Sunday 20 January 2013
The crisis in Mali is by no means the only occasion that shows the
extent of the confusion of political Islam, in the best of cases, and
the extent of political hypocrisy in its stances, in the worst of them.
It is no secret to anyone that this crisis took on its current dimension
with radical Islamists taking control of the Northern part of the
country. As they took such control, those Islamists practiced all kinds
of intimidation and resorted to all forms of violence against the local
inhabitants, and against the cultural and traditional framework of their
society. Yet none of those affiliated with political Islam had the
slightest reaction to such persecution and destruction. Indeed, not one
of those Islamists in the region was known to show any distress at what
was happening in Mali, just as none of them expressed any solidarity
with those who had been driven out of their homes and workplaces by
fundamentalist groups in Northern Mali. None felt concerned by the
destruction of Islamic heritage in Timbuktu and other Islamic heritage
sites. None of those Islamists sought in any way to call on these
fundamentalist groups that wreaked havoc in Northern Mali to act
rationally and engage in dialogue. And none of them stepped forward to
act as mediators between the Malian government and those fundamentalist
groups.
In fact, it seemed as if political Islam only found out about the crisis
in Mali with the start of France’s military operation there. Thus, all
of a sudden, voices began to rise and pens to write, denouncing this
intervention. Even more infuriating was the fact that they started
calling for acting wisely and rationally, and to display their
intentions to act as mediators, as did the International Union of Muslim
Scholars (IUMS), the international organization that speaks in the name
of the Muslim Brotherhood and its various branches.
Political Islam had displayed the same behavior in the past with regard
to Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban movement, and later on
Somalia and then Yemen. It is the kind of behavior that justifies the
actions of fundamentalists when they are in a position of strength, and
openly defends them when they suffer defeat, as a result of their
actions, in the name of calls for dialogue and mediation, and of human
suffering.
Such behavior has not been limited to certain political parties or
figures, having also appeared in the regimes governed by Islamists,
particularly in Turkey and in Tunisia, at a time when the Egyptian
Presidency is still dealing with the repercussions of President Mohamed
Morsi’s ambivalent discourse.
Indeed, the Turkish government, which is engaged in a dual battle
internally against what it calls Kurdish terrorism and Islamic
terrorism, sending troops to the battlefield and taking security and
intelligence measures, has announced that it was opposed to military
intervention in Mali, under pretexts that are completely unrelated to
the reality of the crisis and only serve to defend the fundamentalist
groups that were behind the eruption of such a crisis. Similarly, the
ruling Ennahda (Renaissance) Movement in Tunisia, which has declared
all-out war against Islamic terrorists internally because they threaten
its own power, is calling for dialogue in Mali with the counterparts of
the terrorists it itself is fighting.
The same applies to Algerian personalities and groups inspired by the
ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, they had no qualms about
protesting against the Algerian government for allowing French aircraft
to cross Algeria’s airspace, at a time when Algerian Special Forces were
fighting terrorists of the same kind as those active in Mali who were
holding Algerian and foreign workers hostage.
Thus falls this propaganda with which political Islam has been trying to
cover its stances. Indeed, it claims to represent centrism, dialogue,
democracy, pluralism and tolerance, while at the same time supporting
everything that goes against those principles – and in fact turning into
the defender of those who declare their goal to be the destruction of
those principles, as the Al-Qaeda organization does wherever it is present.
آخر تحديث: Sunday 20 January 2013
Sunday 20 January 2013
The crisis in Mali is by no means the only occasion that shows the
extent of the confusion of political Islam, in the best of cases, and
the extent of political hypocrisy in its stances, in the worst of them.
It is no secret to anyone that this crisis took on its current dimension
with radical Islamists taking control of the Northern part of the
country. As they took such control, those Islamists practiced all kinds
of intimidation and resorted to all forms of violence against the local
inhabitants, and against the cultural and traditional framework of their
society. Yet none of those affiliated with political Islam had the
slightest reaction to such persecution and destruction. Indeed, not one
of those Islamists in the region was known to show any distress at what
was happening in Mali, just as none of them expressed any solidarity
with those who had been driven out of their homes and workplaces by
fundamentalist groups in Northern Mali. None felt concerned by the
destruction of Islamic heritage in Timbuktu and other Islamic heritage
sites. None of those Islamists sought in any way to call on these
fundamentalist groups that wreaked havoc in Northern Mali to act
rationally and engage in dialogue. And none of them stepped forward to
act as mediators between the Malian government and those fundamentalist
groups.
In fact, it seemed as if political Islam only found out about the crisis
in Mali with the start of France’s military operation there. Thus, all
of a sudden, voices began to rise and pens to write, denouncing this
intervention. Even more infuriating was the fact that they started
calling for acting wisely and rationally, and to display their
intentions to act as mediators, as did the International Union of Muslim
Scholars (IUMS), the international organization that speaks in the name
of the Muslim Brotherhood and its various branches.
Political Islam had displayed the same behavior in the past with regard
to Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban movement, and later on
Somalia and then Yemen. It is the kind of behavior that justifies the
actions of fundamentalists when they are in a position of strength, and
openly defends them when they suffer defeat, as a result of their
actions, in the name of calls for dialogue and mediation, and of human
suffering.
Such behavior has not been limited to certain political parties or
figures, having also appeared in the regimes governed by Islamists,
particularly in Turkey and in Tunisia, at a time when the Egyptian
Presidency is still dealing with the repercussions of President Mohamed
Morsi’s ambivalent discourse.
Indeed, the Turkish government, which is engaged in a dual battle
internally against what it calls Kurdish terrorism and Islamic
terrorism, sending troops to the battlefield and taking security and
intelligence measures, has announced that it was opposed to military
intervention in Mali, under pretexts that are completely unrelated to
the reality of the crisis and only serve to defend the fundamentalist
groups that were behind the eruption of such a crisis. Similarly, the
ruling Ennahda (Renaissance) Movement in Tunisia, which has declared
all-out war against Islamic terrorists internally because they threaten
its own power, is calling for dialogue in Mali with the counterparts of
the terrorists it itself is fighting.
The same applies to Algerian personalities and groups inspired by the
ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, they had no qualms about
protesting against the Algerian government for allowing French aircraft
to cross Algeria’s airspace, at a time when Algerian Special Forces were
fighting terrorists of the same kind as those active in Mali who were
holding Algerian and foreign workers hostage.
Thus falls this propaganda with which political Islam has been trying to
cover its stances. Indeed, it claims to represent centrism, dialogue,
democracy, pluralism and tolerance, while at the same time supporting
everything that goes against those principles – and in fact turning into
the defender of those who declare their goal to be the destruction of
those principles, as the Al-Qaeda organization does wherever it is present.
آخر تحديث: Sunday 20 January 2013