In recent decades, Arab governments have lost a lot of confidence from their citizens. Their failure to liberate occupied Arab lands and eliminate the Zionist entity, is a huge disappointment to Arabs everywhere. The Arabs have become discontented with nationalism and with the spread of corruption in their countries, and with their governments’ inability to achieve social justice and a decent standard of living for all. This has opened the way for Islamist parties to emerge as an alternative to Arab nationalism. People began, more and more, to believe that the only way forward was to restore the glories of the Islamic nation and to turn to Islam to build their society. The slogan "Islam is the solution" intentionally combined politics and religion.
In the opinion of Indian professor Aijaz Ahmad, political Islam, since the days of the Truman Doctrine, has been considered a great force to counter all insurgent-like nationalist and communist groups in the Middle East. One of the prominent leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as other members of the group, were invited to the White House by Eisenhower. The co-operation between the White House and the Muslim Brotherhood goes back that far. And it is that same process that brought Jihadis to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. The Americans believed that Islamists would fight both Arab nationalism and Communism. However, imperialist powers defeated the nationalist and communist groups one after another, by means of this co-operation with the Islamists, and now Syria is seen as being the last one left that is yet to be defeated.
Specialists in Syrian affairs, ruled out the arrival of the Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamist organization to power, Patrick Seale, in an interview w...
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...d said that the sense of political Islam is growing by the day among young people and especially in the rebellious cities. Who refuse the Brotherhood or even Salafist trends; he has to support the emergence of moderate Islamic movements which fit the complexity of the situation in Syria. There is a huge vacuum, if not filled by suitable trends there is no doubt that there are those who will fill the void, whether we felt it or not.
Finally, to return what Patrick Seale earlier said, the Egyptian experience remains fresh in the minds of many Syrians, despite the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood, was favored by less than 15% of the support of the Egyptian people, but they got +49% of the votes of parliamentary elections, so can the Syrian Brothers repeat the political victory since they are the most organized regionally and internally according to many observers?
Ridel, B, 'The real losers in Egypt's uprising', The Daily Best Online, 13 February 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011< http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-13/al-qaeda-absent-in-hosni-mubaraks-fall-and-egyptian-revolution/>
14?Narli, Nilufer. ?The Rise of the Islamist Movement in Turkey.? Middle East Review of International
The Syrian Crisis began almost three years ago. Since then, the killings, the bombings and the fleeing haven’t stopped. Obama’s administration was blamed for letting the Assad regime, which is an Alawite minority, tyrannize its Sunni people who are a majority, for all this time, and for allowing the radical jihadist power, a part of the opposition, to benefit from the uprising.
“One Arab nation from Gulf to the Ocean,” gives meaning to the term “Pan-Arabism” in the Middle East. A notion where Arab nations transcend their state boundaries to form political mergers with other states and achieve an ‘Arab unity.’ The existence of Arab states had been tumultuous throughout the decline of the Muslim order, the end of the Ottoman Empire, the Palestinian defeat, Six Day War and Arab-Israeli war in 1973. This essay will critically examine Foud Ajami’s case for a raison d’état in the Middle East and his claim that there were six broad trends leading to the alteration of the balance of power away from Pan-Arabism and towards the state. It will be argued that Pan-Arabism was a romantic ideology that Arab states found convenient to support, all in advancement of their nationalistic state agendas. It was never a realistic endeavor that was physically undertaken by the Arab states and was thus never alive in a tangible sense. However, Pan-Arabism as an ideology had a place in the Middle East and was thus alive in an ideological sense.
Over the course of the last century, the Islamic Republic of Iran (formerly known as Persia) has seen colonialism, the end of a dynasty, the installation of a government by a foreign power, and just over three decades ago, the popular uprising and a cleric-led revolution. These events preceded what could be considered the world’s first Islamic state, as politics and fundamentalist religion are inextricably linked in contemporary Iran. Looking at Iran from the mid 1940’s until the present day, one can trace the path that led to the rise of fundamental Islam in Iran in three distinct periods. The first is that which began with the rise of secular nationalism and the decline of Islam. In the second, the secular, western-friendly government eventually gave way to the Islamic revival in the form of a government takeover by hard-line clerics and disillusioned, fundamentalist youth; both motivated and led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Rule of Iran by these fundamentalist clerics then led to the formation of the fundamentalist Islamic theocracy that governs present-day Iran. The current government has some democratic appearances, but all real power is in the hands of the supreme leader, an Ayatollah who is chosen by the Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics chosen by the Guardian Council. With the Iranian Revolution, political Islam was born, with the fundamentalists holding the reins of power in Iran to the present day.
“The Reality and Truth of the Muslim World – Islam.” Underground Hope. 18 Dec 2001: 1-2.
Democracy and Islam, an article written by Irfan Ahmad1 strives to show that there is a possibility that Islam can move towards democracy. On the other hand, Islam and Liberal Democracy: A Historical Overview, an article written by Bernard Lewis2 discusses how a democracy is unable to work in Islamic States. In this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting the two articles. Both Bernard and Irfan carry weight in their arguments and have certain strong points, as well as weaknesses. The major difference between the two articles is the variation of the core definition of democracy that the writers have, and their distinct perspectives of the workings of a democracy. In addition, the articles also differ in their chosen format and the authors’ thoughts on the Catholic and Western influence. The fundamental dispute of democracy and Islam are strong in both articles, and they are resolved in a respective manner. Irfan was successful in formulating a more compelling case and was able to maintain better structure; however, I am a firm believer that Islam is a theocratic system and it is not compatible with democracy as a system of governance.
