By Sean Malloy
Islamic fundamentalism is the West's new bogy. Over the last two years the Western media have cultivated a fear of Islam, portraying devout Muslims as masked gunmen who threaten to take power in several Middle Eastern countries. Islamic fundamentalism is epitomised in the western press by kidnappings, bombings and terrorism. News reports insinuate that all Islamic movements are part of a single extremist conspiracy to take power.
To find out more about Islamic fundamentalism, Green Left Weekly talked to Ahmad Shboul, associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Sydney University.
"The first point is to try to clarify what is meant by Islamic fundamentalism", says Shboul. "There is certainly an increase in religious awareness, a kind of going back to religion on an individual level. I don't think it is limited to Islam; I think there are examples of this in Christianity, Judaism and other religions."
Shboul argues that "as part of a quest for religious commitment", a resurgence of Islam isn't necessarily "fundamentalism in a political sense".
Returning to religion and Islam in particular is "a reaction to problems in the Middle East and other underdeveloped countries where people are disappointed that many of the promises for development, modernisation and improvement of their economic situation have not been realised. They are falling back on religious values, religious commitment.
"The danger is when you mix this up with political movements. To see so many people go to the mosque and perceive it as a danger is wrong.
"On the other hand, there is certainly an increase in the political dimension of Islam. This is partly because of disappointment with movements such as nationalism and socialism and the failure of development in many of these societies."
"The success of the Iranian Islamic revolution,
despite all of its other problems, has inspired many people, it has become an example. I am not saying that all Islamic movements are connected with the Iranian revolution, but it certainly has had an impact."
National context
Shboul emphasises that the relationship between Islam, Islamic movements and political organisations has to be understood on a country by country basis; it can't be generalised.
"The return to Islam must be seen at different levels. At the individual level, people are rediscovering their Islamic identity and Islamic values, expressing them in the form of more prayer, fasting, ritual, and are trying to understand the teachings of their religion. At the political level, people are trying to find out whether problems not solved through other means might be solved through some kind of Islamic political order.
"In addition to Iran, Islamic movements have succeeded in attaining power for example in Pakistan, at least for a while, and in Sudan. In other countries the Islamic movements are in the opposition, Algeria and Egypt for example.
"In some countries Islamic movements work within the parliamentary democratic system, like Jordan. In other countries Islamic fundamentalism, in the legal sense, is part and parcel of the political system. Saudi Arabia is a very fundamentalist country, but Islam there is not an activist revolutionary movement, it is not in opposition. Although criticism usually evokes Islamic principles, and the regime evokes the same principles to maintain legitimacy.
"The Saudi regime has appropriated Islamic fundamentalism and speaks in its name. But Saudi Arabia cannot be compared, for example, to Islamic fundamentalism in Iran, or Islamic fundamentalism as preached by opposition movements in Egypt or Algeria."
Shboul explained that Islam has historically enjoyed revivals when colonialism and imperialism have been
imposed on the Middle East. These movements became involved or abstained from politics in different ways, in different countries under different conditions.
Egypt
"The earlier Islamic movements were movements of revival", says Shboul. "There are examples of revival in the 19th century and early 20th century where scholars and intellectuals were conscious of the weakness of the Islamic world vis-a-vis western colonisation and imperialism.
"Islam's revival was understood, in an intellectual and political sense, as a kind of protection against this onslaught from the west. Egypt was an important centre for this revival, initially by individual intellectuals. Islamic organisations started to develop after the British occupation of Egypt and when Egypt was negotiating independence from the British in the late 1920s.
"In 1928 an important Islamic movement was established. The Muslim Brothers or the Muslim Brotherhood was founded by Hasan Banna as a welfare society. He was a school teacher concerned more about social and moral reform rather than political change in the sense of a revolution. Hasan Banna responded to the so-called welfare societies at the time founded by the upper classes in Egypt who wanted to be do-gooders. He was appalled at these societies holding balls, parties and dances and so on to collect funds for charities while living very extravagant lives.
"Eventually the Muslim Brotherhood became a revolutionary movement, although it didn't really specify that there should be a change of government or revolution."
Shboul explains that the movement became involved in politics for two reasons: "firstly because they became involved in the resistance to the British in the Suez Canal zone and the resistance to Zionism in Palestine; secondly by becoming visible they were subjected to police scrutiny and surveillance. They clashed with authorities and were accused of assassination and so on."
From 1923 until 1952 Egypt was ruled by a constitutional monarchy. In July 1952 King Farouk was overthrown by army officers, known as the Free Officers, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
"The Muslim Brothers started to cooperate with the Free Officers. Some members of the Free Officers were members of the Muslim Brothers, and for the first three years after the revolution the Free Officers and the
Muslim Brothers cooperated."
Divisions
The Muslim Brothers' expanding popularity became a threat to the Free Officers. The new regime had banned political parties, but the Muslim Brothers were allowed to operate openly because they were a welfare group, not a party.
"They did begin to behave like a political party", says Shboul, "making statements in their publications, becoming politically vocal and developing a kind of paramilitary group. In other words they really became a force to be reckoned with.
"They were accused of trying to assassinate Nasser; we don't know if this is true or not. They were accused of trying to change the system and stage a coup. Their leaders were persecuted, politicising them further."
The Brotherhood went underground and then split. "One group became pacifist and began to cooperate with the regime. The other splinter groups, which are no longer known as Muslim Brothers, became extremist movements. These you could call politically militant fundamentalist movements. They include the group that assassinated Anwar Sadat, the group that has been responsible for attacks against tourists in upper Egypt, Cairo and other places. Some have been accused of attacks against Coptic establishments in Egypt."
Shboul says that the extremist groups need to be distinguished from the mainstream Islamic organisations, which "have become well-organised welfare groups who give people aid, comfort, housing and food. They also run medical centres, schools and their own mosques.
"In Egypt you have two types of mosque: mosques whose imams are appointed by the government and therefore are pro-government, and mosques run by these welfare associations.
"At the moment there is a clampdown on these organisations, including their mosques. There is also a clampdown on charities. Saudi Arabia also has a clampdown on charities. Charity organisations have been identified as a possible vehicle for the development of opposition movements.
"There are extreme groups who have a political agenda or who at least want to force the government to do
certain things like restricting tourism or controlling the moral life of citizens — banning alcohol, cabarets, imposing a code of dress.
"At the moment the mainstream of the Muslim Brothers is political in the parliamentary sense, not in the revolutionary sense."
[This is the first of two articles. Next week: Algeria, Palestine and the perceived threat of Islam to the west.]