A follow-up of a pitch on Arab Nationalism and Islamism given in 2005

1. Modern Islamism
Ramana
1/22/07
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

2. Introduction
• Since 9/11 many Western scholars have
studied the Middle East and Islamic
societies to understand resentment
against the West.
• Root causes for anti-Western rage in
Middle East
– Arab Nationalism
– Islamic Fundamentalism
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

3. Arab Nationalism
• Arab nationalism refers to a common nationalist
ideology in wider Arab world.
– Arab nationalism is a form of ethnic nationalism.
– claim to common heritage — that all Arabs are united by a
shared history, culture, and language.
• Pan-Arabism is a related concept, which calls for the
creation of a single Arab state,
– Not all Arab nationalist are also Pan-Arabists.
• Arab independence refers to
– the concept of the removal or minimization of direct Western
influence in the Middle East, and
– the dissolution of regimes in the Arab world which are
considered to be dependent upon favorability with the West to
the detriment of their local populations.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

4. Arab Nationalism
• Early beginnings in Syria in 1860 and launch of affiliate
societies in other lands.
– Emigration of Syrian Christian to Egypt led to spread of ideas.
– Early demands were modest under the Ottoman Turks
• Limited autonomy,
• Use of Arabic language
• Local deployment of Arabic recruits in peacetime.
– “Turkicisation” program of Young Turks led to radicalization.
Repression led to Arab resurgence
• British supported Arab nationalism against the Turks but
repressed it after the award of the British Mandate.
• Arab nationalists generally reject religion as a main
element in political identity, and promote the unity of
Arabs regardless of sectarian identity.
• Arab Nationalists are modernists in the French revolution
mode and reject monarchies
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

5. Examples of Arab Nationalists
• Nasser
• Saddam Hussein with his daughter
• Bashir Gemayal of Lebanon
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

6. Arab Nationalism
• Grievances are:
– Control of Arab lands
• Economic and political
• Cultural
– Establishment of Palestine
• This is a major grievance
• Litmus test of Western acceptance of Arab nationalism
– Israel
• Extremists view Israel as an unnatural entity
• Feel that Western Europe was responsible for the Holocaust and
should have to provide restitution and not in the Middle East as
things have moved on since the Roman Empire
• Reminiscent of Reconquista
– Persian and Greco-Roman empires had similar ideas of re-conquest
– Germany under Hitler which wanted to undo the Peace of Versailles
after WWI
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

7. Death of Saddam
• Marks an end of an era of Arab despots/strong
arm leaders
• Shows the failure of Arab dictatorships when
Western democracies are ranged against them.
• Could mark a new beginning in the Arab mind
• Might see the emergence of a representative
movement in modern Arab minds and bring back
the original goals of Arab Nationalism
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

8. Islamic Fundamentalism
• Islamic fundamentalism in the West refers to Islamism
• Islamism refers to
– Set of political ideologies derived from various conservative
religious views of Muslim fundamentalists, which hold that
• Islam is not only a religion, but also a
• Political system that governs the legal, economic and social
imperatives of the state.
• Islamist movements seek to re-shape the state by
implementing a conservative formulation of Sharia.
• Islamist movements are different from Islamic states
which have been there since Prophet Muhammed set up
the first state in Medina.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

9. Islamism
• Failure of secular Arab Nationalism
– Governments based on secular Arab nationalism
have found themselves facing economic stagnation
and disorder.
– Some Muslims place the blame for these flaws in
Muslim societies on the influx of "foreign" ideas; a
return to the principles of Islam is seen as the natural
cure.
• Persecution complex
– A persistent Islamist theme is that Muslims are
persecuted by the West and other foreigners.
– Islamist ideas developed in several different settings.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

10. History of Islamism
• Although Islamic states based on Shari'a law have existed since the
earliest days of Islam, Islamism refers to modern movements that
developed during the twentieth century in reaction to several forces.
• Following World War I, the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and
the subsequent dissolution of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal
Atatürk (founder of Turkey), some Muslims perceived that Islam was
in retreat, and felt that Western ideas were spreading throughout
Muslim society, along with the influence of Western nations.
• During the 1960s, the predominant ideology within the Arab world
was pan-Arabism which deemphasized religion and emphasized the
creation of a socialist, secular state based on Arab nationalism
rather than Islam.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

