After the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in 2001, it is common to hear, especially in the media, the connection between political Islamic activism and jihad against the west. It is assumed that all Islamists are fundamentalist groups engaged in the holy war. This misconception has not only harmed the image of millions of Muslims who reject any violent act against innocent civilians, but it has also discouraged our determination in creating a global environment where people with different religion, ethnicity, race, language can peacefully co-exist. Therefore, it is imperative that we, the future International Relations professionals, advocators of peace, understand contemporary Islamic revival movement so we become instruments in eradicating misconceptions against Islamists within our community and we engage in a dialogue of mutual respect and tolerance as Prof. Piscatori stated “we need reasonable voices”.
The Islamic revival is considered one of the most important social movements of contemporary time. It transformed Islam into a social ideology bringing hope of a change to followers. It preaches the realization that something went wrong. Islam is a religion that arbitrates all aspects of the faithful life. Religious and political responsibilities are considered equal. Islam being a historical religion preaches that God alone is responsible for the design of the human history. Muslims see history as a instrument of learning. Islam is also an organic religion. Religion is equated with society and provides a complete set of moral rules upon which individuals are to act and to follow when socially interacting with others. The shariah is the force of law. It has a divine origin, integrating the worldly realm with the sacred realm. When the governance of a nation, enforce laws that go in contrary to the divine law, Muslims feel obliged to engage in political activism. Thus, Islamic political revival has gained importance today due to years of political influence of the West. In this western influence, secularization and modernization is viewed as inconsistent with Islamic main beliefs which do not accept the separation of religion from the political, social and economic realm. Muslims feel that they were taken hostage by the secularist rulers inspired by western values and they see Islam as their only refuge. Islam then becomes a significant political force. The Islamic engagement in political activism is a matter of survival. The discontentment of Muslims is not only due to the fact the secularization has been advocated and implemented in the nation-states after independency, but also because of the increase of social and economic inequality with the concentration of the wealth in the hands of the dominant elite. This social injustice goes against the principles of Islam. The result of this discontentment is an ardent desire among its people to build an Islamic state with leaders that will be able to bring back the principles of justice and equality restoring the dignity of the Muslim people. This “taking action” is what the West misunderstands when it talks about the Islamic jihad. Jihad means “to struggle”. Prophet Muhammad stated that the greatest jihad was the individual struggle against himself in following God’s right path. However, there are two other jihads besides the personal jihad. The ummaic jihad is to realize the social and economic equity and justice promised by Islam. The martial jihad is intended to protect the integrity of Islam representing the struggle against unbeliever oppressors. It should be merciful and moderate using force only to restrain attackers. This is precisely where extremist groups abuse the Islamic principle and tradition.
Islamic revival can be noticed because of the increase of interest in establishing Islamic system. Islamists encourages the propagation of sociocultural, legal, economic and political spheres of Islam to society preaching the importance of performance of the five pillars of faith, dress code and veil for women, segregation of sexes, ban of alcohol, gambling, nightclubs, prostitution, and pornography, to name few.
There are three typical categories of Islamists, people who have influenced the revival of Islam: Revolutionary Islamists, Traditionalist Islamists and Modernist Islamists. Revolutionary Islamists, sometimes referred as fundamentalist, are radical, puritanical and support political activism and strict observance to the fundamentals of their faith. They campaign to establish Islamic state imposing shariah in society and to rebuke anything that degrades the principles of Islam. They believe that the ideal Islamic state was created and ruled by Prophet Muhammad and the first four caliphs. Consequently, the principles of the classical period are to be reinstated. Tawhid (Allah’s oneness) is essential to them. It is vital the extinction of secularization since without the ethics of Islam, government is unjust and corrupt. The main purpose of Islamic state is to implement the shariah. Revolutionary Islamists reject taglid and proposes Ijtihad, to Islamic scholars of theology and law. They believe that one of the reasons for the decline Islam is the Traditionalist Islamists dominant dogma of taglid. Revolutionary Islamists also oppose secular nationalism, preaching that this notion of territorial nationalism would divide the ummah, and go against the principle of Islamic universalism. In last decades, some Revolutionary Islamists agree that it is acceptable to apply modern values in Islamic society as long as they conform with the fundamental believes of Islam. An example is acceptance of democracy, as long as Islamists ulama advise elected representatives and revise all legislation. Prominent Revolutionary Islamists are Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhad, puritanical Muslim cleric who started the Wahhabi movement preaching simplicity and piety of the Islamic classical period. Hasan al Banna founded Ikhwan al-Muslimun (the Muslim Brotherhood) and is still a strong influence for Islamism in Egypt. Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi was the founder of Jama`at-i-Islami (The Islamic Association or JL) is South Asia, is an organization dedicated to the creation of an Islamic state after Maududi’s model. Last not least, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the symbolic leader of the first Islamic Revolution in modern times. He’s inspired Islamists worldwide and fortified global Islamic revival.
