Orientalism in reverse

Radical Philosophy

Volumn , Issue 151, 2008, Pages 20-30

  Achcar, Gilbert ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 50849103623     PISSN: 0300211X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (78)

1. The June 1967 war accelerated the conversion of 'objective Marxism' into 'subjective Marxism' in the Arab world, as Abdallah Laroui had foreseen on the eve of the war. See his book, L'idéologie arabe contemporaine, preface by Maxime Rodinson, Maspéro, Paris, 1967.
2. Sadik Jalal al-'Azm, 'Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse', in Khamsin 8, London: Ithaca Press, 1981 (the article is dated 'Autumn 1980'), pp. 5-26; reproduced in A.L. Macfie, ed., Orientalism: A Reader, NYU Press, New York, 2000, pp. 217-38.
3. Al-'Azm, Al-Istishraq wal-Istishraq Maakusan, Dar ul-Hadatha, Beirut, 1981.
4. Khamsin, p. 18; Macfie, ed., Orientalism, p. 230.
5. Khamsin, p. 22; Macfie, ed., Orientalism, p. 234.
6. See his 1978-79 articles and interviews on Iran collected in Michel Foucault, Dits et écrits II, 1976-1988, Gallimard, Paris, 2001, pp. 662-794. These texts were translated and published in English in the appendix of Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005, pp. 189-267.
7. Foucault's worst article was the one that was published in the French weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur in October 1978 under the title 'What are the Iranians Dreaming About?' (Dits et écrits II, pp. 688-94; Afary and Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution, pp. 203-9). On Foucault's 'divagations' about Iran, see the bitter and vigorous comment by Maxime Rodinson in his L'Islam: politique et croyance, Paris, Fayard, 1993, pp. 301-27; English translation in the appendix to Foucault and the Iranian Revolution, pp. 267-77.
8. Guy Hocquenghem, Lettre ouverte á ceux qui sont passés du col Mao au Rotary (1986), Agone, Marseille, 2003, preface by Serge Halimi.
9. Olivier Roy, 'Les Islamologues ont-ils inventé I'islamisme?', Esprit, August-September 2001, pp. 116-36.
10. For argumentation about the perfectly legitimate use of the term and concept of 'fundamentalism', see al-'Azm's excellent essay, 'Islamic Fundamentalism Reconsidered: A Critical Outline of Problems, Ideas and Approaches', Parts I and II, in South Asia Bulletin, vol. 13, no. 1/2, 1993, pp. 93-121, and vol. 14, no. 1, 1994, pp. 73-98.
11. Expressions such as 'political Islam' or 'militant Islam' share the same flaw.
12. The first recorded use of 'Islamism' in the new sense occurred in 1979 in an article published in Le Nouvel Observateur (12 March) by Habib Boularès, a Tunisian nationalist who had been a member of the cabinet under Habib Bourguiba in 1970-71 and was to join again the Tunisian government under Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. His assessment of what he called 'Islamism' was not apologetic, of course. The term then found its first use in the realm of French scholarly Orientalism under the pen of Jean-François Clément, 'Pour une compréhension des mouvements islamistes', in Esprit, January 1980, pp. 38-51. Clément was also quite unsympathetic to the movements he described. Thus, a further paradox is that the term 'Islamism' itself, before it became the pet label of 'Orientalists in reverse', was first applied to the new generation of Islamic fundamentalists by authors despising them. These authors merely wanted to cover with one single word the whole spectrum of political currents raising the banner of Islam, from the most progressive to the most ... fundamentalist/ intégriste (a term they did not refrain from using).
13. Olivier Carré, La légitimation islamique des socialismes arabes. Analyse conceptuelle combinatoire des manuels scolaires égyptiens, syriens et irakiens, FNSP, Paris, 1979. Carré's 'hypothesis' is summed up on p. 257.
14. For a discussion of this matter, see my article, "Religion and Politics Today from a Marxian Perspective', in Global Flashpoints: Reactions to Imperialism and Neoliberalism, Socialist Register 2008, Merlin Press, London, 2007, pp. 55-76.
15. Olivier Carré, 'L'utopie islamiste au Moyen-Orient arabe et particulièrement en Egypte et en Syrie', co-authored with Michel Seurat, although each one's contribution is distinguished from the other's, in O. Carré, ed., L'Islam et l'Etat dans le monde d'aujourd' hui, PUF, Paris, 1982, pp. 13-20 (Carré's section). Carré thus lent his scholarly authority to the use of the term 'Islamism' against which Maxime Rodinson had argued.
16. Olivier Carré and Gérard Michaud (a pseudonym used by Seurat), ed., Les Frères musulmans Égypte et Syrie (1928-1982), Gallimard/Julliard, Paris, 1983.
17. Ibid., p. 205.
18. Ibid., p. 219.
19. Ibid., p. 218.
20. Ibid., p. 203.
