Abstract
This chapter argues that the US and its allies are engaged in two broad conflicts with groups associated with Islam: a decades-long, often violent battle with militant Islamists, and a more passive fight against political Islam; militant Islam is another form of extremism within political Islam. The chapter offers a nuanced look at the nature of this conflict, arguing that there are two divergent visions of political culture: the Islamist justice project and the neo-liberal freedom agenda. Militant Islam draws on the “just-cause” principle to substantiate its jihad project, while the neo-liberal world, dominated by the US, brandishes the “defense of freedom” principle when marshaling its forces against militant Islam. How this difference exhibits itself loudly in the political thinking and ideological language of the warring parties is explored. The chapter also highlights the research method employed, as well as the rationale for selecting the cases of Sudan’s Islamists, Morsi’s short-lived rule in Egypt, and DAESH in Iraq and Syria.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
On the neo-liberal freedom, see in particular David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 7.
- 2.
Steven Weinberg, Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001), 120.
- 3.
On Shari’a, one should consult John Esposito and Natana J. DeLong-Bas, Shariah: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
- 4.
On this issues of naming, read Islamism: Contested Perspectives on Political Islam. Edited by Richard C. Martin and Abbas Barzegar (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010); Joseph Lumbard, E. B. Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition. Edited by Joseph E. B. Lumbard (World Wisdom Books, 2004); another good sources of definition is Joas Wagemakers, Salafism in Jordan: Political Islam in a Quietist Community (Cambridge University Press, 2016), 28+.
- 5.
John Hope Franklin, The Militant South, 1800–1861 (Illinois: The University of Illinois Press, 2002).
- 6.
Ghazwah is defined as “walk to fight the enemy at his ground.” The term is often associated with Prophet Muhammad’s religious wars. Historians have accounted for about 29 ghazwah during Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime; different interpretations for their motives are offered. The most common justification for ghazwah is defensive purpose, defending the just cause or advancing the message of Islam. For the language definition, read: Fakhruddin Al-Turayhi, Muʻjam Majmaʻ al-Baḥrayn (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-ʻAlami lil-Maṭbuʻat, 2009), pp. 946–7; on the historical background, read The Life of Muhammad: Al-Waqidi, Kitaab al-Maghazi. (Ed.) Rizwi Faizer (UK, Abingdon: Routledge, 2010).
- 7.
Osama bin Laden, “Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places,” In Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to bin Laden. (Ed.) Roxanne L. Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman (Princeton: The Princeton University Press, 2009), 436.
- 8.
Abu Abdullah Al-Muhajir, Massail Min Figh al-Jihad (Treatises In the Jurisprudence of Jihad). Distributed by Minbar al Tawhid wa al-Jihad Site. Accessed at http://ia601203.us.archive.org/19/items/kotobjehad/masael.pdf.
- 9.
Jocelyne Cesari, Why the West Fears Islam: An Exploration of Muslims in Liberal Democracies (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 2.
- 10.
Good reading in this context is Doug Sanders, The Myth of the Muslim Tide: Do Immigrants Threaten the West (New York: Vintage Books, 2012).
- 11.
Jeanette S. Jouili, Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe (Redwood City, California: Stanford University Press, 2015).
- 12.
Relevant reading in this context is Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam (London: Penguin Books, 2006).
- 13.
For more details on this topic, read Susan Edelman, “NYC may yank terrorism report to appease mosque ‘spying’ critics.” In New York Post: January 18, 2015. Accessed at http://nypost.com/2015/01/18/city-may-yank-terrorism-report-to-appease-mosque-spying-critics/.
- 14.
Two competing narratives in this context: the first report is Shariah: the Threat to America: An Exercise in Competitive Analysis, by the Center for Security Policy. Washington, DC: Center for Security Policy Press, 2010. The second report is Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America, by the Center for American Progress (Washington DC: Center for American Progress, 2011).
- 15.
Quoted in Doug Sanders, The Myth of the Muslim Tide (New York: Vintage Books 2012), 30.
- 16.
Quoted in Bruce Lawrence, Message to the World: the Statements of Osama bin Laden. (Ed.) Bruce Lawrence (London: Verso, 2005), 137.
- 17.
The YouTube video is titled “Adam Yahiye Gadahn (Azzam the American).” Accessed On August 27, 2016 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-Etfu0KcJ0.
- 18.
Quoted in Abdul Wahab Abdussalam Tawila and Muhammad Amin Shakir Halwani, ‘Alamiyyatu al-Islam Wa Rasail al-Nabiy ila al-Muluk wa al-Umara (Damascus: Dar al-Qalam, 2003), 112.
- 19.
Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
- 20.
Quoted in Christopher Harrison, France and Islam in West Africa, 1860–1960 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 107.
- 21.
Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York: Norton, 2005).
- 22.
Sayyid Qutb, Ma’rakat al-Islam wa al-Rasamaliyyah (Cairo: Dar al-Shurooq, 1978), 30.
- 23.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference, Bayanat wa Qararat Mutamarat al-Qimma Wa Wuzara al-Kharijiyyah: 1969–1981 (Saudi Arabia: The Organization of the Islamic Conference, 1981), 6.
- 24.
Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Free Press, 1992).
