The Clash of Values in the Middle East and North Africa: Islamic Fundamentalism versus Liberal Nationalism
Speaker: Moaddel, M. (University of Maryland)
Date: 11 December 2020
Speaker Session Summary
SMA hosted a speaker session as a part of its SMA CENTCOM/AFRICOM Speaker Series, entitled “The Clash of Values in the Middle East and North Africa: Islamic Fundamentalism versus Liberal Nationalism.” The speaker was Dr. Mansoor Moaddel (University of Maryland).
Dr. Moaddel began his presentation with an explanation of the methodology that he used in his research, which focused on shifts in values in the Middle East and North Africa. He identified four historically significant issues that act as features of cultural warfare: 1) secular politics, 2) national identity, 3) religious tolerance, and 4) gender equality. Dr. Moaddel assessed these four factors across a variety of countries, namely Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey. He stated that secular politics act as a composite measure with four indicators: 1) separation of religion and politics, 2) desirability of a Western-type government, 3) Islamic governance, and 4) Sharia. Identity highlights the contrast between religious and national identity in Middle Eastern and North African countries. It also covers trends occurring in terms of national identity. With regards to religious tolerance, Dr. Moaddel constructed an index that posed a variety of questions aiming to measure individuals’ beliefs regarding Islam and the tolerance of other religious beliefs in Muslim-dominated regions. He constructed a similar index when examining gender equality, in which he posed five questions to individuals regarding their beliefs on equality between men and women. After conducting his research, Dr. Moaddel concluded that ideas are significantly important in bringing about a new pattern of historical development.
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Dr. Mansoor Moaddel
Department of Sociology
moaddel@umd.edu
Dr. Moaddel studies religion, ideology, political conflict, revolution and social change. His work currently addresses the causes and consequences of human values. He has carried out values surveys in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey. His latest survey project focused on a cross-national comparative analysis of religious fundamentalism in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey. He is currently engaged in a comparative cross-national panel survey in Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey in order to understand the dynamics of change in values and political engagements. His previous empirical research project was a comparative historical analysis of ideological production in the Islamic world in which he studied Islamic modernism in Egypt, India, and Iran between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth; liberal nationalism in Egypt, anti-clerical secularism in Iran, liberal Arabism and pan-Arab nationalism in Syria and Iraq in the first half of the twentieth century; and Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, and Syria in the second half. Moaddel’s teaching interests are in the areas of values survey, sociology of ideology, sociology of religion, political conflict and revolution, terrorism and political violence, religion and politics in the Middle East and North Africa, and statistics.
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