Aarhus Universitets segl

New project on Shia and Sunni Islamism(s)

Headed by Morten Valbjørn together with Jeroen Gunning (King’s College London), and funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

Bringing in the Other Islamists – comparing Arab Shia and Sunni Islamism(s) in a sectarianized Middle East

Research on Islamism has remained predominantly Sunni-centric. This project brings ‘the Other Islamists’ - Shia Islamists - into the debate on Islamism in the Arab Middle East. It uses a cross-disciplinary theoretical approach, which takes religion seriously without essentialising it, to explore whether, and if so, how and why, Shia Islamism(s) differ from their Sunni counterparts. The project focuses on 3 puzzles from the Islamism and sectarianization debates:

  1. to what extent are Islamist movements shaped by their context vs their religious identity/ideology/institutions;
  2. to what extent and how does the importance of sect-coded identities for Islamists change over time and how has this affected/been affected by sectarianization;
  3. what role does sectarian othering play in intra-sect competition.

These questions are examined through 3 WPs made up of comparative and within-case-studies of key Islamist movements in Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Bahrain.

More info at http://www.ps.au.dk/toi.