Some Arab political systems resort to
employment Political Islam movements, in the context of their efforts to pass their policies and agendas, find it difficult to pass them without popular cover, provided by popular forces that have weight and influence in the street, and at the same time possess the capabilities, expertise and skills to mobilize the masses, organize their movement, and control their reactions.
According to observers, the entry of political Islam movements into the political arena, their participation in parliaments, and some of them assuming the task of forming governments or participating in them, imposes new challenges on them and puts them face to face with the state’s constraints, as these movements, in the event of their participation in parliaments, have no choice but to reject some government policies or object to them by voting against them, with full knowledge that governments are ultimately capable of passing them through the majority of their loyalists in parliaments.
An example that is brought up in this context is the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel, known as the Wadi Araba Agreement, which was signed on October 26, 1994, and was passed in the Jordanian House of Representatives with the approval of 55 deputies, and the rejection of 23 deputies, including 17 Islamist deputies from the Islamic Action Front. The number of deputies who attended that session was 79 deputies.
But the most difficult situation that some political Islam movements may face after the regime entrusts them with forming or participating in the government is their dealing with government policies and agreements that they reject and object to, just as happened with the Justice and Development Party in Morocco, when the party’s Secretary-General, Dr. Saadeddine El Othmani, assumed the position of Prime Minister, when he was the representative of the Kingdom of Morocco in signing the normalization agreement between Morocco and Israel on December 10, 2020.
Othmani’s signing of the normalization agreement with Israel sparked widespread controversy at the time, and was met with a wave of anger in Arab and Islamic popular circles, but Othmani defended his participation by saying, “The signing of the joint declaration was in my capacity as a statesman, so I thought about submitting my resignation from the General Secretariat to relieve any member of the Justice and Development Party of embarrassment.”
What was striking at the time was that the Justice and Development Party did not take any action against Othmani. Rather, the comment of the party’s former Secretary-General and former Prime Minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, came in the context of justifying what Othmani did. He is “a Secretary-General and Prime Minister appointed by the King, and his signature is linked to the state and its presidency, which determines who will sign. Any talk with Othmani falls within the context of abandoning the state, which cannot happen today, because we are in an external battle, and we cannot abandon the state,” according to what Benkirane said.
According to researchers, political Islam movements, by participating in the state’s legislative and executive institutions, become part of the state, which means that they are exposed to state constraints, which imposes a new type of challenges on them. They may find themselves, in the presence of these challenges, moving in the direction that the authorities want or that is consistent with their orientations and policies, which requires more awareness and greater interest in the measures that prevent them from falling into the trap of being used by the authorities.
In this context, “it is not possible to generalize the speech in determining the extent of the awareness of the political Islam movements and their understanding of the policies of employing them by the Arab political regimes in certain stages, as there is a difference in the degrees of their awareness and understanding of this, as some of them underestimate or act smart, and some of them find themselves forced to do so according to their various calculations and estimates, such as preserving their existence, presence and role and confronting the various challenges and obstacles that stand in their way,” according to the Jordanian academic and political researcher, Dr. Sabri Samira.
He added: “Most Islamic movements, in terms of initial awareness, are aware and realize that they may be exploited and employed, but some of them may lack knowledge of the strategic dimensions or future effects of that employment and its reflection on them, their movements and their call, and on the general public and the nation in general.”
He continued his talk to“Arabi21” He said: “As for the justifications for necessity, some of them appear to be the desire to preserve previous gains, including fear of oppression, exclusion or political isolation. However, one of the dangers of this is that if it is not based on correct estimates and accurate calculations, it will be surprised by the passage of major internal and external policies, but after the time has passed, which will be reflected in its presence, influence, cohesion and people’s view of it, and its position in the political systems will be shaken.”
Dr. Sabry Samira.. Jordanian academic and political researcher
Regarding the measures that political Islam movements must take care of in order to avoid falling into the trap of being used by political systems, Samira mentioned several measures, the most prominent and important of which is “the presence of a highly politicized strategic leadership class that possesses knowledge, experience and awareness of all different aspects of life, that develops strategies, plans and programmes based on careful and in-depth studies prepared by experts and specialists, including clear strategies and standards for political participation, with the necessity and importance of having experts to evaluate performance and review the path, policies and decisions.”
For his part, the Egyptian writer and political researcher, Saif al-Islam Eid, described the “Islamic movements that fall into the trap of political exploitation” as “not realizing their value, not knowing their societal importance before their political importance, and choosing between survival and standing up to regimes, even if they are weak.”
