Religious revivalism recruits educated urban middle classes, not peasants

Evidence

While students and intellectuals formed the militant cadres and shock troops of Islamist movements, urban middle-class people made up the bulk of the active membership. In some degree these came from what are often termed “traditional” middle-class groups: merchants, traders, small business proprietors, bazaaris. These played a crucial role in the Iranian Revolution and provided significant support to fundamentalist movements in Algeria, Turkey, and Indonesia. To an even greater extent, however, fundamentalists belonged to the more “modern” sectors of the middle class. Islamist activists “probably include a disproportionately large number of the best-educated and most intelligent young people in their respective populations,” including doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, teachers, civil servants. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 308 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Participants in the religious resurgence come from all walks of life but overwhelmingly from two constituencies, both urban and both mobile. Recent migrants to the cities generally need emotional, social, and material support and guidance, which religious groups provide more than any other source. Religion for them, as Régis Debray put it, is not “the opium of the people, but the vitamin of the weak.” The other principal constituency is the new middle class embodying Dore’s “second-generation indigenization phenomenon.” The activists in Islamic fundamentalist groups are not, as Kepel points out, “aging conservatives or illiterate peasants.” With Muslims as with others, the religious revival is an urban phenomenon and appeals to people who are modern-oriented, well-educated, and pursue careers in the professions, government, and commerce. Among Muslims, the young are religious, their parents secular. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 275 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Religious revivalists are young, urban, modern, well-educated professionals — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 275; Islamic revival found wide middle-class support, not just among the dispossessed; Islamic revivalism attracted middle classes through critique of Western lifestyles — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 20 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Islamist movements drew their active membership from modern urban professionals, not peasants #corroborates (0.97) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 308
• Religious revivalists are young, urban, modern, well-educated professionals #corroborates (0.95) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 275
• Urban modern middle classes, not just traditional bazaaris, supplied most Islamist activists #corroborates (0.93)