Research Library

This report evaluates the pandemic’s effect on the religious lives, mental health and views of government of Muslims across five predominantly Muslim countries.

In a study for the British Journal of Political Science, the authors found that Muslim religious leaders weaken their perceived religious authority when they engage with politics.

A report from center experts on the evolution of Islamist politics, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, security in the Persian Gulf and displacement in the Middle East.

The dramatic electoral defeat of Morocco’s Islamist PJD party last fall signaled a major shift in the region’s politics: Islamist parties have become politically vulnerable and must deliver results or face the wrath of voters.

Morocco’s Party of Justice and Development offers the authors a rare opportunity to evaluate an Islamist party’s approach to the economy that can counter its own policies.

Middle East fellow A.Kadir Yildirim reviews the varied responses of Islamist groups in the Middle East to the Biden presidency and suggests that, in most cases, their reactions were crafted to further their political — not religious — objectives.

This brief explores pressing issues the Biden administration should address in developing a strategy for the Middle East. It provides analysis and policy recommendations related to the GCC states, U.S.-Iran relations, Islamist groups, and refugees and migration. Further CME publications will address issues such as the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace and the crisis in Lebanon.

Despite near-universal identification with the Palestinian cause and a visceral opposition to Israel, religious and Islamist responses to the Arab normalization agreements have ranged from sharply critical to relatively measured. What's behind this variation? Middle East fellow A.Kadir Yildirim explains.

Using religious political parties in Iran and Turkey as case studies, the authors argue that the parties are not passively constrained by religious doctrine. Rather, they actively and continually construct religious narratives that respond to their immediate threat perceptions and political environment. Read more at Political Science Quarterly.