The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam

345 Pages·2010·3.03 MB·English

by  Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi'

The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam
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THE CONTEMPORARY ARAB
READER ON POLITICAL ISLAM
Edited and with an Introduction by
Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi’
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First copublished 2010 by Pluto Press
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and
The University of Alberta Press
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Copyright © Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi’ 2010
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has
been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 2890 4 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 2889 8 Paperback (Pluto Press)
ISBN 978-0-88864-557-9 Paperback (The University of Alberta Press)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
The contemporary Arab reader on political Islam / edited and with an introduction by
Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi’.
Co-published by Pluto Press.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7453-2889-8
1. Islam and politics. 2. Islamic fundamentalism. 3. Islam and world politics.
4. Arab nationalism. 5. Islam–Relations. 6. Arab countries–politics and government.
I. Abu-Rabi’, Ibrahim M.
BP173.7.C65 2010 297.2'72 C2010-902777-9
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected
to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
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Contents
Editor’s Introduction: Islamism from the Standpoint of Critical Theory vii
PARt I tOWARD A tHEOREtICAL APPRECIAtION OF
ISLAMISM IN tHE CONtEMPORARY ARAB WORLD
1. Muhammad Sa’id Ramadan al-Buti, Salafiyyah is a Blessed
Historical Phase rather than an Islamic Legal School 3
2. Fathi Yakan, The Islamic Movement: Problems and Perspectives 6
3. Ahmad Kamal Abu al-Majd, Toward a Modern Islamic
Perspective: A Declaration of Principles 21
4. Muhammad al-Ghazali, The Headscarf Battle 28
PARt II ISLAMISM, JIHAD, AND MARtYRDOM
5. Abdullah Anas, The Birth of Afghan Arabs 37
6. Abdullah Azzam, What Jihad Taught Me 42
7. Muhammad Sa’id Ramadan al-Buti, Preparing the Appropriate
Climate for Jihad 48
8. Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, Islam and the Logic
of Power 56
PARt III—ISLAMISM AND tHE QUEStION OF ISRAEL/PALEStINE
9. Ismai’l Raji al-Faruqi, Islam and Zionism 65
10. Mustafa Abu Sway, From Basel to Oslo: Zionism and the
Islamic Narrative 70
11. Ataullah Bogdan Kopanski and Mohsen Saleh, The Role of the
Israeli Lobby 85
PARt IV CONtEMPORARY ISLAMISM:
tRENDS AND SELF-CRItICISM
12. Abdul Qadir Awdah, Islam between Ignorant Followers and
Incapable Scholars 111
13. Ramadan Abdallah Shallah, The Islamic Movement and the
Tasks of the Current Period 119
14. Shaykh Umar Abdel Rahman, The Present Rulers and Islam 124
15. Sami al-Aryan, The Islamic Movement’s Performance in Crisis:
Assessment and Strategic Outlook 127
16. Rashid al-Ghannoushi, Islamic Movements: Self-Criticism and
Reconsideration 130
17. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Extremism: The Accusation and the Reality 135
18. Jamil Hamami, The Islamic Movement: Hopes and Aspirations 139
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vi THE CONTEMPORARY ARAB READER ON POLITICAL ISLAM
PARt V ISLAMISM, tHE WESt, tHE UNItED StAtES, AND 9/11
19. Abdul Wahab al-Masseri, The Imperialist Epistemological Vision 149
20. Ahmad Bin Yousuf, Islamists and the West: From Confrontation
to Cooperation 160
21. Mounir Shafiq, On Modernity, Liberalism, and Islamism 173
22. Kamal Habib, The Islamic Movement’s Approach to
Understanding Shari’ah 178
23. Yassir Zaatira, The Islamic Movement Before and After
September 11, 2001 185
24. Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Fadlallah, Muslim Youth and
the West 193
PARt VI ISLAMISM IN tHE CONtEMPORARY ARAB WORLD
25. Fahd al-Qahtani, Islam and Saudi Paganism 203
26. Muhammad al-Masa’ari, Definite Proof of the Illegitimacy of
the Saudi State 208
27. ’Abd al-Qadim Zalloum, How Was the Caliphate Destroyed? 215
28. Zaki Ahmad, Recent Changes in the Arab-Islamist Movements 218
29. Ahmad al-Raysouni, The Moroccan Islamic Movement: Rising
or Declining? 225
30. Shaykh Ali Sadr al-Din al-Bayanuni, The Syrian Muslim
Brotherhood: Experiences and Prospect 231
31. Ishaq al-Farhan, Toward a Common Arab and Islamic Strategy
for the Middle East 241
32. Yahia H. Zoubir, Islamist Political Parties in Contemporary
Algeria 247
33. Salem Abdallah, The Islamic Movement in the Gulf Region 272
34. tarik Hamdi Al-Azami, The Islamic Movement in Modern Iraq:
The Sunnite Dimension 283
35. Malik Bennabi, The Ideational World and its Impressed and
Expressed Ideas 292
List of Contributors 303
