The
Islamist movement(1)
strives to unite all of the groups that are working for the Islamic
cause into one front that seeks victory for Islam. The movement must
establish Islam throughout the world and must confront all the
invading forces that oppose Islam's call. This front must play an
active part in propagating the proper manners of discourse and the
right ways of dealing with opposing views — so as to lay the
groundwork of cooperation based on the norms and to be tolerant of
differences.
Hasan
Al-Banna sought to unite the Islamic groups in Egypt and thus set
down the famous "twenty principles" that embodied the
minimum number of general concepts that should be agreed upon by all
Muslims. This is what the Islamist movement should continue to follow
in order to achieve its major objectives because the movement will
only be strong if all of the groups work together for the Islamic
cause. By these groups, I of course mean the serious, righteous
groups, not those groups of deviants or those who claim false links to
Islam.
Any
Islamist group will be making a fatal mistake if it thinks that it can
undertake single-handedly the establishment of a contemporary Islamic
rule that can withstand internal disputes and external plots. All of
the groups and movements should consolidate their efforts and unify in
order to form a formidable Islamic bloc that will be able to support
its allies and deter its enemies.
What
I fear most is for the Islamic spirit of brotherhood to be overcome
with a feeling of selfishness whereby each group tries to prove itself
and to expose the faults of other groups to the extent that it focuses
all of its efforts on destroying others, and not on building itself
into a strong part of a larger.
I
also fear that narrow-mindedness will gain control of the way of
thinking among Islamist groups, making them exaggerate their
differences, turning molehills into mountains, and matters that allow
scholarly debate and ijtihad into fundamentals of the Shari`ah.
The
establishment of a strong Islamic rule that can revive the religion of
this Ummah and make our worldly life better is something that should
be collectively undertaken by all Islamist groups. This should be
undertaken without regard of their different attitudes and policies,
and should include all righteous individuals who are zealous of their
religion but who are not necessarily members of any group or
organization.
I
believe that the Islamist movement will succeed if it manages to
recruit and unite all Islamic forces towards this end so that all of
them have the same concerns and so that they will also consider any
victory or setback of the movement to be a gain or loss for
themselves.
*
This article is taken, with some modifications, from the author's book
Priorities
of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase.
**
Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is the head of the European Council
for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), and the president of The International
Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS). He has been active in the field
of da`wah and the Islamic Movement for more than half a century.
1
The author uses the phrase "al-harakah al-Islamiyyah"
(the Islamic movement) as an umbrella expression for "the
(Islamic) organized group or groups with specific objectives and
clear-cut courses." The "movement" in this sense is
more specific than sahwah (the Islamic awakening trend) which is
"a general, current that encompasses individuals and groups, both
organized and otherwise." For more details, please refer to the
book's Preface,
and the Introduction:
On the Islamic Movement.
We
at IslamOnline have replaced Islamic with Islamist where appropriate
to clarify the meaning. By using the term Islamist, we mean those who
follow the orthodox trend of Islam, call for an Islamic state, and use
politics as a tool of mobilization. According to John Esposito,
Islamism is "Islam interpreted as an ideology to support
political and social activism." See "Is
Islamism a Threat? A Debate" for further discussion of this
term.
