Editorial

Current Uprisings in the Arab World: A New World of Islam has Begun to Emerge
By Dr. Syed M. Inayatullah Andrabi
Email: [email protected]

There is a huge uprising in the Middle East; a region which was thought to be docile as far as political protests and demonstrations are concerned. West-established and sustained status-quo in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East is falling apart. A historic process of change in the Muslim world in general, and Middle East in particular, has been firmly set in motion by the current upheaval. Big things are happening, heavyweights like Hosni Mubarak are caving in, and yet in this whole movement which is the instrument of the change, there is no leadership – individual or collective – embodying/symbolising the objectives of change, and there are no long-term and wide-ranging consensuses (given that the removal of a ruler/regime is short-term) about the future direction. No powerful figures, or even figureheads who are the authors of the movement, those who have worked out the future road-map, have managed to develop a vision for tomorrow. Facebook and Twitter help in co-ordinating and/or mobilizing a mass movement but they do not inspire or create the drive in the first place, those elements should already be present in order to be channelled via such tools. For any reflecting mind, this state of affairs poses questions in the same way as the dropping of the apple did for Isaac Newton. Questions arise as to how what happened could happen and now that things have happened, what does it say about the future to come ? For any process of change there are always two basic milestones, one showing the point of departure, i.e. ‘from’; and the other showing the point of arrival or destination, i.e. ‘to’. People journey ‘from’ the Real ‘to’ the Ideal. In the present Middle Eastern upheaval, ‘from’ is clear (at least in a superficial if not a comprehensive and profound sense) but there are no clear indications about ‘to’. This was not the case with the Eastern European uprisings of the 80s or the Islamic Revolution of Iran before that.

In a situation as the one outlined above, one has to look at different variables on the ground, currents and undercurrents and above all, the historical forces of our time shaping the course of history. The absence of leadership makes a movement of change all the more vulnerable to historical forces which drag it along its course in much the same way as a flood does to a standing house. The two main historical forces that will influence/shape the ultimate outcome of the change are one, political Islam which has been pushed onto the centre stage of global politics by the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979 and the other, a surge for freedom, justice and accountability, also roughly bundled together at times with the blanket label of ‘democracy’. These two could push the events into two different directions and one might see the process of change settling at some destination, for example, a Western-democratic political system, but as both of these historical forces continue to exercise influence, this will prove only a transitional phase rather than a destination, and the process of change will continue unabated to a point in time where the two forces, at some level, reconcile with each other, and we can see the upheaval in Muslim lands settling with a genuine Islamic political order where Islam has an overwhelming component of freedom in it. This will be the original Islamic element of freedom and not a cheap imitation of the West where freedom essentially boils down to hedonism; the ‘principle’ that pleasure (effectively sensual pleasure) is the highest good. It was the component of freedom that became the first casualty when the political deviation of Islam started. As a result Muslims, particularly the first recipients of Islam, the Arab Muslims have been deprived of it for centuries together.

It needs to be pointed out that when we talk of the emergence of a genuine Islamic political order, it does not mean that it will happen tomorrow; actually any off-the-shelf ‘Islamic’ solutions in the short term will prove a non-starter and as much transitional as the democratic set-up mentioned above, because these solutions, as for example, those of Ikhwanul-Muslimoon (Muslim Brotherhood) have serious colonial hangovers and as such are incapable of offering original Islamic systems of governance without undergoing a fundamental revision (for a fuller discussion of these points please see Dr Kalim Siddiqui’s paper ‘Political thought and behaviour of Muslims under colonialism’ 1987 London). However, when we say the events are moving ultimately in the direction of the supremacy of Islam, we are not making an astrologer’s prediction or a wishful statement; we are only looking at the historical process, the realities of our time and the historical forces influencing the movement of history at this point in time. We are looking at the direction of history and the ultimate shape of the things to emerge as a result of a very significant and hugely consequential process of change that has firmly set in. Tracing the whole trajectory of this process would require a full volume, but staying within our space here, a few points may merit attention in order to bring some clarity to what is being said.

Historical Process
The connections, howsoever small but nonetheless significant, of the current uprising with the 1979 Islamic revolution of Iran, have to be identified and appreciated. True there are major differences like that of leadership, declared objectives, etc. etc. but there are some important similarities as well both, in letter and spirit. One may recall that among other constituents, three important elements relating to the vision of Islamic Revolution very often articulated through slogans, were ‘azadi’, freedom; ‘istiqlal’, independence and; ‘Jamhoori Islami’, Islamic Republic. The two elements in the current Middle Eastern uprisings, namely, the urge for freedom from tyrannical regimes and independence from the West’s slavery which the rulers had subjected these countries to, could be traced back to the 1979 revolution. Furthermore, like the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the masses, as opposed to elites, have emerged as the main face of the current uprisings. Also, Fridays have proven to be the launching days much like 1979 revolution. The Islamic revolution has been regarded as the start of the process of Islam’s political recovery after a long spell of colonial subjugation and monarchical orders. The success of the Revolution in Iran only does not deem the entire process complete because of the global nature of Islam. Since the current uprisings connect to the 1979 revolution, we ought to look at the whole thing as a collective historical movement, progressing towards the ultimate objective of Islam’s triumph.

