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Arab Spring and JI

Ijaz Baloch on 10, Jan 2012 | 11 Comments | in Category: Around the World

Ijaz Baloch

• The Psyche Behind Arab Spring






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The year old Arab Spring that started from Tunisia and spread across Arab countries has reinvigorated many like minded parties across the globe, especially in Pakistan. The resulting democratic process embarked upon by elections being held in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco has shown Islamic Parties riding high on popular support. Their electoral success needs to be examined carefully before drawing any analogy towards dilemmas face by Jamat-i-Islami (JI). This blog aims to establish a relationship between the most important factors behind the electoral success of these parties and examines how the scenario in Pakistan vis-à-vis JI, is of an altogether different nature.

The 1st factor which contributed immensely to the popular support of these parties in the Arab Spring is the perception of their unjust treatment by the despots. For instance, Ikhwan al Muslemoon in Egypt (whose ideology and organizational structure was replicated by Jamat-i-Islami founder Syed Abul Aala Maudoodi) was suppressed ruthlessly by successive Egyptian regimes. Same was the case with the Al Nahda party in Tunisia whose current head Rashid al Ghanoshi had to flee to England for years before returning back to the home land. So this time, they have been mandated to run state affairs as recognition by the populace for their continued struggle as there was no one else to challenge the dictators at that time.
Similarly Akhwan’s chain of charity organizations helped them to maintain close contacts with people at a grass root level. In Egypt, Islamists were persecuted but in the case of Tunisia, the dictators were allergic to the existence of the term religion itself. The situation is altogether different with Jamat-i-Islami. It has enjoyed absolute freedom as far as its modus operandi is concerned. It has even enjoyed covert and overt support from the country’s powerful military establishments especially during the 1979 Afghan war under Zia’s regime. Similarly it participated fully in the political and electoral process and has been a coalition partner in the government, both at a federal and provincial level. Their biggest electoral success came in the aftermath of the American attack on Afghanistan when all the Islamic parties got popular support among the masses, especially in Pukhtun inhabited areas. Thus the JI was able to secure provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkha. JI ran some key ministries in this provincial government for a full term of 5 years and is generally perceived to be almost as incompetent as other non-religious forces often blamed for much of the trouble the country faces.
The 2nd factor which has resulted in the electoral success of Islamist parties in the Arab world is the re-evaluation of their thinking towards militancy. Decades of persecution and changing power structure in the Middle east vis-à-vis the foreign policy (The Arab world has realized that they cannot win militarily against Israel) has resulted in shunning the violent means for any political change. Ikhwan has openly condemned Al-Qaida’s violent approach which was formed as a reactionary force against American presence and hegemonic designs especially in Arab world. Similarly Al Nahda has shied away from labeling itself as an ‘Islamist party’, rather describing itself as an “Islamic party” to allay the internal and external suspicions about their ideology. When it comes to JI, they have failed miserably at this front too. Despite being a 7 decade old party, it has refused to change according to the prevalent situation in the globalized world. Perhaps its biggest failure has been the inability to understand that the world does not accept a violent struggle – no matter how noble the cause is – as a means to solve problems in this age.

Support for Al Qaida and Taliban is wide spread, however majority of the Pakistani population believes in a non-violent approach, much like the Sufi though of Islam which has been targeted by many Jihadist and militant groups. The last but most important factor is that religious parties in the Arab world have come to the conclusion that private life is out of the sphere of their legislation and is influenced only by preaching. Al Nahda in Tunisia has publically announced that it will only focus on good governance, thanks to Ben Ali and Bourguiba’s policy of compulsory education and an economy based on tourism. In Egypt, Akhwan is facing the dilemma as hard core “salafi” group has surprisingly got 2nd position in the elections as it would be a challenge for them to maintain a balance while bidding to lure the people on their side instead of “Salafis” who are hell-bent to impose strict Shariah Laws in a country with a sizable 10% Coptic Christian population. The case is different in JI front. They want to impose more restrictions on private life too which is already under strict state control with Hudood Laws etc. Demanding more state intervention has only pushed progressive people away from JI.

Perhaps, for JI, a serious soul searching is in order but as with the problems such traditional, exclusive religious organizations face, this will be a big ask.

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