Around 1979, some of the radical Palestinian students that were members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, were upset with the brotherhood because of its lack of action on the Arab Israeli conflict. They felt the brotherhood was too moderate in the fight against Israel.8 An Islamic Fundamentalist named Fathi Shaqaqi, left the brotherhood and with the help of fellow students, started the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. While Shaqaqi had been influenced by the Islamic revolution, believed that the freedom o...
Religion and Family can be very large contributors to an individual’s life decisions. Ed Husain’s authorization of The Islamist, exploits the decisions made between beliefs and family members with intriguing detail and heart: which reverberates similar things in my life as well (less extreme obviously). Hussein talks about his life as a child and his relationship to his parents while growing up in a small Muslim community. As Husain grows from 16 to 20, so does his belief and interest in the Muslim faith. However, his faith develops into more of a fundamentalist view called Islamism, which in turn goes against most modernistic views in Islam today, and correlates sharia law with personal, political, and social life. Husain develops some realizations and faces a few personal hardships, which make him decide to return to a formalistic and normal lifestyle after 5 years as an Islamist.
The Arab Spring was an event which became known throughout the world. According to Jason Brownlee, Tarek Masoud and Andrew Reynolds (2013), the Arab Spring started at the end of 2010 in a Middle Eastern country identified as Tunisia (p.29). This shows that a Middle Eastern country had ejaculated a force of civil motivations of activism in the Arab Spring, and this played an important role for the oppressed Arab citizens to demand equality and human rights. Yakub Halabi (2014) claims that a majority of Arab nations have ‘authoritarian’ systems of government with a lack of a unified community (p.100-101). This shows that democracy is lacking in many Arab nations in the Middle East while the citizens of those countries are vulnerable to conflict because of the social circumstances surrounding Arab nations. In addition, Brownlee, Masoud and Reynolds (2013) elaborates on the idea that subsequent to Tunisia’s Arab Spring, Egypt, Libya and Yemen had participated in the Arab Spring, and this caused the risk of civil, political and social unrest being extremely high in 2013 (p.29). This is relevant evidence that Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen are in a worse position than they were before the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring was portrayed as a stride for Middle Eastern states to become an equal democratic utopia. However, an unstable economy, foreign intervention and paid terrorists were some of the reasons of the Arab Spring being unsuccessful for inserting democracy into the channels of politics in several Middle Eastern countries.
Many contemporary and former Islamic parties, religious movements, and radical groups across the world assume that the Quran requires establishing an Islamic state based on the instructions of the Quran and the hadiths. Therefore, they are so active and vibrant in the political sphere to realize this idea. They also commonly consider Islam as an unchangeable and essentialist political framework to carry out this command. Hence, many Islamic movements by and large have emerged through the
There is a strong belief that Islam and politics are directly tied. They are tied in the sense that the building blocks of the religion dictate how they ought to behave in the political environment. Through this mandatory follow up behavior that the religion delineates, many have come to believe that its teachings are a form of terrorism. Mandaville argues that what has challenged the Islamic link between politics and religion was the emergence of secularism, which went against the belief that politics and religion could go together. Islam has been a religion that has been accused of supporting terrorist activities in the world. Different assumptions have been brought up to understand better the linkages between what really lies behind the Islam religion and politics. Peter Mandaville argues that Islam is dynamic and that it has changed over time; situated within time and politics.
Based on the constructivist view, the Civil War in Syria is initiated by the identity conflict between two groups which are the Assad’s regime and the rebel. Assad’s regime originates from minority Alawite, who made up 12 percent of the Syria population and also dominates most of the position in Syria government (citation). However, this identity conflict is not on religion based as the rebel’s side consists variation of group such as Sunni sect, Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other citizens. Besides, the Assad’s regimes as well consist of other society despite of the Alwite. Based on this condition, it is clearly portray that, even though a group is made up of multiple identities, they still can pursue t...
Lawson, Fred H. "Syria." Politics & society in the contemporary Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010. 411 - 434. Print.
“Are political Islam and democracy compatible?” This question has been troubling both Muslims and non-Muslims living in East and West for a long time now. Contemporary Islamic political thought has become deeply influenced by attempts at reconciling Islam and democracy. Muslim thinkers who deal with political debates cannot disregard the significance of the democratic system, as it is the prevailing theme of modern western political thought. Hence, it is necessary for any alternative political system, whether it is religious or secular, to explore its position with regards to democratic government. In fact, a large literature and media publications have developed over the last century on this heated discourse of democracy versus Islam. While many argue that Islam has all the ingredients of modern state and democratic society, many other reject the phenomena “modernism” and “democracy” as a whole because of their “foreign nature”—alien to “Islamic values”. For Islamists and modernists, the motivation for such effort to either embrace or reject democracy often is to remove suspicion about the nature and goals of Islamic movements and Islamic revivalism or resurgence. But before diving into this discourse, one needs to understand the definition and origins of “democracy.” Although purely a Western ideology in its origin, there is no consensus on the definition of “democracy” as a political system. The Oxford English Dictionary describes democracy as: “A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives” (“democracy, n.”). In my paper, I will examine whether or not democracy and Sunni political Islam are compatible through the eyes of three revolutionary Sun...