Resilence Of Political Islam

With the triumph of Hamas in last month's election in Palestine, politics in Islamic countries has taken a historic turn. In an international scenario in which Islamic polity, or Islamism, poses cultural challenges to the West, the victory of Hamas seems to haveredrawn the political landscape of the region, challenging the US's "democratisation" process. Many commentators are of the opinion that the Hamas triumph harks back to the so-called Iranian revolution of 1979.The Islamists had overthrown the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979. The Iranian society that was reasonably secular under Shah did not have an option but to live under repressive mullahs.A declared objective of Iranian foreign policy was to export 'revolution' to other Islamic countries. But the worried West Asian monarchs along with the US put an effective check on the mullahs. The eight-year long Iran-Iraq war was a planned one. The chosen scapegoat, the self-declared saviour of the Arab cause, Saddam Hussein, fought against Iran on behalf of the Americans and the Islamic monarchs.In the early 1990s, Islamism had become less of a threat. Iran had come out of its revolutionary nostalgia, and become pragmatic. But post 9/11, Islamism has burst onto the world scene with vengeance.Islamism has had two versions: One, the Al-Qaeda-type terrorism and the other, mass movements led by the Muslim Brotherhood. Both these factions are militant, rigid in religious matters and offer resistance to a common enemy: Democratic plulalism.
The recent election result in West Asia shows the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to new heights. Now an isolated Iran is not able to spread Islamism in other countries. Yet, Islamist governments are coming to power in its neighbourhood, that too through the democratic process. This is the biggest challenge that the US and other liberal democracies are facing in West Asia.In a municipal election held in Saudi Arabia last April Wahhabi Islamists emerged victorious. The Muslim Brotherhood, brutally suppressed since Nasser's time, performed remarkably well in the Egyptian parliamentary election held last December. Following the US's biggest blunder in West Asia, Iraq became the first country in the world that elected Islamists to power. The Shia-led Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) coalition swept the 2005December election. The SCIRI has close links with Iran and is inimical to the US and all liberal democracies. Therefore, Hamas' victory is just the continuation of the Islamists'triumph in West Asia. Hamas is universally recognised as a terrorist organisation.
And this terrorist organisation has been elected to power ironically through democratic means. This is the paradox that the US confronts. If it goes ahead with its so-called democratization process, it will see Islamist Governments coming to power in theentire region.Anti-Americanism lies at the core of the illiberal and fundamentalist philosophy Islamism in modern times. In addition Islamists are sworn enemies of Israel. If the US goes after its next target which is Iran, Islamism will only grow in political strength.With this theinternational community confronts a new scenario. It has to make a distinction between terrorism and Islamist movements. How else can it deal with the new Islamist Governments that have come to power.
(Published on The Pioneer on February 19, 2006)