Islamism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about political Islamism. For the religion of Islam, see Islam
Islamism is a set of political ideologies that hold that Islam is not only a religion, but also a political system that governs the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state according to its interpretation of Islamic Law. For Islamists, the sharia has absolute priority over democracy and universal human rights: "The Islamic Shari'ah is the only source of reference for the explanation or clarification of any of the articles of this [Cairo] Declaration [on Human Rights in Islam]." [1]
This usage is controversial. People who are labeled Islamists oppose the term because it suggests their philosophy to be a political extrapolation from Islam rather than a straightforward expression of Islam as a way of life. Some Muslims find it troublesome that a word derived from “Islam” is applied to organizations they consider radical and extreme. The terms "Islamist" and "Islamism" are used often in several publications within some Muslim countries to describe domestic and trans-national organizations seeking to implement Islamic law. The English website for Al Jazeera, for example, uses these terms frequently.[1][2]
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[edit] Islam and Islamism
There is intense debate about the differences between Islam and Islamism. The controversy is rooted in differing answers to questions about how Muslims should live, the sort of governments they should support, and the proper role of Islamic symbols, ideas, and tenets in the modern world. Those who are called Islamists argue that Islam is inherently a political religion, and that the rules and laws laid out in Quran and Hadiths mandate Islamic government.
While many experts on Islam reject this notion, some, including Robert Spencer, Bat Ye'or, and Andrew Bostom, concur, arguing that political stances characterized as Islamist are actually central to Islam as a faith. They also question the validity of the terms "Islamist" and "Islamism" themselves. Some Muslims also deny that there is a difference between Islamism and Islam, saying "If Islam is a way of life, how can we say that those who want to live by its principles in legal, social, political, economic, and political spheres of life are not Muslims, but Islamists and believe in Islamism, not Islam"? [2]
Like other religions, Islam promotes a vision of society and provides guidelines for social life. The Quran and the hadith provide guidelines for Islamic government, including criminal law, family law, the prohibition of usury, and other economic regulations. A number of these topics are highly contentious in the Arab Muslim world.
[edit] Contemporary issues
The complex relationship between Islam and Islamism has intensified in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Since that time, Islamist movements, along with other political movements inspired by Islam, have gained increased attention in the Western media. Some Islamist groups have been implicated in terrorism and have become targets in the War on Terrorism. However, given the instability caused by the invasion of Iraq in 2003, it seems that in order to bring that region under control again, there will be some sort of cooperation between the West and Islamist groups.[3] In Iraq, that has already happened since the government and the parliament are dominated by members and supporters of Islamist parties and organizations.
[edit] Intellectual sources of Islamism
The foundation of modern Islamist thought is highly debated. Islamists, where they can be clearly identified, have many different positions. These perspectives can be defined in terms of their selection of sources from Islamic history and thought. Typically, an Islamist perspective will criticize certain periods of history and intellectualism, while expounding upon others. However, many Islamists combine two or more of these perspectives and formulate their own, unique reading of history and Islam.
[edit] Islamic History
Some perspectives, often considered radical, cite the source of their message as the early Islamic community founded by the Prophet. Proponents of this view hold only the central texts of Islam as important and tend to criticise centuries of scholarship and commentary. Thus, they identify themselves in opposition to a large body of history and theory (including the Fitna and Ottoman periods).
Other groups may seek a return to classical Islam, where religion played a dominant role in civil society and state affairs. These groups tend to cite sources and periods of history where Islam was the established social system. While this is historically typified in the Caliphate of the Ottoman Empire, Islamists who proport this view may speak of doing away with an empire and reforming the Caliphate according to new principles of governance (such as democracy).
Common among virtually all Islamists is their reliance on contemporary, authors (such as Qutb), to articulate their views and direct their activities.
[edit] Islamism and modern political theory
The development of modern Islamism was also both a reaction to and influenced by the other ideologies of the modern world. Modern Islamism began in the colonial period, and it was overtly anti-imperialist. It was also opposed to the local elites who wanted independence, but who also supported adopting western liberal ideals. Writers like the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb and the Pakistani Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi saw western style individualism as counter to centuries of tradition, and also as inevitably leading to a debauched and licentious society.
In the years after independence the most important ideological current in the Muslim world was socialism and communism. This influenced Islamism in two ways. Much Islamist thought and writing during this era was directly addressed to countering Marxism. For instance Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's main works are detailed critiques of Marxism, paying much less attention to capitalism and liberalism. Another option was to try and integrate socialism and Islamism. This was most notably done by Ali Shariati. At several points Islamist and leftist groups found common cause, such as during the early stages of the Iranian Revolution, and several organizations, such as the Islamic Socialist Front in Syria, were both overtly Marxist and overtly Islamist. While most Islamists reject Marxism, the influence of socialist ideologies during the formative period of modern Islamism means that Islamist works continue to be infused with Marxist language and concepts. For instance Qutb's view of an elite vanguard to lead an Islamic revolution is borrowed directly from Lenin's Vanguard of the Proletariat.
During the 1930s a number of fascistic groups arose in the Middle East. Some such as the SSNP and the Kataeb Party were mostly supported by Christians and other minority groups, others like the Egyptian Misr al-Fatat were mainly Sunni Arab. The fascist method of seizing power did inspire Islamist Hassan al-Banna, who founded organizations directly based on the Brownshirts and Blackshirts to try and seize power[4]. This method proved ineffective, and since then most Islamists have used the cell based structure commonly used by leftist groups. Ideologically there is little evidence that fascism had much influence on the development of Islamism.
[edit] See also / Islamist organizations
[edit] Further reading
- The Legacy of Jihad by Andrew G. Bostom
- Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Ye'or
- Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude by Bat Ye'or
- The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, And the Coming Apocalypse by Paul L. Williams
- An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism by Victor Davis Hanson
- Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles Kepel
- The War for Muslim Minds by Gilles Kepel
- Esposito, John L. (2003). Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-516886-0.
[edit] References
- ^ [Art. 25 of 'The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam', 5 August 1990]
- ^ Wikipedia: Good Intentions, Horrible Consequences
- ^ Converging Interests
- ^ Marc Erikson: Islamism, fascism and terrorism (Part 2)
[edit] Bibliography
- Khomeini, Ruhollah (1981). Algar, Hamid (translator and editor). Islam and Revolution : Writing and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Berkeley: Mizan Press.
