Jasmin Lorch is a Postdoc and Annemarie Schimmel Scholar at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt. Her current research interests include civil society developments in the Philippines, Bangladesh and Algeria, democratization and political conflict in Bangladesh, and the political transition in Myanmar. She has been involved in consultancy work for various development agencies working in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Salafism Meets Populism: The Al-Karama Coalition and the Malleability of Political Salafism in Tunisia
The nascent research on political Salafism suggests that it can often be much more pragmatic, flexible, and malleable than both the quietist and the jihadist Salafist strand and can sometimes show a certain openness to other political actors and ideologies. The case of the Tunisian al-Karama Coalition (Dignity Coalition) indicates that the new (tactical) openness of some politicized Salafists can also extend to populism. In this article, the authors locate the rise of al-Karama within the context of Tunisia’s successful but still incomplete and “bumpy democratic transition.”
Trajectories of Political Salafism: Insights from the Ahle Hadith Movement in Pakistan and Bangladesh
The recent research on Salafism has focused almost entirely on the Middle East, while neglecting other world regions, such as Asia. However, the region of former British India, and, especially, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh that emerged from the partition of India in 1947 and 1971, respectively, provide highly interesting insights into the trajectories that the development of political Salafism can take. In this region, the Ahle Hadith school of thought, the South Asian variant of Salafism, has a tradition of political activism that predates the emergence of political Salafism in the Middle East.
Online and Traditional Forms of Protest Mobilization: Morocco’s Rif Protests and Beyond
When investigating the relative role that social media and other factors can play in the mobilization of popular demonstrations, the recent Rif protests, which some have perceived as having the potential to spark a “second Arab Spring” in Morocco, are interesting to look at. These protests suggest that large-scale popular demonstrations might often result from a combination of both online mobilization and much more traditional mobilization strategies employed by charismatic movement leaders. In this sense, the Rif protests also contradict assumptions about the presumed role of “diffuse leadership,” which emerged in the context of the Arab Spring.
Varieties and Dilemmas of Activism in Informal Spaces of Resistance: The Case of Burma under Military Rule
Activism in informal spaces of resistance in Burma took a large variety of forms, which often differed from horizontal, inclusive and democratic modes of mobilization. This essay sketches three of the most relevant examples of such informal activism and shares some of the lessons these examples might hold for the MENA region and beyond.
Civil Society, Political Alliance-Building, and Democratization in the Philippines: An Instructive Example for the MENA Region?
If the case of the Philippines is any measure, civil society actors rely on strategic alliances with political elites in order to be able to exert profound political influence, and popular demonstrations led by civil society are dependent on at least tacit military support to succeed. A cursory look at the MENA region shows a rather similar pattern. During the Arab Spring, civilian protests toppled authoritarian regimes only in those countries where the military chose not to crack down, or even sided with the protesters.