Bibliography 306
Index 308
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Editor’s Introduction
Islamism from the Standpoint of
Critical Theory
Islamic resurgence is unique as well as universal, because in Islam there is
unity with diversity and variation that does not destroy uniqueness. Islam
is a universal religion. there is nothing like Arab Islam, Pakistani Islam,
Iranian Islam or turkish Islam. Within Islamic universalism, there is unity
but not uniformity.1
Much of the desolation of the contemporary Muslim panorama is the
result of the almost total absence of vigorously independent and devoted
intellectuals. there are, however, indications that intellectuals who are true to
the worldview of Islam are coming to the fore; but their number is below the
critical mass for take-off. However, if the Islamic movement ideologues, who
dominate the reformist scene and the Islamization debate, could change a few
of their character traits, the number of genuine Muslim intellectuals would
swell beyond the critical mass and they could begin to make their presence
felt in both Muslim society and contemporary Muslim thought.2
We, as critical theorists, need to make Western audiences aware that Islamism
as a political discourse embraces far more than the dogmatic fundamentalism
and terrorist violence that dominate in the Western press. It is also a powerful
source of critical debate in the struggle against the undemocratic imposition
of a new world order by the United States, and against the economic and
ecological violence of neo-liberalism, the fundamentalist orthodoxies of which
fuel the growing divide between rich and poor.3
INTRODUCTION
Islamism4 is a bewildering, multifaceted phenomenon in the contemporary
Arab world intent on challenging the post-World War II political order in
the region. the articles included in this volume have been written primarily
by Arab Islamist thinkers and activists during the past three decades. they
present a wide range of views on such issues as the transformation of the
New World Order since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s;
the impact of this transformation on the Arab world and, specifically, the
Islamic movement; self-criticism in the Islamic movement since the 1980s;
the current ruling elites in the Arab world; and the present status and active
currents of the Islamic movement.
this volume seeks to achieve the following objectives: first, to present
Islamist arguments on the issues detailed above and on other subjects, without
mediation. In spite of the fact that Islamism has replaced Communism as the
vii
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viii THE CONTEMPORARY ARAB READER ON POLITICAL ISLAM
West’s public enemy number 1, there aren’t many original Islamist writings in
European languages. Instead, there is much written by Western social scientists
and Orientalists about the Islamic movement, in some of which the authors
fail even to consult original Islamist sources. the time has come to hear the
complex Islamist arguments about history, education, politics, the New World
Order, and the future of Islamism from the proponents themselves, so that we
can begin to engage with these arguments and, from this foundation, concur
or not with the conclusions drawn. Second, the Islamic movement in the
contemporary Arab world is the product of local, national, and international
factors and causes. We need to understand what is behind its emergence in the
modern Arab world, why it has persisted through the past three decades, and
whether or not Islamism, in its complex varieties, has replaced the former Soviet
Union to become the most significant enemy of the New World Order. third,
we need to understand the social and economic composition of Islamism. Is
it a movement of the poor or the alienated middle classes in contemporary
Arab societies? In other words, what are the social and economic reasons that
make Islamism such a challenge to the status quo in most Arab states? How
is it that Islamism is at loggerheads with most Arab regimes? Is it because
most of these regimes are secular or un-Islamic, or because they have failed
to articulate the Islamist vision of social justice and effect a more or less
equal distribution of wealth? Fourth, we need to understand the complex
relationship between state and religion in contemporary Arab societies and
where Islamism fits in this. In spite of some Western reflection on the matter,5
I believe it is important to highlight Arab and Islamist voices of the political
elite in the Arab world, their relationship to the international system, and their
treatment of the local forces in their societies, notably Islamism. Fifth, these
articles prove that Islamism, far from being a passing phenomenon, occupies
center stage in intellectual debates about a number of significant issues and
challenges facing the Arab world.
