key dimension of ideological warfare and political conflict currently transpiring in the region. This book brings empirical evidence on the depth and breadth of the clash of fundamentalist and liberal values among members of the ordinary public in seven countries—Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey—and shows that the factors that weaken fundamentalism also strengthen liberal values among individuals and across these countries, and vice versa. In doing so, this book proposes that the future political development of the region lies in how this conflict is resolved. This future will be determined by whether such liberal values as expressive individualism, gender equality, secular politics, religious tolerance, and national identity are turned into permanent features of the social order or are undermined as a result of the fundamentalists’ rigorous patronage of patriarchy, male supremacy, gender segregation, Islamic authoritarian government, religious intolerance, in-group or sectarian solidarity, and hostility toward outsiders—the West, in particular.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

The electoral promises of two gangs of rulers, none of whom wants to share the power over the people, whom they see as their private cattle.