Alternative Historiography of the Islamist Movement: A Periodization Proposal

Abstract

The modernity movement, which emerged as a manifestation of the political, economic, and religious transformation of the West, claimed that religions would become obsolete in the process. The systems and understandings institutionalized on this claim and belief have applied this situation to non-Western religions and defined the religious movement and discourse as “reactionary”. When viewed from a different perspective, it is understood that Islamic movements, which are handled with a Western-centered historiography, emerged with Islamic methods. As a matter of fact, when the experiences of transforming the concepts and institutions (Persian bureaucracy, Greek Philosophy, Mongolian Customs...) encountered by Muslims in the history of Islam and the methods they use are taken into account, It is seen that this situation shows itself again against the Orientalist Western states. First of all, Muslims, who acted with methods coming from the Muslim self-perception to resist the invasion attempts of Western states, derived the concept of "Islamic Civilization" from the history and roots of Islam, despite the "civilization" policy of the Orientalist West. These movements, which took place between 1865 and 1920, showed themselves as "Islamization of Civilization". In the renewal process that started after the First World War, Muslims encountered the concept of the modern state and aimed to Islamize this concept or to oppose it. Concepts such as "nation, citizen, monopoly of violence, and constitution", which are the elements of the modern state, have become new issues that Islamists deal with. In this context, between the years of 1923-1979, Islamists, reacting to the understanding of the modern state (Kemalism, Nasserism, Pahlavi Dynasty), engaged in the conceptualization of the Islamic state, and in this process, efforts to "Islamize the Modern State" occurred. The modern state system was hit hard by the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979; A new process has begun for Islamic movements. After the understanding based on Arab nationalism lost its influence with the Camp David Agreement and the Afghan Jihad, Islam was reinterpreted as a new element. In this process, Islamic movements, which were reorganized as an alternative to the regimes that were institutionalized in isolation from the people, aimed to have a say in power through democracy. In this context, the prominent concept of this process has been democracy, and Islamists have developed new understandings by "Islamizing democracy". The process that started in 1979 continued with the ten-year cycle (end of the cold war, September 11 attacks). In this process, Islamic movements, with regimes representing the established order, at the local level; They have redefined themselves and their roadmaps at the global level to oppose the policy developed by the USA against the Islamic world. When it came to 2011, Islamism found itself at the center of change against the regimes that entered into a systemic and mental crisis as a result of the popular uprising. Confronting the concepts of power, such as democracy, pluralism, human rights and equality in this process, Islamic movements have embarked on the path of "Islamization of power". The Islamist movement, which is discussed in the literature through anti-Westernism and allegedly "failure", has redefined itself by reinterpreting concepts such as democracy and human rights (the Ennahda Party in Tunisia). In this process, where the western-centred system and understanding changed, the Islamism movement, which was synthesized with local interpretations, aimed to build a new understanding around the concepts of moderation and reconciliation in the new process. This study, which tries to produce counter-arguments that the Islamist movement can only exist with Western values, has tried to bring a new perspective to the literature by periodizing political history. As a result of the study, it has been claimed that this trend, which developed reactively, occurred in order to resist the dominant current of the period with its own methods, and that Islamists tried to make these concepts suitable for the Muslim mind world. This study, which deals with the alleged periodizations with individuals and institutions, aims to bring different perspectives to the politics of Islamism, which is a controversial issue today.