The Contemporary Arab Reader on Political Islam Abu-Rabi 00 pre 1 25/06/2010 11:20 Abu-Rabi 00 pre 2 25/06/2010 11:20 THE CONTEMPORARY ARAB READER ON POLITICAL ISLAM Edited and with an Introduction by Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi’ Abu-Rabi 00 pre 3 25/06/2010 11:20 First copublished 2010 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 www.plutobooks.com and The University of Alberta Press Ring House 2 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E1 www.uap.ualberta.ca Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 Distributed in Canada exclusively by The University of Alberta Press Ring House 2 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E1 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. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, 33 Livonia Road, Sidmouth, EX10 9JB, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne Abu-Rabi 00 pre 4 25/06/2010 11:20 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 Abu-Rabi 00 pre 5 25/06/2010 11:20 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 Abu-Rabi 00 pre 6 25/06/2010 11:20 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 Abu-Rabi 00 pre 7 25/06/2010 11:20 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 Abu-Rabi 00 pre 8 25/06/2010 11:20 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 Abu-Rabi 00 pre 9 25/06/2010 11:20