Tracing roots of political Islam 1376750567669212300_0.jpg LISA KAAKI Published — Wednesday 28 Auguust 2013.. Ever since 9/11, the perception of Islamic groups has been anything but positive and this has also reflected negatively on Islam as a whole. On the other hand, there are good examples of political Islam in countries such as Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia. Islamic parties can be moderate and become pragmatic and realistic once they are allowed to participate in the political process. This is especially true of Turkey where Muslims are yearning for a modern, progressive and moderate interpretation of Islam that is true to the basic values and principles of the Qur’an and the Sunna, and yet also addresses the changing needs, priorities and conditions of Muslim societies in the 21st century, which are different from those of the 7th century. Turkish-born Mustafa Akyol, a well-respected journalist and a faithful Muslim and committed liberal, is well-placed to analyze Islam’s adaptation to modernity. In the recently published book “Islam Without Extremes,” Akyol presents a desperately needed answer to those who misinterpret Islam and believe it is a backward, authoritarian and an inflexible religion. In his native country, Akyol has experienced tyranny not in the name of Islam, but in the name of a secular state. Instead of women being forced to cover their heads, he witnessed “secular police” forcing women to uncover their heads. Throughout the book, the author attempts to show there is no contradiction between Islam and liberty. Islam notably has no intermediaries between man and God, like a church. Therefore it empowers the individual. Islamic jurisprudence, the Shariah, protects property rights and acknowledges the sanctity of private property. Furthermore, Islamic law allows the transmission of wealth across generations, thanks to the ‘Waqf,’ a charitable foundation, immune from governmental interference. Islam not only guarantees the protection of wealth but also encourages its creation through economic activity. “This resulted in ‘a vigorous and robust civil society’ including charities, hospitals and schools, all supported by private foundations that were under the Shariah’s protection” writes Akyol. From the 8th to the 13th century, the Muslim world was the richest, the most powerful, most creative and most enlightened. According to American historian, Martin Kramer, if Nobel Prizes existed in the year 1000, they would have been awarded almost exclusively to Muslims. The freedom Islam offered stimulated the individual, encouraging him to develop his talents. This led to rapid urbanization. Thanks to its individualism, Islam paved the way for the modern city where citizens from different nationalities and backgrounds interact with each other “under accepted codes of legal and personal conduct.” The most interesting part of this book, however, is its dealing with Turkey. The author reminds us that in line with Islam’s acceptance of the people of the book, the Ottoman Empire was a cosmopolitan state that allowed non-Muslim communities to preserve their identities. Many Jews persecuted in Christian Europe, found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. Furthermore, Ottoman rulers reconciled Western ideas and institutions with Islam. “The Ottoman system was innovative in the sense that it gave the state the right to enact secular laws, called ‘kanun’ along with the Shariah. In doing so, it didn’t mean that the Shariah did not cover all aspects of public life, and the state had the religiously legitimate authority to introduce new rules and regulations,” explains Akyol. The fact that the Ottomans were established in Anatolia and in the Balkans, gave them a singular geo-strategic position which helped them observe the great European industrialization and its march toward modernization. After their stunning defeat at the Second Siege of Vienna, Ottoman officials thought seriously about reforms. As early as the 18th century, the Ottoman government dispatched a significant number of civil servants to European capital to observe “Western ways.” This resulted in the introduction of modern curricula in schools and the translation of European scientific works in Turkish. The New Order promulgated by Sultan Selim III followed in the late 18th century. His successor, Sultan Mahmud II, went a step further by sacking the military establishment, which resisted reforms and by introducing European-style clothing, architecture, legislation, institutional organizations and land reforms. He also set up the Grand Council of State, a precursor of the Parliament that would come into existence forty years later. All these gradual reforms led to the edict of Tanzimat or Reorganization, which has been compared to the Magna Carta, in terms of content and significance. However, despite the constant pace of reforms, Turkey had to face an Anglo-British alliance with Russia, its perpetual enemy which pushed them to join their arch rival, Germany, unfortunately the losing side. This bitter defeat caused the collapse of the empire and almost all the Muslim states that arose from its ashes were divided between the victorious European powers, Britain, France and Italy. Three countries were not colonized: North Yemen and Turkey, but Turkey was to change drastically. Mustafa Kemal who defeated the colonial powers and led the Turks to independence, abolished the caliphate in 1922. The Kemalist revolution granted Turkish women full equality before the law and suffrage in 1935 (well before many European nations had it), and modernized education. However, it enforced an excessive secularism, which “alienated conservative Muslims and cut short the Ottoman modernization program.” Kemalism contributed significantly to the development of the emergent Arab nationalist discourse which emphasizes the role of the state as the embodiment of the national will and the military as the savior of the nation. Furthermore, Kemalism triggered the creation of an “Islamic modernism” — a synthesis of liberal politics with Muslim values. Since the early 1990s, there has been in Turkey a growing acceptance and advocacy of liberal political ideas by the country’s practicing Muslims. Islam in Turkey is exceptional in three ways. First, Turkey has never been colonized by Western powers; second its secularists have been more restrained than other secularist rulers in the Muslim world and lastly modern Turkish Islam felt a deep aversion to Communism, “unparalleled in the Arab world.” Said Nursi embodied that stance. His main ideas, support for democracy, sympathy for the free world, and interest in interfaith cooperation were kept alive by his millions of followers after his death, especially Fethullah Gulen, a charismatic cleric. Their beliefs were incorporated in a flurry of political movements such as the Justice Party led by Suleyman Demirel and the National Outlook movement ( which later became the Welfare party) headed by Necmeddin Erbakan. During, the center-right Justice Party rule, a military coup brought to power Turgut Ozal, a devout believer in Islam who successfully reinstated Islam to Turkey’s political space without threatening the country’s pro-Western policies. His most successful legacy was the re-introduction of free-market capitalism in Turkey. “By liberalizing the economy, diminishing the role of the state, and personally inspiring a religiously devout and economically entrepreneurial spirit, Ozal created space for Islamic-minded entrepreneurs” writes Akyol. Ozal’s unexpected death brought Erbakan to power, However, many members of the Welfare Party, annoyed with Erbakan’s radical rhetoric, yearned for a new vision for Islamic politics. This materialized in the form of a new movement, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Abdullah Gul and Tayyip Erdogan. The AKP defined its ideology as democratic conservatism which in Erdogan’s words meant “a concept of modernity that does not reject tradition, a belief in universalism that accepts localism, and an understanding of rationalism that does not disregard the spiritual meaning of life.” The AKP not only won the general elections both in 2002 and 2007 but it also inspired some of the activists who played a role in the Arab Spring. The head of the Islamic movement in Tunisia, Rachid Ghannouch, acknowledged that his movement “admired the Turkish case” and a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, Ashraf Abdel Ghaffar, said that his organization considered “the AKP to be a model for Egypt after Hosni Mubarak.” In “Islam Without Extremes,” Mustafa Akyol traces the roots of political Islam. Throughout the book, he tries to show that religious, political, economic and social freedoms are compatible with Islam. He excels when he argues passionately in favor of the Turkish model: a synthesis of Islam, democracy, and capitalism. This bold and inspiring manifesto should be read by anyone who still believes Islam is inflexible.
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 12:12:59 +0000
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