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Ethos Perspectives
Islamism
Introduction
The post-September 11 effort to understand
the mindset that fuels terrorism has led to a frenzy of pop
writings as well as Islamophobic rants that lump together
all forms of Muslim activism and treat them as equally threatening.
Adding to the confusion is the profusion of labels that are
loosely bandied about—fundamentalism, Salafism, Wahhabism,
Islamism or political Islam—to describe Muslim activism.
While scholars of Islam do participate in the debate on what
constitutes radical interpretations, their writings are often
inaccessible to lay and general readers.
This issue of Ethos Perspectives highlights
four reports that take nuanced views of the phenomenon that
most scholars prefer to describe broadly as Islamism.
Reference 1: Understanding Islamism.
Middle East/North Africa Report No. 37. Cairo/Brussels: International
Crisis Group, 2 March 2005.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3300&l=1
(sign up required for access to the full report)1
Reference 2: Ayoob, Mohammed.
The Many Faces of Political Islam. Working Paper No. 119.Singapore:
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, 29 December
2006.
http://www.idss.edu.sg/publications/WorkingPapers/WP119.pdf
Reference 3: Wiktorowicz,
Quintan and John Kaltner. “Killing in the Name of Islam:
Al-Qaeda’s Justification for September 11”. Middle
East Policy Council Journal,Volume X, Summer 2003, Number
2. http://www.mepc.org/journal_vol10/0306_wiktorowiczkaltner.asp
Reference 4: Lacroix, Stéphane.
“Post-Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia?”. ISIM Review,
15, Spring 2005.
http://www.isim.nl/files/Review_15/Review_15-17.pdf
The ICG report (Reference 1) defines Islamism
as “Islamic activism or the active assertion and promotion
of beliefs, prescriptions, laws, or policies that are held
to be Islamic in character”.2
It identifies three main streams of Sunni Islamism, viz.,
the missionary, political and jihadi streams, which depart
from each other in three areas—their diagnoses of the
contemporary Muslim predicament, their prescriptions for overcoming
the predicament, and the strategies they pursue for attaining
their prescribed solutions, based on their differing conceptions
of Islamic law. According to ICG’s schema:
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Political Islamists make an issue of
Muslim misgovernment and social injustice and give priority
to political action over missionary activism. They generally
now accept the notion of the nation-state, operate within
its constitutional framework, articulate reformist rather
than revolutionary visions, accept the notion of popular
sovereignty, and participate in the political process.
The leading examples of political Islamists are the Muslim
Brothers of Egypt and their offshoots in places like Jordan
as well as groups inspired by them such as Indonesia’s
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). Political Islamists generally
uphold the principle of non-violence except in cases of
foreign aggression or occupation, in which case armed
resistance is considered justified. The archetypal political
Islamist movement in this regard is the Palestinian Hamas. |
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Missionary Islamists make an issue
of the weakening of the Islamic faith and see individual
moral and spiritual revival as a condition for the salvation
of the Muslim community against the forces of unbelief.
They are focused on da’wa (dakwah in the Malay transliteration),
literally the call to Islam or propagation, as a way of
redressing the Muslim community’s failings and are
characterised by political quietism. |
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