Sipping his tea in the rooftop cafeteria of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate in downtown Cairo, Muhammed Moro reflects on the perils of being a dedicated Islamist in a post-9/11 world.
“Islamism is going through a real crisis. You have an international system that is hostile to Islam–and that includes the regional regimes,” said Moro, a former Islamic Jihad member who spent six years in jail for his political affiliations.
Now the editor of the independent Islamist magazine Al Mukhtar Al Islami (The Islamic Digest), Moro is one of many in the Arab world calling for a wholesale revision of Islamist goals and ideals to ensure their relevance and survival in a harsh new global environment.
In the wake of last year’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,Moro and others say the U.S. and the Arab governments it supports have declared open season on political Islam, unfairly targeting legitimate, peaceful democratic movements in addition to violent extremists.
In September, Moro and other Egyptian activists of all political shades took part in a one-day conference exploring “The Future of the Islamic Movement in the Aftermath of Sept. 11.” While the gathering featured a healthy share of pro-forma complaints about the inherent prejudice of Western civilization against political Islam, others used the occasion to call for serious soul-searching.
“Islamic groups across the world are hesitating. Most of them weren’t prepared for [Sept. 11],” said Abu Ela Madi, a former member of the banned but powerful Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood who broke away to form the Wassat (Centrist) political party. “It has been good for those who are ready. But those are a small minority.”
Even before Sept. 11, times were tough for Islamists, especially in Egypt, where Islamic Jihad, the group formed by top Al Qaeda lieutenant Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
Organizations such as Jihad and al-Gamaa al-Islamiya (The Islamic Group) waged a running battle with Sadat’s successor, Hosni Mubarak, through the 1980s and early ’90s–targeting police officers, government officials and tourists. At the same time, groups such as the Brotherhood, which formally renounced violence decades ago, moved to acquire political power by stacking the boards of Egyptian human-rights organizations and professional syndicates.
By the mid-1990s, the momentum had decisively shifted in the government’s favor. Police and security services had won the physical battle and Brotherhood strongholds like the Lawyer’s Syndicate had been blocked. The Brotherhood, despite its claims of peaceful intentions, remains subject to periodic crackdowns and military trials leading to inevitable jail sentences.
The November 1997 Luxor attack, in which 58 tourists were slain, allegedly by an Islamic Group cell, was another nail in the coffin. The attack horrified most Egyptians and undercut the movement’s popular support in much the same way that the Oklahoma City bombing hurt the already limited domestic support of militia movements.
Both the Brotherhood and many of the jailed leaders of the Islamic Group denounced the attack.
The aftermath of Sept. 11 has produced more of the same. The roundups of Brotherhood members and supporters continue at a somewhat brisker pace. In June of this year, the jailed Islamic Group leaders made headlines by publicly renouncing all violence. In an article in the government-supported magazine Al Mussawar, several Group leaders apologized to the Egyptian people and spoke of potential compensation for victims of their actions. Their public recantation has touched off a debate about the goals and tactics of political Islam.
“I understand that [the Group leaders] are tired. They’ve been through a lot–20 years in jail in bestial conditions,” Moro said. However, he condemns any move by Islamic groups to seek a rapprochement with the Egyptian government. “If you look and see the looting, the corruption, the oppression that’s taking place and you conduct a reconciliation with the government, that’s a form of treason against the people.”
Despite the difficulties, Moro sees a renewed and revamped Islamist philosophy as bearing increasing global relevance–not merely as a religious movement but as an ideological counterweight to Western capitalism.
“Capitalism right now is ruling the world. It’s normal that people are going to look for an alternative or a way to fight this,” said Moro, who counts anti-globalization activists such as Frenchman Jose Bove as unwitting proponents of Islamic ideals. “Islam wants to establish a classless society . . . “
But first it has to find a country and a government willing to give it half a chance. Proponents of peaceful, reformist Islamic political views say Middle Eastern governments use the Islamist threat to justify wholesale crackdowns on all forms of activists–a process they say Western governments silently condone.
During the recent trial of a group of Brotherhood supporters in Alexandria, one member complained that secular activists such as jailed sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim draw strong support from Western governments while their own efforts at similar democratic participation are quashed without complaint. The trial, the latest in a string of recent Brotherhood roundups, featured 101 defendants arrested during the June election campaign of Jihan Al Halafawy–the first female Brotherhood candidate for parliament. Al Halafawy, who like other Brotherhood candidates ran as a nominal independent, had won her district during the original elections in 2000, but the results were canceled by a court order. In the runoff, the government took no chances.
“This time around, a combination of intimidation and security interference assured a victory for the [government]. Uniformed and plainclothes security forces came en masse, surrounding all polling stations and preventing voters from entering,” said a report in Cairo Times newsmagazine, which also reported that several journalists had been assaulted.
Al Halafawy lost the second election, and the trial of her supporters is ongoing in Alexandria.
“There is a big double standard in play here,” said one Brotherhood member in Cairo Times. “Saad Eddin was observing elections to see if there were any irregularities, and this is a case in which defendants were exercising their rights to participate in free elections and were obstructed. It’s not possible that the same people who defend human rights and support the push for democracy in Egypt can ignore this case.”
The danger, according to Madi, is that the stifling of peaceful Islamic activism will only continue to push the movement in the other direction. His own efforts to gain government licensing for his Wassat Party–which has made a point of including women and Christians in top positions–have been twice rejected by the government.
“I’m a peaceful man. If the government closes the door on me, I’ll try again peacefully,” he said. “But another man might see that the door to peaceful progress has been closed and go pick up a weapon.”
