The term Islamic Fundamentalism has become prevalent by the western media. In order to understand the fundamentalism is very necessary to define it at first. The Islamic fundamentalism refers to the religious movement or the view-point that is characterised by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles and often by the intolerance of the other views and opposition to secularism. This Islamic Fundamentalism has begun in the last 1500 to 200 years in the 1400 years of the existence of Islam. However, it is also to note that the Islamic Fundamentalism has nothing to do with Islam religion, it is just one of the means of using the name of Islam for their own agendas. This paper is going to elaborate on the causes and rise of Islamic Fundamentalism, particularly in the Middle Eastern politics.
The basis of support for the thorough Islamic fundamentalism cannot be discovered in the religious doctrine. Instead, it could only be found in the social condition of the very region. There was a very deep resentment among the Arab masses towards the oil industries and companies which extracted huge profits while the ones who did the work could not even feed their children. The government of the United States also has a long history of exploiting and dominating the resources and people of the Middle East. Regardless of such a tremendous oppression, the ruling elites as well as the capitalists of the Arab refused to stand up to the United State imperialism. Most of the Arab ruling elites were the clients of the United State imperialism and they subserviently followed the orders of the Washington’s . For example, the Mubarak’s Egypt did not challenge the support of Washington’s for the Israel as because of the fact that billion dollars of Washington annual bribe.
In order to break the stranglehold of imperialism, it was very important to cancel all the foreign debts and to nationalise the giant multinationals which were at that time exploiting the resources and the people of the region. As because of the fact that the ruling capitalists and the elites would not be willing to take those steps since then, the responsibility had then fallen on the poor peasants and the working class. They in actual, used to be very strong and powerful communist and socialist parties in most of the countries of the Middle East region which fought against the oppression and poverty. There used to be many attempts by the Arab masses for overthrowing the concept of capitalism. Some of the best example of it to note is that in Iraq in the year 1959, In Syria and Algeria in the year 1960, in Iran in the year 1979 etc. However, each of the opportunities was entirely misused and wasted by the secular nationalist of Arab as well as by the Stalinist Communist Parties that have then subordinated the struggles of the peasants and workers to the interests of the Arab capitalists and the Soviet foreign policy. During the collapsing of the Stalinist states in the year 1989 to 1991, the communist parties started disintegrating. They had then looked to all these regimes as some of their model of socialism. Finally, the defeat of the communism as well as the failure of the left in delivering on its promises have then confused many of the people and led them to look for other available solutions and into this vacuum, the right-wing Islamic extremists then stepped in. While they were then still one of the minority groups. They have significantly grown in influence. The suffering of the people in Arab on the US and in the rich kings of Arab as well as the dictators who had then collaborated with the US imperialism, they have all been able to tap into the emerging anger in the society. Some of the key factors to mention in this context are the relations and links to the traditional rules, landlords, the tribal leaders and the armed power through their militias who are financed by the reactionary Arab regimes and for a period, the United States.
Islamic Fundamentalism has no logical or rational program for solving the social and economic problems that were been facing by the Arab masses. Also, it is absolutely no concrete plans for providing living wage jobs, health care facilities, housing facilities, democratic political institutions or industrial developments. Nevertheless, in the utter absence of any kind of alternative movements that were then supposed to be capable of leading a struggle for changing the society, the Islamic extremism has been then able to take the root as the one and only radical and absolute alternative.
The background and history of the Middle East region shows that the Islamic Fundamentalism has only developed out of a deep crisis of the regions under left and the inability of the capitalism for developing society. For countering the influence of the Islamic fundamentalism as well as to overcome the issue of terrorism, there was high need for re building mass socialist parties in the Middle East region which were prepared for overthrowing the ruling cliques and the landlordism.
However, while the general trend of returning to Islam is objectified at correcting the society in a step by step manner and to instil all the values of the religion as one of the way of life, the extremist Islamic organisation have then turned the phenomenon into a lever for fulfilling the political aims, whether by means of democratic process for gaining power through legal means or through any other illegal means such as terrorism etc. Today, Egypt has been threatened by the Islamic Fundamentalism on both the political as well as personal levels. Within Egypt, the outcomes of Islamic extremism are mainly felt in the damage to the tourism and through the internal terrorism prevailing in the region. The authorities of Egypt are aware of the dangers that are been brought in by the Islamic extremism on the regional plane and that is felt in the threatening connection in between Iran and Sudan along with the consequences of the current events in Algeria. During the last months, the confrontation in between the radical Islamic and the Egyptian security forces has significantly intensified. Majority of the actions of the government have been focused in Upper Egypt and it is because of the fact that in that region, there are many terrorist operations that are been directed against some of the specific individuals, most significantly the tourists. In addition to these, the Egyptian security forces have also uncovered an assassination list comprising of many other spiritual and political leaders.
One of the other notable examples of such is of Algeria. Algeria in Middle East have been proved to be weak link among all the Maghreb nations because of its vulnerability to the actions and activities of the Islamic extremists. This country is politically vulnerable to the growth of Islamic fundamentalism as it was described by the attempt of one of the Islamic political party for winning power by means of democratic elections. Furthermore, it is also to state that against the backdrop of one of the worsening economic condition and inspired by Khomeini revolution of Iran, the Islamic fundamentalism movement in the country Jordan has occupied huge strength during the 1980s. This has resulted in achieving of a huge number of political successes by the Muslim Brotherhood. In the parliamentary election of 1989, they won more than one third of the total seats, brought about the election of one of their members as a speaker in the parliament and has consolidated their strengths in the campuses and in trade union movement. To an extent, Hussein has now allowed brotherhood to integrate into the framework of legitimate politics. Despite of this, the country government has been also very closely monitoring all their activities and has not even hesitated to seize the activists against the state. Not only this, the authorities have also arrested many of the parliament members from the Islamic factions who were suspected of subversion. In the recent times, particularly the events in Algeria, the organisation has decides to engage itself in the Lebanese politics. In the most recent Lebanese Parliamentary elections, the representatives of Hizbollah have succeeded in occupying twelve seats in the parliament. The political party, el-Daawa is the main occupational body and it has been forced underground. Most of its members were also executed in the early 1980s because of an assassination attempt that was made against the Information Minister of that time.
To conclude, it can be said that the extremist Islamic fundamentalism has emerged during the last few years as a by-product of the rise in the strength of Islam throughout the Middle East (the Muslim and the Arab world). These movements have developed in the countries in question as because of the stagnant economies, stagnant economies, social instability and unemployment. Islamic fundamentalism has exploited the frustrations of the whole masses because of inability of the Arab governments for solving the present socio-economic problems. While the main motive of the movement was to impart religious values as a way of life and for persistently correcting the society, the militant groups of fundamentalism seek to realise the political goals under the cape of religion.
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