Imperialism and Islam

REVIEW BY LISA MACDONALD

In the prologue to his new book, Tariq Ali writes: "Tragedies are
always discussed as if they took place in a void, but actually each tragedy
is conditioned by its setting, local and global. The events of 11 September
2001 are no exception...

“I want to write of the setting, of the history that preceded these
events, of a world that is treated virtually as a forbidden subject in
an increasingly parochial culture that celebrates the virtues of ignorance,
promotes a cult of stupidity and extols the present as a process without
an alternative…”

This is an ambitious project, one which could be a life-ime's work and
fill many volumes. Indeed, as you read The Clash of Fundamentalisms,
you get the strong feeling that it has been, and will be, just that for
the author. Ali brings to bear on this huge and complex topic decades of
research, a (often humorous) personal experience of his subject matter,
and an historical materialist method of analysis which clearly explains
cultures, events and ideas that would otherwise seem incomprehensible to
someone raised in the West. Once I'd started reading this book, I couldn't
put it down.

The author takes us on an odyssey which begins in 629 AD, year eight
of the new Muslim calendar, passes through every major social revolution,
travels across most continents, inspects all monotheistic religions, and
ends with the United States current “war on terrorism”. 

Ali explains the origins and development of Islam as less a spiritual
endeavour than a process driven by socio-economic goals on the part of
both the religion's leaders and the masses who flocked to it “yearning
after bread and dates” and for whom the universalism and the equality of
all believers before God was very attractive. His descriptions of the early
world of Islam — which stretched from South Asia to the Iberian peninsula,
and included empires (such as the Ottoman) which protected the rights of
other religions — reveal contemporary Islamism to be backward and shallow
by comparison.

The book traces in considerable detail the ebbs and flows of Islam's
first millennium of development — its military, economic and cultural dominance
in the ninth and 10th centuries, the impact on it of the Christian Crusades
and the Protestant Reformation in Europe, and its politico-social disintegration
as a consequence of the economic and colonial expansion of European capitalism
in the 18th and 19th centuries. Woven throughout is an explanation of the
origins and influence of the main theological-political strands of Islam,
and the revivalist sects they gave birth to, which today are institutionalised
in the modern Islamic states (Iran and Saudi Arabia) and/or the Islamist
movements across the Middle East, South Asia and northern Africa.

Ali's critique of Islamic fundamentalism is not based on a perceived
uniqueness in Islamic doctrine or practice. Fanaticism and intolerance,
he demonstrates, are far from confined to Islam (e.g., the Zionist invaders
of Palestine and the born-again Christians who bomb abortion clinics in
the US). Rather, his critique of Islamic fundamentalism is rooted in a
Marxist analysis of religion as a set of socially driven delusions and
an institutional system of social oppression, with immense powers of persecution.

For me, the most interesting chapters in this book are those that deal
with the collapse of the last Islamic empire, the creation and maintenance
by imperialism of puppet states in Central and South Asia, and the consequent
nationalist uprisings (and their suppression) during the second half of
the 20th century. Through a number of chapters, Ali spells out in great
detail his statement that, “Imperialism, oil and, after 1948, Israel, were
the three factors that gave a tremendous boost to Arab nationalism. The
existence of the Soviet Union provided it with a pillar to which it could
cling in moments of difficulty.”

The chapter on the creation of the state of Israel and its profound
impact on the balance of forces in the Arab East, and the world, is essential
reading in the context of the current war against Palestine. Likewise,
for anyone concerned to understand the “revolutionary” faces of Islam,
the chapter on Iran in 1979 and beyond, titled “The anti-imperialism of
fools”, is an invaluable assessment of the non-threat to imperialism that
is posed by a political system, however anti-imperialist its rhetoric,
that rests on “divine sanction”.

Ali's descriptions of the role of Islamist organisations <%2>in country
after country in crushing emerging communist and/or left nationalist movements
dispel any illusions that Islam has been a progressive political force
during the 20th century.<%0>

He pulls no punches regarding the crimes against humanity of the clerical
dictatorships and the jihad leaderships. But he is unequivocal about
where the principal blame lies for the past and present plight of the Muslim
world; he has no patience with the assertion made by many leftists after
September 11 that Islamic fundamentalism is as great a threat to humanity
as imperialism.

The atrocity of September 11 cannot be justified, Ali says, but it must
be understood as an inevitable consequence of neo-liberal fundamentalism.
“Capitalism has created a single market, but without erasing the distinction
between the two worlds that face each other across a divide that … became
institutionalised in the nineteenth century. Most of the twentieth century
witnessed several attempts to transcend this division through a process
of revolutions, wars of national liberation and a combination of both,
but in the end capitalism proved to be more cunning and more resilient.
Its triumph has left the first of these worlds as the main repository of
wealth and the principal wielder of uncontrolled military power. The second
world, with Cuba the only exception, is governed by elites that either
serve or seek to mimic the first. This closure of politics and economics
produces fatal consequences… Anger, frustration and despair multiply …
the more desperate amongst them, in search of a more meaningful existence
or simply to break the monotony, begin to live by their own laws.”

@BODYCONTRACT = Contemporary Islamic fundamentalism is, Ali argues,
the child of “imperialist fundamentalism”, for by reducing the process
of democracy to a farce, imperialism has created an environment “which
nurtures irrationalisms of every sort”. A major cause of religious revivalism
“is the fact that all the other exit routes have been sealed off by the
mother of all fundamentalisms: American imperialism”.

Reading this book will not leave you feeling optimistic about the
fate of the world. In a final chapter, Ali explicitly rejects both Frances
Fukuyama's thesis that humanity has reached “the end of history” and
Samuel Huntington's assertion that cultural differences, rather than economics
or politics, will shape the f<%-2>uture. However, he does not then attempt
to outline any path upon which progress towards a more rational, peaceful
and socially just world order might be made (other than a passing reference
in the last chapter, “Letter to a young Muslim”, of the need for an Islamic
Reformation).<%0>

Nevertheless, Ali makes an important observation in his prologue: “There
is a universal truth that pundit and politician alike need to acknowledge:
slaves and peasants do not always obey their masters. Time and time again,
in the upheavals that have marked the world since the days of the Roman
empire, a given combination of events has yielded a totally unexpected
eruption. Why should it be any different in the twenty-first century?”

From Green Left Weekly, May 29, 2002.

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From GLW issue 494