[Dean's World] Ali Eteraz: Political Islam Because Nothing Else

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Posted by Ali Eteraz:
Political Islam Because Nothing Else
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1175222040.shtml


   From [1]Ikhwanweb:

     "The Bush administration sees all Islamists as radicals and all
     radicals as terrorists and thus they all need to be eliminated. But
     this attempt to corner Hamas â clearly has backfired," said Ahmad
     Moussalli, a political scientist at the American University of
     Beirut.

     "It sent a message to the entire Arab world that the promise of
     democracy is false. And it handed a gift to political Islam by
     keeping it outside the halls of power, thereby giving them an even
     greater aura of sanctity."

     Lebanese sociologist Kahi said Arab disappointment is underscored
     today by the evident backtracking of the Bush administration, which
     has ceased to even speak the word democracy as it works to rally
     authoritarian Sunni Muslim leaderships to help contain the
     political disintegration of Iraq.

     "Arab Muslims today see the George Bush project of democracy in the
     Middle East crashing to a halt," said Kahi. "The only results they
     can see are McDonald's, Madonna and bombs. There is nothing real in
     it for them. The only place left to turn is Islam."

     Blanket rejection also feeds radicalism, said Moussalli, as the
     pole of political Islam wavers between moderation and radicalism.
     "The more venues are closed, the more moderates get forced to the
     margins. The radicals are a much smaller force than the moderates,
     but without a political future some people will resort to military
     activities to change what they consider to be an evil reality."

     Joost Hiltermann, Middle East team leader of the independent policy
     think-tank the International Crisis Group, predicts that sooner or
     later the West will need to find a way to engage political Islam.

     "The West ought to at least contemplate it because you can't just
     keep this stuff bottled up and continue to support repressive
     regimes. It won't work," he said.

     "It is a simple question of historical experience. The era of Arab
     nationalism, of secular ideology, is about to die because it has
     proved itself capable of delivering nothing but repression,
     corruption and illiteracy," he said.

     "There are only two ways for the West to contend with this. Either
     give a comparatively moderate Islamic group like the Muslim
     Brotherhood a chance to live up to their promises by having a
     chance to govern. Or conversely, they can undermine the Muslim
     Brotherhood by actually forcing the ruling governments in the Arab
     world to clean up their act by fighting corruption, governing
     properly and actually offering some freedoms to their people."

   I do not care for the Ikhwan. They do not make adequate assurances
   that they believe in separation of mosque and state. However, this
   analysis is mostly spot on.

   That last sentence is the only alternative that the West has to the
   coming rule of Muslim Brotherhood types.

References

   1. http://www.ikhwanweb.com/Home.asp?zPage=Systems&System=PressR&Press=Show&Lang=E&ID=6815