Towards Autonomy? The Islamist Movement's Quest for Control of Islamic Institutions in Israel

From origins as a small clandestine association, the Islamist movement in Israel grew into a major grassroots organization with political representation at the municipal and national levels by the late 1990s. The movement has been particularly successful in mobilizing Israel's Muslim population to challenge the state-controlled Islamic institutions. The current literature tends to downplay the impact of this escalating campaign either to gain control over Islamic institutions (such as waqf, charitable endowments, and shari'a courts) or to establish autonomous alternatives wherever possible. The article focuses on this quest in order to assess the movement's development and its prospects for future communal autonomy.