| Islamism is a political ideology derived from the conservative religious views of Muslim fundamentalism. It holds Islam is not only a
religion, but also a political system that governs the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state.
The goal of Islamism is to re-shape the state by implementing its conservative
formulation of Islamic law. However, most Islamist literature deals not with
other religions, but with political ideologies, since Islamists were reacting against competing movements such as communism. Widespread poverty and consequent class tensions led to widespread socialist movements all over the Muslim world during the 20th century. But the collapse of the Soviet Union ultimately reduced the influence of leftist ideologies. Islamism has
emerged as the remaining revolutionary ideology in Muslim societies, gaining much support through rising anti-Western sentiment
due to control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel.
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001
attacks, Islamism, along with other political movements inspired by Islam, gained
increased attention in the Western media. The media often confuses the term Islamism with related terms such as
Islam, fundamentalism, militant Islam, and
Wahhabism. Although the groups and individuals representing these are not
mutually exclusive, within academia, each term does have a distinct definition. Some Islamist groups have been implicated in
terrorism and have become targets in the War on Terrorism.
Islamofascism is an associated pejorative term.
This topic is also discussed in Islam as a
political movement.
History of Islamism
Islamist movements developed during the twentieth century in reaction to several forces. Following World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire, and the subsequent dissolution of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (founder of Turkey), some Muslims perceived their religion as in retreat, and felt that Western ideas were spreading throughout
Muslim society, along with the influence of Western nations. During the 1960s, the
predominant ideology within the Arab world was pan-Arabism which deemphasized
religion and emphasized the creation of a socialist, secular state based on Arab nationalism rather than Islam.
Governments based on Arab nationalism have found themselves
facing economic stagnation and disorder. Some Muslims place the blame for these flaws in Muslim societies on the influx of
"foreign" ideas; a return to the principles of Islam is seen as the natural cure. A persistent Islamist theme is that Muslims are
persecuted by the West and other foreigners. In this context, Islamist ideas developed in several different settings.
The Deobandi Movement
In India, the Deobandi movement developed as a reaction to British actions against Muslims and the influence of Sayed Ahmad Khan, who advocated the reform and modernization of Islam.
Named after the town of Deoband, where it originated, the movement was built around
Islamic schools (principally Darul Uloom) and taught an
interpretation of Islam that encouraged the subservience of women, discouraged the use of many forms of technology and
entertainment, and believed that only "revealed" or God-inspired knowledge (rather than human knowledge) should be followed.
Though the Deobandi philosophy is puritanical and wishes to remove non-Muslim (i.e., Hindu or Western) influence from Muslim
societies, it was not especially violent or proselytising, confining
its activity mostly to the establishment of madrassas, or Muslim religious
schools. They are a major sector of Muslims in the region (the followers of Sayed Ahmad Khan being a significant minority). The Taliban
movement in Afghanistan was a product of the Deobandi philosophy and the madarassas.
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi was an important early
twentieth-century figure in India, then, after independence from Britain, in Pakistan. Strongly influenced by Deobandi ideology, he advocated the creation of an Islamic state governed by
sharia, Islamic law, as interpreted by Shura
councils. Maududi founded the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941 and remained at
its head until 1972. His extremely influential book, "Towards Understanding Islam" (Risalah Diniyat in Arabic), placed Islam in modern context and enabled not only conservative
ulema but liberal modernizers such as al-Faruqi, whose "Islamization of
Knowledge" carried forward some of Maududi's key principles. Chief among these was the basic compatibility of Islam with an
ethical scientific view. Quoting from Maududi's own work:
- Everything in the universe is 'Muslim' for it obeys God by submission to His laws... For his entire life, from the
embryonic stage to the body's dissolution into dust after death, every tissue of his muscles and every limb of his body follows
the course prescribed by God's law. His very tongue which, on account of his ignorance advocates the denial of God or professes
multiple deities, is in its very nature 'Muslim'... The man who denies God is called Kafir (concealer) because he conceals by his disbelief what is inherent in his nature and embalmed in his own soul.
His whole body functions in obedience to that instinct… Reality becomes estranged from him and he gropes in the
dark.
Inherent in these views was a total intolerance for rule by non-Muslims.
