Islamists and power

By Ammar Ali Hassan

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Islamist groups in the Arab world have had their sights set on power for years. They desire power exclusively, or else through some formula of power sharing. What they received, instead, was harassment and repeated clampdowns. But recently things have changed. Only a few days ago Hamas won the Palestinian elections. Earlier Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood became the country's main opposition force. Islamists swept the Saudi municipal elections. In Kuwait and Morocco, Algeria and Bahrain, Jordan and Yemen, Sudan and Mauritania, the Islamists are becoming more powerful and gaining greater legal recognition. In Iraq the mullahs have benefited from the power vacuum caused by the US invasion. In Syria any future power vacuum may play into the hands of the Islamists.

This is happening for a number of reasons. One is that the Islamists believe in the power of resistance. Islamists are in the forefront of those groups resisting Israeli and US occupation. The exploits of Al-Qaeda, however bloody and controversial, are based on the same rhetoric of fighting the "enemy". Moderate Islamist groups have proved to be popular among voters as a result of this rhetoric, among other things.

The Arab public sympathises with Islamists when they are victimised. Islamic groups offer themselves as champions in the battle against dogmatic and totalitarian regimes. The public gives them the benefit of the doubt, even if only to register a protest vote. And now the Islamists believe it is their turn to govern. Colonialists, nationalists, leftists and capitalists have all had their chance. Now it is the Islamists' turn. They promise the public something vague but new. Islam is the solution, their favourite motto, falls on the ears of a public hungry for change.

This week's Soapbox speaker is director of the Centre for Middle East Studies and Research.