- 25.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2000), Volume One, Part I, Chap. 3.
- 26.
Adam Hanieh, Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East (Illinois: Haymarket Books Chicago, 2013).
- 27.
Osama bin Laden, “Declaration of Jihad Against America.” In Jihad: Bin Laden in His Own Words. (Ed.) Brad Berner (Peacock Books, 2006), 33.
- 28.
For more on the New War, read Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era (California: Stanford University Press, 2012).
- 29.
Greg Miller, “Plan for hunting terrorists signals U.S. intends to keep adding names to kill lists.” In The Washington Post, October 23, 2012. Accessed on April 12, 2015.
- 30.
One can arguably add that the wars in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) also involved state actors. However, the nature of these failed states does not change the face value of the statement about the non-state nature of modern US conflicts.
- 31.
The US State Department List of Terrorist Organizations accessed on October 2016 at https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm.
- 32.
Global Terrorism Index 2016 Report, by the Institute for Economics and Peace. Accessed on March 12, 2017, at http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2016.2.pdf.
- 33.
Speech given on Thursday night, September 20, 2001. Accessed on October 2012, at http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/09/20/gen.bush.transcript/.
- 34.
Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power (New York: Alfred Knopf, 2003), 86.
- 35.
Quoted in Gerald Stourzh, Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of Republican Government (California: Stanford University Press, 1970), 195.
- 36.
Inaugural Address, West Front of the US Capitol, January 20, 1981.
- 37.
The full text of George Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress and the American people was published in the Guardian on Friday, September 21, 2001. Accessed on Feb. 25, 2015, at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13.
- 38.
The New York Times “Text: Obama’s Speech in Cairo.” June 4, 2009. Accessed at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
- 39.
Lee, S. A., Gibbons, J. A., Thompson, J. M., and Timani, H. S.: “The Islamophobia Scale: Instrument Development and Initial Validation.” International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, Vol. 19, No. 2 (2009), pp. 92–105; Andrew Shryock, Editor, Islamophobia/Islamophilia: Beyond the Politics of Enemy and Friend (Indiana University Press, 2010); and also professor Talal Asad’s interviews on the issue. Example: “Do Muslims Belong in the West? An Interview with Talal Asad.” In Jadaliyya: February 3, 2015. Accessed at http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/20768/do-muslims-belong-in-the-west-aninterview-with-tan. The same views are articulated in his book Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).
- 40.
See, for example, Nathan J. Brown When Victory Is Not an Option Islamist Movements in Arab Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012), and also see Mohammed M. Hafez and Quintan Wiktorowicz, “Violence as Contention in the Egyptian Islamic Movement,” pp. 61–88. In Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach. Edited by Quintan Wiktorowicz (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004).
- 41.
A more current analysis of this topic is offered by Lisa Stampnitzky, Disciplining Terror: How Experts Invented “Terrorism” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- 42.
Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 254.
- 43.
Abu al Yahya al Libi, “Al-Dimokratiyyah … Al-Sanamu al-‘ASri.” Accessed on Jan. 2011 at http://www.tawhed.ws/r?i=svgg6fj0.
- 44.
Ralph W. Hood, Peter C. Hill, and W. Paul Williamson, The Psychology of Religious Fundamentalism (New York: The Guilford Press, 2005). 188.
- 45.
Gamal al-Banna, Ibid, p. 79.
- 46.
Quotation from the Sudanese Islamist scholar, Professor Hassan Mekki. Interviewed in Khartoum on December 23, 2012.
- 47.
The “mixed methods” framework calls for combining different approaches together to better conceptualize and understand a research problem. See, for example, Using Mixed Methods Frameworks for an Integrated Methodology by David Plowright (SAGE Publications, 2011).
- 48.
One of the earlier works with methodological clarity and insightfulness in this regard is The Future of Political Islam by Graham Fuller (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
- 49.
Engseng Ho, “Empire through Diasporic Eyes: A View from the Other Boat” Society for Comparative Study of Society and History (April 2004): 210–246; p. 212.
- 50.
Some reporting has looked closely to the intertwined link between US policies in Iraq and the rise of ISIS: Zack Beauchamp “How the US, its allies, and its enemies all made ISIS possible.” In VOX, December 12, 1914. Accessed at http://www.vox.com/2014/8/25/6065529/isis-rise. And also read Martin Chulov “ISIS: the Inside Story.” In the Guardian: December 11, 2014, at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-inside-story?CMP=share_btn_fbread.
- 51.
In his 2016 book, Understanding Contemporary Islamic Crises in the Middle East, Graham Fuller considers Saudi Arabia as one of the major cases where Islamist parties came to power in the Middle East. This categorization is problematic since there is no political process in this country through which this anachronistic regime can be characterized within political Islam. Like its Gulf Cooperation Council neighbors, Shari’a has always been central in the constitutions of these monarchies.
- 52.
In Jihad vs. McWorld (1995), Benjamin Barber depicts the bleak clash between tribalism, including Jihad in the name of tribally conceived faiths against capitalism’s homogenous global network.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lo, M. (2019). Justice Versus Freedom: The Dilemma of Political Islam. In: Political Islam, Justice and Governance. Political Economy of Islam. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96328-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96328-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96327-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96328-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)