Abstract
Political Islam has undergone a major evolution since the late 1970s. In most Islamist groups, the objective of creating an Islamic state governed by sharia throughout the Muslim community has given way to an acceptance of state borders, the co-option of regimes, and the championing of representative democracies. In addition, violent methods have given way to negotiation and non-violent mobilisation. In many cases, today’s public perception of Islam is associated with the jihadism of a few fundamentalist groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (IS), regardless of the fact that the mainstream Islamist groups have undergone major changes, and that the context in which they exist is also very different. As we shall see, instead of jihadism or the ideological radicalism of the last century, political Islam today is much more represented by the moderation – both ideologically and politically – of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Morocco’s Justice and Development Party (PJD), an-Nahda in Tunisia and most of the parties or large movements. To understand this evolution and its place in the framework of the democratic popular uprisings that erupted in 2011, we will be using the sociology of power as an analytical framework that will facilitate the analysis and comparison of the different case studies presented in this publication.
This article was produced within the framework of the research projects “Revueltas populares del Mediterráneo a Asia Central: Genealogía histórica, fracturas de poder y factores identitarios” (HAR 2012–34053) (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad); and “SPRINGARAB – Social movements and mobilisation typologies in the Arab spring” (Unión Europea (Funding scheme Marie Curie Actions – International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES)) – Referencia: FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IRSES Marie Curie Project number 318982). The first draft was published in (Izquierdo Brichs, 2013a).
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Notes
- 1.
Luz Gómez García defines Islamism as the “collection of ideological projects of a political nature that have the legitimising of Islam as their paradigm”, adding that “the term is used to characterise a panoply of discourses and types of activism that have the common feature of championing sharia as the legal centrepiece of the state system and the independence of the religious discourse of its traditional upholders (ulemas, faqihs, imams). Islamism and islamisms cover a spectrum that ranges from politically pluralist and theologically inclusive ideas to autocratic, exclusive models” (Gómez García 2009, 165). According to Guilain Denoeux, “Islamism is a form of the instrumentalisation of Islam by individuals, groups and organisations seeking political objectives. It provides political responses to the challenges of today’s society by imagining a future whose foundations are supported by the reappropriation and reinvention of concepts taken from the Islamic tradition” (Denoeux 2002, 61). Beyond the definitions, it is important to bear in mind that, as Mohammed Ayoob (Ayoob 2004) takes pains to note, and which we will see during the course of the articles in this publication, there is a great diversity of Islamisms that are developed in different ways in different contexts, and with philosophies and strategies that diverge greatly.
- 2.
- 3.
The Islamists’ influence and prestige among the population was favoured by the way in which the other ideologies had fallen into disrepute. The dictatorial, corrupt regimes had appropriated the discourses of nationalism, modernity, secularism, liberalism and leftism, and furthermore they were supported by Western powers that were the heirs of imperialism and colonisation, as a result of which the ideologies deriving from the liberal-democratic West have been discredited still further (see Hashemi (2009, 133–143)). Thus, the Islamist vanguard had virtually no competition in its bid to place itself at the head of the popular mobilisations.
- 4.
See examples of different countries in (Izquierdo Brichs 2012).
- 5.
- 6.
Thus, for example, in Egypt most of the new bourgeoisie who emerged from the liberalisation of the Infitah was linked to the regime, often directly as members of the National Democratic Party (Gumuscu 2010, 849). In 1976, in the Egyptian parliament, there were 20 members of the Infitah bourgeoisie; in 1987 the figure had risen to 80 and then 90 (22%) in 2005.
- 7.
On the impact of this process on Egypt, see Beinin (2004).
- 8.
- 9.
As Haenni (Haenni 1999, 140–141) reminds us, this charity-based aspect of the Islamic bourgeoisie is totally in accordance with the contemporary neoliberal situation, of the withdrawal of the state and its substitution by the charity of businessmen who, just like in the West, sometimes even transform it into promotional and publicity events.
- 10.
The radical nature of the discourse does not necessarily entail violent or armed activism, and much less so terrorist activity (see, e.g., the case of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Alonso Marcos 2011)). The resorting to violence by Qutb and the Islamist groups (including Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda) is easier to explain as a reaction to the violence of the authoritarian regimes, Israel and the Western powers against Muslims and against Islamist militants than as a consequence of the radicalisation of discourse. What is more, the radicalisation of the actual discourse must also be contextualised in this reaction to violence at home (by the regimes) and abroad (by Israel and Western powers) (see Burgat (2006, 118–135)).
- 11.
Hassan Ben Abdallah El Alaoui gives the example of Morocco’s Union Socialiste des Forces Populaires (USFP), which called for sanctions against young people who publicly broke with Ramadan by organising a picnic in a park (Ben Abdallah El Alaoui 2010).
- 12.
The IS Caliphate could be seen as proof of a turn against a national basis for Islamic politics. However, we must bear in mind that, at present, the Caliphate is very much an exception, and also that in order to maintain it, IS has had to employ extreme violence against the local populations.
- 13.
For an analysis of the rentierist state from the standpoint of the sociology of power, see Izquierdo Brichs (2007).
- 14.
For instance, the agricultural counter-reform carried out by Mubarak to devolve ownership of the land to the big landowners which had been expropriated by Nasser was approved with the support of Islamists and the sole opposition of the Marxist and Nasserist secular left (see Sakr and Tarcir (2007)). This led to abuses by the corrupt police force and mobilisations by farmers. The Islamists supported the government because they viewed Nasser’s agricultural reforms as “Communist” (Ben Abdallah El Alaoui 2008).
- 15.
From the end of the 1960s when the mass mobilisations against the Franco regime began, to the beginning of the 1980s when the attempted military coup failed and the heirs of the regime lost the elections, more than 15 years passed.
- 16.
Interviews conducted by Laura Feliu and Ferran Izquierdo in Tétouan in 2014.
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Izquierdo-Brichs, F., Etherington, J. (2017). From Revolution to Moderation: The Long Road of Political Islam. In: Izquierdo Brichs, F., Etherington, J., Feliu, L. (eds) Political Islam in a Time of Revolt. Islam and Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52833-5_1
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