“Ironically, this has not happened since the Arab Spring revolutions except in Arab countries with monarchies, such as Morocco and Jordan. In Morocco, the Makhzen passed the ominous scenario of normalization with the Zionist enemy through the largest Islamic party, the Justice and Development Party, and the former Prime Minister at the time, Saadeddine El Othmani, appeared in a historic scene that will haunt the entire history of the political party, signing the normalization agreement with the Zionist enemy,” he added.
He added: “In Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood tried to avoid a major wave of repression by lowering the ceiling of criticism and mobilization in the street, especially after the Al-Aqsa flood, which exposed it to criticism from supporters of the resistance and those affiliated with it abroad because of this maneuver. Despite this, the Islamic Action Front won the elections that did not enjoy wide popular participation, because they were the (slogan) option closest to the resistance than other parties and movements. In other words, there was no one on the scene who supported the resistance more than them.”
Saif al-Islam Eid.. Egyptian writer and political researcher
In response to a question “Arabi21” How do political Islam movements escape the traps of political regimes’ exploitation of them? And how do they deal with them? Researcher Eid pointed out that “there is no ready-made prescription in this regard, as each movement or party has a different context from the other, and the importance changes according to the state’s geostrategic location and the nature of the political regime, whether it is deeply rooted in eradicationist repression like the Egyptian and Syrian regimes, or allows for margins of political work like the Tunisian, Jordanian, Algerian and Moroccan regimes.”
He continued: “In addition to the popularity of the organization, its cohesion, and the strength of its bases that allow it to maneuver, these factors and others determine the foundations of maneuvering for the Islamic movement or party, and the management of the confrontation so that these movements and parties do not fall prey to an Arab regime that wants to consider them a vehicle for two purposes, the first of which is to end the popularity of these movements or an entry point to suppress them,” he said.
With a vision dominated by a comprehensive philosophical perspective, the Egyptian writer, researcher in political science, and specialist in Islamic thought, Dr. Muhammad Jalal Al-Qassas, saw that “the answer to: Why were the Islamic movements employed more than once.. and by the same local and regional actor.. and then the question of remaining in this circle and the inability to get out of it, is by looking at two statements: the driving mass, and the tools of action.”
He detailed his answer by saying: “When you contemplate the scene and put its basic terms (statements) in your hands, which are: the absence of awareness of those responsible for the uprising (misleading them), the employment of regional and international powers for Islamic movements and others; and the repetition of failed experiments, and you ask about the reason, you find the answer in this sentence: the existence of a driving mass that possesses multi-dimensional tools for action. If the vision is necessary to draw a roadmap, then the tools for action are also necessary for implementation, and the tools work with the vision that produced them.”
Al-Qassas added in his interview with:
“Arabi21”“In the scene, there is a human mass that possesses the tools of action through which it can suppress the awareness of others and move them as it wishes. This mass is the elite of the global, regional, and local system: they possess the tools of the state (security, economic, media, and judicial institutions, and a religious discourse that agrees with them), they possess money, they possess knowledge (information and tools for spreading information), and they possess freedom of movement with their persons, money, decisions, and goods. Freedom of movement is an important variable that few pay attention to.”
Dr. Muhammad Jalal Al-Qassas.. Researcher in Political Science and Islamic Thought
Confronting this and getting out of it, according to researcher Al-Qassas, is “through a set of preparations and measures, the most prominent and important of which is: knowing that systems, no matter how strong they are, have life cycles like everything on the face of the earth. They age and deteriorate and are replaced: from within (renewal) or from outside (occupation and victory by the enemy). The existence of a conscious mass that knows the way to the tools and how to deal with them, and knows the cunning of the ruling elite and knows that there are periods of weakness and is waiting for this decisive moment, is an inevitable necessity.”
At the end of his speech, he pointed out the importance of “building a new individual, as the awakening individual possesses nothing more than enthusiasm and his formation is of the same type as the formation of the normal individual, so in events he cannot do anything but object, condemn and be patient with the affliction (imprisonment and torture). It may be important to abandon the group formula after it became clear that it is one of the tools of the opposition, and to move towards building elites specialized in all aspects of life… elites who learn, train and practice… with the importance of taking the path of flexibility and jurisprudential compromise at this stage, and God has prescribed avoiding the oppressors (unless you fear them with fear).”
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