The Relationship Between Religious Groups and Organizations and Civil Society in the Middle East

What is the relationship between religious groups and organizations and civil society in the Middle East? The article argues that religious groups and organizations have historically played an important role in the public spheres in Muslim societies. Although the emergence of modern states in the Middle East has transformed the structures and the functions of religious institutions, they remain influential actors of civil societies in most Arab countries of the Middle East. To gather the data, we employed library and documentary research methods. The article, first, would discuss the dominant theories of civil society reasoning against the possibility of the emergence of civil society in this region. Then, through the critical re-evaluation of these theories, it would argue that a comprehensive understanding of the structures of public spheres in the mentioned societies, cannot be achieved without taking into consideration their social, cultural, and political characteristics. To prove its claim, we would refer to historical experiences of religious institutions of civil societies in some Muslim countries such as Egypt, Iran, and Sudan. At the end, we would suggest four theoretical approaches which could be applied to sociological studies of civil society in Islamic countries of the Middle East.