Islamist Opposition Research Articles

Multilateral financial flows and state–business relations in Morocco

ABSTRACT Political economy explanations of regime resilience often look at domestic support bases and patronage systems. Foreign aid to the state is seen as a direct form of propping up regimes. This article attempts to track the flow of foreign assistance to one part of the domestic support base of a regime, namely the economic elite, thereby making a connection between domestic explanations and foreign support explanations of regime resilience. The core argument of this article is that multilateral financial flows from Western dominated institutions may preserve regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. Multilateral flows from the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development went to regime insiders and thus potentially strengthened existing economic elites during the time in which the former Islamist opposition party led a coalition government. I draw on the linkage dimension of Levitsky and Way’s model to show the importance of specifying the nature and destination of multilateral financial ties with Morocco’s private sector. This contribution helps us link the international dimension to the domestic political economy. It thus potentially adds to our understanding of monarchical regime resilience post-Arab Spring by highlighting how multilateral financial institutions support an important part of the economic elite.

Who defines moderation? Adapting Islamist and Salafi identities in Tunisia to a changing religio-political field

ABSTRACT The idea of Tunisian ‘moderation’ as an essential constituent part of national identity has been historically used by autocratic governments as an instrument of securitization, investing the state with the unique authority to suppress movements – in practice, usually the Islamist opposition – deemed antithetical to this identity and thus threatening to the nation and its people. This paper explores how, after the Arab Uprisings in 2010–2011, diverse groups of Islamists responded to pre-existing discourses of Tunisian national identity as moderate. After the revolution, Tunisian Islamists and Salafis initially both contested the assumptions behind pre-revolutionary conceptualizations of national identity that had previously excluded them from the boundaries of normative citizenship by reframing the nature of the threat or attempting to redefine and expand the nature of moderation. Both groups encountered different outcomes in their attempts to recalibrate the notions of identity, religion and the state. These divergences can be traced to their differing ideologies, political situations and incentives. Nevertheless, the fact that each group engaged with – rather than dismissed – this discourse suggests the centrality of the state-moderation-security nexus in structuring past and present conceptualizations of Tunisian moderation.

Sociodemographic Characteristics of the Iranian Revolutionary Community in Syria and Lebanon in the 1970s.

The article is devoted to the comprehensive sociodemographic analysis of the local community of Iranian Islamists acting in Syria and Lebanon in the decade preceding the Islamic revolution of 1978-79. Thus far, history of everyday life and the multitudinous activities of the Iranian Islamic opposition in Syria and Lebanon in the 1970s has never become the principal subject of a historic research and has barely received attention from Western specialists in the history of the Islamic Revolution and modern Middle Eastern history, as well as from Iranian historians, scholars and researchers working in the field of the modern history of Iran. However, for a more comprehensive understanding of the Islamic Revolution, revolutionary processes and their logical premises and outcomes, it is highly necessary to carefully consider the sociodemographic characteristics of the active representatives of the Iranian opposition movement in the pre-revolutionary period namely in the 1970s. Throughout the comparative historical analysis of the reliable memories of longtime supporters of the Iranian Islamic movement acting in Syria and Lebanon, the fundamental sociodemographic characteristics of the active members of Iranian revolutionary movement abroad (e.g. gender, age, birthplace and place of living, educational and religious background, social marital status, etc.) are thoroughly highlighted, properly described and analyzed and their sociodemographic portrait is carefully created. The received sociohistorical data may properly serve as a valuable source on the social history of the Iranian society in the pre-revolutionary period, as well as on the complex history of Iranian revolutionary movement and the modern history of the Middle East region.

Illiberal resistance to democratic backsliding: the case of radical political Islam in Indonesia

ABSTRACT Democratic backsliding in many world regions has prompted scholars to study how democracies can resist and push back against autocratization, and many accounts suggest that a unified, pluralist opposition is key to mobilize voters against democratic backsliding. However, pluralist ideology is not necessarily associated with higher awareness of and opposition to backsliding, as evaluations of democratic erosions are highly contingent on political context. We illustrate this point with the case of Indonesia, a country where a pluralist government coalition has deepened democratic erosion by harshly repressing an anti-pluralist Islamist opposition. Using data from a national survey, we document that Islamist Indonesians are systematically more likely than pluralist individuals to believe that democracy has worsened: Resistance to democratic erosion is thus concentrated in the most ideologically illiberal citizens. Rethinking the pluralist/anti-pluralist dichotomy has implications for how we conceptualize democratic backsliding and assess democratic resilience.

