Islamic Politics and Culture - Essay Example

Couse Islamic Politics and Culture The political differences between the westerners and the Arab world are increasing dayby day. Arabs believe that westerners have some hidden agenda in their operations against Muslims at different parts of the world. They believe that westerners try to expand democracy and capitalism in Muslim dominated countries. Moreover, they suspect that westerners are trying to baptize the Muslim world. The recent war on terror and the massacres taking place at different parts of the world against Muslims, substantiate the arguments of the Arab people. Democracy is not accepted in majority of the Muslim countries. In fact Islamic dictatorship is prevailing in majority of the Arab countries. However, the recent revolutions in Libya and Egypt have forced many of the Arabs to think about a democratic political system in their country. However, the fundamentalists in those countries are against this idea. The concept of political Islam has been evolved out under the above context. According to Mohammed Ayoob, “Political Islam is a product of modernity as much as a response to it”(Rajesekhar). However, westerners are watching the dawn of Political Islam suspiciously. “In April 2014 Tony Blair urged the West to set aside its differences with Russia and China to focus on the growing threat from radical Islam” (Veerman). Westerners believe that Political Islamic movements are trying to destroy modernization and civilizations in the name of religion. This paper analyses the impact of the encounter between Western expansionism and Muslim-majority societies on the rise of political Islam. A crucial factor generating tensions in the West is the presence of ‘Islamism’ or ‘political Islam’, in all of its different manifestations, within Muslim communities. Islamism can be defined as "forms of political theory and practice that have as their goal the establishment of an Islamic political order in the sense of a state whose governmental principles, institutions and legal system derive directly from the shari’ah" (Veerman). The interference of religion in politics is unacceptable to westerners. They believe that religion should be separated from politics in order to create a stable and advanced society in a country. They have many examples to prove their arguments. For example, in countries such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, women get less freedom and power in politics and social life. Westerners believe that the over involvement of religion in politics is the major reason behind these problems. They try to empower the people in the Arab world about these religious atrocities through different media. Social networks and other modern communication channels have been used extensively by the westerners to empower the people in the Araba world. Their efforts have tasted some success also in recent times. For example, the recent revolutions in Libya and Egypt are often labelled as Facebook revolutions. In other words, people in these countries were empowered by the westerners through social networks like Facebook and the rest is history. The signs of political unrest are now visible even in some stable Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The interference of America in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan is also watched suspiciously by the Islamic fundamentalists. All these factors contributed heavily to the generation of the concept political Islam. Based on the nature of functioning Political Islam could be divided into three categories; violent rejectionists or ‘jihadists’, non-violent rejectionists and participationists" (Veerman). All these three categories of political Islam have their own structure and modus operandi. Even though the nature of operations of these political Islamic groups is different, each group causes some kind of problems to the westerners. "Violent rejectionists, often referred to as jihadists, are individuals and networks that, often linked to or inspired by al Qaeda, reject participation in the democratic system and use violence to advance their goals" (Veerman). The most aggressive and dangerous groups in political Islam is the Jihadists. They have no problems in killing the enemies of Islam since they believe that such activities would bring him the heaven. The major aim of this group is to fight against westerners in all possible means and prevent them from encroaching the territories of Islam. "Non-violent rejectionists are individuals and groups such as Salafists and Hizb ut-Tahrir which openly reject the legitimacy of any system of government not based on Islamic law, but do not, at least publicly and openly, advocate the use of violence to further their goals" (Veerman). Compared to jihadists, this group is less dangerous. They are keen on protecting the interests of their country as well as religion. However, they are not much keen on conducting violent activities against the enemies of their religion, at least publicly. They may support such activities secretly, but they are not ready to reveal it. ‘Participationists’ on the other hand are the most liberal community in political Islam. “"Participationists are individuals and groups which adhere to that strand of Islamism that advocates interaction with society at large, both at the micro-level through grassroots activism, and at the macro-level through participation in public life and the democratic process" (Veerman). They are ready to keep sound relationship with westerners. They