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Outline
This essay examines the growth of Political Islam in the Middle East and its future prognosis. The essay explains that the tenets of Islam are supposed to apply to every aspect of human life including politics and hence the practice of Islam cannot be separated from the state.
The essay then develops the theme by explaining the causes of the rise of political Islam being rooted in the exploitation of the Middle East by the West and that there are three distinct Islamic groups in the Middle East those that follow the philosophy of Islamic Opposition, Islamic Revolution and Islamic Terror.
The essay then examines the main positive and negative contributions of these three groups to the growth of the Middle East.
The essay then looks at the future of political Islam in the Middle East and finds that the prognosis is not good in the near term with many unresolved issues such as the festering Palestinian issue and regional ambitions such as those of Iran.
The essay then concludes by stating that in the long term factors that will shape the course of political Islam in the Middle East will hinge on the just settlement of the Palestinian problem, attitudinal and structural changes in the Persian Gulf monarchies, cooperative engagement and abandonment of cynical realpolitik by the Western countries as typified by the Iraq war and most importantly, the inner transformation of the Middle East youth who need to be weaned away from radicalization and guided to a more inclusive concept of Islam as is being practiced in Turkey and Indonesia.
Essay
Since ancient times, the Middle East region has been a crucible of Islamic activism. Islam, unlike Christianity is also a way of life. The tenets of Islam are supposed to apply to every aspect of human life including politics and hence the practice of Islam cannot be separated from the state as has been attempted in the case of Christianity since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. With this backdrop this essay examines the growth of Political Islam in the Middle East.
The Middle East region has been the confluence of four great religions which include Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Persian (subsumed into Islam) with Islam being the dominant religion of all Middle East Countries except Israel. The decline of the Ottoman Empire left the Muslims at the mercy of the Christian world who exploited the region for its resources. This was resented by the people of the region who formed various political parties and groups to overthrow the monarchies and puppet governments which had been propped up by the Western countries.
The humiliating defeat of the Arab armies in the 1967 Arab Israeli war, gave new life to the Muslim Brotherhood , a political entity created in 1928 (Knudsen 1) in Egypt which promised a return to the egalitarian principles of Islam. There are three distinct Islamic groups in the Middle East those that follow the philosophy of Islamic Opposition, Islamic Revolution and Islamic Terror. These three distinct groups have contributed both positively and negatively to the development of their countries. The Islamic Opposition as typified by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in its formative years did engage in reforms and had forced Egypt’s autocratic rulers to allow greater democratic freedoms.
The Islamic Revolutionary group has had resounding success in Iran when Ayatollah Khomeini‘s Iranian revolution, 1979 (Rabasa, Benard and Chalk 225) overthrew the Shah and established a religious theocracy in Iran. However, other revolutionary groups such as the Palestine Liberation Organization which had shown much promise after it gave up terrorism have lost its influence in the Palestinian question. The last group ascribing to Islamic Terror such as the Hamas, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda has only served to create chaos and destruction.
The future of political Islam in the Middle East in the near term does not look good. Iran continues its belligerence and quest for nuclear weapons. The Palestinian problem sees no end as long as Hamas and Hezbollah continue to use terror as an instrument of policy. The Al Qaeda’s avowed ideology to destroy America and her friends makes any reconciliation impossible. The only silver lining so far, has been in Turkey where the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have managed the impossible synthesis of an Islamic agenda in a democratic structure.
In the long term, factors that will shape the course of political Islam in the Middle East will hinge on the just settlement of the Palestinian problem, attitudinal and structural changes in the Persian Gulf monarchies, cooperative engagement and abandonment of cynical realpolitik by the Western countries as typified by the Iraq war and most importantly, the inner transformation of the Middle East youth who need to be weaned away from radicalization and guided to a more inclusive concept of Islam as is being practiced in Turkey and Indonesia.
Works Cited
Knudsen, Are. “Political Islam in the Middle East.” 2003. Web.
Rabasa, Angel, Cheryl Benard and Peter Chalk. The Muslim world after 9/11. Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 2004.
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