Ethos Perspectives

Islamism

Both the ICG and Ayoob reports note that political Islamists, by virtue of their political inclinations, are the most flexible among the Islamists and are able to adapt to modern realities albeit within the Islamic tradition. But to suggest, as the ICG report has, that the political Islamists are the best partners to isolate the fundamentalists and terrorists, may be stretching it a bit far as not all political Islamists are equal and some may simply be biding their time until they come to power to pursue more radical agendas. The ruling Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP) best exemplifies the willingness of the political Islamists to accept democratic norms and modern realities. But one wonders what the AKP’s agenda would have been like if not for Turkey’s omnipresent military, which sees itself as the guardian of the nation’s deeply-ingrained tradition of what some call fundamentalist secularism. Nonetheless, even as one remains sceptical whether the experience of political power can blunt the radical agendas of the political Islamists, it is critical that the political Islamists be accepted as a political reality to reckon with rather than be pushed underground. As the past experience of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has shown, isolation of the political Islamists can push them into radical, and even militant, directions.

Prepared by:
Premarani Somasundram
Principal Researcher
Research Unit, Institute of Policy Development and Centre for Governance and Leadership, CSC

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