Political) Islam in Azerbaijan: Quo Vadis?
A RESACRALIZATION OF PUBLIC SPACE AND THE FUTURE OF (POLITICAL) ISLAM IN AZERBAIJAN: QUO VADIS? CAP PAPERS 186 (FELLOWS PAPERS SERIES) MAY 2017 Murad Ismayilov1 Our country suffers from a number of fundamental problems, without there being thoroughly examined and analyzed, such as the problem of morals, the problem of self-confidence, the problems of sex, individualism and the lack of readiness to offer help and sacrifice for others, cultural imitation, the problem of economic development and its relationship with morality, etc. These problems result from our historical, political and educational circumstances and from the effect of international circumstances on our own situation. It is necessary that we have our own criteria by which our circumstances should be judged. [By this] I mean a special culture and a special analysis of the universe, the human being and life. -- Rachid al-Ghannouchi, co-founder of the Tunisian Islamic Movement, al-Ma’rifa magazine, 10th issue, 1973, 11-14 (qtd. in Mohamed Elhachmi Hamdi, The Politicisation of Islam: A Case Study of Tunisia (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998), 22. 1 Murad Ismayilov is a doctoral researcher at Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies (PPSIS) at the University of Cambridge. He holds an MSt in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and an M.A. in International Relations from Baku State University. He has been awarded fellowships and research and visiting scholar grants from Open Society Institute Europe Foundation, Aleksanteri Institute, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Michigan State University’s Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (CERES), and NATO Studies Centre (Bucharest, Romania).
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