e_Paper, Monday, August 7, 2017

Opinion 13
Is Islam the ultimate solution?
How the Muslim Brotherhood kick-started a fire that refuses to be put out
DT
MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2017
Groups such as IS are the culmination of a decades-old battle of ideologies
REUTERS
(abode of Islam) and the Dar-al-
Harb (abode of war). Considering
the presence of a vibrant Muslim
diaspora in the West, such binary
division seems archaic and
redundant.
They claim to have exclusive
access to God and hurl their critics
with charges of illegitimacy and
blasphemy while purporting to
have found an unadulterated
version of the teachings of Islam.
Ironically, most of the
Islamists are graduates of
secular educational systems and
lack formal training in Islamic
jurisprudence.
Islamist pioneers like Banna
and Nabhani branded their
movements as “social and
cultural puritanical movements”
in contrast to the status quo.
Nevertheless, the Islamists
Erdogan’s Justice and
Development Party (AKP) are
Ottoman nostalgists who are
ideologically aligned with
the Brotherhood -- they have
shown a remarkable level of
adaptation with the secular state
apparatus. The Tunisian Ennahda
(Renaissance) party formed a
coalition government with the
secular Nidaa Tounes party. The
Jordanian Brotherhood has a
parliamentary wing, Jabhat al’-
Amal al-Islami (The Islamic Action
Front).
Does the accommodation
of Islamists in the mainstream
politics mean that once in power
they will honor the supremacy of
the popular will? Will they cease
to be Islamists and give up their
dreams of establishing the Islamic
state order?
• Siddhartha Dhar
The global pan-Islamic,
transnational Islamist
movements envision an
idealistic global order
where popular sovereignty will be
supplanted by an Islamic Sharia
based state.
Imbued with traits of
modernity, Islamism is a modern
day ideology that attempts to
reinterpret the Islamic doctrine
into its desired mold while
vigorously resisting any liberal
interpretations or efforts of
cultural modernisation.
The Islamist thinkers castigate
the “man-made” nation-states
while suggesting the Islamic
system as an alternative to
socialism, nationalism, and the
cultural and political hegemony of
the West.
Where it all started
The fall of the Ottoman empire
and the subsequent abolition
of the Islamic Caliphate created
a sudden pandemonium in the
Muslim world. In 1928, it was
against this backdrop that Hasan
Al Banna (1904-1949), a schoolteacher
from the British-controlled
town of Isma’iliyya in Egypt,
formed the youth club Muslim
Brotherhood to resist what he
deemed “orientations to apostasy
and nihilism” which was engulfing
the Muslim youth.
It was in response to the
British mandate and Zionist
colonialisation in 1936-7 that the
Muslim Brotherhood transformed
itself into a political entity. It
declared Islam as: (1) A “selfevolving
system” and the ultimate
path of life that (2) emanates from
“the Qur’an and the prophetic
tradition” which is (3) applicable
to “all times and places.”
In the 1950s and 1960s,
buttressing its position as
a resistance movement in
opposition to the Nasserite state
ideology of “Arab nationalism,”
the Brotherhood extensively
propagated their staple slogan
“Islam is the solution.”
It eventually evolved into
the most controversial Islamist
political organisation to this date.
Bitter squabbles between
the conservative and reformist
bents have often hindered the
Brotherhood’s ability to develop
a more cohesive strategy. The
creation of the military wing
Nizam al-khass and the advent of
the radical ideologue Sayyid Qutb
as a higher echelon dented its
status of a non-violent movement.
Indicted for treason, Qutb was
eventually hanged to death by the
Nasserite regime in 1966 which
impelled the Brotherhood to take
a more conciliatory approach.
The extremist bent formed small
spin-off groups and one of them,
Al-Jihad assassinated the Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
The glory days of Tahrir
Sheikh Taqiuddin al-Nabhani,
founder of the global Islamic
political party Hizb-ut-Tahrir (The
Liberation Party), considered the
Islamic system as unique to its
right and rejected the ideas of Arab
nationalism and Ba’athism, which
he believed are stripped off Islamic
ideology.
