Political Instrumentalisation of Islam, Persistent Autocracies, and Obscurantist Deadlock

This paper discusses series of arguments that fall into the general idea of the “Clash of civilisations”put forward by Samuel Huntington. The paper demonstrates that there is a systematic misconception about the true nature of the relationship between Islam and politics: far from being merged into the religious realm, politics tends to dominate religion. Because of the particular characteristics of Is-lam, namely, the lack of a centralised religious authority structure and the great variability of interpretations of the Islamic law, there is a risk of an “obscurantist deadlock” in the form of a vicious process whereby both the ruler and his political opponents try to outbid each other by using the religious idiom.

Paper prepared for the Conference on “The challenges of fragility to development policy”, organised by the European Report of Development in Barcelona, Spain, 7-8 May, 2009

European Report on Development 2009

Supported by the European Commission and seven Member States (Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), the European Report on Development (ERD) is the main output of the "Mobilising European Research for Development Policies" initiative. This flagship report is published since 2009, with the aim of stimulating debate and research on topics of major relevance for development, as well as to enhance the European perspective in the international development arena.