The Muslim Brotherhood
Maududi's ideas were a strong influence on Sayed Qutb in Egypt. Qutb was one of the key philosophers in the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which began in Egypt in 1928 and was banned (but still exists) following
confrontations with Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser, who
jailed Qutb and many others. The Muslim Brotherhood (founded by Hasan
al-Banna) advocated a return to sharia because of what they perceived as the inability of Western values to secure harmony
and happiness for Muslims. Since only divine guidance could lead humans to be happy, it followed that Muslims should eschew
democracy and live according to divinely-inspired sharia. The Brotherhood was one of the first groups to advocate jihad against all those who do not follow Islam. As al-Banna said:
- [Muslim] lands have been trampled over, and their honor besmirched. Their adversaries are in charge of their affairs, and the
rites of their religion have fallen into abeyance within their own domains, to say nothing of their impotence to broadcast the
summons [to embrace Islam]. Hence it has become an individual obligation, which there is no evading, on every Muslim to prepare
his equipment, to make up his mind to engage in jihad, and to get ready for it until the opportunity is ripe and God decrees a
matter which is sure to be accomplished…
Islamic Jihad movements
This exhortation was followed by the Egyptian Islamic
Jihad organisation, responsible for the assassination of Anwar Sadat, but
with a twist: Islamic Jihad focused its efforts on "apostate" leaders of Islamic states, those who were secular and introduced
Western ideas and practice to Islamic societies. Their views were outlined in a pamphlet written by Muhammad Abd al-Salaam Farag,
which said: "…there is no doubt that the first battlefield for jihad is the extermination of these infidel leaders and to
replace them by a complete Islamic Order…"
Another Islamic Jihad group emerged in Palestine as an offshoot of the Egyptian group, and began militant activity against the
state of Israel, and consistently opposed itself to the policies of the secular
Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO) and Yasser Arafat.
Wahhabism
Another influential strain of Islamist thought came from the Wahhabi movement in
Saudi Arabia. The Wahhabists, who emerged in the 18th century led by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, also believed that it was
necessary to live according to the strict dictates of Islam, which they interpreted to mean living in the manner that the prophet
Muhammad and his followers had lived in during the seventh century in Medina. Consequently they were opposed to many innovations developed since that time, including
the minaret, marked graves, and later television and radios. The Wahhabis also considered those Muslims who violated their strict
interpretation to be heretics, and thus used violence against other Muslims. When King Abdul Aziz al-Saud founded Saudi Arabia, he brought the
Wahhabists into power with him. With Saud's rise to prominence, Wahhabism spread, especially following the 1973 oil embargo and the glut of
oil wealth that resulted for Saudi Arabia. The Wahhabists were proselytizers, and made use of their wealth to spread their
interpretation of Islam.
Modern Islamism
Islamism went through its major political and philosophical developments in the early part of the twentieth century, but it
was not until the 1980s that it became active in an international arena and rose to great prominence in the 1990s.
The reasons for the rise of Islamism during this period are still disputed. The ideologies that had dominated the Middle East
since decolonization such as Ba'athism, Arab Socialism, and Arab Nationalism had, by
1980, failed to attain the economic and political goals expected of them. By late 1980s the distinct Shi'ite version of political
Islam had been drained of its vigour in the Iran-Iraq War. During the
conflict against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, many Islamists came together to fight what they saw as an atheist invading force and were heavily
funded by the United States.
In his book Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam Gilles Kepel
argues that the central importance of Islamism in the 1990s was a product of the Persian Gulf War. Prior to 1990 organized political Islam had been mostly associated with Saudi Arabia, a nation founded on Wahabism and an ally of Islamist groups in Egypt
to fight Nasser and in Afghanistan to battle the Soviets. Saudi Arabia, as a close ally
of the west and with a strong interest in regional stability played an important restraining role on Islamist groups.
