Ideological & Political Trends after WWI

1. Ideological & Political Trends after WWI • Today • Brief look at Islamism • Mandate control over many of the newly-formed countries (Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Iraq if we have time)

2. Last time: Watershed @ Turn of 20th Cent. WHY? • Conflicting promises and messy diplomacy • Indirect rule through mandates (focus of next class) • Political vacuum in many Middle Eastern states as Ottomans could not assert control and European powers became targets of indigenous liberation movements • TODAY: • Increase in political expression and activism in the first decades of the 20th century. • Emergence of new social and political movements • FOCUS ON: Pan-Arabism, Statist Nationalism, Islamism

3. End of 19th and beginning of 20th century saw the emergence of numerous social and political movements, well before the war and Ottoman dissolution. Political expression and activity increased heavily.WHY? • Reacting against: • Ottoman centralization (& secular Europeanization) • Colonial domination • CREATING A VOID • Responding to cultural, ideological, political void after foreign influence waned • FILLING THE VOID

4. The MENA region

5. Various trends… but first, some key distinctions. Islam vs. Islamism– Islam is a religion. Islamism is an ideology defining economic & legal systems based on Islam Muslim vs. Islamist– Muslims follows Muslim religion, but is not necessarily an Islamist. Islamist has ideologies following Islamism Arab vs. Arab nationalist– Arab is an ethnicity. Arab nationalist wants a unified political system and state for all Arabs Judaism vs. Zionism– Judaism is a religion. Zionism is a nationalist effort to define political and legal systems based on Judaism and advocating a Jewish state.

6. Some trends: • Islamism - many types. • Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) • Jama’atIslami (Pakistan), MawlanaMaududi • Pan-Islamism • Ottomanism • Turkism (and Pan-Turkism) • Ataturk and Kemalism – reformism, republicanism, secularism, nationalism, populism, and etatism • Arab Nationalism (single nation) • Pan-Arabism (single state) • NasserismGamal Abdel-Nasser and socialist program • Baathism Michel Aflaq started Ba’ath movement in Syria (Christian Arab). Conflicting Ba’ath ideology in Syria & Iraq • Liberalism – TahaHusayn • Ethno-nationalism (Lebanese Christians at the time) • Communism (i.e. Iraqi Communist Party) • Zionism: the Jewish experience in Europe, Jewish nationalism to create a Jewish homeland, various types of Zionism • Regionalism (unity of Levant or Maghrib, Yemen) • Secularism (Turkey, Tunisia) • Idiosyncratic (Muammar Qaddhafi) • Some places competitive, some places monopolistic.

7. Islamism: Is the belief that Islam provides comprehensive bases and sufficient guidance for political, economic and legal behavior, as well as other aspects of life like social norms.

8. Differences of Islamist thinking – Differ on: • How progressive and how traditional • Degree of cultural difference • Gender issues • What economic systems should look like • Interpretation and Enforcement of Shari’a

9. Basic components of the Islamist framework and ideology: • Islam is total and all-encompassing way of life, personal and political. • The Quran and Sunnah provide models for daily life and action • Shariah is the ideal blueprint for society • Dependency on the West and relaxation of religiosity caused Muslim decline. • Science and technology must be adopted and used to achieve goals. • Struggle (jihad) on the personal and communal level will bring reform and revolution and Islamization of society and the world.

10. Jamal al Din al Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida

11. Al Banna & Qutb

12. A Radical Version • IbnTaymiyyah (13th c.) • Lived during period of fitnah (disorder) • Mongols and end of Abbasid Empire • Fatwa against the Mongols • 18th century revivalism • Focus on Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia • Muhammad ibnAbdalWahhab • Taymiyyah as exemplar • Called for new interpretation of Islam • Tawhid (God’s unity) – strict monotheism • Alliance with Muhammad ibn Saud (legitimacy)

13. Case Study: Iraqi Political Development

14. Why are individuals more favorably inclined to adopt one ideology rather than another? • Identity, inclusion versus exclusion. • Betting on a change in global or regional balance of power (communism, pro-West Sadat) • Desire to forge a domestic coalition • Ideological influence/ transnationalism • Outside funding • Desire to ride a popular wave • Sincere beliefs