Islam in Israel: Muslim Communities in Non-Muslim States

Description

Islam is the religion of the majority of Arab citizens in Israel and since the late 1970s has become an important factor in their political and socio-cultural identity. This leads to an increasing number of Muslims in Israel who define their identity first and foremost in relation to their religious affiliation. By examining this evolving religious identity during the past four decades and its impact on the religious and socio-cultural aspects of Muslim life in Israel, Muhammad Al-Atawneh and Nohad Ali explore the local nature of Islam. They find that Muslims in Israel seem to rely heavily on the prominent Islamic authorities in the region, perhaps more so than minority Muslims elsewhere. This stems, inter alia, from the fact that Muslims in Israel are the only minority that lives in a land they consider to be holy and see themselves as a natural.

Muhammad Al Atawneh is senior lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He has published extensively on Islamic law and society in contemporary Arab and Islamic worlds. Research interests focus on the study of Islam in modern times, mainly in three concurrent areas: 1. Islamic law and modernity; 2. state and governance in contemporary Islamic thought and practice; and 3. Islam in Israel which covered significant issues regarding Muslim daily life, attitudes, beliefs, levels of (dis)satisfaction, and attitudes towards the Israeli establishment and Israeli society. Nohad 'Ali is a senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the Western Galilee College, Israel and senior researcher at the Jewish-Arab center at the University of Haifa, Israel. He is an expert on religious fundamentalism (Jewish and Islamic in Israel), political Islam, Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, Arab women and violence.

'This book is a significant contribution to the study of three areas of theoretical interest: Muslims and Islam in general and in Israel as a Jewish state in particular; Minorities in general, and the Palestinian minority in Israel in particular; and interactions between religious groups in a religiously divided reality, such as that among Palestinians in Israel. Questions of coping with the challenges of modernity, attitudes toward others, processes of return to religion, and the development of a unique heritage that fits the political / social context are discussed at length, in a manner that has not been discussed so far. The authors systematically use a variety of quantitative, qualitative methodologies, anthropological observations and their own involvement in the field in order to provide us with a diverse and real account of the lives of the Muslims in Israel. There is no doubt that the contribution of the authors and the book is absolutely vital to any student who has an interest in the fields of interest discussed here.' As'ad Ghanem, University of Haifa, Israel 'The case of a non-dominant Muslim minority in a highly secular, Jewish and Zionist state, in an Islam-endowed land, is historically unprecedented and unparalleled. Islam in Israel is the first book that tells us how Muslim Arabs conduct themselves under these inhospitable and unique circumstances.' Sammy Smooha, University of Haifa, Israel 'This is an excellent study of the Islamic Movement in Israel, which has become a leading educational, moral and religious power with deep-rooted societal and political standing, successfully outweighing its secular and national adversaries. This well-documented and carefully-researched book offers a comprehensive understanding of the causes of its rise, the essence of its ideological tenants and political practices, and the complexities of its survival as an Islamic fundamentalist movement in a Jewish state.' Elie Rekhess, Associate Director, Israel Studies, Northwestern University, Illinois