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HVK Archives: Islamism an expression of Arab problems, not the solution

Islamism an expression of Arab problems, not the solution - The Times of India

Rami G. Khouri ()
18 January 1997

Title : Islamism an expression of Arab problems, not the solution
Author : Rami G. Khouri
Publication : The Times of India
Date : January 18, 1997

The popular support for Hamas in Palestine has been perceived by
many in the West and the Middle East as a threat to the successful
implementation of the PLO-Israel peace process. In fact, the
opposite is true; support for Hamas occasionally surges because by
many to be floundering.

The Hamas phenomenon raises the larger question of the real
condition and strength of Islamist politics in the Middle East. Two
decades have passed since the start of the modern Islamist revival
in the mid-1970s 0 enough time to gauge the performance of the
Islamists and to glean valuable clues about how best to deal with
the important challenge they pose and the issues they raise.

Islamism is the single most important manifestation of contemporary
Arab political, social and economic discontent, and the leading
expression of popular rebellion, reawakening and revival throughout
the Middle East. Because of its predominance in developing formerly
colonised lands throughout the south, Islam has also played an
important modern role as an agent for national identity, liberation
and dignity.

The roots of today's populist, politicised Islam lie deep in the
many nationalist, anti-colonial and anti-Western struggles in the
modern Middle East that relied on Islam for several different
purposes: as a rallying cry to seek freedom from foreign
subjugation, to forge national entitles from tribal alliances, or
to reform and revive their stagnant societies In the nineteenth
century.

Such struggles included those of the Mahdi in Sudan and the
Wahhabis In Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Ibn el-Sanusi in Libya and Abd
el-Qadir in Algeria, among many other Reformist Islamist movements
in the twentieth century which were led by Jamal el-Din el-Sanusi
in Libya and Abd el-Qadir in Algeria. Reformist Islamist movements
in the 20th century were led by Jamal el-Din el-Afghani, Mohammad
Abdu and Rashid Rida in Egypt, Allal el-Fasi in Morocco, Abdul Aziz
el-Thalabi in Tunisia and Abdul Hamid ibn Badis in Algeria.

As Israel and most Arab and Western states tried to crush the
Islamists by a combination of political denial and brute force,
they only strengthened and radicalised them. Such government
repression only tends to exacerbate the underlying economic
regression and political autocracy that feed the growth of the
Islamist movements - as Egypt and Algeria have attested.

It also heightens the credibility and appeal of the Islamist ' s as
the most important opposition force, especially among the
economically poor, socially alienated and politically marginalised.

Conversely, where Islamists are accepted as part of the political
system and allowed to organise and compete for power - in Jordan,
Yemen, Kuwait and parts of Lebanon - they tend towards moderation,
pluralism, democratic electoral competition, non-violent struggle
and a minority but credible role in the political power structure.

The experience of Islamists in the political systems of the region
has been very mixed and is important to grasp. Islamism has been
an effective force for protest, challenge and solace, but is unable
to date to translate its vision and promise into a coherent
political programme that responds to people's practical needs, or
to deliver the stable, sensible statehood that Arabs seek.

It remains vague about the precise political, economic and social
programmes it would institute, and has no real, proven national
successes. its strength as a movement that speaks in the alluring
language of change, goodness and justice has not been matched by
its success as an ideology of statehood or as an incumbent regime
in any country.

The five most prominent examples of explicitly 'Islamic' states in
recent years are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Sudan and
Pakistan. They all have positive assets and emotionally and
politically satisfying attributes, but they are hardly a collective
paradigm of sustainable economic development, national stability,
personal freedoms, intellectual tolerance or political pluralism.

In several countries, Islamists of different ideological bents have
exercised local or national power via several routes by winning
through the ballot box (Jordan in 1989, Algeria in 1990 and 1991,
Kuwait in 1993 and Yemen in 1994), by seizing power in tandem with
the military (Iran, Sudan); or by virtue of their status as one of
several ethnic-religious groups in a power-sharing system
(Lebanon).

In virtually all of these cases, they have been unable to deliver
their promises of improving people's quality of life. Islamists
remain more an expression of Arab and middle Eastern problems than
the means to their solution. This is a fact of the modem Middle
East that we should not miss, as we ponder over the future of the
region and the place of Islamist politics within it.

In all countries where Islamists have competed for power in an
open, free and pluralistic political system they have made some
gains, but subsequently they have generated opposition to
themselves and, in some cases, have lost public support. The
clearest example of the latter is in Jordan where the Islamists
(Muslim Brotherhood and independent Islamists) won 40 per cent of
the seats in 1993, and then won less than 15 per cent of the votes
in the nationwide municipal elections in 1995.

In Iran the Islamist regime's economic incompetence has led to a
rising foreign debt, foreign exchange shortages and high inflation.
The regime faces a serious challenge to its policies in the form of
spontaneous demonstrations and riots throughout the country, along
with unprecedented public calls for more personal and intellectual
freedoms.

Islamists will remain strong, effective and appealing where they
are at the stage of challenging regimes (such as in Algeria, Egypt,
and, most recently, Turkey). But they will prove less credible in
cases where they are In power or where they compete for power in an
open system (Iran, Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen and Kuwait, among
others).



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