MAX FARRAR @BIG BOOKEND @LEEDS CHURCH INSTITUTE 06.06.15 ISLAMISM & TERROR A WESTERN WAY OF DOING POLITICS?
OUTLINE DALYAN, TURKEY: MODERNISATION & THE MOSQUE DEFINITIONS & DISTINCTIONS KEY ISLAMISTS & THE WEST ISLAMIC STATE DOING BETTER: CRITICAL MULTICULTURALIST DIALOGUE photo: Max Farrar
DEFINING ISLAMISM A political ideology whose key tenets include: belief that Islam is not a religion but a holistic sociopolitical system advocacy of Sharia (Islamic) law as a divine state law belief that a transnational Muslim community (Ummah) should unite as a political bloc SIMCOCK, STUART, AHMED (2010)
DEFINING TERRORISM An act or threat of violence against non-combatants with the objective of exacting revenge, intimidating or otherwise influencing an audience STERN (2003)
ISLAM: DISTINCTIONS Traditionalists (eg Deobandis, Barelwis, Tablighi-Jamat - differing interpretations of the scriptures) Salafis: literalists (no interpretation, no politics); reformists (eg Muslim Brotherhood); political literalists (eg Hizb ut-tahrir) RAMADAN (2004)
ISLAM:FURTHER DISTINCTIONS liberal/rationalist reformism (eg Ataturk in Turkey) Sufis (everywhere, quietly) RAMADAN (2004) Muhammad al-wahhab (1703-1792): original Salafi Saudi Arabia nominally Wahhabi but politically accommodated to the West; not Islamist
ISLAM & VIOLENCE Jihad means struggle. Ijtihad means exertion (usually over problems of interpretation) Only the political literalists advocate violent jihad Thus Al Qaeda and Islamic State are a minority among the Salafis who are themselves a minority among Muslims
ISLAMISM: FOUNDATIONS HASSAN AL-BANNA (1906-1949)
HASSAN AL-BANNA (1906-1949) Founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1927 in Egypt Traditional Islamic ideas of egalitarianism and social justice had been swept aside by the country s political and religious elites Capitalist, colonial, secular culture immiserated the poor and corrupted morals Used Western political methods (rallies, leaflets, newspapers) to build a mass organisation for an authoritarian Islamic socialism, Islamic modernity ASLAN (2006) COMMINS (2008) KEPEL (2004)
ABU ALA MAWDUDI (1903-1979)
ABU ALA MAWDUDI (1903-1979) Founded the Islamic Party (Jama at-e-islami) in India in 1941. Moved to Pakistan after partition Influenced by his study of Hegel, Adam Smith, Rousseau, Voltaire, Darwin, Marx Politican party with an elite, supreme leader (Emir), no mass membership Fighting against both socialism and capitalism Modern Islamic countries are jahiliyya (ignorance, before the Prophet) Anti-nationalist universal revolution : all that is on earth belongs to Allah Governed by shari a law, with deep seated conservative cultural attitudes on women Accepted Pakistan as an Islamic state (1956) after democracy, equality, tolerance, social justice as enunciated by Islam incorporated in its constitution ADAMS (1983) NASR (2008) PARACHA (2015) HTTP://WWW.DAWN.COM/NEWS/1154419
SAYYID QUTB (1906-1966) 1955: 15 year sentence after breaking with Nasser s Free Officers coup 1966 on trial for opposition to Nasser regime
SAYYID QUTB (1906-1966) Applied Mawdudi s writings to Egypt after visit to USA (1948-50) revealed the West to be uncivilised and jahili (backward, ignorant) because US women are freed of their basic responsibilities to bring up children sexual relations based on lust, passion and impulse even homosexuality is not considered immoral Joined Muslim Brotherhood to use both preaching and persuasion and physical power and jihad for abolishing the organisations of the jahili system Brotherhood resists the individualism generated by the secular, materialist, capitalist West QUTB [1964] TRIPP (2008)
ISLAMISM TODAY AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI (1951 - )
AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI (1951 - ) Follower of Qutb from 1965, when he joined the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt At 1981 trial claimed they were the real Islamic opposition against Zionism, Communism and imperialism Doctor in Peshawar, Afghanistan 1984. Started to influence Osama bin-laden Joined Al-Jihad, a split from the Brotherhood, in 1979. Leader from 1993. Merged with Al-Qaeda in 1998. AQ s leader after Osama s assassination in 2011