11. The Deobandi Movement
• In India, the Deobandi movement developed as a reaction to British actions
against Muslims and the influence of Sayed Ahmad Khan, who advocated
the reform and modernization of Islam. Named after the town of Deoband,
where it originated, the movement was built around Islamic schools
(principally Darul Uloom) and taught an interpretation of Islam that
encouraged the subservience of women, discouraged the use of many
forms of technology and entertainment, and believed that only "revealed" or
God-inspired knowledge (rather than human knowledge) should be followed.
• Though the Deobandi philosophy is puritanical and wishes to remove non-
Muslim (i.e., Hindu or Western) influence from Muslim societies, it was not
especially violent or proselytising, confining its activity mostly to the
establishment of madrassas, or Muslim religious schools. They are a major
sector of Muslims in the region (the followers of Sayed Ahmad Khan being a
significant minority). The Taliban movement in Afghanistan was a product of
the Deobandi philosophy and the madarassas.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

12. Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi
• Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi was an important early twentieth-century
figure in India, then, after independence from Britain, in Pakistan.
• Strongly influenced by Deobandi ideology, he
advocated the creation of an Islamic state
governed by sharia, Islamic law, as interpreted
by Shura councils.
• Maududi founded the Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941 and remained at its head
until 1972. His extremely influential book, "Towards Understanding Islam"
(Risalah Diniyat in Arabic), placed Islam in modern context and enabled
not only conservative ulema but liberal modernizers such as al-Faruqi,
whose "Islamization of Knowledge" carried forward some of Maududi's
key principles. Chief among these was the basic compatibility of Islam
with an ethical scientific view.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

13. The Muslim Brotherhood
• Maududi's ideas were a strong influence on Sayyed Qutb in Egypt.
Qutb was one of the key philosophers in the Muslim Brotherhood
movement, which began in Egypt in 1928 and was banned
(but still exists) following confrontations with Egyptian president
Gamal Abdul Nasser, who jailed Qutb and many others.
• The Muslim Brotherhood (founded by Hasan al-Banna) advocated
a return to sharia because of what they perceived as the inability
of Western values to secure harmony and happiness for Muslims.
Since only divine guidance could lead humans to be happy, it followed that
Muslims should eschew democracy and live according to divinely-inspired
sharia. The Brotherhood was one of the first groups to advocate jihad against
all those who do not follow Islam. As al-Banna said:
– [Muslim] lands have been trampled over, and their honor besmirched. Their adversaries are in charge of
their affairs, and the rites of their religion have fallen into abeyance within their own domains, to say nothing
of their impotence to broadcast the summons [to embrace Islam]. Hence it has become an individual
obligation, which there is no evading, on every Muslim to prepare his equipment, to make up his mind to
engage in jihad, and to get ready for it until the opportunity is ripe and God decrees a matter which is sure
to be accomplished…
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

14. Wahabism
• Another influential strain of Islamist thought came from the Wahhabi
movement in Saudi Arabia.
• The Wahhabists, who emerged in the 18th century led by Muhammad ibn
Abd al-Wahhab, also believed that it was necessary to live according to the
strict dictates of Islam, which they interpreted to mean living in the manner
that the prophet Muhammad and his followers had lived in during the
seventh century in Medina.
• Consequently they were opposed to many innovations developed since that
time, including the minaret, marked graves, and later television and radios.
• The Wahhabis also consider those Muslims who violated their strict
interpretation to be heretics, and thus used violence against other Muslims.
• When King Abdul Aziz al-Saud founded Saudi Arabia, he brought the
Wahhabists into power with him. With Saud's rise to prominence,
Wahhabism spread, especially following the 1973 oil embargo and the glut
of oil wealth that resulted for Saudi Arabia.
• The Wahhabists were proselytizers, and made use of their wealth to spread
their interpretation of Islam.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

15. Role of Afghan Jihad
and Kosovo
• The takeover of Afghanistan by FSU was considered a major
challenge to modern Islamism.
• It hurt the sensibilities of Islamists and nationalists as a godless
nation had taken over an Islamic believing nation
– Dar-ul-Islam -> Dar-ul-Harab
• Early jihad did not take off till the US brought together the lesser
jihad (external struggle) and the greater jihad (internal struggle) or
the Wahabi and Deobandi streams together in training camps in
Pakistan in the mid-80s.
• Arab and non Arab jihadis were brought together for training in
camps run by ISI of Pakistan and funded by KSA.
• The ejection of FSU is being taken as a victory for the forces of
Islam and has spurred the Islamists to taken other projects.
• Serbian repression on Kosovo Albanians was another grievance.
Again the defeat of Milosovic forces was taken as another victory for
Islamism and affirmation of ‘Force of History’
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

16. Sunni Islam In India
Shaikh Ahmed Wahabism
Sirhindi 1524-1624 1760
Shah Walliullah
1760
Colonial age
Saiyyad Ahmed Shahid 1857
1831
Deobandi Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan
Movement ~ 1867 1875
Ahle Hadith Group
1880
Aligarh Muslim
Ahmed Reza Movement
Ilyas
Barelvi 1903
Tablighi Jamat
1927 Madudi Others
Jamat-e-Islamic Memons, Ahmediyas etc.
1941
Pakistan
1947
Bharat Rakshak - India Post-Colonial age
Forum

