Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Book's Central Question and Rationale
- 1 Terrorism, Democracy and Islamist Terrorism
- 2 Transnational Islamist Terrorism: Al Qaeda
- 3 Islamist Terrorism and National Liberation: Hamas and Hizbullah
- 4 Islamist Terrorism in Domestic Conflicts: The Armed Islamic Group in Algeria and the Gamaa Islamiya in Egypt
- 5 Moderation and Islamist Movements in Opposition: The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood/Islamic Action Front, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Tunisian Nahda
- 6 Islamist Moderation and the Experience of Government: Turkey's Welfare and Justice and Development Parties and the Islamic Republic of Iran
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Moderation and Islamist Movements in Opposition: The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood/Islamic Action Front, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Tunisian Nahda
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Book's Central Question and Rationale
- 1 Terrorism, Democracy and Islamist Terrorism
- 2 Transnational Islamist Terrorism: Al Qaeda
- 3 Islamist Terrorism and National Liberation: Hamas and Hizbullah
- 4 Islamist Terrorism in Domestic Conflicts: The Armed Islamic Group in Algeria and the Gamaa Islamiya in Egypt
- 5 Moderation and Islamist Movements in Opposition: The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood/Islamic Action Front, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and the Tunisian Nahda
- 6 Islamist Moderation and the Experience of Government: Turkey's Welfare and Justice and Development Parties and the Islamic Republic of Iran
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Although the link between some Islamist movements and terrorism is real and deserves extensive analysis, the fact remains that the great majority of Islamist groups in the Middle East (and in the wider Islamic world) are non-violent and integrated in their respective political systems. Whereas Islamist terrorists grab the headlines, it is the moderate Islamist groups that affect the lives of tens of millions of ordinary Muslims more directly. These are complex social and political movements, with multiple roles, functions and objectives. Each has unique characteristics stemming from their particular contextual formation and development.
In the Introduction, I defined as ‘moderate’ those Islamist movements which eschew violent methods and have accepted, at least to a degree and on a formal level, democratic and pluralist values. (An equivalent shift towards more liberal and tolerant social ideas is not part of my criteria of moderation and is not, strictly speaking, my concern in this discussion. However, in the next two chapters, I will on occasion refer to Islamists' social views because they present an interesting contrast to their political ideas.) The concept of ‘moderation’, similarly to the notion of the political ‘centre’, is a relative one according to geographical and historical context – the same group and its ideas may appear moderate in one society or historical period, but extreme in another. Islamist moderates are not liberals – that variant of Islamism remains, at present, a rarity in the Middle East.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Islamist Terrorism and Democracy in the Middle East , pp. 123 - 147Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011