History News Network

Breaking News

Departments

Deja vu — Judith Apter Klinghoffer

Judith Apter Klinghoffer

ISLAMISTS BEAT ARAB GOVERNMENTS IN THEIR OWN GAME

Anyone who misses the connections between "The days of Rage," the refusal of the Muslim governments to democratize and the determination of the Islamists to take over, misses the real story.

The anti-Danish campaign was mounted by Arab governments and organizations as a way to regain their legitimacy by demonstrating their efficacy by punishing Denmark. Indeed, a few days ago, some were celebrating its success:

The anti-Danish movement emanaged to build up across Muslim countries at such an impressive speed: grassroots collective action and decisive political moves led by various governments -- with Libya and Saudi Arabia on the helm -- quickly turned into determined diplomatic efforts. Arab League missions in Denmark and across Europe united in one of the most coordinated campaigns organised by Arabs since the 1973 War, heaping even more pressure on both Denmark and Norway. Meanwhile, a serious economic boycott campaign is rapidly translating into empty shelves in grocery stores that once offered Danish products across Saudi Arabia and other countries.
The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, although he didn't apologise personally, commended Jyllands-Posten for offering a clear apology for offending Muslims and Muslim nations for its editorial decision to publish the cartoons. But that would not suffice in the face of the gathering storm, as Arab League representatives are surely taking the matter to the United Nations, with the hope of passing a UN resolution, backed by sanctions that would protect religion from insults, according to the BBC.

The Danish PM apologized, affirmed his respect for Islam and his hope that the crisis would end. Gihan Shahine describes the satisfaction of some:

Abdel-Moeti Bayoumi, a member of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy (IRA), called the boycott a religious duty. "The boycott is the least Muslims could do to defend their prophet after the majority of Danish people supported their government for not apologising for the offensive drawings," Bayoumi told the Weekly. "Now other nations will think twice before defaming Islam."

Bayoumi spoke too soon. Having failed to declare victory and go home, the Muslims powers that be gave the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood (of which Hamas is an off shoot)an opportunity to take over the successful campaign. In fact, Bayoumi's venerable institution, Al Azhar, came under attack for not being forceful enough in "defense" of Islam."

The "disgruntled" Egyptian MP Hamdi Hassan, who is also a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, escalated the demands: "The Danish government needs to make a more formal apology in acknowledgment that freedom of expression does not mean people are free to insult prophets." When the European papers decided to republish the cartoons as to affirm the Western freedom of press, the debate was really on:

"Muslims might have miscalculated the manner in which they handled the crisis," noted prominent Islamic scholar Abdel-Sabour Shahine, who suggested that instead of pursuing a boycott of Danish products, the Islamic world should have shown more tolerance, by focusing on promoting dialogue with the west, and educating them more about Islam. "The Qur'an ordains Muslims to engage in peaceful dialogue and use a more logical approach with those of different creeds." The prophet himself, Shahine argued, was constantly subject to offence during the first years of his prophecy in Mecca, and his reactions were so tolerant that those who initially opposed him ended up becoming Muslim.
"After all," said Shahine, "we'd rather have the Danes apologising out of conviction, rather than because they feel threatened."
Others, like Hassan, continued to insist that the boycott was very effective in delivering an important message to the world: that Muslims are still "alive, and are ready to unite and move".
The question of who might lead that movement, however, was still very much up in the air. Many Egyptians were upset at what they called the "shamefully weak stance" of Al-Azhar, the Sunni world's foremost seat of learning. Al-Azhar's grand imam, often criticised for toeing the government line, had not been one of the first to speak up about the offensive cartoons. When he finally did, he sparked public outrage when he based his denunciation on the grounds that it is "not acceptable to ridicule dead people in general, and deceased prophets in particular"-- a statement that, albeit bearing the official seal of Al-Azhar, was heartily denied in a subsequent statement issued by Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy (IRA) on Wednesday.
Senior Al-Azhar cleric Mahmoud Ashour said that Al-Azhar scholars convened immediately after the publication of the offensive cartoons to study ways of countering them. "Our response appeared to be late because we had to first see how the Danish government would react," Ashour said. "But the press spares no effort in belittling the role of the grand imam, who loves Islam and the prophet more than anyone else."
Hassan and others remained sceptical of these kinds of claims. "The grand imam's response sounded even more offensive than the cartoons themselves because it supposedly came from the most prestigious seat of learning in the Islamic world," the MP said.
"How can Prophet Mohamed be compared with any other dead person?" asked Ibrahim El-Zaafarani, a Muslim Brotherhood member of the Shura Council who also serves as secretary-general of Alexandria's Doctors' Syndicate. "It's a shame, a shame."
Other scholars argued that the imam's statement ran counter to a principle enshrined in the Qur'an, which implies that Prophet Mohamed is spiritually alive amongst Muslims via his teachings. "If the grand imam is more interested in his [position]," El-Zaafarani said, "he needs to be made aware that the prestige of his seat stems from the grandiosity of his religion."
In the meantime, a host of other organisations -- including the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the Federation of Arab Journalists, the International Union of Muslim Clergy, the Islamic Conference Organisation, the Arab League, and the Egyptian Parliament -- all joined the fray, issuing statements condemning the cartoons. Several protest marches are also being planned for Cairo and Alexandria this Friday.

In other words, having lost the battle, the Arab governments did what they have always done. Moved to the right to accommodate the Islamists. The Islamist warning to the West not to try to strengthen the hand of the moderates, can be found in yet another article in the same paper, it has the misleading name, Arab Liberals, Unite!"

Sorry, my Danish friends, you are in the midst of a major power struggle within Islam. As a Jew/Israeli, I know exactly how it feels. Be that as it may, the hope for peace and democracy lies in the refusal of the West to heed that warning.

Posted on Saturday, February 4, 2006 at 1:05 PM | Comments (3) | Return

Home Newsletter Submissions Advertising Donations Archives Internships About Us FAQs Contact Us All Articles