17. Modern Islamism Diagram
Shah Walliullah Wahabism
1760 1760
Deobandi
Movement ~ 1867 Communism
Madudi Muslim (1928)
1941 Brotherhood Fascism
Syed Qutb
(1960s)
Khomeini
Revolution 1978
Afghan Jihad
US manipulation
1985
Islamism
1990s
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

18. Islamist Grievances
• Decline of Islamic countries
– Feel that post-colonial nation states were futile
– Want to restore a Caliphate based on the early “Four
Pious” Caliphs
• Modernity
– And its impact on societies.
– But like the modern conveniences
• No ‘Crusader’ troops in the Hejaz peninsula.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

19. What do the Islamists want?
• Re-establish the primacy of a purer Islam
– Want to go back to the times of the “Four Pious” caliphs when
Islam was monolithic and driven by Arabs
– This is Arabism heavy. Whereas Arab Nationalism is Arabism
light.
• The return to roots will re-establish the political center
back to Arab lands.
• Re-Arabize the ummah and reverse the Sufi led
progress of Islam
• Important distinction:
– Modern Islamists want Islamic rulers who represent them.
Wahabist support the current rulers. This is a major impact of the
Afghan war.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

20. Venn Diagram
• Islamism
– Parochial or
• Arab Nationalism religious based
– Secular/non- – Global confined to
sectarian -Hate
– Regional- Western all Muslim lands
Confined to control – Implement Shariat
Arab lands
– Modern in - Palestine – Acquired elements
outlook of Communism and
– Based on Islam
in Arab lands fascism
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

21. Current assessment
• Arab nationalism is in retreat
– The fall of Nasser and Saddam has dealt it a body blow. US role
in both events for other reasons.
– Elements are marginalized
– Not a threat to the monarchies and states in the Middle East
– However death of Saddam could shift the movement from
autocrats to representative nature
• Islamism is becoming an strong ideological force beyond
the Middle East.
– Spreading to the immigrants in the West Europe, USA
– Spreading in the East in Indonesia, Chinese Turkestan
(Uighers), Bangladesh, Thailand etc
• Both streams are leading to NATO rethinking of its roles
and missions that will impact India
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

22. Strategy
• Political & ideological
– Need to show how the non-Islamic system is better
• The political reforms be implemented equitably
– Have to make it clear that the rest will deal severely with Islamist
political center if redlines are crossed.
• Same as Total Nuclear War was there to deal with FSU.
• Economical
– Need to show that people benefit equitably in non-Islamic & non-
Western societies
• The economic reforms are implemented equitably
– Second prong has to be to reduce dependence of Middle East oil.
• Alternate energy sources have to be exploited
• Religious
– Nothing irks the Islamist than to deal with irreligious people. They
despise plural societies.
• Need to reconcile how to square the circle with political factors.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

23. Background
• Recent History
• Modern Islamism
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

24. Recent history
• Islamism went through its major political and philosophical developments in the early part of the twentieth century,
but it was not until the 1980s that it became active in an international arena and rose to great prominence in the
1990s.
• The reasons for the rise of Islamism during this period are still disputed. The ideologies that had dominated the
Middle East since decolonization such as Ba'athism, Arab Socialism, and Arab Nationalism had, by 1980, failed to
attain the economic and political goals expected of them. By the late 1980s the distinct Shi'ite version of political
Islam had been drained of its vigour in the Iran-Iraq War. During the conflict against the Soviet Union in
Afghanistan, many Islamists came together to fight what they saw as an atheist invading force and were heavily
funded by the United States. In Pakistan, military dicators brought into power through coups (especially Zia-ul-Haq)
exploited Islamist sentiments to consolidate their power, bringing Islamist political parties into prominence and all
but destroying the traditional secularism that stemmed from the secular stance of the Muslim League and its leader
Mohammad Ali Jinnah (founder of Pakistan).
• In his book Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam Gilles Kepel argues that the central importance of Islamism in the
1990s was a product of the Gulf War. Prior to 1990 organized political Islam had been mostly associated with
Saudi Arabia, a nation founded on Wahhabism and an ally of Islamist groups in Egypt and in Afghanistan. Saudi
Arabia, as a close ally of the West and with a strong interest in regional stability, played an important restraining
role on Islamist groups.
• The Shi'ite clerics in Iran had long argued that Saudi Arabia was an apostate state, a puppet of the West that
espoused a corrupted Islam. During the 1980s these accusations had little effect, largely because of their Shi'ite
origin. However, Kepel argues that when Saddam Hussein turned on his former allies, he embraced this rhetoric,
arguing that Saudi Arabia had betrayed its duty to protect the holiest sites of Islam. Kepel states that Saddam
Hussein embraced Islamic rhetoric and trappings and tried to draw leading scholars and activists to his camp.
Some of the main Islamist groups remained loyal to Saudi Arabia, but a number such as parts of the Muslim
Brotherhood and Afghani mujahideen aligned themselves with Saddam. Far more groups declared themselves
neutral in the struggle.
• According to Kepel the rapid defeat of Saddam did not end this rift. As Saddam had likely predicted Saudi Arabia
had found itself in a severe dilemma, the only way to counter the Iraqi threat was to seek help from the west, which
would immediately confirm the Iraqi allegations of Saudi Arabia being a friend to the west. To ensure the regime's
survival Saudi Arabia accepted a massive western presence in the country and de facto cooperation with Israel
causing great offence to many in Islamist circles.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

