Download Outline 21 Rentier States and the Rise of Islamist Movements

HIST 1301: History of the Arab World
Lecture Outline 21: Rentier States and the Rise of Islamist Movements
KEY TERMS
Rentier States
Sayyid Qutb
Jahiliyya
Political Islam
Ayatollah Khomeini Velayat e-faqih
Transnational movements
Al-Qaeda
1. Political Stability and Instability in Rentier States
 Stability of regime built on 3 pillars: ruling group, linked to interests of powerful
groups in society, this link legitimated in eyes of society
 Unprecedented predominance of intelligence and security services, armies, police
forces; bureaucratic reach of state extended further into society; dominant role of state
as employer in society
 Forms of ‘asabiyya: ruling party, shared military background, ruling family and blood
ties (kinship used in all three types)
 Rentier State: government supported not by tax revenues, but mainly by revenues
generated by selling indigenous resources to an external market. In the Arab world,
primarily petroleum resources but also strategic influence, for example, by courting
external aid). Because they are not accountable to population through taxation, these
states tend to not develop highly representative or participatory forms of political
organization and sharing of power in decision making
 Shift in ideological emphasis, appropriation of discourses of nationalism, social
justice, and Islam (which became more dominant from the 1980s on even among most
secular of regimes-Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Algeria); emphasis on shari’a as basis of law3
 Weakness/Strength of these legitimacy discourses
2. Rise of Islamist Movements
 Cultural and social dislocation; disillusionment following the 1967 War and search for
answers; sense that following imported Western methods was reason for weakness,
need to return to own heritage, culture, roots, religion
 Position of Islamic groups as one of only existing discourses of dissent or of reform
allowed in society; free spaces of mosque; religious discourse
 Sayyid Qutb: Egyptian writer, links to Muslim Brotherhood, Ma’alim fi’l-tariq
(Signposts on the Path), use of the term jahiliyya, sole dependence on Qur’an as
authority (Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Nationalism all jahiliyya); idea of
Islamic vanguard; jihad and the “nearer enemy;” Qutb executed in 1966 under
Nasser; Muslim Brotherhood
 Ijtihad Movements: general movement towards seeking answers based upon
interpretation of Qur’an and Hadith for contemporary problems; “Islam is the
solution”
 1979 Iranian Revolution: Ayatollah Khomeini, mobilization against Shah, velayat efaqih, Islamic Republic; rise of political Islam; Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan
 Rise of Jihadi / Salafi movements: war in Afghanistan, globalized Islamic movements,
influence of Qutb’s paradigm and jahiliyya, jihad against the “farther enemy;” Osama
bin Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaedah