Islam,Society and Kurds:Islamic Fundamentalism Among Iranian’s Kurds

Islamic fundamentalism is a reading of Islam,the Qur’an and hadiths,according to which a large part of these bases are nonhistorical,independent and immune to social and political changes and are applicable to all societies and eras.The aim of this article is explanation the causes behind the emergence and spread of this specific form of fundamentalist trend.The research method is based on grounded theory.Samples have been selected through purposive sampling and theoretical saturation was obtained after carrying out depth interviews with 15 participants.Findings show confronting modernism,the crisis of meaning,dominant uncertainty,the need of the contemporary man to collective identity,and the weakness of religious clergy in converting religion to a discourse are the main reasons to tendency to Islamic fundamentalism movement.The fundamentalist movement in Kurdistan,rather than ethnic,highlights Sunni Islam and claims to establishment an Islamic state.These two characteristics distinguish this movement from other Kurdish movements throughout history of Iranian Kurdistan.Moreover,this movement is a reaction to the political,economic and social challenges of the Sunnis of Iran,especially the Kurds.

The Jurisprudence Trace Behind the DAESH Trench:Theoretical Basis of Islamic Fundamentalism Focusing on Kurdistan Province of Iran

Religious fundamentalism is a return to pure religious thought,beliefs,laws,and identity in the era of Islamic authority.Given the ever-growing spread of religious fundamentalism and revivalism in today’s world,especially in Islamic countries,the present article aims at studying the role of Jurisprudence in the tendency of people to Islamic fundamentalist thinking.The methodology of this article includes the documentary method and grounded theory method.Two data categories were studied to evaluate the issue:jurisprudential rulings–which can be a pretext for Islamic fundamentalist movements–and the reasons that motivate some Islamic fundamentalists taken from these jurisprudential rulings or matched with them.Data on understanding the reasons that motivate these individuals are collected through purposive sampling.Theoretical saturation is achieved after interviewing 27 persons.To achieve the goal of the paper,some jurisprudential rulings,Jihad rulings especially,were studied,followed by analysing the interviews.The findings show that there is an association between some jurisprudential rulings and the tendency of interviewees toward fundamentalists thinking.Moreover,it was found that their main reasons for supporting Islamic fundamentalism are modernism,the rebuilding of Islamic identity,and the founding of the Islamic state.Finally,it was found that some of the jurisprudential rulings could provide appropriate context for Islamic fundamentalist movements.

Salafism in Azerbaijan

The article is written with the support of Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation and is based on the materials obtained in Azerbaijan relating to the spread of Salafism in Azerbaijan, the interviews with A. Shirinov, an associate professor at the faculty of Theology at Baku State University, S. Hasanli, a rector of Baku Islamic University and G Suleymanov, a leader of Azerbaijan Salafi community, which were recorded during the scientific visit in Azerbaijan.

Violence Against Women Under ISIS Occupation： A Critical Feminist Analysis of Religious and Political Factors that Commodify Women＇s Sexuality in the War Zone

Since the end of the 20th century the Middle East （ME） has witnessed increasing war and violence and proportionally more US intervention in the region. The growth of Islamic fundamentalism, A1-Qaeda and Intermediate System to Intermediate System （ISIS） would not happen without political and economic support, posing the crucial question of who benefits, both locally and globally, from the deconstruction and reconstruction of countries involved in war. US opposition toward the founding of an Islamic state obscures the economic and political benefits it gains from ongoing conflict in the region; the profitable conflict between the US and ISIS reinforces the hegemony of both powers and perpetuates Islamic fundamentalism and Salaflsm in the ME rather than promote non-patriarchal ideology. I argue that ISIS claims the purpose of war is creating an Islamic state in the region and question how this claim can be ontologically coherent with Qur＇an, the main resource of Islam. When ISIS occupies a region, destruction and sexual violence against women are the immediate results, and both are incoherent with a non-patriarchal reading of Qur＇an. In this article, I use a critical feminist perspective to explore how establishing an Islamic state goes against Qur＇an and is, therefore, un-Islamic in the way ISIS enforces its hegemony in ME. As a result, women＇s sexuality in particular has become a site of political economy, they are abused and/or sold in other markets for the use of ISIS soldiers. This specific religio-economic commodification of women is unique in the history of war, and the world is largely silent about it. There are brave Iraqi women, however, who use their potential and assets to support underprivileged women of the region. Their voices need amplification to gain support for their grassroots resistance to fundamentalist hegemony and political and economic disenfranchisement.

The Relations between Nationalism and Islam in the Middle East

This paper argues that the conflicts between modernity and tradition in the process of modernization in the Middle East are rooted in the complicated relations between the two different ideologies,i.e.,nationalism and Islam.The author probes the complicated relations between nationalism and Islam from three aspects:the impact of the Middle Eastern nationalism on Islam,the responses of Islamic fundamentalism to nationalism and the influence and prospects of the conflicts between Islam and nationalism in the political development in the Middle East.

A Comparative Review:2010 Middle East Books

Books in 2010 by Stephen Kinzer,Andrew C.McCarthy,and Robert R.Reilly,major writers on the Middle East and Islam,have clearly articulated the crisis facing both critical areas of the Middle East and Islam,especially as they affect the international relations of such countries as the United States.Kinzer traces the development of Turkey toward a modernizing secular democracy and Iran toward a traditional Islamic Republic.He proposes a series of initiatives for the United States to utilize to make them allies,as well as to help solve the crisis between Israel and Palestine.Sensationalizing“the Iran threat”to America and other Western countries,the very conservative McCarthy claims that Islam’s“Grand Jihad”is directed not only toward other Western countries but particularly against the United States.He equates Islam as aligned with“the Left”and calls the Obama administration a major part of a socialistic“Left”which enables Islam to defeat American Christian values and heritage from inside.Reilly claims that Islam chose irrationality over rationality in its domestic and foreign affairs over a millennium ago,leading to a very illusive peace in the Middle East,an area where scientific exploration is nearly dead,translating fewer books in the last thousand years than Spain in a single year,and why Muslims see natural disasters as Allah’s direct retribution for non-Islamic,and thus impure behavior toward Allah.