Please join the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Middle East program for a public discussion marking the launch of a new edited volume, “Islamic Institutions in Arab States: Mapping the Dynamics of Control, Co-option, and Contention.”

The complex relations between the state and Islamic institutions in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco shed light on evolving governance and have important implications for Western policies of countering violent extremism and conflict resolution.

The 2011 uprising in Syria totally transformed the religious establishment in Damascus. The regime sent into exile many prominent, influential religious figures who, forced to work from abroad, formed a religious opposition group called the Syrian Islamic Council.