God in the Tumult of the Global Square: Religion in Civil Society by Mark Juergensmeyer, Dinah Griego, and John Soboslai

Published date01 September 2016
DOI10.1177/0020702016661181
Date01 September 2016
Subject MatterBook Reviews
resistance. The extensive notes and reading guide direct interested readers to areas
that of necessity have received less attention, such as the diplomatic and Cold War
contexts. While succinct on individual actors and (international) events, his work
confronts an array of debates concerning apartheid: its origins, ef‌fects, milestones,
and demise. Given the generational dimension of the struggle on both sides, the
importance of memory could have been treated more explicitly. The richness of this
book also makes it less suitable as a primer on the subject. Siko’s conclusion is
pessimistic on the prospects of the vox populi inf‌luencing foreign policy—despite
successful opposition to President Mbeki’s stance on HIV treatment in Africa.
Many voters continue to have more pressing needs than to worry about inter-
national af‌fairs. In a way, Siko’s survey illustrates the perennial distance between
voters and those at the very top of the South African government. As consecutive
governments fail to deliver universal services, and with demands for redress of
grievances being subverted or brutally repressed, protests have become more prom-
inent and violent in the last decade.
7
This reminds us of the history described by
Dubow. Today’s protests by marginalized communities are delegitimized as
‘‘unrest’’ and suppressed by a retrograde police function. Being denied a role in
local development, the poor and disenfranchised create their own participatory
space through disobedience and protest.
8
As will be clear from the previous dis-
cussion, these problems originate in part in institutions internalized beneath apart-
heid’s ‘‘long shadow.’’
9
Mark Juergensmeyer, Dinah Griego, and John Soboslai
God in the Tumult of the Global Square: Religion in Civil Society
Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. xiv + 155pp. US$81.95 (cloth), $24.95 (paper),
$15.20 (Kindle)
ISBN: 978–0–520–28346–6 (cloth); 978–0–520–28347–3 (paper); 978–0–520–95932–3
(electronic)
Reviewed by: James G. Mellon, independent scholar, Halifax, NS, Canada
In the midst of the tumult at Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the protests that ultim-
ately brought down the Mubarak regime in 2011, Muslims were able on Friday to
engage in prayer safe from the intervention of troops because they were surrounded
as they prayed by a ring composed of Coptic Christians, and on Sunday the Coptic
Christians could pray without harassment because they were protected by a ring of
7. Mbekezeli C. Mkhize, ‘‘Is South Africa’s 20 years of democracy in crisis? Examining the impact of
unrest incidents in local protests in the post-apartheid South Africa,’’ African Security Review 24,
no. 2 (2015): 190–206.
8. Ibid., 199.
9. James L. Gibson, ‘‘Apartheid’s long shadow,’’ Foreign Affairs, 10 February 2015, https://www.
foreignaffairs.com/articles/south-africa/2015-02-10/apartheid-s-long-shadow (accessed 21 February
2016).
508 International Journal 71(3)

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