Historical Condition:
First, the power of historical forces to influence is directly related to the historical condition of a people at a given point in time. That is where the time factor becomes crucial. Let us identify some realities in this regard:

a) The international system led by the USA is in serious trouble. New economic powers are emerging, and both, unilateralism (US acting on its own with or without the consent of other nations) as practiced by George Bush, as well as multilateralism (taking other nations on board) are becoming difficult. The West finds it increasingly difficult to manage the global security agenda. No one should have any doubts that the current uprising in the Arab world has taken the West by surprise and it is finding it hard to properly adjust its policies to the new emerging realities. Hitherto, the West was supporting tyrants like Hosni Mubarak; now they have started supporting, at least apparently, people’s rights and democracy. To be honest, they don’t have any choices left; this is how they think they can advance their interest in the changed situation. Economic recession, which some believe is irreversible, has added to the West’s misery. They are finding it difficult to manage public opinion at home while embarking on new political-military ventures abroad involving high costs in terms of troops and money.

b) Iran in 1979 and now a shaky Egypt; the West is losing its main pillars of control in a highly strategic region. If cheap access to resources and raw material and unhindered flow of oil from Middle East is affected, as appears to be happening, how can the capitalist West maintain its prevalence and actual control over the rest of the world?

c) Muslims have reached a point, where what was once a fantasy has now become a nightmare. Arab nationalists, Socialist revolutionaries, have all proved paper tigers. Yasser Arafat died having not only failed to get Palestine, but surrendering 70% of territory to Israel and, above all, effectively surrendering the leadership of Palestine movement to Hamas. The PLO he left behind has been exposed as a bunch of thieves and collaborators of the Zionist regime (see ‘Palestine Papers’ brought out by the Arab TV channel Aljazeera; also available at their website http://english.aljazeera.net/). Mu’amar Ghaddafi, once a hero for young revolutionaries worldwide in the early ‘70s has turned out to be a tyrant. It is only the global Islamic Movement led by Iran which is steadfastly standing up against the global arrogance led by the United States.

Political Environment Needed to Sustain the Process of Change
With this historical condition, the process of change will inevitably move towards the emergence of a genuine Islamic political order. This is a long process but nonetheless, one with a sure and certain destination. The fact that this process has started, is the real cause for celebration at this moment. However, one needs to bear in mind that history is not a stage managed drama where the director of the play chooses to lock away a certain character for a while, leaving the field open for another player to have his way and produce wonders. The natural stage of history is equally open to all – good and evil forces- to face each other and test their might; Allah (SWT) the Creator, definitely helps the Good, which may or may not always translate into victory because of the higher Divine Purposes involved, but that is besides the point here. The West-created and sustained political order is no doubt crumbling but its influence, in terms of actual control, is not going to go away soon and we could be witnessing new power games aimed at creating new client regimes. However, with the political environment that has already started building up, we have good reason to believe that these new power games will yield nothing, and hope that the current process of change will sustain, travel in the right direction, and produce good results. Let us briefly point out the three defining features of this environment:

1) Decline in the West’s capability/will to influence (particularly through force and coercion) Muslim societies/regimes.

2) Islamic Republic of Iran continuing to function as the leading edge of the Islamic Movement.

3) End of Saudi monarchy and its associated quasi-state religious establishment.

As one can see, this environment has almost already come to exist, except of course, that the monarchy is still in place, but it is simply a matter of time before this corrupt regime too collapses. Egypt, by virtue of its being the cultural-intellectual capital of the Arab world, has been historically considered the trend setter in that region. The successful uprising at Tahrir Square will, for certain, have far-reaching effects, and the Saudi regime cannot remain unaffected, though its collapse will not come about that easily. It is the main linchpin of US, not only in the region, as Egypt was, but globally as well because of its oil, and control of the Haramain Sharifain, the two Sacred Mosques. The collapse of Saudi regime will have a hugely positive impact on the whole of the Muslim world. The West has been fighting the Islamic movement at all levels, political, military, but when it comes to fighting it at the religious level, it employs the services of its client regime in Saudi Arabia; a recent example is that of Bahrain. There too an uprising began much like the ones in Egypt or Yemen. To defeat this uprising the US had Saudi troops sent in, so that the world mistakenly views it as a ‘Shia’ uprising against a ‘Sunni’ ruling clan, rather than a general people’s uprising for their legitimate rights that it really is. It is not only now, but ever since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Saudi Kingdom has been using this sectarian card under the pretence of a self-appointed leader of ‘Sunnis’; thereby disrupting Muslim unity and weakening the Islamic movement. That has been the role of the Saudi regime worldwide, and in that role it has been effectively operating as the religious wing of the West’s overall campaign against the Islamic movement.