are keen on avoiding unnecessary confrontation and concentrate more on the development of their country with the help of westerners. The recent evolution of ISIS is causing big problems to the westerners. ISIS can be included in the jihadist category of political Islam. They have no problems in engage in bloody operations against the westerners. They are not bothering too much to investigate whether a westerner did anything against Islam or not, before killing him. They are not afraid of publishing the pictures and videos of killing innocent westerners. For them, all westerners are enemies of their religion. Moreover, some of the communities in Islamic religion is also their enemies. For example, the Sunni dominated ISIS considers Shias as enemies of Islam. ISIS believes that the Shias are apostates and must die in order to forge a pure form of Islam. The two main branches of Islam diverge in their beliefs over who is the true inheritor of the mantle of the Prophet Muhammad. The Shias believe that Islam was transmitted through the household of the Prophet Muhammad. Sunnis believe that it comes down through followers of the Prophet Muhammad who, they say, are his chosen people (Rubin). Before the evolution of ISIS, America and other western countries believed that Shias were the most aggressive community in the Islamic religion. Therefore, Islam has been taught in Western universities from a Sunni point of view earlier because of the above belief. Shi’ism was referred as the "terrorist branch of Islam in America earlier (Rhode). However, westerners have realized their mistake recently. They have realized that both Sunnis and Shias consist of liberal as well as fundamentalists and it is illogical to label a particular community as liberal or aggressive. Because of the inability to segregate the good and evil among Political Islamist groups, America and westerners are arresting all suspected as well as innocent Muslim people. For example, many Libyan Islamist militants who had taken refuge from Colonel Qaddafi in Pakistan or Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have told that they were wrongly imprisoned and mistreated by the United States on suspicion of ties to Al Qaeda though their only fight was against the Libyan dictator (Kirkpatrick). Such activities are preventing America and Westerners from interfering effectively in the Arab world against the fundamentalists groups such as ISIS. The support of the locals is inevitable for the westerners if they want to interfere effectively in Arab politics. “In a survey of attitudes in seven Muslim-majority countries in December 2010 by Pew, an American research organisation, Egyptians proved the most likely to prefer “fundamentalists” over “modernisers” as champions of Islam. More than half of Egyptians favored separating the sexes at work, compared with just 13% among Turks” (Fayom). It should be noted that Egypt was ruled by the dictator Mubarak at the time of conducting this survey. Even though Mubarak claimed to be a democratic leader, Egyptians never accepted that claim. The Mubarak model democracy was not acceptable to them. That is why they favored fundamentalism over modernism. However, the scenario has been changed drastically at present in Egypt. The expulsion of Mubarak from power is forcing Egyptians to rethink about fundamentalism over modernism. Many people believe that coexistence of Islam with secular democracy is practically impossible. For example, Pakistan is a believed to be a secular democratic country even though Islamic forces are in power. At the same time, incidents against the minorities are reporting on a daily basis now. At the same time, the case of Turkey is different. “As a Muslim-majority country that is also a secular democratic state, a member of NATO, a candidate for membership in the European Union, a long-standing U.S. ally, and the host of Incirlik Air Base (a key hub for logistical support missions in Afghanistan and Iraq), Turkey is pivotal to U.S. and Western security interests in a critical area of the world” (Rabasa, and Larrabee). Turkey is currently trying to get a member ship in European Union which is dominated by Christian countries. Therefore, it can be concluded that the coexistence of secular democracy with Islam is not at all impossible. Moreover, such meaningful cooperation would strengthen Islam as well as the democratic movements across the world. To sum up, political Islam is a new concept evolved out recently to fight against the Western expansionism. Political Islam consists of several groups; some of them fight seriously, some of them fight moderately and some of them not fighting at all against Western expansionism. The coexistence of secular democracy with Islam is better to keep global peace and harmony intact. Works Cited Fayom. “Political Islam Everywhere on the Rise”. The Economist. Dec 10th 2011. Print Kirkpatrick, David D.. “Political Islam and the Fate of Two Libyan Brothers”. The New York Times. October 6, 2012. Print Rhode, Harold. “The U.S. Role in the Sunni-Shiite Conflict”. Web. 02 December 2014. Rubin, Alissa, J. “4 questions ISIS rebels use to tell Sunni from Shia”. The Times of India. Jun 26, 2014, Print. Rabasa, Angel F. and Larrabee, Stephen The Rise of Political Islam in Turkey. RAND. Web. 02 December 2014. Rajesekhar, Vinayak. “The Rise and Fall of Political Islam in Egypt”. International Policy Digest. May 30, 2014. Print Veerman, Frans. “The Rise of Political Islam in Europe”. World Watch Monitor. July 09, 2014. Print Read More