North Africa Journal
Arezki Daoud
Protestors storming US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt.
The ongoing fury in Arab capitals over an amateur movie insulting to the Muslim Prophet Mohamed has brought to light fresh evidence of the existence of a rift between various political factions in the Islamic world. While the vast majority of Muslims would typically condemn the movie as an insult, a small but powerful faction would resort to the sort of violence that would lead to death and destruction.
In this case, there is no doubt that extreme political factions in the Arab world have seized upon the opportunity to escalate the issue into a major diplomatic and political crisis, leading to the deaths of not only among diplomats but also among the crowds that are being manipulated and thrown into the fire. There is also the possibility that these acts of violence have been planned and coordinated.
The divisions among Islamists political factions could be easily identified. In Tunisia, for example, the country is largely administered by a relatively moderate crowd affiliated to the Islamist party Ennahda. But pressure on that crowd has been continuously on the rise driven by an aggressive Salafist movement that seeks to impose itself and its vision of an ultra-conservative Tunisia to a nation that has always been open, welcoming and moderate.
These different visions often lead to major clashes. Ennahda being in charge of the nation’s security, often has to resort to severe enforcement measures to counter the active and provocative actions of the Salafist extremists. Such actions include attacking restaurants and business establishments, harassing individuals, threatening others, and generally seeking to impose their views through violence.
Less violent but equally devastating are the ongoing efforts to re-write the nation’s constitution with the Salafists seeking to impose a reduction in individual rights and push for religious laws that are out of synch with today’s realities.
In Libya, the anti-Islamic movie has also sparked a nasty reaction from an alleged Jihadist group called Ansar Al-Sharia, who attacked the American diplomatic post in Benghazi, killing four officials. Using heavy weapons, these Jihadists overpowered the weak government forces. But the overwhelming majority of Libyans do not support such senseless violence. And even among their leaders, there are Islamist politicians that are part of the moderate movement, including Dr Ibrahim Awad Barasi, a contender to Prime Minister job, who is affiliated to Muslim Brotherhood-linked Justice and Construction Party (J&C). These moderate Islamists appear to be unable to stem the tide of the extremists, as they seek to impose their ways.
Egypt is at the center of this major crisis. The man alleged to have engineered the film is said to be an American of Egyptian Coptic origin. The content of the movie clearly points to someone who is incredibly angry at Egyptian Muslims and the government in their alleged mistreatment of the Christian community. While the US constitution gives him the right to express his views, he has done a great deal of disservice to the already scared Coptic community in Egypt, now that his movie unleashed violence in the region. The attack against the American embassy in Cairo from the extreme faction of the Islamist movement, led to a counter reaction from the Morsi government in form of a severe security response, hence pitting two factions of political Islam against one another. We are likely to see more of this going forward.
Risk of Chaos:
These fault lines in Political Islam, the massive erosion of the pro-democracy movement that toppled dictatorships, and the meddling of foreign governments in these nations do not bode well in the mid term. The risk of chaos is to be considered and we have already seen how such chaos can materialize. The Salafists and their Jihadist faction are destroying the small state of Mali. Allowed to win in Northern Mali, the Jihadist ‘Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa’ known as MUJAO is wrecking havoc in the impoverished West African nation. Without anyone resisting it effectively, the MUJAO is said to have amputated five men accused of theft. MUJAO says it was simply applying the Sharia law.
Northern Mali is the victim of a poorly coordinated international community and the inability of leading governments around the world to grasp and analyze the realities on the ground. Instead, they have left the crisis in that country simmer, failing to solve the critically important Touareg crisis, and enabling the rise of the Jihadists with fatal consequences. Not only hands and feet are being chopped, but lawlessness is widespread. Algerian diplomats have been kidnapped and the top Algerian Consular Officer in Gao killed by the hands of these Jihadists. Today, Mali and the international community are wondering what to do in light of this chaotic development, when they could have empowered the Touareg people to safeguard Mali appropriately against foreign Jihadist fighters.
Could the rest of North Africa follow the same trajectory than Mali and fall prey to the Salafist offensive? While such outcome is unlikely given the strategic nature of the nations in question and the efforts to stabilize them, actions from the Salafists will continue in an effort to severely undermine what pro-Democracy activists have been seeking ever since the Jasmine Revolution. Young men, controlled by some obscure organizations will seek to derail any efforts to establish real democracies in the region. They will continue to use violence and threaten anyone who thinks differently. They will use as a pretext the sort of actions initiated by extremists among other religious groups, as was the case with the alleged anti Islamic film maker, to justify violent outbursts as we have been witnessing these days.
But while this is happening , pro-Democracy forces should be strengthened and equipped with different kinds of weapons. They have to be empowered to combat corruption, illiteracy, bigotry, lack of transparency, economic despair, poverty, and poor governance, all of which are playing to the advantage of the Salafists. They have to be able to raise questions about the role of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies in funding extremism. They should also be able to question the role of the West on how the current mess is slowing their progress.
But at the end, even with such abilities, it will take at least 20 years before we witness some greater stability in the Arab world.
Arezki Daoud
daoud@north-africa.com
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