AL QAEDA REVIVES TAKFIR Muslim Brother Abdullah Azzad (1941-1989) issued fatwa in Pakistan recruiting for defensive jihad against the Soviets. In Peshawar from 1981. Offensive jihad when Afghanistan becomes Muslim. Assassinated 1989 al-zawahiri denounced the Brotherhood, constitutions, man-made laws, democracy, and called for offensive jihad against Muslim Arab governments In late 1980s persuaded Osama to adopt the c7 doctrine of takfir: Muslims who do not accept AQ may be killed Legitimated suicide Osama: Every Muslim... hates Americans, hates Jews, hates Christians LAWRENCE (2005) WRIGHT (2007)
AL-QAEDA:MODERN AND WESTERN Strategy: propaganda and violence to replace Muslim governments with Shari a law; build an army to overcome non-muslim governments Tactics: spectacular propaganda of the deed to enthuse supporters and demoralise opposition; VHS; film on the web Members contract: wages, health plans, holiday pay, redundancy pay in return for obedient service bin Laden s mind was sophisticated and modern in the extreme ; his followers are modern idealists, reformers and nihilists WRIGHT (2007)
ISLAMIC STATE IN THE LEVANT: THOROUGHLY WESTERN Samir Abd Muhammad al-khlifali (Haji Bakr), a colonel in the intelligence division of Sadam s air defence force, planned the government of the Islamic State from 2012 The plan resembles the Stasi and Saddam s security apparatus Haji Bakr and Sadam s other former intelligence officers appointed Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi Emir of IS in 2010, later calling himself Caliph REUTER (2015) IS s success is entirely based on the excellent (Western) training of its ex-saddam officers its state-of-the-art (US) military equipment its (Western-style) meticulous strategic planning
CHRISTOPHER REUTER, DER SPIEGEL, 18.05.15 HTTP://WWW.SPIEGEL.DE/ INTERNATIONAL/WORLD/BILD-1029274-836850.HTML
The plans also include areas like finance, schools, daycare, the media and transportation. But there is a constantly recurring, core theme, which is meticulously addressed in organizational charts and lists of responsibilities and reporting requirements: surveillance, espionage, murder and kidnapping REUTER (2015)
Like every modern organisation IS has strict financial income and expenditure targets and controls Between August 2008 and January 2009, ISI s master financial ledgers in Mosul reportedly showed the group generating slightly less than $1 million in fundraising per month. In 2014, the Islamic State was able to generate the same amount or more per day IS pays $4-600 per month. Average Syrian public sector wage is $68-103. It taxes civilians at 50%. Its welfare system favours the poor, the disabled and the widowed HUMUD, PIROG & ROSEN (2015) HTTPS://WWW.FAS.ORG/SGP/CRS/TERROR/R43980.PDF
Haji Bakr is a thoroughly modern state official in the Western mould: Aloof. Polite. Cajoling. Extremely attentive. Restrained. Dishonest. Inscrutable. Malicious. The rebels from northern Syria, remembering encounters with him recall completely different facets of the man. But they agree on one thing: "We never knew exactly who we were sitting across from. REUTER (2015)
DOING BETTER IN COUNTERING ISLAMISM You cannot shoot an idea. You cannot bomb an ideology We need to revise multiculturalism and apply critical multiculturalism
CRITICAL MULTICULTURALISM Negotiates, as well as celebrates, diversity Understands the critique of capitalism and imperialism offered by Islamism; endorses its commitment to the poor and its views on individualism and consumerism Always explains that violent, jihadi Islamism is a very small strand in Islamism, which itself is a minority tendency in Islam Respects Islamist governments when they emerge democratically (eg Tunisia, Turkey, Morsi s Egypt) Maintains full commitment to the rule of law when prosecuting Islamists who engage in violent propaganda Debates values and ideologies Engages in respectful dialogue while supporting progressive values (especially on women s rights and sexual preference) FARRAR (2012, 2013, 2014)
THANK YOU A PDF of these slides is available at My articles on critical multiculturalism and Islam are available at WWW.MAXFARRAR.ORG.UK My chapters Islamism and Terror: a Western way of doing politics and Multiculturalism - a contested discourse are in Farrar, Robinson, Valli and Wetherly (eds) (2012) Islam and the West: Key issues in multiculturalism (London: Palgrave) HTTP://MAXFARRAR.ORG.UK/MAX-BLOG/WRITING/MULTICULTURALISM-IN-THE-UK-A-CONTESTED-DISCOURSE/ HTTP://MAXFARRAR.ORG.UK/MAX-BLOG/BLOG/ISLAMISM-AND-TERROR-A-WESTERN-WAY-OF-DOING-POLITICS/