The Shi'ite clerics in Iran had long argued that Saudi Arabia was an apostate state, a puppet of the west that espoused a
corrupted Islam. During the 1980s these accusations had little effect, largely because of their Shi'ite origin. However Kepel
argues that when Saddam Hussein turned on his former allies he embraced
this rhetoric arguing that Saudi Arabia had betrayed its duty to protect the holiest sites of Islam. Kepel states that Saddam
Hussein embraced Islamic rhetoric and trappings and tried to draw leading scholars and activists to his camp. Some of the main
Islamist groups remained loyal to Saudi Arabia, but a number such as parts of the Muslim Brotherhood and Afghani mujahadeen aligned themselves with Saddam. Far more groups declared themselves neutral
in the struggle.
According to Kepel the rapid defeat of Saddam did not end this rift. As Saddam had likely predicted Saudi Arabia had found
itself in a severe dilemma, the only way to counter the Iraqi threat was to seek help from the west, which would immediately
confirm the Iraqi allegations of Saudi Arabia being a friend to the west. To ensure the regime's survival Saudi Arabia accepted a
massive western presence in the country and de facto cooperation with Israel causing
great offence to many in Islamist circles.
After the war Saudi Arabia launched a two pronged strategy to restore its security and leadership in Islamist circles. Those
Islamist groups who refused to return under the Saudi umbrella were persecuted and any Islamists who had criticized Saudi regime
were arrested or forced into exile, with most going to London. At the same time Saudi
oil money began to flow freely to those Islamist groups who continued to work with the kingdom. Islamist madrasas around the world saw their funding
greatly increased. More covertly Saudi money began to fund more violent Islamist groups in areas such as Bosnia and the former Soviet Union. Saudi Arabia's
western allies mostly looked the other way seeing the survival of their crucial ally as more important than the problem of more
money and resources flowing to Islamist groups.
In the 1990s Islamist conflicts erupted around the world in areas such as Algeria,
the Palestinian territories, Sudan, and Nigeria. In 1995 a
series of terrorist attacks were launched against France. The most important
development was the rise to power of the Deobandi Taliban in Afghanistan in 1996. In the Taliban ruled
Afghanistan a number of anti-Saudi and anti-Western Islamist groups found refuge. Significantly, Osama bin Laden, a Saudi influenced by Wahhabism and the writings of Sayed Qutb, joined forces with
the Egyptian Islamic Jihad under Ayman al-Zawahiri to form what
is now called al-Qaida.
A considerable effort has been made to fight Western targets, especially the United States. The United States in particular is a subject of Islamist ire because of its support of Israel,
its presence on Saudi Arabian soil, what Islamists regard as its aggression against Muslims in Iraq, and its support of the
regimes Islamists oppose. In addition some Islamists have concentrated their activity against Israel, and nearly all Islamists
view Israel with hostility. Osama bin Laden, at least, believes that this is of necessity due to historical conflict between
Muslims and Jews, and considers there to be a Jewish/American alliance against Islam.
There is some debate as to how influential Islamist movements remain. Some scholars assert that Islamism is a fringe movement
that is dying, following the clear failures of Islamist regimes like the regime in Sudan, the Wahhabist Saudi regime and the
Deobandi Taliban to improve the lot of Muslims. However, others (e.g. Ahmed
Rashid) feel that the Islamists still command considerable support and cite the fact that Islamists in Pakistan and Egypt
regularly poll 10 to 30 percent in electoral polls which many believe are rigged against them.
An alternative direction has been taken by many Islamists in Turkey, where the
Islamist movement split into reformist and traditionalist wings in 2001. The reformists
formed the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party, which gained an overall majority in the Turkish
parliament in 2002, and has sought to balance Islamic values with the requirements of a
secular and democratic political system. Some in the Justice and Development Party see the Christian Democrat parties of Western Europe as a model, which has led some to question whether it
is a genuinely Islamist movement.
Islamist movements
External links
Further reading
- Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West, Robert Spencer, Regnery Publishing, 2003
- Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews, Khalid Duran with Abdelwahab Hechiche, The American Jewish
Committee and Ktav, 2001
- The Islamism Debate, Martin Kramer, University Press, 1997
- Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook, Charles Kurzman, Oxford University Press, 1998
- The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama'at-i Islami of Pakistan, Vali Nasr, Univ. of California Press,
1994
- The Failure of Political Islam, Olivier Roy, Harvard Univ. Press, 1994
- The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder, Bassam Tibi, Univ. of California Press, 1998
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