Abstract
Often portrayed as either an opportunity for democratization or the surest guarantee against it, political Islam has gained wide popularity in Yemen since unification. Despite the persistence of authoritarianism in postunification Yemen, the activities of political Islamists have increased, and their most organized voice, Islah, has gained considerable popularity. This chapter looks at the internal structure and practices of the Islah party, its strategies, ideologies, successes, and failures at affecting political decision making, its relationship with the regime, and the internal debate over whether to become a full member of the opposition or not. It will also expand on the themes of coerced, co-opted, and internally divided opposition groups to show how even a group with an extensive independent grassroots support network has been largely contained by the Yemeni system. It will conclude, however, by suggesting that while Islah did not build a power base that was sufficient to allow it to seize significant formal power, the party moved into a position where it would be a likely beneficiary of sudden political shifts against the regime. By the 2006 presidential and local elections, Islah had moved into a position where it was standing under a tree in case fruit might fall in the wind, but had made contradictory moves when it came to actu-ally shaking the branches. As will be shown, this was largely because of the party’s internal divisions and historical position in the president’s patronage network.
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Notes
See Robert D. Burrowes, The Yemen Arab Republic. The Politics of Development, 1962–1986 (Boulder, CO: Westview; London: Croom Helm, 1987), pp. 101–02.
International Crisis Group, “Yemen: Coping with Terrorism and Violence in a Fragile State” (ICG Middle East Report no. 8, January 8, 2003), p. 9.
Jillian Schwedler rightly notes that Sheikh Abdullah “cannot be characterized as not Islamist” either because he embodied a number of political identities. Jillian Schwedler, Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 71. The Sheikh’s strong ties with Saudi Arabia (discussed in Chapter 4) added another layer of religious credentials to his weight as a tribal and political leader.
Omar Daair, “He Who Rides the Lion. Authoritarian Rule in a Plural Society: The Republic of Yemen,” (MSc diss., University of London, 2001).
Charles Schmitz, “Transnational Yemen: Global Power and Political Identity in Peripheral States,” Arab World Geographer 6, no. 3 (2003): 155.
Ludwig Stiftl, “The Yemeni Islamists in the Process of Democratization,” in, Le Yemen Contemporain, ed. Remy Leaveau, Frank Mermier, and Udo Steinbach (Paris: Editions Karthala, 1999), p. 260.
Jillian Schwedler, “Framing Political Islam in Jordan and Yemen” (PhD diss., New York University, 2000), p. 281.
This paragraph draws from Richard I. Lawless, “Yemen: History,” in Regional Surveys of The World: The Middle East and North Africa 2005, 51st ed. (London and New York: Europa Publications, 2005), p. 1247.
The word “Islah” as an Islamic concept also refers to the reformation of society in an Islamic context. Graham E. Fuller, The Future ofPolitical Islam (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), p. 49.
For further discussion of the origins of the JMP alliance, see Michaelle Browers, “Origins and Architects of Yemen’s Joint Meeting Parties,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 39 (2007): 565–86.
Yemen Times, January 8, 2001, cited in Jillian Schwedler, Islam, Democracy and the Yemeni State (paper presented at the conference on “Islam, Democracy and the Secular State in the Post-Modern Era,” Georgetown University, April 7, 2001).
Carol J. Riphenburg, “Gender Relations and Development in Yemen: Participation and Employment,” Peacekeeping and International Relations 28, no. 3 (May-June 1999): 6.
Interview with the head of Planning and Development Department, Isiah Charitable Society for Social Welfare (ICS), Sana’a, November 2004. Sheila Carapico notes an “unofficial” link between the ICS and the Islah Party in Civil Society in Yemen: The Political Economy of Activism in Modern Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 156–57.
Beuming, The Dagger and the Rifle, p. 70. Some studies indicate that in the 1990s, around 20 percent of Yemen’s six million students attended religious high schools. International Crisis Group, “Yemen: Coping with Terrorism and Violence in a Fragile State” (ICG Middle East Report no. 8, January 8, 2003), p. 9.
Ahmed Abdulkareem Saif, “The Politics of Survival and the Structure of Control” (MA diss., University of Exeter, September 1997). Available online at http://www.al-bab.com/yemen/unity/saif4.htm.
United Press International (UPI), “Yemen bans Muslim clerics from sermons,” reprinted in Big News Network, February 6, 2005. Available online at: http: //feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid = 3e8429ee985353a3.
Interview with local a political analyst, Sana’a, April 2005. See also Stephen Day, “Power-Sharing and Hegemony: A Case Study of the United Republic of Yemen” (PhD diss., Georgetown University, 2001),” p. 456, footnote 81.
Mohammed al-Assadi, “Continued Fight against Extremism Starts from Mosques,” Yemen Observer, May 13, 2005.
