Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 July 2017
Drawing on contemporary history and empirical research, this article revises traditional rentier state theory, which fails to account for the existence of Islamist movements in states accruing substantial outside wealth. Rentier state theory expects that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened. Examining the development of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in two archetypal rentier states, or super-rentiers, in the Gulf—Qatar and the United Arab Emirates—this article shows that ideology rather than rent motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements. This research helps to break the causal link established by rentier state theory between oil rents and lack of politically relevant Islamist organizations. We find that the presence of oil rents, instead of rendering Islamist complaint politically irrelevant, shapes the ways in which Islamist movements seek to influence government policies.
Author's note: I am indebted to Daniel Fedorowycz and Andrew Leber for their detailed and insightful feedback on various versions of this paper and to Shadi Hamid for his continued support of my work on Islamism in the Gulf. I am also immensely grateful to the IJMES reviewers and editors, whose comments made this article much stronger, and to my colleagues at the London School of Economics and Political Science Middle East Centre for their continued support and advice. Finally, and most importantly, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone who agreed to be interviewed for my research.
1 We consider an Islamist one who “mobilise[s] and agitate[s] in the political sphere while deploying signs and symbols from Islamic traditions.” Salwa Ismail, Rethinking Islamist Politics: Culture, the State and Islamism (London: I.B.Tauris, 2006), 2.
2 See, for example, Clark, Janine A., Islam, Charity, and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2004)Google Scholar; Lia, Brynjar, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928–1942 (Reading: Ithaca Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Mitchell, Richard, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969)Google Scholar; Wickham, Carrie Rosefky, Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in Egypt (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002)Google Scholar; and Wiktorowicz, Quintan, The Management of Islamic Activist: Salafis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and State Power in Jordan (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 2001)Google Scholar.
3 Mahdavy, Hussein, “The Patterns and Problems of Economic Development in Rentier States: The Case of Iran,” in Studies in the Economic History of the Middle East, ed. Cook, M. A. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), 428–67Google Scholar.
4 For qualitative studies, see Beblawi, Hazem, “The Rentier State in the Arab World,” in The Rentier State, ed. Beblawi, Hazem and Luciani, Giacomo (London: Routledge, 1987), 49–62 Google Scholar; Matthew Gray, “A Theory of ‘Late Rentierism’ in the Arab States in the Gulf,” Center for International and Regional Studies, Occasional Paper 7 (2011), accessed 20 January 2016, https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/558291/CIRSOccasionalPaper7MatthewGray2011.pdf?sequence=5; Herb, Michael, “No Representation without Taxation?: Rents, Development and Democracy,” Comparative Politics 37 (2005): 297–317 Google Scholar; Luciani, Giacomo, “Allocation vs. Production States: A Theoretical Framework,” in The Arab State, ed. Luciani, Giacomo (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1990), 65–84 Google Scholar; and Mahdavy, “The Patterns and Problems.” For quantitative studies, see Basdeau, Matthias and Lay, Jann, “Resource Curse or Rentier Peace? The Ambiguous Effects of Oil Wealth and Oil Dependence on Violent Conflict,” Journal of Peace Research 46 (2009): 757–76Google Scholar; Isham, Jonathan, Woolcock, Michael, Pritchett, Lant, and Busby, Gwen, “The Varieties of Rentier Experience: How Natural Resource Export Structures Affect the Political Economy of Growth,” World Bank Economic Review 19 (2005): 141–74Google Scholar; Ross, Michael, The Oil Curse (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2012)Google Scholar; and Smith, Benjamin, “Oil Wealth and Regime Survival in the Developing World, 1960–1999,” American Journal of Political Science 48 (2004): 232–46Google Scholar.
5 Beblawi, “The Rentier State in the Arab World,” 53.
6 We define the political as “of, relating to, or concerned with the making as distinguished from the administration of governmental policy.” “Political,” Merriam-Webster.com, accessed 16 April 2017, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/political.
7 We introduce the term super-rentier to describe Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, as states with the highest per capita income, lowest proportion of nationals to expatriates, and greatest overall “rentier” package because of these dynamics in the Gulf region. This paper only deals with those super-rentiers lacking parliamentary political life.