At present, most academic discussion about Islamism is critical of the
Islamist movement without necessarily succeeding in engaging complex
Islamist discourses and their modern historical formations. the events of
September 11, 2001 seem to have resulted in an intensification of criticism
of the Islamic movement without helping us to understand its arguments, its
persistence on the political and social stage in the contemporary Arab and
Muslim worlds, and its challenge to the ruling elites. All fingers simply point
to Sayyid Qutb, the leading theoretician of Arab Islamism, to the extent that
we are led to believe that Qutb, who was executed by the Egyptian regime
in 1966, is solely responsible for those tragic attacks on the United States.6
Many Western politicians and commentators argue that they do not have a
problem with Islam per se but do have a problem with what they call “political
Islam” or the “Islamic movement.” this position is best represented by former
US president George W. Bush. However, as Susan Buck-Morss reminds us,
“By attempting to silence Islam as political discourse, by reducing it to a
religious practice, Bush is in effect closing off public discussion of how the
many varieties of Islamism are challenging and extending the discursive field
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EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION ix
of political resistance.”7 Coming to grips with the conceptual framework
of the “many varieties of Islamism” is precisely the major objective of this
volume. In Edward Said’s words, we need to understand the many “political
actualities” that the “return to Islam” embodies.8
Without going into too much detail about the historical origins of Islamism
in the modern Arab world, it suffices to say at this point that Islamism emerged
in response to the following major factors:
1. the failure of the Pan-Islamic movement of the nineteenth and early part
of the twentieth centuries to achieve its vision of a total renaissance of the
Ottoman Empire, often referred to as “tanzimat” in Ottoman historiog-
raphy, and consequently of the Muslim ummah.
2. the emergence of a new colonial order in the former Arab territories of
the Ottoman Empire, which coincided with the division of the modern
Arab world amongst new imperialist masters (mainly French and British).9
3. the emergence of nationalism in most of the Arab countries in North
Africa and the Middle East in the interwar period, the struggle against
imperialism, and the Islamist response to or engagement with the various
nationalist movements in the Arab world.
4. the rise of the US to world dominance after the end of World War II and
the onset of the Cold War.
Modern Islamism was primarily the product of the modern capitalist system
created by several Western powers over the past two centuries. From the
very beginning, Islamism revolted against the modern Western system and
sought alternative ways of imagining and building new Arab and Muslim
societies. According to Wallerstein, Islamism “is simply one variant of what
has been going on everywhere in the peripheral zones of the world-system. the
basic interpretation of these events has to revolve around the historic rise of
antisystemic movements, their seeming success and their political failure, the
consequent disillusionment, and the search for alternative strategies.”10 It is
only within this historical and political context that we can truly understand
the intellectual formulations of modern and contemporary Islamism in the
Arab world (or, for that matter, in the entire Muslim world). In other words,
the Islamist political imagination, contrary to Olivier Roy’s argument,11 is not
driven by the historical events of the distant past (i.e., early Islam) as much
as by the events taking place in the modern world, such as the creation of
the modern world system, the emergence of imperialism, and the moral and
political bankruptcy of most, if not all, of the rulings elites in the postwar
Arab world.12
take the issue of reform. A good number of Muslim thinkers have reflected
on this from a theological perspective. However, that reflection was never
carried out in isolation from the political and social dynamics of the modern
Arab and Muslim worlds. that is to say, most Muslim thinkers conceived of
theological reform in the context of their response to and understanding of
such issues or challenges as imperialism, nationalism, and other social and
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