CONTENTS Introduction The rise of political Islam 487 Islamist movements: ‘aims, strategies and political philosophies The 1979 Islamic revolution in tran Fundamentalist Islam: Afghanistan and the Taliban Islamic resistance: Hizbiallah, Hamas and Laskar Jihad ‘Transnational Islamism, international Jihadism, global Islamism and the al-Qaeda phenomenon Conclusion Recommended reading sharia Telamic law which covere all aspects of life, not just religious practices see Chapter 18 ‘Arab nationalism The beet that all Arabi speakers form a nation that should be independent and ‘united. 456 CHAPTER NINETEEN The rise of political Islam, 1928 - 2000 Introduction Political Islam or Islamism isa political ideology which seeks the establishment of an Islamic state based on Islamic law or shari’a. It differs from Islam as a religion of Islamic society and culture, It isan ideology embraced by choice and through conscious decision, Moreover, contrary to the impression given by many Islamist movements in the ewentiech century, namely chat it embodies the return co the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the notion of an Islamic state is actually a recent one and, to a large degree, can be seen as the Muslim response to the notion of the Western nation-state. Moreover, the emergence of distinc: movements seeking the establishment of such an Islamic state is a twentieth-century phenomenon. It began with the establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928 and has proliferated particularly since the Arab defeat in the 1967 June War with Israel, which marked the decline of secular Arab nationalism. This chapter looks at the conditions that paved the way for the rise of political Islam and the forces driving the quest for an Islamic state, It will outline the historical circumstances that led to the Islamic resurgence, particularly in che second half of the twentieth century, as well as the Muslim political debate Drawing upon the case studies of the Islamic revolution in Iran and Islamic resistance in the Middle East, Central and South-East Asia, it will analyse the ‘emergence of Islamist movements, their aims, their strategie, their philosophicalunderpinnings and the specific conditions that have shaped them. Finally, it will discuss the shifts in political Islam triggered by the end of the Cold War, American hegemony and globalization. The rise of political Islam Islam provides a blueprint for social and religious interaction ~ the relations between individuals and those between the individual and God. Yet there is very litle in the original Islamic sources, such as the Quran, about what form or structures states should take or what type of governance is preferable. What Islamists therefore are positing as the foundation for an Islamic state is the implementation of the body of jurisprudence formulated by the early jurists, a body of work that was prescriptive at the time of writing and is being taken as descriptive today. “The modetn concept of the Islamic state was developed by Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865—1935) in response to the dissolution of the Caliphate, the increas- ing influence of che Western colonial Powers on Muslim societies and the emerging Zionist movement. Two key factors need to be considered when looking, at the notion of the Islamic state. The first is a historical one which situates the emergence of the Islamic state in the context of European physical and, more importantly, cultural encroachment. Rida’ own circumstances were influenced by the British occupation of Egypt in 1882 and the need for Egyptians to formulate a response, in either nationalist or religious terms, not just to the occupation bur also to the European ideas that were penetrating Egyptian society. An Islamic state encompasses both. The second factor is a conceptual one. The Western con- cept of the state, which developed from the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the growth of capitalism, emphasizes individualism, liberty and law. Ie sees the state as the guarantor of individual freedoms. In comparison, the Islamic concept of the state cannot be divorced from the group (amd), justice ('adala) and leader- ship (giyada ox imama). ‘The state thus becomes the guarantor of communal justice. Consequently it is not surprising that the driving force in Iran's Islamic revolution was the desire for socio-economic and political justice and chat Islamist movements ever since have framed their political, military and social agendas in. terms of justice, ranging from the cradication of corruption to liberating Palestine. ‘The emerging political expressions of Islam in the late ninetcenth and carly owentieth centuries became known as Islamic modernism. It saw Islam as a blueprint for all aspects of life and as flexible and thus able to adapt itself, The label ‘modernists’ derives from the fact thar this school of thought, which is based ‘on the works of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1839-97), Muhammad Abdu (1849— 1905) and Rida, emerged from the encounter with the West, and more specifically ‘Western technological superiority and consequent Western colonial occupation of Muslim lands. This encounter raised the question of compatibility between Islam and modernity and how Muslims should respond to the West. ‘They opted globalization “The culeucl, social and economic changes caused by the growth of international trade, the rapid erancer of investment capital and the development of high-speed global communications Caliphate The office ofthe successor to the Prophet Muhammad in his political and social functions. The Caliphate was abolished by the Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatirk, in 1924 afeer the dismemberment of the (Owoman Empire and the establishment of the Turkish Republic see Chapter 4 487see Chapter 4 pamdrabism ‘Movement for Arab unity as ‘manifested in che Fertile Crescent and Greater Syria schemes ae well a atempred ‘unification of Egype, Syria and Libya 458 for internal reform — hence sometimes they are also referred to as Islamic reformists — designed to purify the Muslim communi had weakened it and to embrace elements of modernity and technology in order to strengthen it From the beginning, modernist Islam was in competition with emerging secular nationalisc ideologies and, in che firsc half of che cwentiech cencury, nationalism was clearly the stronger force in the Muslim world. Indeed, it was the failure of secular nationalist ideologies to deliver what they promised that allowed political Islam to emerge as a viable alternative. In the Arab world this process was triggered by the defeat of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in the 1967 June War with Israel. Until then the Arabs believed that by uniting against Israel under the banner of Arab nationalism they would be able to liberate Palestine, The 1967 June War drove home very clearly chat pan-Arabism was an ideal which was not borne out by reality. Israel not only won the war but increased its own territory almost four- fold, swallowing the ‘rest of Palestine’. Criticism from Islamic ranks focused on the moral bankruptcy of pan-Arabism and the assertion that secularism itself and Arab nationalisms were mere imitations of alien ideologies. They advocated a return to indigenous values and claimed that the reason the Arabs had lost the war against Israel was because they had strayed from the righteous path of Islam. Islam would provide for justice and the liberation of Palestine. ‘The bankruptcy of secular nationalism also applied to the domestic situation. Many of the newly independent Middle Eastern states such as Egypt, Syria, Algeria or Iraq had opted for a policy of Arab socialism, promising equality and prosperity to their populations. By the 1970s these socialist command economies, like their Eastern European counterparts, started to fal, living standards declined. and in some cases food shortages brought people into the street in ‘bread riots. The situation was further exacerbated in the 1980s and 1990s by the decline in oil wealth, che dramatic population increase and a soaring rate of unemployment. The inability of the state to deliver economically provided an opening for Islamists to push Islam as an alternative model of developmentalism based on the Islamic principles of equality and justice. Islamists also started to fill the gap in social, health and welfare institutions, particularly for the urban poor. Since the 1970s, Muslim South-East Asia has also undergone a process of Islamic renewal as characterized by a dramatic rise in the building of new mosques, the proliferation of religious schools and educational programmes, an expansion of the market for Islamic publications, and the growth of Muslim cultural but also distinctly political organizations. This Islamic resurgence took some inspira tion from developments in the Middle East, most notably the 1979 Iranian Revolution. It also clearly shared in the disenchantment with secular nationalism and the search for an alternative response to modernity. At the same time, however, Islamic renewal in South-East Asia was highly region- and even state- specific, driven above all by the economic marginality of the Muslims in the corporatist states of Malaysia and Indonesia. Islam, since the 1965 expulsion of Singapore by Malaysia, became a means by which to redefine Malay identity and ch it the New Economic Policy which favoured Muslim Malays over non- Muslim Chinese. Unlike in Malaysia, Islam did not become patt of the discourse from all the clements that