8 Mahdavy, “The Patterns and Problems,” 428.
9 Beblawi, “The Rentier State in the Arab World,” 51–52.
10 Ibid., 62.
11 Ross, Michael, “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?,” World Politics 53 (2001): 334 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 Ibid., 347.
13 Shambayati, Hootan, “The Rentier State, Interest Groups, and the Paradox of Autonomy: State and Business in Turkey and Iran,” Comparative Politics 26 (1994): 329 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 Beblawi, “The Rentier State in the Arab World,” 53.
15 Ibid., 90.
16 Gengler, Justin, Group Conflict and Political Mobilization in Bahrain and the Arab Gulf: Rethinking the Rentier State (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2015), 36 Google Scholar.
17 See Dekmejian, R. Hrair, “The Anatomy of Islamic Revival: Legitimacy Crisis Ethnic Conflict and the Search for Islamic Alternatives,” Middle East Journal 34 (1980): 1–12 Google Scholar; Hoffman, Valerie J., “Muslim Fundamentalists: Psychological Profiles,” in Fundamentalisms Comprehended, ed. Marty, Martin E. and Appleby, R. Scott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 199–230 Google Scholar; and Waltz, Susan, “Islamist Appeal in Tunisia,” Middle East Journal 40 (1986): 651–70Google Scholar.
18 See Ayubi, Nazih, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World (London: Routledge, 1991)Google Scholar; and Roy, Olivier, The Failure of Political Islam (London: I.B.Tauris, 1996)Google Scholar.
19 See Ayoob, Mohammed, The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Muslim World (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2008)Google Scholar; Ismail, Rethinking Islamist Politics; and Dessouki, Ali E. Hillal, ed., The Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World (New York: Praeger, 1982)Google Scholar.
20 Berman, Sheri, “Islamism, Revolution, and Civil Society,” Perspectives on Politics 1 (2003): 258 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21 Wedeen, Lisa, “Beyond the Crusades: Why Huntington, and Bin Laden, Are Wrong,” Middle East Policy 10 (2003): 55 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 Kepel, Gilles, The Prophet and Pharaoh: Muslim Extremism in Egypt (London: Al Saqi Books, 1985), 11–12 Google Scholar.
23 Masoud, Tarek, Counting Islam: Religion, Class, and Elections in Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 41 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
24 Hasan al-Banna, quoted in Brown, L. Carl, Religion and State: The Muslim Approach to Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 146 Google Scholar.
25 Clark, Janine A., “Patronage, Prestige, and Power: The Islamic Center Charity Society's Political Role within the Muslim Brotherhood,” in Islamist Politics in the Middle East: Movements and Change, ed. Shehata, Samer S. (London: Routledge, 2012), 70 Google Scholar.
26 Wickham, Mobilizing Islam, 174–75.
27 John Obert Voll, “Foreword,” in The Society of the Muslim Brothers, xiii.
28 Wickham, Mobilizing Islam, 174–75.
29 Steven Brooke, “The Muslim Brotherhood's Social Outreach after the Egyptian Coup,” Rethinking Political Islam Series, Brookings Institution, 9, August 2015, accessed 21 January 2016, http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Reports/2015/07/rethinking-political-islam/Egypt_Brooke-FINALE.pdf?la=en.
30 Ibid., 13.
31 Berman, “Islamism, Revolution, and Civil Society,” 263.
32 Esposito, John L., “Political Islam and Gulf Security,” in Political Islam: Revolution, Radicalism, or Reform?, ed. Esposito, John L. (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997), 71 Google Scholar.
33 Leiken, Robert S. and Brooke, Steven, “The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood,” Foreign Affairs 86 (2007)Google Scholar, accessed 9 September 2016, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2007-03-01/moderate-muslim-brotherhood.
34 For a historical account of the Brotherhood in Saudi Arabia in Arabic, see al-ʿUtaybi, ʿAbd Allah bin Bijad, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun wa-l-Suʿudiya: Al-Hijra wa-l-ʿAlaqa,” in al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun wa-l-Salafiyyun fi al-Khalij (Dubai: Al-Mesbar Studies and Research Centre, 2011), 7–54 Google Scholar.
35 Lacroix, Stéphane, Awakening Islam: Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2011), 17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36 Ibid., 263.
