The 1st Symposium on Muslim Politics and World Society

1. James Piscatori

Centre for Political Thoughts, Durham University, U.K. Author of Muslim Politics (with Dale Eickelman, 1996 and 2004).

2. Lily Rahim

Honorary Fellow, Malaysian Chair for Islam in Southeast Asia, 2019-2020, Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, U.S.

Editor of

The Politics of Islamism: Diverging Visions and Trajectories (with John Esposito and Naser Ghobadzadeh, Eds. 2018)

The Limits of Authoritarian Governance in Singapore's Developmental State (with Michael Barr, Eds. 2019)

Author of  Singapore in the Malay World: Building and Breaching Regional Bridges (2010)

Author of Muslim Secular Democracy: Voices from Within (2013)

3. Sjaiful Mujani

Professor in Political Science, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, Indonesia.

Author of Voting Behavior in Indonesia since Democratization (with R. William Liddle, Kuskridho Ambardi, 2018)

Author of Piety and Public Opinion: Understanding Political Islam in Indonesia (with Thomas B. Pepinsky and R. William Liddle, 2018).

4. Ahmet T. Kuru

Bruce Porteus of Political Science and Director of Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies at San Diego State University; Visiting Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences UIII (September 2021-February 2022, non-residential/online).

Author of Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: a Global and Historical Comparison (2019)

Author of Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: the United States, France, and Turkey (2009).

The 1st Symposium on Muslim Politics and World Society is a three-day event held by the Muslim Politics Review and the Center for Muslim Politics and World Society of the UIII Faculty of Social Sciences. The agenda is briefly explained below:

Day 1: What Is Muslim Politics? (21 June 2022)

In 1996, Dale F. Eickelman and James Piscatori published a book titled Muslim Politics. In this book, Eickleman and Piscatori observed the politics of diverse actors in various settings. Despite the shared similarities of Muslim politics to politics elsewhere around the world—involving competition and bargaining among political actors, what differentiates Muslim politics from any other politics is that it entails the struggle over ideas and symbols of Islam. Many political actors in this Muslim politics often attempted to invoke ideas and symbols identified as “Islamic” to support their claims or counterclaims (Eickleman and Piscatori 1996, p. 4).

In 2004, Eickelman and Piscatori revised this book and examined how contemporary issues like 9/11 and the Iraq War reshaped the politico-religious landscape of Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities. Similar to the 1996 edition, the main theme of this updated version still focuses on symbolic politics in which political actors compete and contest over both the interpretation of symbols and control of the institutions, formal and informal, that produce and sustain them (Eickleman and Piscatori 2004, p. 5). Embedded in the tradition of social constructivism, both scholars meticulously blended empirical (historical) cases with concepts and theoretical arguments. Their central theme of symbolic politics helps explain why, how, and under what conditions political actions are recognized as “Islam”, and this shows how it is a distinctive characteristic of Muslim politics.

Now, more than a quarter-century after the book was first published, there is a need to reflect on the theme given the various changes that Muslim states and societies around the world have undergone and the new challenges that they face. Muslim societies today live in a political context different from the era when Eickleman and Piscatori wrote their first and second editions of the book. Since the second edition of the book was published, there have been many changes in the politico-religious landscape of Muslim politics. The Arab Spring, the rise of the post-truth era, and the COVID-19 pandemic are only a few very important phenomena that we should take into account when revisiting Muslim politics today.

Today, we also have seen the power of social media, unforeseen by Eickleman and Piscatori when they published their first and second books. Social media has provided new avenues as well as the battleground for contesting ideas and symbols. It is not an exaggeration to say that the everyday politics of the Muslim world is inseparably intertwined with social media.

On the first day of the symposium, Muslim Politics Review will invite some of the brightest minds on Muslim politics to reflect on the theme and reinterpret it according to their professional experience and intellectual traditions to which they are attached themselves. They will discuss how they rethink Muslim politics today and what brings them to convey it that way. Their re-evaluation of Muslim politics today could help us grasp the complexity of political phenomena in the Muslim world.