21. Claire Brière and Olivier Carré, Islam: Guerre à l'Occident?, Autrement, Paris, 1983. Claire Brière, a French journalist, had previously co-authored a book on the Iranian Revolution that was regarded as over-enthusiastic (Claire Brière and Pierre Blanchet, Iran: La révolution au nom de Dieu, Paris, Seuil, 1979). It included an interesting interview with Michel Foucault that contributed, however, to the latter's moment of disgrace when the new Iranian regime started displaying its authoritarian features (Foucault, Dits et écrits II, pp. 743-55).
22. Olivier Carré, 'L'Islam politique en Égypte', in Brière and Carré, Islam: Guerre à l'Occident?, p. 138.
23. Ibid., p. 172.
24. Gilles Kepel, Le Prophète et Pharaon. Les mouvements islamistes dans l'Egypte contemporaine, La Découverte, Paris, 1984; English translation The Prophet and Pharaoh: Muslim Extremism in Contemporary Egypt, Saqi, London, 1985.
25. Olivier Roy, L'Afghanistan. Islam et modernité politique, Seuil, Paris, 1985; English translation Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986.
26. L'Afghanistan, p. 11;
27. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, pp. 2-3 (mistranslated).
28. L'Afghanistan, pp. 12-13;
29. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, pp. 3-4.
30. L'Afghanistan, p. 17;
31. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, p. 8.
32. L'Afghanistan, p. 94;
33. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, p. 69.
34. L'Afghanistan, p. 110;
35. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, pp. 82-3 (translation revised).
36. L'Afghanistan, p. 214;
37. Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, p. 156 (translation revised).
38. François Burgat, L'islamisme au Maghreb: La voix du Sud, Karthala, Paris, 1988. An English updated edition was published four years later, The Islamic Movement in North Africa, University of Texas, Austin, 1992. The book was translated by William Dowell, then correspondent of Time magazine in Cairo, and bore his name as co-author, probably because he brought important changes to the original edition as there are many differences between the two versions. This is why I have preferred to select quotations from the French edition and translate them directly myself - references are to the third French edition of Burgat's book: L'islamisme au Maghreb, Payot, Paris, 1995.
39. François Burgat, 'De la difficulté de nommer: intégrisme, fondamentalisme, islamisme', Esprit, March 1988, p. 137.
40. Burgat, L'islamisme au Maghreb, p. 80.
41. Ibid., p. 69.
42. Ibid., p. 70.
43. Ibid., pp. 71-2.
44. Tehran at that time was engaged in an 'asymmetric campaign' (to put it in military jargon) against France in retaliation for the heavy involvement of Paris on Baghdad's side in the Iraq-Iran war.
45. Olivier Carré, L'Utopie islamique dans l'Orient arabe, FNSP, Paris, 1991, p. 16. The term 'barbarism' was applied by Seurat to the Syrian regime - see his article under the pseudonym Gérard Michaud, 'L'État de barbarie, Syrie 1979-1982', Esprit, November 1983, reproduced in a posthumous collection bearing the same title, Michel Seurat, L'État de barbarie, Seuil, Paris, 1989.
46. Farhad Khosrokhavar, 'Du néo-orientalisme de Badie: enjeux et méthodes', Peuples méditerranéens 50, January-March 1990 - a brilliant polemical essay against Bertrand Badie.
47. Gilbert Achcar, The Clash of Barbarisms, 2nd edn, Saqi, London, p. 167 n33.
48. L'Utopie islamique, p. 16.
49. Olivier Carré, L'Islam laïque ou le retour à la Grande Tradition, Armand Colin, Paris, 1993.
50. Ibid., p. 136.
51. Olivier Roy, L'Échec de l'Islam politique, Paris, Seuil, 1992; English edition: The Failure of Political Islam, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1994.
52. L'Échec de l'Islam politique, p. 39;
53. The Failure of Political Islam, p. 23 (translation revised).
54. L'Échec de l'Islam politique, p. 102;
55. The Failure of Political Islam, p. 75.
56. L'Échec de l'Islam politique, p. 10;
57. The Failure of Political Islam, pp. ix-x.
58. Olivier Roy, L'islam mondialisé, Seuil, Paris, 2002.
59. Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, Hurst, London, 2004.
60. Globalised Islam, pp. 3-4.
61. Ibid., p. 64.
62. Ibid., pp. 1-2.
63. Ibid., p. 88.
64. Ibid., p. 1.
65. Ibid., p. 97.
66. Ibid., p. 52.
67. Ibid., p. 307.
68. Ibid., p. 48.
69. Olivier Roy, 'Why do they hate us? Not because of Iraq', New York Times, 22 July 2005.
70. Olivier Roy, 'L'Iran fait monter les enchères', Le Monde, 21 July 2006.
71. Olivier Roy, 'We're winning, despite the "war"', International Herald Tribune, 7 September 2006.
72. François Burgat, L'islamisme en face, La Découverte, Paris, 1995; English translation Face to Face with Political Islam, London, I.B. Tauris, 2003.
73. L'islamisme à l'heure d'Al-Qaida, La Découverte, Paris, 2005.
74. L'islamisme en face, p. 100;
75. Face to Face with Political Islam, p. 65.
76. Al-'Azm, 'Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse', p. 25;
77. Macfie, ed., Orientalism, p. 237.
78. Maxime Rodinson, La Fascination de l'Islam, Maspero, Paris, 1980, p. 100; English translation: Europe and the Mystique of Islam, I.B. Tauris, London, 1988, pp. 76-7 (translation revised).