37 Ibid., 265–66.
38 Kitschelt, Herbert P., “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies,” British Journal of Political Science 16 (1986): 59 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
39 Ibid., 67.
40 Tarrow, Sidney, Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 77 Google Scholar.
41 Okruhlik, Gwenn, “Making Conversation Permissible,” in Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach, ed. Wiktorowicz, Quintan (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2004), 263 Google Scholar.
42 Bahrain and Oman, the remaining GCC states, are not relevant to this study because they are not super-rentiers and do not have Sunni-majority populations among whom appeal of the Brotherhood would be strongest.
43 The majlis (pl. majālis) is a crucial element of civil society. Such informal yet regularly scheduled meetings are hosted in private homes by rulers, as well as by private citizens. They cover topics ranging from social life to religious ideology to politics.
44 A. Ann Fyfe, “Wealth and Power: Political and Economic Change in the United Arab Emirates” (PhD diss., Durham University, 1989), 14.
45 “GCC: Total Population and Percentage of Nationals and Non-Nationals in GCC Countries (2010–2015),” Gulf Labour Markets and Migration, 2015, accessed 15 January 2017, http://gulfmigration.eu/total-population-and-percentage-of-nationals-and-non-nationals-in-gcc-countries-latest-national-statistics-2010-2015/.
46 ʿAbdulla Juma Kobaisi, “The Development of Education in Qatar, 1950–1966 with an Analysis of Some Educational Problems” (PhD diss., Durham University, 1979), 122–23.
47 Roberts, David, “Pragmatism or Preference?,” Middle East Policy 21 (2014): 86 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
48 Ibid., 86–87.
49 ʿAbd Allah al-Nafisi, “al-Hala al-Islamiyya fi Qatar,” IslamToday, 12 March 2007, accessed 1 December 2015, http://www.islamtoday.net/bohooth/artshow-19-8828.htm.
50 Jassim Sultan, interview with the author, Doha, Qatar, 4 November 2013.
51 ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Mahmud, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi Qatar . . . Man Humma?,” al-ʿArab, 1 August 2012, accessed 5 December 2015, http://www.alarab.qa/story/166996/الإخوان-المسلمون-في-قطر-من-هم.
52 Ibid.
53 Al-Nafisi, “al-Hala al-Islamiyya fi Qatar.”
54 This publication can be found in Arabic at Dakahlia Ikhwan, 2013, accessed 3 December 2015, http://www.dakahliaikhwan.com/viewarticle.php?id=19446.
55 Amr al-Turabi and Tarek al-Mubarak, “Qatar's Introspective Islamists,” Asharq al-Awsat, 18 June 2013, accessed 7 December 2015, http://www.aawsat.net/2013/06/article55306189.
56 Ibid.
57 Al-Nafisi, “al-Hala al-Islamiyya fi Qatar.”
58 Mustafa ʿAshur, “Tajribat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin fi Qatar,” al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun wa-l-Salafiyyun fi al-Khalij, 197.
59 Al-Nafisi, “al-Hala al-Islamiyya fi Qatar.”
60 Al-Turabi and al-Mubarak, “Qatar's Introspective Islamists.”
61 Al-Nafisi, “al-Hala al-Islamiyya fi Qatar.”
62 ʿAshur, “Tajribat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin fi Qatar,” 188.
63 Ibid., 190.
64 Sultan, interview with the author.
65 Ibid.
66 ʿAshur, “Tajribat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin fi Qatar,” 197.
67 Ibid., 198.
68 Sultan, interview with the author.
69 Michael Stephens, interview with the author, Doha, Qatar, 1 November 2013.
70 Darwish al-ʿImadi, interview with the author, Doha, Qatar, 5 November 2013.
71 ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Mahmoud, interview with the author, Doha, Qatar, 28 October 2013.
72 Jassim Sultan, quoted in Andrew Hammond, “Arab Awakening: Qatar's Controversial Alliance with Arab Islamists,” Open Democracy, 25 April 2013, accessed 21 November 2015. http://www.opendemocracy.net/andrew-hammond/arab-awakening-qatar's-controversial-alliance-with-arab-islamists.
