Leading the Faithful: Religious Authority in the Contemporary Middle East

To cite this publication: “Leading the Faithful: Religious Authority in the Contemporary Middle East,” CIRS Summary Report no. 25 (Doha, Qatar: Center for International and Regional Studies, 2020).

This report summarizes the research conducted in the CIRS initiative “Leading the Faithful: The Role of Religious Authorities in the Middle East,” which investigates the dynamics, position of, and role played by spiritual leaders of different religious communities in the Middle East during and after the Arab uprisings. The protests and their aftermath have prompted scholars to reexamine the role played by various state institutions and different social actors across the Middle East, and recent scholarship has produced new insight on the post-2011 role and impact of the media, youth, civil society, and the armed forces amongst other stakeholders. Largely absent from the discussion, however, have been the region’s religious leaders and the role they have played, within their own communities and also in engagement with broader social and political forces, in the post Arab uprisings Middle East. The research project includes examinations of the leaders of the multiple religions and faiths present in the Middle East, which include Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá’ism, Druze, Yazidism, Alevism, and Zoroastrianism. The project explores a variety of topics such as religious leadership; traditional authority; sovereignty; state conceptions and management of religions, faiths, and sacred sites; women religious leaders; training and religious qualifications; political economy of the religious establishment; and religious-political movements, sources of power, and resistance.