{"title":"Books by Azmi Bishara","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781787387102","title":"Palestine","description":"In January 2020, US President Donald Trump announced his 'deal of the century'. Supposedly intended to 'resolve' the Palestine-Israel conflict, it accepted Israeli occupation as a fait accompli. Azmi Bishara places this normalisation of occupation in its historical context, examining Palestine as an unresolved case of settler colonialism, now evolved into an apartheid regime.Drawing on extensive research and rich theoretical analysis, Bishara examines the overlap between the long-discussed 'Jewish Question' and what he calls the 'Arab Question', complicating the issue of Palestinian nationhood. He addresses the Palestinian Liberation Movement's failure to achieve self-determination, and the emergence of a 'Palestinian Authority' under occupation. He contends that no solution to problems of nationality or settler colonialism is possible without recognising the historic injustices inflicted on Palestinians since the Nakba. This book compellingly argues that Palestine is not simply a dilemma awaiting creative policy solutions, but a problem requiring the application of justice. Attempts by regional governments to marginalise the Palestinian cause and normalise relations with Israel have emphasised this aspect of the struggle, and boosted Palestinian interactions with justice movements internationally. Bishara provides a sober perspective on the current political situation in Palestine, and a fresh outlook for its future.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305802051957,"sku":"9781787387102","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781787387102_6205e544-8782-4b8c-83bb-912606498428.jpg?v=1786026015"},{"product_id":"9781805263203","title":"Sectarianism Without Sects","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis volume analyses the transformation of social sectarianism into political sectarianism across the Arab world. Using a framework of social theories and socio-historical analysis, the book distinguishes between 'ta'ifa', or 'sect', and modern 'ta'ifiyya', 'sectarianism', arguing that sectarianism itself produces 'imaginary sects'. It charts and explains the evolution of these phenomena and their development in Arab and Islamic history, as distinct from other concepts used to study religious groups within Western contexts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBishara documents the role played by internal and external factors and rivalries among political elites in the formulation of sectarian identity, citing both historical and contemporary models. He contends that sectarianism does not derive from sect, but rather that sectarianism resurrects the sect in the collective consciousness and reproduces it as an imagined community under modern political and historical conditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSectarianism Without Sects\u003c\/em\u003e is a vital resource for engaging with the sectarian crisis in the Arab world. It provides a detailed historical background to the emergence of sect in the region, as well as a complex theoretical exploration of how social identities have assumed political significance in the struggle for power over the state.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307136168309,"sku":"9781805263203","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781805263203_86c0bb27-4c89-479c-a121-928a305d6873.jpg?v=1786028273"},{"product_id":"9780755659005","title":"ISIS","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow should we understand ISIS today? \u003c\/b\u003eDespite its territorial defeat in Iraq and Syria in 2019, ISIS has evolved and expanded globally.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book is the most comprehensive study of ISIS to date, benefitting from Arabic sources previously unavailable to an English-speaking audience. Renowned scholar and political philosopher, Azmi Bishara, stresses the need to place ISIS in its historical, social and political context - rather than primarily its Salafi ideology - in order to understand its rise and expansion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book explains ISIS in terms of both historical and recent political events, including the Six-Day War of 1967, the decline of Arab nationalism, sectarian politics, the outbreak of civil war in Iraq and Syria and the decline of the central state. The book counters the view of some Western researchers that a Sunni environment was conducive to ISIS’s control in Syria and Iraq and also separates the rise of the organization from its exploitation of religious texts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe final chapter defends Islamic civilization against those who hold Islam responsible for ISIS ideology by reviewing and deconstructing significant jihadi Salafi texts and showing the extent to which Salafi thought departs from Islamic thought and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368170795381,"sku":"9780755659005","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780755659005_a39d9f84-af76-4788-b595-cc2040558609.jpg?v=1786015725"},{"product_id":"9781805263005","title":"Arduous Paths","description":"\u003cp\u003eAzmi Bishara’s \u003cem\u003eArduous Paths \u003c\/em\u003ebuilds on his sizeable body of work on democracy through the lenses of civil society, state formation processes and theories, secularisation, populism and sectarianism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArab transition scholarship has often been confined to theory, reliant on models born of specific historical conditions, and uncritical of concepts of democratisation. However, while situating his research within a critical theoretical framework, Bishara engages with the challenges facing wider global contemporary Arab societies by testing theory and lessons learned from democratic transitions elsewhere against Arab cases.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis English translation of his book offers a detailed analysis and timely critique of modernisation and transition theory, interwoven with empirical evidence from the modern Middle East. Bishara evaluates the outcomes of transition experiences in Arab countries that have seen revolutions and popular uprisings, illustrating how—despite the centrality of the demand for democracy across the region during the 2010\/2011 protests, and again in 2019—transition either failed or never took place. The book offers the reader a distinctly Arab contribution to the field of democratic transition studies, made all the more urgent given the relevance of the transition to democracy for those living under authoritarianism.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369234870645,"sku":"9781805263005","price":60.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781805263005_b7bc7517-6c5d-4a30-a8c1-146eb3e32b40.jpg?v=1786028257"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-azmi-bishara.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}