When Censorship Works: Exploring the Resilience of News Websites to Online Censorship

AbstractTo what degree are news websites in autocracies resilient to online censorship? I explore this question in Egypt, which has begun to heavily censor news websites in recent years, alongside several other autocracies. Relying on a sample of 145 news outlets, I systematically explore how blocking affects traffic on outlets and their current statuses. Statistical tests show that blocked Egyptian outlets lost on average 54–55 per cent of their global traffic and are more likely to halt their activity. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that the loss in traffic was particularly strong for independent, Islamist opposition and larger outlets, and that permanently blocked websites were substantially more likely to halt services. These results support previous work on state repression and information control showing that censorship often works in reducing the consumption and provision of alternative political information.

Syrian Experiment of Social Development

Article is devoted to examine the different stages of socialeconomical and political development of Syrian society in 1970–2020 s. The reforms, which Party of Arab Socialist Renaissance realized on its politicalideological doctrine, are analyzed. The results which were reached in economical, social, cultural and political spheres of the life of Syrian society are lighted. The main attention is allotted to the period of 2000–2020 s, development of the movement “Syrian Spring”, the actions of authority and opposition. The causes of Syrian conflict are analyzed. The role of external actors and their support to the armed Islamist opposition and the help of Russia in the struggle against radical Islamism are examined. The farthest social-political development of Syrian society on the base of new Constitution is displayed, and difficult economical situation, which the sanctions of the Western countries provoked, is examined.

The Politics of Islam: The Muslim Brothers and the State in the Arab Gulf

The Politics of Islam: The Muslim Brothers and the State in the Arab Gulf

Pertarungan Narasi Islam dalam Pemilihan Presiden Tahun 2019

<p><em>The 2019 general election is one of the most intense elections in Indonesia's history, especially after reformasi (political reform) in the 1998. This election did not only involve political parties in the fight for the presidency but also involves opposition movements, especially the Islamic movement. After the phenomenon of 212 in 2016, Islamic movements became very active in influencing political activities in Indonesia, including the elections held in 2019. The efforts of this Islamic opposition movement were to delegitimize the regime (Joko Widodo) who tried to participate in the 2019 re-election through various narratives including religious narratives in it. Meanwhile, on the other hand, there are also other Islamic groups that carry out counter-narratives and support Jokowi to be re-elected in the 2019 election. This study focuses on discussing the narratives and counter-narratives carried out by Muslim opposition and pro-regime Islamic groups in the 2019 elections through narrative analysis in qualitative research. Data is collected through online sources, both from those with affiliation with related movements and other media. This research found that there were two sides of the Islamic narrative in the 2019 presidential election, namely the Islamist side who criticized the incumbent presidential candidate and the Islamic group side who supported the presidential candidate as well as the president who was in power.</em></p>

The Evolution of the Status of Women in Tunisia (On the 75th Anniversary of Tunisia’s Declaration of Independence)

In the article, in the context of the recognition of socio-cultural determinants of gender history and critical analysis of foreign studies by the author, an attempt was made to generalize the evolution of the position of women in Tunisia in the 20th and early 21st centuries. It is the Tunisian version of solving the problem of women’s emancipation that most modern researchers consider as the most successful example for the Islamic world. The views of well-known feminists and representatives of the Islamic world regarding actualization of the problem are presented. The influence of the French authorities on the manifestations of the ideas of Western feminism, as well as the influence of Islamic reformists on the problems of women’s education and women’s participation in social and political life, is shown.
 In the course of the research, the author substantiates the following conclusions, namely: during the century, the social evolution of Tunisian society was determined by the process of adaptation and change of traditional socio-cultural foundations to new historical conditions. The established secular regime, after the proclamation of the Republic, for a decade was under pressure from the Islamic opposition, which initially existed in a cultural and educational form, and in the last decade of the 20th century took shape as a political one. The history of the last decade of the Republic shows that socio-cultural traditions have become the most important mechanism for the formation of intellectual and political values that contribute to national unity. This process determined both the nature and the stages of the women’s movement, which was formed during the period of the national liberation struggle, being its component. After the declaration of independence, Tunisian women de jure received political and social rights. There was a process of organizational design of the women’s movement, but this movement experienced decades of paternalistic control during the rule of Habib Bourguiba.
 A qualitatively new stage is associated with the presidency of Ben Ali and his politics: from “managed democracy” to a totalitarian regime, which led to the formation of a female political opposition. As mentioned above, the events of the 2010s opened perspectives in the issues of overcoming gender asymmetry.