Traditionalist Islamists are the second category of Islamists. They consist mostly of conservative devout ulama and are normally Islamic scholars, sharing the anti west sentiment with the Revolutionary Islamists. They preserve all Islamic believes and traditions of the classical and medieval periods, tolerating Sufism, mysticism, folk Islam and local customs. They believe that all customs in Islamic society are expression of faith. Normally they discourage political activism and especially violence unless the Islam appeared to be in danger. Sunni Traditionalist Islamists advocates taglid and rejects ijtihad. The rejection of ijtihad is due to the fact that independent thought in legal matters would assault traditional values. They adhered to fatalism because all events are believed to be the Will of God. Believers were discouraged to rebel against political rulers and seek refuge on their faith. Therefore they oppose secularization and modernization but because of their disengagement in politics they tolerate the separation of faith and politics. There are viewed by the other Islamists as ignorant and they do not engage in political crusade. Prominent scholars are Ahmad Raza Khan Berelvi from India was one of the most prominent scholars of the Barelvi school promoting folk Islam. Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari founded the Dar al-Tabligh Islami (House of Islamic Propagation) propagating traditional apolitical activities
Modernist Islamists is the third category of Islamists and their goal is like the other two categories, which is to preserve the integrity of Islam but also incorporate intellectual and scientific process of the modern world. They do not share the anti western sentiments with the other two categories. Modernists are devout Muslims knowledgeable about Islam and exposed to modern non-Islamic ideas. They preached tolerance and insisted that it was vital the reconciliation and unity of the ummah. Because they believe that Islam is progressive, dynamic and rational religion, taglid is rejected and itjihad is extremely proposed. They advocated the revision of the Islamic law, which were created long time ago and need to be updated to accommodate modern political, economic, social, cultural and legal conditions. They believe that Islamic decline lies in the hand of the Traditionalist Islamists ulama. In this essence they are receptive all non-Islamic ideas that would be favorable to prosperity of Islamic state. Prominent Islamic Modernists are Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani is considered the father of Islamic Modernism envisioning to establish pan-Islamic regimes free from imperialism and colonialism. Muhammad Abduh supported the idea of adapting Islam to a changing world.
Muslim Secularists have governed Muslims nations since their independence from European colonial rule after World War II. Secularists believe that Western intellectual thought, secularization and modernization is the desirable path for progress in the Islamic world. Most of them were educated in Western secular schools. Therefore they lack knowledge of Islamic tenets and consider them impractical advocating that the ulama should be responsible for all matter of religion in the nation but leaving legal, economic, political and international affairs in the hands of government. They usually called themselves defenders of Islam but do not fully practice their religion. They are members of the elite controlling wealth and political power. They emphasize western ideals of territorial nationalism discouraging the concept of Islamic unity ummah. They have not been successful in many areas and the Muslim world has lost confidence in their rulers. They have not been able to address the problem of economic inequality and the gap between the wealth elite and the majority impoverished population has increased since independence. This has created among the popular mass a sense of mistrust of the western ideologies of capitalism, nationalism, secularism. To cope with the frustration, Muslims have turned to Islam for harbor. Perceiving this phenomenon, Secularists have used Islamic symbols to obtain popularity and support for their programs. However, the misuse of Islam have worsen popular discontentment since Islamists and they followers understand the hypocrisy of their government. In general, Muslims states are living a general developmental crises (legitimacy, penetration, distribution, participation and identity), but is the identity crisis that understood as major problem. The ambiguous dilemma between popular dream of the unified Muslim world and the prevalent commitment in building a stable modern nation-state by Secularists is causing popular unrest. Therefore the regimes are adhering to the use oppression and force to sustain their vision of secular nation-state.
Prof. Farhang Rajaee lecture discusses the present state of the Muslim mind. Modernism brought to the Muslim world the politics of mobility. It instituted in power, military and foreign rulers attempting to run society by force. These rulers planned to “convert the society” towards the age of capital and therefore they were unable to be identified with Islamic culture. Consequently, Islam became primarily the political force enabling Muslims to defend themselves. After the 60s, there was an increase in extremists ideologies to revolt against the source of the decay of Muslims society, the west. Prof. Rajaee calls it the “triangle of violence”. In reaction, to the emergency of the ideology of terror, there has been a Post Modernism intellectual dialogue inquiring the meaning of the Islamists movement. They are engage in the humble attempt to understand life. This is relevant and unique because it has developed by Muslim scholars outside the Middle East in the attempt to rethink Islam. Prof. Piscatori discussed in extent the problems in Iraq today and how they reflect the general problems of Muslim world. The lack of unity between the Islamists, the influence of extremists in aggravating sectarian divisions, the “new Cold War” between Shias and Sunnis, the influence and support for radical leadership in the region by Iran, fragmentation of views and ideologies, all of these factors does not leave much room for success of Islamists movements.
It is important to examine the different categories of Islamists because they are directly responsible for increasing popularity of political activism. In understanding their agenda the West should hear the voices of the oppressed and help to them to overcome corrupted government, despite their commitment to carry on US interest in their countries. Our effort should be in revert the image that we created of Islamists as fanatic terrorists and encourage them to work together to achieve a prosperous future.
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