Prioritising the Arabic language
and ethnic Arabs as essentials
parts of Islam, Al-Nabhani
envisaged the revival of Islam
among the Arabs, which would
subsequently be embraced by
other non-Arab Muslim populace.
Officially established in
Jerusalem in 1953, Tahrir earned
a reputation for its neutral stance
in the sectarian conflicts among
Muslims and its explicit refusal
to the use of violence. But it
struggled to face the growing tide
of Arab nationalism and failed
in its attempt to overthrow the
Jordanian regime.
The apparent bleak prospects
in the Arab political climate forced
Tahrir to shift its focus beyond
the boundaries of the Middle East.
It faced the same fate, and, as of
today, Tahrir is banned in at least
13 countries worldwide.
In the Indian sub-continent,
the Islamist philosopher and jurist
Syed Abul A’la Maududi founded
the political group Jama’at-i-Islami
(People of Islam) in 1941. He wrote
a pamphlet titled “Human rights
in Islam” where he castigated
the Western society and argued
for the superiority of the Islamic
civilisation over the West.
Fearing that remaining Muslims
will lose their identity in the Hindu
state of India, Maududi initially
opposed the creation of the state
of Pakistan. After Partition, a
humbled Maududi moved to
Pakistan and worked to shape the
contour of Pakistan as an Islamic
state. The party’s East Pakistan
chapter was heavily involved in
war crimes during Bangladesh’s
Liberation War of 1971.
Islam and war
The Islamist denominations
worldwide hold a Manichean
proposition where the world is
divided between the Dar al-Islam
Ironically, most of the Islamists are graduates
of secular educational systems and lack formal
training in Islamic jurisprudence
actively participated in the
democratic apparatus they
vouched to uproot. When they
fail to change the system from
within, in such occasions, they
often seek support from the
military apparatus to stage coups
in support of their cause.
The Islamists believe in a
border-less supra-national
community, or Ummah, yet, in
reality, they have mostly confined
their activities within state
boundaries.
Despite its rigid stance against
popular sovereignty, the Muslim
Brotherhood often adopted
politically-expedient policies over
the course of time. It participated
in the parliamentary elections it
vowed to abolish and flirted with
the military regimes in times it
deemed necessary to stay relevant
in the political context.
Following the Arab spring, the
Brotherhood galloped to power
despite its timorous absence in
the early days of anti-Mubarak
protests, fearing a backlash
from the Mubarak regime. It’s
Palestinian offshoot Hamas
distanced itself from the pan-
Islamist ideas, concentrating
solely on the cause of Palestinian
independence. Hamas seeks to
emulate the “Erdogan Model”
in Turkey which is a blend of
Islamism and conservative
nationalism.
In the Islamic Republic of Iran,
the Guardian Council calls the
shots in every major decision,
thus crippling any popularly
elected legislature. A newly passed
referendum in Turkey has made
president Erdogan effectively a
dictator. Conversely, the Tunisian
Ennahda is trying to ditch its
Islamist heritage.
The Brotherhood’s chief
benefactor Qatar is facing a
blockade from its previous patron
and friend-turned-foe Saudi
Arabia and other Gulf countries.
All these events point to the
fact that, rather than a static
ideology, the Islamist movement
is a constantly evolving social
phenomenon which deserves
rigorous studying. In the absence
of a liberal alternative, the
Islamists are often successful in
tapping into the grievances of the
ordinary people and channel those
to their benefit.
But they also find it extremely
difficult to accommodate the
nuanced Muslim voices worldwide
in their black-and-white moral
absolutism. One thing is for
certain, the Islamist panacea to
solve all the quandaries of the 21st
century proves to be more fragile
than ever. •
Siddhartha Dhar is a Sweden-based
Bangladeshi blogger, writer, and
translator.