“Reconstituted authoritarianism: Islam, service provision and the state in al-Sisi’s Egypt”

ABSTRACT Social service provision by non-state actors is cited as an important factor in maintaining authoritarian regime stability in the Middle East. By facilitating their growth regimes ease the burden on their own shrinking resources and avoid resultant social unrest. But these arrangements are not politically risk free, with Islamic opposition groups able to develop substantial social capital. After the Arab Spring, in which regimes faced mass mobilization, and in some cases, nascent democratization, authoritarian elites adapted and transformed their tactics of control to contain newly mobilized societies. Focusing on the crackdown on Islamic service providers in Egypt since 2013, this article shows when a process of democratic transition is reversed, reviving previous arrangements of non-state service provision is deemed unsustainable due to continued political threat. In response, a model of reconstituted authoritarianism is developed that sees the utilization of the state apparatus to extend “direct” controls over non-state service provision, through four strategies: nationalization, corporatization, extraction, and state building. However, the sustainability of this strategy is tempered by state capacity. The article offers a path to increased understanding of authoritarian adaptation after the Arab Spring, and the role of service provision in maintaining regime stability.

The challenges of long-delayed prosecutions in fighting impunity in Bangladesh

AbstractThis article focuses on the challenges of ‘long-delayed’ prosecutions, that is, criminal prosecutions that begin decades after the conflict, using the experience of the International Criminal Tribunal for Bangladesh (ICT-BD) as a case study. This issue is still an insufficiently discussed topic even though such prosecutions are likely to become more common in the future. The focus of this article is mainly on the legal and broader, transitional justice challenges of long-delayed prosecutions at the ICT-BD. The article examines how such prosecutions have had a contradictory, two-fold effect: on the one hand, they have partially broken the endemic culture of impunity that was allowed to prevail for decades in Bangladesh. On the other hand, however, they have been highly controversial and may have served to deepen alienation of the Islamist opposition in Bangladesh. The article concludes that the question of whether long-delayed prosecutions are desirable for a particular society remains highly context-dependent and, in some cases, mechanisms other than criminal trials may be better suited to dealing with the past.

Gender Egalitarian Attitudes and Support for Islamist Parties in the Middle East and North Africa

ABSTRACT How do attitudes about women’s equality affect political support for Islamist parties? Women’s issues remain a key point of contention between religious groups and the government in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Given Islamists’ conservative stances on women’s rights, individuals who support gender equality may naturally be skeptical of Islamist parties participating in politics. Nevertheless, democratic stability in the region requires creating inclusive political institutions, including women’s movements and the Islamic opposition. Where democracy is inclusive and competitive, Islamist parties may moderate their positions to remain electorally viable, thus alleviating gender equality proponents’ concerns. To test these expectations, we draw on two different survey data sources from the MENA region. Our results, consistent across time and data sources, demonstrate that gender egalitarian individuals are less likely to trust Islamist parties or tolerate their inclusion in formal politics. Nevertheless, democracy mitigates this negative relationship.

Controlling the State in the Political Theory of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Existing scholarship has largely focused on the violence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) when analyzing their response to the Oslo Agreement and the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority (PA) in the 1990s. The Islamist opposition’s contribution to Palestinian political thought has largely been ignored, however, although the prospects of Palestinian self-rule confronted the two movements with fundamental questions about social organization, governance, and the permissibility of democracy. I offer an analysis of key Hamas and PIJ texts from this period to demonstrate that Hamas and PIJ fundamentally differ in their analysis of the state and the organization of just society. While Hamas outlines a state-centric approach to governance through which Islamic values are enforced from above, PIJ perceives the state to be the greatest threat to the just organization of society. This article consequently dispels the myth that the two Palestinian Islamist movements had no significant ideological differences in the 1990s.