73 Advisor to former Amir Shaykh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, interview with the author, Doha, Qatar, 4 December 2013.
74 Ibid.
75 “Gloom Grips Qatar's Arab Riviera after Alcohol Ban,” The Guardian, 21 February 2012, accessed 24 November 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/21/qatar-arab-riviera-gloom-alcohol-ban.
76 Ibid.
77 Lesley Walker, “Qatar Hotels Told Not to Sell Alcohol in Run-up to Eid Al-Adha,” Doha News, 27 April 2015, accessed 24 November 2015, http://dohanews.co/qatar-hotels-told-not-to-sell-alcohol-in-run-up-to-eid-al-adha/.
78 Advisor to Amir Shaykh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, interview with the author, Doha, Qatar, 5 October 2013.
79 “Qatar Removes Zidane Statue after Outcry,” Al Jazeera, 31 October 2013, accessed 24 November 2015, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/10/qatar-removes-zidane-statue-after-outcry-201310302338612974.html.
80 Al-ʿImadi, interview with the author.
81 Umm ʿAbd Allah, quoted in Lesley Walker, “Modest Dress Campaign Revived with New ‘You Matter in Qatar’ Slogan,” Doha News, 4 May 2015, accessed 30 November 2015, http://dohanews.co/modest-dress-campaign-revived-with-new-you-matter-in-qatar-slogan/.
82 Kitschelt, “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest,” 58.
83 Mansour al-Nogaidan, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imarat: Al-Tamaddad wa-l-Inhisar,” in al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun wa-l-Salafiyyun fi al-Khalij, 60.
84 Said Nasser al-Teniji, “The UAE's Descent into Oppression,” The Guardian, 2 October 2012, accessed 5 December 2015, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/02/uae-descent-oppression?INTCMP=SRCH.
85 Al-Nogaidan, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imarat,” 61.
86 Emirati political scientist, interview with the author, Dubai, 10 February 2014.
87 Al-Nogaidan, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imarat,” 61.
88 Ibid., 61.
89 Ibid.
90 Krause, Wanda, Women in Civil Society: The State, Islamism, and Networks in the UAE (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 98 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
91 Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, “The Brothers and the Gulf,” Foreign Policy, 14 December 2012, accessed 20 November 2015, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/12/14/Muslim_Brotherhood_Gulf_UAE_Qassemi.
92 Krause, Women in Civil Society, 98.
93 Al-Nogaidan, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imarat,” 74.
94 See “Readings into Some Curricula of Private Schools in the Emirates,”al-Islah 57 (1982); “Our Children and the Lovely Pig,” al-Islah 34/49 (1982); and Rahman, Omar Abdul, “The Devil Kai and the English Language,” al-Islah 26-27/49 (1982), in The Roots of Conspiracy Against the UAE 1, ed. Humaid, Salem (Dubai: Al Mezmaah Studies and Research Centre, 2013)Google Scholar.
95 Emirati political scientist, interview with the author.
96 Al-Nogaidan, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imarat,” 63.
97 Ibid., 64.
98 Kapiszewski, Andrzej, Nationals and Expatriates: Population and Labour Dilemmas of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Reading: Ithaca Press, 2001), 165 Google Scholar.
99 Ebtesam al-Ketbi, interview with the author, Abu Dhabi, 24 February 2014.
100 Rugh, William. A., “The United Arab Emirates: What Are the Sources of Its Stability?,” Middle East Policy 5 (1997): 17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
101 Al-Nogaidan, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imarat,” 64–65.
102 Marta Saldana, “Rentierism and Political Culture in the United Arab Emirates: The Case of UAEU Students” (PhD diss., University of Exeter, 2014), 138.
103 Al-Nogaidan, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imarat,” 62.
104 “UAE University Hosts Elections for First Student Council,” The National, 18 October 2012, accessed 25 January 2016, http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/uae-university-hosts-elections-for-first-student-council.
105 “Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imirat . . . Al-Qisat al-Kamila,” al-Sharq al-Awsat, 1 February 2013, accessed 15 November 2015, http://classic.aawsat.com/details.asp?article=715512&issueno=12484§ion=4#.VGtRRofBZKp.