25. Recent history
• After the war Saudi Arabia launched a two pronged strategy to restore its security and leadership in Islamist circles.
Those Islamist groups who refused to return under the Saudi umbrella were persecuted and any Islamists who had
criticized Saudi regime were arrested or forced into exile, with most going to London. At the same time Saudi oil money
began to flow freely to those Islamist groups who continued to work with the kingdom. Islamist madrassas around the
world saw their funding greatly increased. More covertly Saudi money began to fund more violent Islamist groups in
areas such as Bosnia and the former Soviet Union. Saudi Arabia's western allies mostly looked the other way seeing the
survival of their crucial ally as more important than the problem of more money and resources flowing to Islamist groups.
• In the 1990s Islamist conflicts erupted around the world in areas such as Algeria, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, and
Nigeria. In 1995 a series of terrorist attacks were launched against France. The most important development was the
rise to power of the Deobandi Taliban in Afghanistan in 1996. In the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan a number of anti-Saudi
and anti-Western Islamist groups found refuge. Significantly, Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi influenced by
Wahhabism and the writings of Sayed Qutb, joined forces with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad under Ayman al-Zawahiri to
form what is now called al-Qaeda.
• A considerable effort has been made to fight Western targets, especially the United States. The United States in
particular was made a subject of Islamist ire because of its support for Israel, its presence on Saudi Arabian soil, what
Islamists regard as its aggression against Muslims in Iraq, and its support of the regimes Islamists oppose. In addition
some Islamists have concentrated their activity against Israel, and nearly all Islamists view Israel with hostility. Osama
bin Laden, at least, believes that this is of necessity due to historical conflict between Muslims and Jews, and considers
there to be a Jewish/American alliance against Islam.
• There is some debate as to how influential Islamist movements remain. Some scholars assert that Islamism is a fringe
movement that is dying, following the clear failures of Islamist regimes like the regime in Sudan, the Wahhabist Saudi
regime and the Deobandi Taliban to improve the lot of Muslims. However, others (e.g. Ahmed Rashid) feel that the
Islamists still command considerable support and cite the fact that Islamists in Pakistan and Egypt regularly poll 10 to 30
percent in electoral polls which many believe are rigged against them.
• An alternative direction has been taken by many Islamists in Turkey, where the Islamist movement split into reformist
and traditionalist wings in 2001. The reformists formed the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (Ak Party),
which gained an overall majority in the Turkish parliament in 2002, and has sought to balance Islamic values with the
requirements of a secular and democratic political system. Some in the Justice and Development Party see the Christian
Democrat parties of Western Europe as a model, which has led some to question whether it is a genuinely Islamist
movement.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

26. •
Modern Islamism
The foundation of modern Islamist thought is the many centuries of Islamic theology and
political science, but 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.
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum

27. •
Modern Islamism
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. 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. The far-right French doctor Alexis Carrel had
an important influence on Qutb's thought, and the well-read Qutb also seems to have had
a passing knowledge of Mein Kampf. Several Islamist groups have embraced Nazi like
anti-Semitism, as an outgrowth of Islamist anti-Zionism.
• Several authors, among which Daniel Pipes [2] and Michael Ledeen [3] have prominently
equated Islamism to fascism and coined the word Islamofascism. Cavelos and Laidi state
in A World without Meaning that Islamism shares more characteristics with fascism than
with communism, in that it does not have a definite progress belief, which communism
has, and that three characteristics are shared by Islamism, communism and fascism: a
totalitarian political claim, a global discourse about society in which the theme of exclusion
is central and a political and social apparatus which respond to the demands of
disadvantageous groups. The most direct western parallel to Islamism is, however, not
fascism, but Dominionism (put in place in the past such as during The Protectorate of
Oliver Cromwell).
Bharat Rakshak - India
Forum