HOSNI MUBARAK’S FOREIGN POLICY AND THE ISLAMIC FACTOR

The article examines the complicated domestic and foreign political situation inherited by H. Mubarak after the assassination of the former head of state A. Sadat by radical Islamists because of his foreign policy steps directly related to Islamic solidarity at the international level. H. Mubarak’s foreign policy was a continuation of the domestic one. He tried to attract supporters among the Islamists, at the same time widely using repression to weaken the Islamist opposition, and, at the same time, sought to pursue a policy of promoting state Islam, which was designed to show the Islamic character of the country and thus seize the initiative from the Islamist opposition. Having restored Egypt’s position in the Arab and Islamic world, in the last decade of his rule, H. Mubarak, as a result of unsuccessful steps towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, again faced criticism of his course. This was superimposed on the growth of opposition within the country, and the dilemma, which H. Mubarak tried to solve at the last stage of his rule, looked like a classic “paradox of democracy”, when the launching of democratization processes leads to the strengthening of Islamist forces. Another dimension on which the Islamic factor manifested itself in the foreign policy pursued under H. Mubarak was the fight against international terrorism. For Egypt, this problem worsened in the 1990s. Opposition to radical Islam reached a new level after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States and the declaration of a “global war on terrorism”, in which Egypt became a participant. During this period, al-Qaeda considered Egypt as one of the directions of the “global jihad”. The actions of the government of Egypt and the terrorist acts against this country revealed previously unknown groups that were somehow identified with Al-Qaeda and the “global jihad”.

Transformation of conservative politics, urban space and taste in contemporary Turkey

ABSTRACT This article examines the simultaneous transformation in conservative politics, urban space, and taste following the foundation of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey. The AKP represents a new conservative position by softening the Islamist triadic opposition to the capitalist market system, secular state, and material and cultural domination of the modern West. The changing conservative position and representation paved the way for the transformation of conservative middlebrow taste. Based on ethnographic research in a conservative upper-middle class neighborhood in Ankara, this article examines of the opening up of the closed world of the Islamist opposition to the infinite universe of commodities. Deploying Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual tools, it explicates the observed changes in conservative lifestyles as an outcome of the transformations in the political field, leading to the reconfiguration of conservative urban space and future expectations.

Muslim Clergy vs. Authority in Contemporary Afghanistan: View from Uzbekistan

Significant geopolitical changes taking place in the modern world in recent decades urge us to take a fresh look at the role of Islam and the clergy in the political processes of a number of countries of the Muslim world. This perspective is especially relevant vis--vis Afghanistan where a fierce war is being waged under the slogans of Islam for more than four decades. The purpose of this research is an in-depth study of the relationship between the state and the Muslim clergy, Islamic institutions in the development of political processes in Afghanistan since the mid-70s of the last century. The article reflects shaping of the Islamic opposition and its efforts to stand up to innovations and reforms during attempts of the Soviet stile modernization in 1978-1992, and then the efforts to democratize Afghan society, undertaken in Afghanistan since the end of 2001 with the assistance of the international community. The work is based on the study of factual historical material, a chronicle of the events of the last decade and personal observations of the author during his work in Afghanistan during the mentioned period. Analytical materials published on the pages of English and Russian mass media were used. The methodological basis of this study is the comparative historical method; the article is based on the principles of historicism, reliability and scientific objectivity. The author concludes that the conflict is based on mistakes and underestimation by the state the role and influence of the Muslim clergy and Islamic institutions of the country. It has been noted that the recently reached US - Taliban agreements, as well as the assistance of such influential players as Russia, sparkle hope for the launch of a direct inter-Afghan negotiation process, which most likely will not be as simple but thorny.

