Description

While religious politics and political Islam provided an important frame of reference in the Arab uprisings of 2010-11, some scholars contend that popular movements in the Middle East, in recent years, draw on more ecumenical perspectives, in which personal piety, public faith, the civic good, and other vectors of identity and mobilization play critical roles.
The Century Foundation (TCF) proposes a study of the transformation of religious politics in Egypt and Iraq, two pivotal countries in the region. Each country has followed a different trajectory, while both have grappled with governance failures, popular revolts and/or regime change, and the unleashing of populist religious and political forces. In Iraq, citizens and politicians have recently begun to frame their claims in terms of services and rights rather than religious sect and identity. In Egypt, since the Muslim Brotherhood was driven from power in 2013, Islamists have responded in diverse ways: some have turned to violence, others have embraced personal piety, others are in jail or engaged in secular or nationalist politics. The research will examine these transformations, and what roles religious authority and personal piety play in the shaping of politics, law and power.
The project will be led by Thanassis Cambanis and Michael Hanna, senior fellows at TCF. Each case study will include up to six researchers from the region, and will utilize ethnographic documentation; analysis of political systems; interviews with participants, from activists to ayatollahs; and mapping the role of Islamist parties, civil opposition, clerical institutions, and, where applicable, religious militias.
The PIs plan to track the effects of the pandemic on religious politics in the region, where the public health response has already strained the relationship between religious institutions and government. In Iraq, for example, there is the possibility of state collapse as a result of inability to deal with the health emergency. Shia militias are directly challenging state authority, while political actors call on the senior clerics to resolve the crisis and to legitimize preventive lockdowns. All this has implications for the relative legitimacy and power of clerics and government officials.
TCF expects that the planned research travel can proceed, although it may have to be deferred to the second year. The project is designed so that local researchers and working group members already play a substantial role. If necessary, planning and workshops can be held virtually.
The project will result in 8-12 reports on the TCF website, op-eds and commentaries, research convenings, the publication of an edited volume and single-author books, media engagement, public events and private briefings with policy makers and stakeholders. The goal is also to strengthen a sustainable network of researchers, in the region and internationally.
The Century Foundation was founded in 1919 to promote public policy thinking and debates on key issues of the day. In the past decade, TCF has conducted multi-year projects on foreign policy that combine dialogue and convening with research and public outreach, including a project funded by HRLI that resulted in the volume, Citizenship and its Discontents: The Struggle for Rights, Pluralism and Inclusion in the Middle East . TCF’s foreign policy team is led by Hanna, a lawyer specializing in Egypt. Cambanis, who will serve as co-PI, specializes in popular movements and mass politics in the Arab world. Luce Foundation funds would cover partial salaries, research stipends, convenings, and media outreach. 
 Recommendation: That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a three-year grant of $350,000 to the Century Foundation for the project, “Faith and Fracture: Religious Politics Under Transformative Pressure.”