December 5, 2011
IT'S BEEN DELAYED SINCE WILSON TRADED THEIR INDEPENDENCE FOR HIS LEAGUE:
Political Islam poised to dominate the new world bequeathed by Arab spring (Peter Beaumont, 3 December 2011, The Guardian)So what, precisely, does the rise of electoral Islamist politics mean for the Middle East and North Africa?
"Islamism is a term that has been used to describe two very different trends," wrote Maha Azzam, an associate fellow at Chatham House, in a recent paper on the implications of the Arab spring for British foreign policy earlier this year.
"First, [it describes] the non-violent quest for an Islamic-friendly society based on the 'principles of Islam', which can involve a more liberal application of Islamic teachings and tradition or a more strict interpretation. Second, Islamism is also associated with violent extremism, most notably that of al-Qaida in the promotion of terrorism."
Azzam, like a number of experts, is firm in the belief that, if the Arab spring has demonstrated anything about Islamism today, it is how those cleaving to the second, violent definition have become ever more marginalised in the Arab world.
Speaking to the Observer last week, Azzam said that, while it was "too early to say" how the policies of the Islamist parties thrown to the forefront of the Arab spring would play out in the region's present transformation, Islamist parties, for now at least, were looking to the centre.
"In Tunisia, Ennahda was always more open-minded and with a more liberal attitude towards secular politics. Now we have the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt leaning more towards the centre."
In Tunisia there has been a firm disavowal by the founder of Ennahda, Rachid Ghanouchi, of the Iranian theocratic model in favour of the Turkish one - represented by the moderate Islamist AKP of President Abdullah Gül and the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
While it has its critics, that Turkish Islamist model has seen an essentially pragmatic approach to the country's largely secular institutions that has sought to avoid conflict with the military while attempting to raise both living standards and the economy.
Posted by oj at December 5, 2011 5:56 AM
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