Between national and international interests: Morocco’s Al-Adl wa-l-Ihsane from an international perspective

ABSTRACT This article explores the increasing influence of transnational Islamist political networks, and, particularly, the rise of international linkages within Islamist movements that have traditionally had an exclusive national focus. For this purpose, it focuses on Morocco's Islamist opposition movement al-Adl wa-l- Ihsane (AWI), one of whose main mottos is the rejection of financial aid or support from foreign organisations. In spite of this, international issues have contributed to shape its actions within Moroccan borders. Likewise, different Muslim associations inspired by this movement's school of thought have emerged across Europe. In this light, this paper analyses the influence exerted by AWI in three European countries: France, Belgium and Spain, focusing on the different Muslim associations that openly embrace AWI's school of thought. In doing so, it relies on social movement theory to understand the depth and nature of these relations, while reflecting on the impact they have on AWI in Morocco.

Politics and the Limits of Pluralism in Mohamed Arkoun and Abdenour Bidar

One of the striking features of the literary culture of the modern Maghreb is the profusion of works that undertake to identify the essential features of the region – exercises in definition that almost always emphasize plurality. Philosophers, social scientists, and literary writers have highlighted the Maghreb's multilingualism – the coexistence of different forms of Arabic, Tamazight, French, and Spanish – the varied and hybrid cultural legacies of conquest and colonialism, and the effects of the region's geographical proximity to other parts of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. It would be hard to find a more ubiquitous theme of francophone Maghrebi literature than cultural diversity, and the subject is by no means absent from Arabic-language literature. This preoccupation with plurality can be seen as a response to a history of colonization and decolonization with particular ideological features. In their efforts to build “l'Algérie française,” the French colonial authorities suppressed Arabic as a language of culture and government. In response, anticolonial nationalists called for the replacement of French with Arabic. “Islam is my religion, Arabic is my language, Algeria is my nation” – the catchphrase of Abdelhamid Ben Badis's Jam'iyat al-'Ulama [Association of Muslim Ulema], an Islamic reform movement of the 1930s and 1940s – later became a slogan of the nationalist movement, the Front de libération nationale (FLN) [National Liberation Front]. Since the 1980s, a similar call to restore Arabic and eliminate French has been issued by the Islamist opposition to the corrupt and undemocratic FLN government and at times by officials in that same government seeking to restore their legitimacy. In emphasizing linguistic and cultural diversity, writers and scholars have tried to tender an alternative to these recurrent efforts to delimit the region's identity.

The Opposition Advantage: Islamist Opposition Parties and Security Cooperation

AbstractThis paper highlights the impact of religious oppositions in Muslim-majority states towards security cooperation with the U.S. Such cooperation provides security but is risky as the U.S. can coerce its weaker allies and push for regime change. To protect against this possibility, this paper suggests that incumbents in recipient states strategically extend or limit cooperation based on the strength of Islamist opposition parties. Weaker Islamist oppositions pose a threat to incumbents in recipient states as the U.S. can coerce and replace them without fear of bringing anti-U.S. elements to power, which results in lower cooperation. In case of a stronger Islamist opposition, the regime's replacement cannot offer better policy concessions to the U.S.; hence, a strong Islamist opposition leads to more extensive cooperation. This mechanism is demonstrated through U.S. military aid acceptance in 40 Muslim-majority states during 2002–2015, and a comparison of U.S. security relations with Algeria and Tunisia.

Analisis Penguatan Hubungan Qatar-Turki Selama Krisis Teluk 2017

The Gulf coalition country led by Saudi Arabia simultaneously severed its diplomatic relations with Qatar in early June 2017. This action was motivated by Saudi Arabia's accusations of Qatar's proximity to several Islamic opposition organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas and its bilateral tendencies with Iran. This resentment continued with the launching of a land, sea and air blockade against Qatar's territory. Qatar dismissed the accusations and saw the Arab coalition's actions as an intervention against its foreign policy. In addition, Turkey as an ally of Qatar initially responded to the diplomatic crisis in a neutral manner and put forward mediation efforts. However, these efforts failed due to sabotage by the Gulf coalition. Turkey later denounced the blockade and immediately signed a military agreement to speed up the deployment of troops to Qatar. This article aims to analyze the reasons for Turkey's shift from initially neutral to pro-Qatar by strengthening its bilateral relations with Qatar through a series of help.