In a thread JAstor just opened, there is a newspaper quote of Ahmed Said, who is identified as the head of the largest liberal party. Mr. Said says, "the constitution of Egypt ... will be drafted by political Islam."

Now, I am asking myself, what do we have to understand by that?

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First, there are a few well-known parties who fly the flag of Islam.

Hassan al-Banna's Egyptian Muslim brotherhood, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, founded in 1928.

Abû l-A’lâ al-Maudûdî's party Jama'at-e Islami in Pakistan, founded in 1947.

Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini's political movement, currently giving political structure to Iran.

What is it that makes these parties different from more secular or pan-Arabist parties?

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Second, there are political parties who merely invoke Islam out of a social conservatism and anti-modernist, anti-secular attitude.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP in Turkey comes to mind here.

Also Rachid al-Ghannouchi's Ennahda party in Tunisia.

These seem very similar to the "Christian-conservative" parties in Europe, and as such I would see them just "perchance" tied to Islam, but in fact socially conservative (and referencing Islam because it stands for the inherited tradition, not because of primarily religious reasons).

But does that distinction between the former and the latter category really make sense?

Mar 27, 2012 -- 1:30PM, CharikIeia wrote:

In a thread JAstor just opened, there is a newspaper quote of Ahmed Said, who is identified as the head of the largest liberal party. Mr. Said says, "the constitution of Egypt ... will be drafted by political Islam."

Now, I am asking myself, what do we have to understand by that?

Perhaps they have delegated the task to political Islam.   

Some common features of political Islam:

- no democracy or phony democracy

- brutal security forces

- censorship

- intolerance of others

- second class status for women

- second class status for non-Muslims

- sharia in varying extremes

- incitement against Israel or failure to restrain incitement

- economically oppressed masses

- to be continued...

It seems to me that these are fairly common elements found in many states around the world or back in time, not related to Islam:

Some common features of political Islam:

- no democracy or phony democracy -- Most third world countries and the Communist countries

- brutal security forces  ---  Ditto

- censorship  ----   Ditto

- intolerance of others --- Ditto plus to a degree in many western democracies e.g. Roma for instance.

- second class status for women  ---   Common in the third world -- 19th and early 20th century western democracies

- second class status for non-Muslims  ---  This was Europe in the 19th and twetieth cnturies but for Christians. Also USA in early 19th century.  

- sharia in varying extremes -- All democratic western states are impacted by religious values. (See Tea Party in USA) 

- incitement against Israel or failure to restrain incitement --  This one is not unique to Islamic states. The USSR and the Eatern European states under Communism were pretty good at this.

- economically oppressed masses -- Where do I begin

- to be continued... --- It ought to be interesting.

Habesor

Mar 27, 2012 -- 11:53PM, Miraj wrote:

So-called "Political Islam" (another unfortunate prejudicial term) bears no relationship to mainstream Islam.  This is a conversation that non-Muslims are safe to have without the religious knowledge of Muslims.

I suspected as much.

What is your view on the parties who openly advertise themselves as Islamic / Muslim?
(See, e.g., the brief list of such parties I am aware of, in the opening post.)

Is there a noticeable public discussion in the Muslim world about whether or not this kind of self-advertising indeed is "unfortunate, prejudicial" (as you call it), or legitimate (as I am sure many must think it is)?

What differentiates these parties from other parties?

And what does it mean to say that "political Islam" bears no relationship to "mainstream Islam" when parties of "political Islam" are very much the new "political mainstream" in a country - like Egypt or Tunisia? By sheer mathematical necessity, the people constituting the mainstream should overlap strongly, right?