The first day of the symposium is a digital public event (webinar). It is intended to be the forum to reflect and discuss how we understand Muslim politics today, especially in the pandemic era. Three broad and important questions are to be answered: (1). What is Muslim politics? Do we need to redefine Muslim politics beyond symbolic politics or do we need to emphasize the symbolic and ideological politics even more? (2). How important is the pandemic era in shaping Muslim politics today? (3) How should we study Muslim politics today?

The reflection papers presented by the four distinguished speakers will be published in the founding edition of Muslim Politics Review, a new journal initiated by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Indonesian International Islamic University (UIII), in December 2022.

Day 2: Muslim Politics and World Society (22 June 2022).

The second day of the symposium is the forum for speakers whose paper submissions have been accepted by the selection committee. Kindly refer to the announcement below:

CALL FOR PAPER

The 1st international symposium on Muslim politics to be held on June 21-22, 2022, organized by Muslim Politics Review and Center for Muslim Politics and World Society - Faculty of Social Sciences at the Indonesian International Islamic University, which provides a forum for scholars and students of political and social sciences interested in issues related Muslim politics—broadly defined as the political dynamics of the Muslim societies—to reflect, discuss and exchange ideas on this grand theme.

We invite scholars, researchers, and graduate students to submit papers to be presented in this symposium. Selected papers from the symposium will be published in the founding edition of Muslim Politics Review, a new journal initiated by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Indonesian International Islamic University, in December 2022, and/or as working paper series on Muslim politics and world society curated by the Center.

We accept the paper proposal that may fall into two broad categories:

1. On Muslim Politics: women leadership in Muslim Societies, political institutions and electoral competitions in Muslim societies; contentious politics and social movement, the political economy of the Muslim societies
2. On World Society: ideas and foreign policy, cooperation and conflicts in the Muslim World, transnationalism and globalized Muslim societies, middle power politics, peace, and conflict resolution.    

PAPER ELIGIBILITY

• The paper must be written in English.
• The length of the paper should be between 7,000 and 10,000 words including a 250-word abstract, notes, and references but excluding figures, tables, images, and any supporting material that will appear as supplementary appendices
• The reference style uses the Chicago manual of style (17th ed). Use footnotes to cite sources and expand some explanation you think is not appropriately put in the main text.
• The structure of the paper should be compiled in the following order: abstract; keywords; main text introduction, methods, results, discussion; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list).
• Submission to bit.ly/SMPWS2022

IMPORTANT DATES/DEADLINES

23 March 2022: Deadline for 250-word Abstract submission

1 April 2022: Announcement of Selected Abstract. Continue with paper drafting/writing.

5 June 2022: Deadline for Draft paper Submission

22 June 2022: Presentation (online) on the second day of the symposium for accepted papers.

Submission of your abstract for the Symposium on Muslim Politics and World Society (SMPWS) is now open. Please create an account to proceed.

Day 3: Online Roundtable/Workshop Summarizing the Symposium and Identifying Future Research Agenda on Muslim Politics and World Society (23 June 2022).  

Co-chairs:

1. Greg Feally, Australian National University
2. Bridget Welsh, University of Nottingham Kuala Lumpur
3. Philips J. Vermonte, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia

Editorial Board of Muslim Politics Review:

1.  Ahmet T. Kuru, San Diego State University, U.S.
2. Amalinda Savirani, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia.
3. Bridget Welsh, University of Nottingham Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
4. Greg Fealy, the Australian National University, Australia
5. Puspa D. Amri, Sonoma State University, U.S.
6. Rizal Siddiq, Leiden University, Netherlands.
7. Saskia Schaeffer, Humboldt University, Germany.
8. Saiful Mujani, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, Indonesia. Thomas Pepinsky, Cornell University, U.S.

Visit link: bit.ly/SMPWS2022

Email: smpws@uiii.ac.id