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About Sami Zubaida

Sami Zubaida is emeritus professor of politics and sociology at Birkbeck College, London. He is the author of Beyond Islam: A New Understanding of the Middle East (IB Tauris, 2011)

His earlier books include Islam, the People and the State: Political Ideas and Movements in the Middle East (IB Tauris, 1993); A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (IB Tauris, 2001); and Law and Power in the Islamic World  (IB Tauris, 2005)

Articles by Sami Zubaida

Friday 21st October

The "Arab spring" in historical perspective

How will the popular uprisings in the Arab world affect the future of states and regimes in the region? All possible outcomes are shadowed by the fate of the contending ideologies and movements - nationalism and socialism, secularism and Islamism, dynasticism and liberal constitutionalism - that have dominated the Arab political landscape in recent decades, says Sami Zubaida. His overview of their rise and fall both illuminates a complex history and indicates the scale of the challenge facing democratic reformers today.
Wednesday 7th September

9/11: the identity-politics trap

The reaction to the attacks of 11 September 2001 included an instinctive veneration of their chief architect. Its deeper foundation is a regressive and widespread ethno-religious view of the world, says Sami Zubaida.
Monday 30th May

Turkey as a model of democracy and Islam

Democracies are about more than elections and majorities: they require genuine separation of powers, autonomous institutions and associations, all regulated by the rule of law. The current Turkish situation is the product of social and institutional patterns, now in question, in which multiple centres of institutional power confronted and checked one another, unlike the centralised and personalised regimes of much of the Arab world.
Tuesday 20th July

Cosmopolitan citizenship in the Middle East

As ethnic and sectarian solidarities and conflicts sharpen in this part of the world, it may be worth reminding ourselves of another way of being - ‘new Ottoman’ cosmopolitanism, with its complex relationship to colonialism
Friday 22nd February

Sharia: practice of faith, politics of modernity

The theology and history of Islamic law are important, but more must be known about its practice
Tuesday 5th June

The many faces of multiculturalism

Tariq Modood's revised version smuggles in a religious essentialism
Wednesday 14th February

Islam, religion and ideology

The argument made by Meghnad Desai for the confinement of religion to the private sphere does not take account of the dynamics of modern Islamic belief, says Sami Zubaida.
Friday 18th November

Democracy, Iraq and the middle east

Iraq had a vibrant civil society and rich layers of secular political argument in the pre-Saddam era. These key ingredients must be reclaimed if democracy is to take root in the middle east, says Sami Zubaida.
Thursday 27th October

In search of British Muslim identity: responses to 'Young, Angry and Muslim'

Navid Akhtar’s documentary film seeks the roots of alienation of young Muslims in Britain and discovers a complex story that starts long before the July bombs in London. Six viewers – S. Sayyid, Max Farrar, Mohammed Sajid, David T, Abdul-Rehman Malik, and Sami Zubaida – assess the film and the issues it highlights.
Sunday 21st August

Iraq's constitution on the edge

The deadline for agreement on the Iraqi constitution is slipping. Sami Zubaida examines the issues that may prevent a workable agreement.
Tuesday 2nd August

The London bombs: Iraq or the 'rage of Islam'?

Many commentators regard the London terror attacks as Tony Blair’s payback for Britain’s role in Iraq. Sami Zubaida assesses the evidence.
Thursday 15th April

Understanding the insurgencies in Iraq

Will Iraqis unite in revolt against US forces? Beneath the boiling surface of Iraqi anger lies a more complex and fractious reality which points to a different outcome.
Friday 13th February

The next Iraqi state: secular or religious?

Will Iraq’s new state define its people as secular citizens, religious believers or members of a tribe? Sami Zubaida sees the Iraqi Governing Council’s arguments over “personal status” issues – including marriage, family, and women’s rights – as the latest, vital chapter of a struggle for democracy and the rule of law across the Middle East.
Wednesday 5th February

The rise and fall of civil society in Iraq

Iraq's rich social, political and cultural life in the mid-20th century has been crushed in the decades of Saddam Hussein's rule. Now that his regime faces a terminal crisis, what resources from this earlier period remain as the possible foundation of a post-Ba'athist order? Sami Zubaida examines the buried legacies of Iraq's modern history.
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