Economist Intelligence Unit Newswire, “Yemen: Clampdown on Religious Schools,” August 13, 2004.
See National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, The NDI, April 27, 2003 Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Yemen. Available online at http://www.ndi.org/worldwide/mena/yemen/yemen.asp., and Sheila Carapico, “How Yemen’s Ruling Party Secured an Electoral Landslide,” Middle East Report Online, May 16, 2003. Available online at http://www.merip.org/mero/mero051603.htm1.
Ahmed A. Hezam Al-Yemeni, The Dynamic of Democratisation-Political Parties in Yemen (Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Siftung, 2003), p. 49.
James Piscatori, Islam, Islamists, and the Electoral Principle in the Middle East (Leiden: ISIM, 2000), p. 49. Available online at http://www.isim.nl/files/paper_piscatori.pdf.
Nathan J. Brown, Amr Hamzawy, and Marina Ottaway, “Islamist Movements and the Democratic Process in the Arab World: Exploring the Gray Zones,” Carnegie Working Paper, no. 67, March 2006, p. 8.
Ibid.
Jillian Schwedler, “The Islah Party in Yemen: Political Opportunities and Coalition Building in a Transitional Polity,” in Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach, ed. Quintan Wiktorowicz (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004), p. 215.
Mohammed al-Sadiq, “The Return of the Salt of the Earth,” Sawt al-Iman, in Arabic, March 2007.
Jillian Schwedler, “Yemen’s Aborted Opening,” Journal of Democracy 13, no. 4 (2002): 52.
Paul Dresch and Bernanrd Haykel, “Stereotypes and Political Styles: Islamists and Tribesfolk in Yemen,” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 27, no. 4 (1995): 413.
Evan Kohlman, “In Too Deep: Terrorism in Yemen,” National Review 17 (January, 2003).
Steven Caton, Yemen Chronicle: An Anthropology of War and Mediation (New York: Hill and Wang, 2005), p. 325, see also pp. 293–94.
Abdul-Aziz ibn Qa’id al-Masudi, “The Islamic Movement in Yemen,” Middle Eastern Affairs Journal 2, nos. 2–3 (1995): p. 37.
See Michaelle Browers, “Origins and Architects of Yemen’s Joint Meeting Parties,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 39 (2007): 579–82 for further discussion of these omissions.
See Ziyad Ayadat, “The Islamic Movement: Political Engagement Trends,” in Islamic Movements in Jordan, ed. Jillian Schwedler (Amman: Al-Urdun Al-Jadeed Research Center, 1997), pp. 145–65.
The relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Action Front (IAF) is controversial in this regard, however. For more on this debate see Hani Hourani and others, Islamic Action Front Party: Civil Society and Political Life in Jordan, (Amman: Al-Urdun Al-Jadeed Research Center, 1993) p. 17–22.
Malik Mufti, “Elite Bargains and the Onset of Political Liberalization in Jordan,” Comparative Political Studies 32, no. 1 (February 1999): 110.
Quintan Wiktorowicz cites a number of interviews to this effect in “Islamists, the State, and Cooperation in Jordan,” Arab Studies Quarterly 21, no. 4 (Fall 1999): 1–17.
Graham Usher, “Hamas Risen,” Middle East Report 238 (Spring 2006). Available online at http://www.merip.org/mer/mer238/usher.html. Hamas won 74 seats.
“In ureed ila al-islah ma astata’tu wa ma tawfeeqee ila bi-lah ‘alayhi taakkalt.” Translation from Mohammed Tawfi-ud-Din M-Halali and Mohammed Muhsin Khan, Interpretation of the Meanings of the Noble Qur’an in the English Language, 5th ed. (Riyadh: Dar us-Salam Publications, 1995).
Gregory Johnsen, “Salih’s Road to Reelection,” Middle East Report Online 13 (January 2006). Available online at http://www.merip.org/mero/mero011306. html.
Mustafa Rajeh, “Crisis in Parliament,” Yemen Times, February 6, 2006.
This was reported in Phillips, “Foreboding about the Future in Yemen,” and prompted an almost immediate denial from Sheikh Abdullah, “Al-Ahmar Refutes Announcement ‘Leaving Yemen to Sons of President,’ NewsYemen, April 8, 2006, available online at http://www.newsyemen.netlen/view_news.asp? sub_no=3_2006_04_08_5978. The statement was made publicly-though not officially-and was subsequently discussed by one of his sons and was the topic of conversation at a number of politically focused qat chews around Sana’a at the time.
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© 2008 Sarah Phillips
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Phillips, S. (2008). Political Islamists and the Islah Party. In: Yemen’s Democracy Experiment in Regional Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616486_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616486_7
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