On 18 December 2010 Mohammed
Bouazizi, a humiliated street vendor in Tunisia, protested his mistreatment at the hands of the Tunisian Government
by committing suicide through self-immolation, and thus began the Arab Spring
across the Maghreb, Levant, and throughout Arabia. In this post we look at religion from a functionalist’s
perspective, expand that perspective to include Islam and its impact to tribal
Arab culture, and potential impacts to stability in the Middle East as the
manifest and latent functions and dysfunctions shape the emerging governments
in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Structural functionalism is the
sociological theoretical perspective that states society is a composition of
many parts that work together. The
Sociologist Robert Merton used the term functions to refer to the beneficial
aspects of these parts and dysfunctions to refer to the adverse aspects of
these parts (Henslin 16). The
intended consequences or impacts of an action are referred to as manifest
functions while the unintended consequences of an action are referred to as
either latent functions or latent dysfunctions.
The text describes some the
functions of religion as: it provides answers to the questions of ultimate
meaning; it provides emotional comfort in times of crisis by placing it in the
context of the ultimate meaning of the individual and life; teachings and
rituals can define a community of believers and create social solidarity; laws
of health and rules of conduct provide guidelines for everyday life; The
guidelines for everyday life can also set limits on people’s behavior and
provide for social control—both for believer and non-believer; although
religion generally preserves the social order, once it catches the vision, it
can become and engine of social change (Henslin, 358). The text also identifies war and
persecution as latent dysfunctions of religion (Henslin 359).
Seventh Century Arab tribal
culture was characterized by predatory tribal expansion and raiding in an
effort to increase livestock, water resources and pasturage. Regardless of its origins, the
constitution of rules provided by the prophet Muhammed (PBUH) in the form of
Quranic Suras and Hadiths united the feuding Bedouins in Medina and later all
Arabs by submitting to God and following his path—Sharia. Islam provided the social solidarity of
uniting Arabs to the greater Umma or body of believers and pitting the dar al-Islam (the land
of Islam) against the dar al-harb
(the land of infidels and conflict)(Salzman, 25). Although from our perspective, this may be seen as a
dysfunction, in the context of the culture for which it was introduced, it was
a manifest function. It answered
the questions of ultimate meaning, emotional comfort, social solidarity social
control and guidelines for everyday life.
Islam’s acknowledgement that
Judaism and Christianity were previous versions that had become perverted
granted practitioners of those faiths the special status of Children of the Book
which allowed them to live but required of them a humiliation and subjugation
(Bat, 40-41). In the function of
the greater meaning, Islam supersedes all other laws and theologies. One of its functions is that especially
in Arabic cultures, it permeates all aspects of existence to guide and direct
daily life and governance.
In Western pluralistic thought
a jurist can make a ruling according to the law that may be at odds with his
personal religious views (e.g. a religious judge ruling against school prayer
citing the Constitution’s First Ammendment). This schizophrenia does not exist in the minds of the
adherents of Islam. This incongruity
of thought led to the assassination of President Anwar Sadat for committing the
heresy of making peace with the Jewish state that dared to establish itself in
the dar al-Islam. The weapons and
funding provided to his successor by the Christian country, USA, which was then
used to further subjugate the Egyptians was even reflected in the poetry of the
Egyptian poet who visited Westminster earlier in the semester.
The functions, both manifest
and latent, of Islam in Arabic culture will eventually stabilize the societies
of the Maghreb and elsewhere in
the wake of the Arab Spring.
Social solidarity and social order will be established. However, what is functional in Arabic
societies may be dysfunctional to Western societies and vice versa. Western society seeks a stable region
with the existence of the Jewish state.
Arabic society due to a function of its religion seeks the restoration
of Arab lands to the dar al-Islam.
In the wake of the Arab Spring, I suggest that the Arabs will return to
the core values and functions provided by Islam. While functional for Arabs, this will likely increase
tensions in the region and create a greater challenge for Western diplomats who
will interpret some functional aspects of Islam as being dysfunctional to
foreign policy goals.
Works
Cited
Bat Ye'or, Islam and Dhimmitude: Where
Civilizations Collide Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2002.
Henslin, James M. Essentials of
Sociology: A Down-to-earth Approach—9th Edition Boston: Allyn and Bacon,
2011.
Salzman, Philip Carl. "The Middle
East's Tribal DNA." Middle East Quarterly 15.1 (2008): 23-33.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