106 Al-Ketbi, interview with the author.
107 Saldana, “Rentierism and Political Culture,” 139.
108 Pekka Hakala, “Opposition in the United Arab Emirates,” European Parliament Directorate-General for External Policies, 15 November 2012, 2, accessed 24 November 2015, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/studiesdownload.html?languageDocument=EN&file=78691.
109 Ibid., 2.
110 Al-Nogaidan, “al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Imarat,” 69.
111 Ibid.
112 Muhammad al-Rukn, quoted in Yara Bayoumy, “UAE Islamist Group Had No Desire to Topple Government: Families,” Reuters, 3 July 2013, accessed 15 January 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/02/us-emirates-trial-islah-idUSBRE9610PT20130702.
113 Emirati political scientist, interview with the author.
114 Saldana, “Rentierism and Political Culture in the United Arab Emirates,” 140.
115 Emirati political scientist, interview with the author.
116 Al-Ketbi, interview with the author.
117 Ahmed Mansoor, interview with the author, Sharjah, UAE, 26 March 2014.
118 ʿAbd al-ʿAziz Alhies, “Concerns in the Gulf,” Al-Ahram, 19 December 2012, accessed 15 January 2016, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Print/620.aspx.
119 The five included human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor, economist Nasir bin Ghaith, and online activists Fahad Salim Dalk, Hasan ʿAli al-Khamis, and Ahmad ʿAbd al-Khaliq.
120 “‘There Is No Freedom Here:’ Silencing Dissent in the United Arab Emirates (UAE),” Amnesty International, November 2014, 6, accessed 14 November 2015, https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE25/018/2014/en/da9909f8-498a-49b0-a1f9-d269f102f8ce/mde250182014en.pdf.
121 “Turnout in UAE's Second Election Low at 28 Percent Handpicked Voters,” Al Arabiya, 24 September 2011, accessed 16 August 2016, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/09/24/168394.html.
122 Davidson, Christopher M., After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 224 Google Scholar.
123 “Turnout in UAE's Second Election Low.”
124 Al-Ketbi, interview with the author.
125 “UAE Islamists Deny Forming Military Wing,” Ahram Online, 22 September 2012, accessed 17 January 2016, http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/53525.aspx.
126 Islah statement, quoted in “UAE Islamists Deny Forming Military Wing.”
127 “‘There Is No Freedom Here,’” 8.
128 Ibid., 8.
129 “UAE Blacklists 82 Groups as ‘Terrorist,’” Al Arabiya, 15 November 2014, accessed 17 January 2016, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/11/15/UAE-formally-blacklists-82-groups-as-terrorist-.html.
130 Dhahi Khalfan, quoted in ʿAbdullah al-Rashid, “The Brothers and the Emirates,” The Majalla, 14 February 2013, accessed 16 November 2015, http://www.majalla.com/eng/2013/02/article55238281.
131 Shaykh ʿAbdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, quoted in Ian Black, “Emirati Nerves Rattled by Islamists’ Rise,” The Guardian, 12 October 2012, accessed 14 November 2015, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/on-the-middle-east/2012/oct/12/uae-muslimbrotherhood-egypt-arabspring.
132 Dubai-based Gulf correspondent, interview with the author, Dubai, 6 March 2014.
133 Lori Plotkin Boghardt, “The Muslim Brotherhood on Trial in the UAE,” The Washington Institute, 12 April 2013, accessed 14 November 2015, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-muslim-brotherhood-on-trial-in-the-uae.
134 Davidson, After the Sheikhs, 14.
135 Mansoor, interview with the author.
136 Kitschelt, “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest,” 82.
137 See Luciani, “Allocation vs. Production States,” 75.
138 Anderson, Lisa, “Fulfilling Prophecies: State Policies and Islamist Radicalism,” in Political Islam: Revolution, Radicalism, or Reform?, ed. Esposito, John L. (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997), 21 Google ScholarPubMed.
139 Shambayati, “The Rentier State,” 309.
140 Wiktorowicz, Quintan and Farouki, Suha Taji, “Islamic NGOs and Muslim Politics: A Case from Jordan,” Third World Quarterly 21 (2000): 686 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
141 Ismail, Rethinking Islamist Politics, 176.
142 Berman, “Islamism, Revolution, and Civil Society,” 265.