Muslim Countries and Political Islam

by soekarnosoeharto

I was reading about the political path of Indonesian president Sukarno and the article mentioned that he would use the political influence of Indonesian Communist Party as a power to counter Islamist parties, and that he generally considered political islam to be his enemy.

This made me wonder of the place that political Islam has in muslim countries. What is its history? How influential was Islamism in Muslim countries? Did Muslim Empires of the past, such as Ottomans and Abbasids, had to deal with pressure from Islamic fundamentalists? What is their role in shaping the politics of modern muslim states?

jezreelite

Islamism is a complicated movement with multiple origins. Nevertheless, I’ll discuss three different types and their origins:

Wahhabism—Founded by the 18th century Arabian religious leader, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who opposed the Sunni practices of veneration of saints and had a special ire of Shia and the Ottomans. He was not well-liked in his own time, but made an alliance with Muhammad bin Saud, the ruler of the town of Diriyah, which aimed at building a new empire in Arabia and expanding from there. This ended in 1818, when the Emirate of Diriyah was destroyed by the Ottomans, but the Al-Sauds returned after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and founded Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda and its bastard child, ISIS, are both heavily rooted in Wahhabism.

Deobandi—Founded in the 19th century South Asia in response to British colonialism in the area. The Taliban’s ideology comes from this movement.

Muslim Brotherhood—Founded in 1928 by the Egyptian imam, Hassan al-Banna. Al-Banna’s movement was formed in the wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire’s move into Egypt.

Khomeinism—This really isn’t the ideal word to describe the ideas of Ruhollah Khomeini, but it will have to do. Khomeini’s ideas combine Twelver Shia Islam with personal austerity, rejection of both communism and capitalism, and populism. Khomeini’s ideas were formed in reaction to the reign of the Pahlavi shahs and the Cold War. Hezbollah’s ideology comes from this movement.

I already mentioned that the Ottomans certainly faced opposition from the founder of Wahhabism, but earlier Islamic rulers did face opposition from religious fanatics of their own time:

  • Ali, the fourth caliph, was assassinated by a Kharijite.
  • Nizam Al-Mulk, the vizier of the Seljuk Empire, was assassinated by the Ismaili Assassins.
  • Ar-Rashid, the Abbasid Caliph from 1135 to 1136, was assassinated by the Ismaili Assassins.
  • The Ottoman sultan Selim III was assassinated by the Janissaries after trying to reform the Ottoman Empire.