Όλες οι εγγραφές με ετικέτα με: "Μέτριος"

Το αραβικό αύριο

ΝΤΕΪΒΙΔ Β. OTTAWAY

Οκτώβριος 6, 1981, προοριζόταν να είναι μια ημέρα εορτασμού στην Αίγυπτο. Σηματοδότησε την επέτειο της μεγαλύτερης στιγμής νίκης της Αιγύπτου σε τρεις αραβο-ισραηλινές συγκρούσεις, όταν ο αουτσάιντερ στρατός της χώρας διέσχισε τη Διώρυγα του Σουέζ τις πρώτες μέρες του 1973 Ο πόλεμος του Γιομ Κιπούρ και έστειλε τα ισραηλινά στρατεύματα να υποχωρούν. Σε ένα δροσερό, χωρίς σύννεφα πρωί, το στάδιο του Καΐρου ήταν κατάμεστο από αιγυπτιακές οικογένειες που είχαν έρθει για να δουν τον στρατό να δοκιμάζει τον εξοπλισμό του. Στην εξέδρα αναθεώρησης, Πρόεδρος Anwar el-Sadat,ο αρχιτέκτονας του πολέμου, παρακολουθούσε με ικανοποίηση τους άνδρες και τις μηχανές να παρελαύνουν μπροστά του. Ήμουν κοντά, ένας νεοφερμένος ξένος ανταποκριτής.Ξαφνικά, ένα από τα φορτηγά του στρατού σταμάτησε ακριβώς μπροστά από το περίπτερο της αναθεώρησης, καθώς έξι αεροσκάφη Mirage βρυχήθηκαν από πάνω σε μια ακροβατική παράσταση, ζωγραφίζοντας τον ουρανό με μακριά ίχνη κόκκινου, κίτρινος, μωβ,και πράσινο καπνό. Ο Σαντάτ σηκώθηκε όρθιος, προφανώς ετοιμαζόταν να ανταλλάξει χαιρετισμούς με ένα ακόμη σώμα αιγυπτιακών στρατευμάτων. Έγινε τέλειος στόχος για τέσσερις ισλαμιστές δολοφόνους που πήδηξαν από το φορτηγό, εισέβαλε στην εξέδρα, και έριξε το σώμα του με σφαίρες. Καθώς οι δολοφόνοι συνέχιζαν για κάτι που φαινόταν μια αιωνιότητα να ψεκάζουν τη βάση με τη θανατηφόρα φωτιά τους, Σκέφτηκα για μια στιγμή αν να χτυπήσω το έδαφος και να κινδυνεύσω να με ποδοπατήσουν μέχρι θανάτου από πανικόβλητους θεατές ή να παραμείνω στο πόδι και να ρισκάρω να πάρω μια αδέσποτη σφαίρα. Το ένστικτο μου είπε να μείνω στα πόδια μου, και η αίσθηση του δημοσιογραφικού μου καθήκοντος με ώθησε να πάω να μάθω αν ο Σαντάτ ήταν ζωντανός ή νεκρός.

Φιλελεύθερη Δημοκρατία και Πολιτικό Ισλάμ: την Αναζήτηση κοινού εδάφους.

