Untangling Islamism from Jihadism: Opportunities for Islam and the West after the Arab Spring
2012; Pluto Journals; Volume: 34; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2043-6920
Autores Tópico(s)Islamic Studies and History
ResumoThe Middle East since the early twentieth century has been plagued by competing messianic ideologies, be they secular ideas of Arab unity or religious oriented concepts, both revolving around a constant struggle over identity and order. The competition between secular politics and political Islam after the collapse of Ottoman authority and the ensuing processes of colonization and de-colonization have contributed in part to regional instability, and it is during this period that elements of Islamism which fuse the notions of jihad and Salafism began to emerge. The exclusion of religious organizations from political participation in countries ruled by regimes who have historically found their legitimacy to govern challenged not only by those seeking democratic reforms but also Islamists who argue for the inclusion of religion in politics and those who outright reject secular government has contributed to regional instability. Islamic institutions have faced a choice between marginalization, subjugation or radicalization, none of which has allowed Islam to play a significant participatory role in the political process, relegating faith to either a matter of private practice, an extremist discourse or a tool for legitimizing the rule of the political elite. The Middle Eastern regimes are not the sole cause for the rise of Salafi Jihadism and organizations like al-Qaeda, they have however been instrumental in excluding religion from political space, which has resulted in some turning to extremism as an alternative to subjugation or marginalization. What are the prospects for the relationship between the state and religion in the future with the fall of the regimes in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and potential changes in other parts of the region?By the 1970s Islamic revivalism was consolidating its position as a powerful political and social force that affected the political thinking of every element of society, not only among the fringe and not only in the Middle East. Pan Arabism in the 1950s and 1960s with its socialist ideals and objectives of a unified Arab world kept Islamic dissidents distant from the political arena.1 However, in the absence of any significant unification discourse by the 1980s, the resignation of Arab leaders to privilege internal affairs of state in particular Anwar al-Sadat who promoted an Egypt first policy and signed the Camp David Accords to make peace with Israel, coupled with the internal failings of the Arab states both economically and socially created conditions that allowed Islam to became once again a powerful political force in the Middle East. In attempting to make sense of this Islamic revival brought to global attention by the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat in 1981 and the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979, the political discourse and scholarship in the West further aided in attempting to suppress Islam as a legitimate political element. Islamic revival was understood as increased political activity in the name of Islam, compressing the variety of Islams from state-supported Islam, mystical Islam, radical Islam and moderate centrist political Islam under a single umbrella in the search for a unitary cause for political upheaval in the region.2 This led to the logical folly of understanding political Islam as absolutely linked with Jihadism. The danger in the present is that this line of thought may well continue to influence the policies of both the West and the new governments that will arise in the recent revolutionary states of the Middle East. It is difficult to dispute that political leaders both Western and Arab have been willing to subvert democratic principles and subscribe to in the case of the former or actively promote in the case of the latter, the lesser of two evils argument that suggests pluralism and the inclusion of religious political actors in governing will lead to inevitable instability. If political Islam in all of its diverse forms is cast under the same umbrella yet again it will be difficult for the West particularly the United States not to repeat the pattern of behavior and policy that has been commonplace since the end of World War II. …
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