Mostapha Benhenda

Iraq and the Future of Political Islam

James Piscatori

Ισλαμικός Πολιτικός Πολιτισμός, Δημοκρατία, και Ανθρωπίνων Δικαιωμάτων

Daniel E. Τιμή

STRATEGIES FOR ENGAGING POLITICAL ISLAM

SHADI HAMID

AMANDA Kadlec

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

William Thomasson

Is Islam a religion of violence? Is the widely applied stereotype that all Muslims are violently opposed to “infidel” Western cultures accurate? Today’s world is confronted with two opposing faces of Islam; one being a peaceful, adaptive, modernized Islam, and the other strictly fundamentalist and against all things un-Islamic or that may corrupt Islamic culture. Both specimens, though seemingly opposed, mingle and inter-relate, and are the roots of the confusion over modern Islam’s true identity. Islam’s vastness makes it difficult to analyze, but one can focus on a particular Islamic region and learn much about Islam as a whole. Πράγματι, one may do this with Egypt, particularly the relationship between the Fundamentalist society known as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian government and population. The two opposing faces of Islam are presented in Egypt in a manageable portion, offering a smaller model of the general multi-national struggle of today’s Islam. In an effort to exemplify the role of Islamic Fundamentalists, and their relationship with Islamic society as a whole in the current debate over what Islam is, this essay will offer a history of the Society of Muslim Brothers, a description of how the organization originated, functioned, and was organized, and a summary of the Brother’s activities and influences on Egyptian culture. Certainly, by doing so, one may gain a deeper understanding of how Islamic Fundamentalists interpret Islam

Moderate and Radical Islam

ANGEL RABASA

One of the components of this study is relevant to a question that I was asked to address,which is how radical Islam differs from moderate or mainstream Islam. Frankly, one ofthe problems that we have found in the discourse about Islam is that the terms “radical”or “moderate” are often used in a subjective and imprecise way, without going through aprocess of critically examining what these terms mean. In some cases, the term radical ormilitant is defined in terms of support for terrorism or other forms of violence. Webelieve that this is too narrow a focus, that there is, in fact, a much larger universe offundamentalist or Salafi groups who may not themselves practice violence, but thatpropagate an ideology that creates the conditions for violence and that is subversive ofthe values of democratic societies.

OF ISLAMISTS AND BALLOT BOXES

Vickie Langohr

As Islamist movements have gained strength across the Muslim world, their commitmentto democratic means of achieving and exercising power has been repeatedlyanalyzed. The question of whether resort to violence to achieve its goals is inherentin the Islamist project (that what some Islamists understand as a divine mandate toimplement sharia ultimately sanctions the use of force against dissenters) or contingent(that the violent exclusion of Islamists from the political arena has driven themto arms, best expressed by Franc¸ois Burgat’s contention that any Western politicalparty could be turned into the Armed Islamic Group in weeks if it were subjected tothe same repression Islamists had endured1) looms large in this debate. Where Islamistmovements have not had the opportunity to participate in elections for political office,analysts willing to give these movements the benefit of the democratic doubt arguethat their peaceful participation in the student body and syndicate elections that theyhave been allowed to contest proves their intention to respect the results of nationallevelelections.2 They also point to these groups’ repeated public commitment to playby the rules of the electoral game.3 The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptand Jordan and members of the Islah Party in Yemen have successfully competed innot one but a series of parliamentary elections and evinced a tendency to wage theirbattles through parliament and the courts rather than by force suggests to many thatthe question of whether Islamists can ever be democrats has already been settled inthe affirmative.Analysts who are more skeptical of the possibility of a democratic Islamism generallyadvance one of two arguments. The first is procedural: that although some Islamistshave seemingly opted to effect change through the ballot box, they have chosenthis method only because they do not yet have the power to use more forceful ones.In a manner of speaking, this line of thinking accuses Islamists competing in parliamentarypolitics of engaging in political taqiyya, of parroting the rhetoric that democratswant to hear until they obtain sufficient power to abort the democratic politicalprocess and institute a policy of “one-man, one-vote, one-time.”

Brothers in Arms?

Within and between western governments, a heated policy debate is raging over the question of whether or not to engage with the world’s oldest and most influential political Islamist group: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. In 2006, publication of a series of leaked memos in the New Statesman magazine revealed that political analysts within the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office recommended an enhancement of informal contacts with members of the Brotherhood.

The authors of these documents argued that the UK government should be seeking to influence this group, given the extent of its grassroots support in Egypt. The British analysts further suggested that engagement could provide a valuable opportunity for challenging the Brotherhood’s perceptions of the West, including the UK, and for detailed questioning of their prescriptions for solving the challenges facing Egypt and the wider region.

The Bush administration in the United States has been far less open to the idea of direct engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood, arguing that it would be inappropriate to enter into formal ties with a group that is not legally recognised by the Egyptian government. However, there are indications that the US position may be starting to shift. In 2007, it emerged that the State Department had approved a policy that would enable US diplomats to meet and coordinate with elected Brotherhood leaders in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and other Arab states.