The impact of Arab spring to political Islam

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THE IMPACT OF ARAB SPRING TO POLITICAL ISLAM

Allahverdiyeva Farida Mahammadali gizi,

The purpose and objectives of the study the political, socio-economic and geopolitical causes of the Arab Spring crisis, as well as the impact of religious Islam on international relations in the context of the impact of political Islam and finding solutions within the existing discussions.

Research Methods. The study used the results of scientific research of historians involved in the study of the Arab Spring. During the study, methods of comparative analysis, a logical-system approach, generalization, analysis and synthesis were used, and statistical methods were used.

The scientific novelty of the research is to determine the principles of political Islam in the study of the Arab Spring, to determine the relationship between internal and external factors and to assess the role of political Islam in the Arab Spring using the advantages of advanced historical methods.

Conclusion. The Arab Spring is the greatest test facing Islamism in modern history. However, this is an extremely unexpected development, and since the Islamists were also unprepared, they could not cope with such a change and the responsibilities it entailed. All democratic forces need to demonstrate serious adaptability, because democracy is a matter of mutual devotion, not a win-take-all system. The effect of the Arab Spring, or more precisely the Arab context of the revolutions, on political Islam was clear. Although this trend had no significant role in the revolutionary process, it came to power through the elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, and benefited from the transition process in the first degree. However, at the same time, the presence of this current in power revealed its cracks and shortcomings, first at the level of state administration and then at the level of monopolization in power. Today, the problem of Arab-Islamic identity does not constitute the basis of the administration; It has been understood that Islam is not a problem and a solution. The failure of this movement in power will lead the political Islam, which has adapted to the democratic order, to revise a radical idea around the concept of citizenship, Islam and freedoms.

What is remarkable, however, is that the spring revolutions brought Islamists to power without prior experience. People found the country ruling with power, decision-making body, money and state institutions. There was confusion of mind and performance on the stage, and other forces movedforward by opposing the Islamists, supporting their confusion, and trying to be dropped for any reason.

Keywords: Arab spring, political Islam, Middle East, Muslim brotherhood, democracy.

ВПЛИВ АРАБСЬКОЇ ВЕСНИ НА ПОЛІТИЧНИЙ ІСЛАМ

аrab spring international political islam

Метою і завданнями дослідження політичних, соціально-економічних і геополітичних причин кризи арабської весни, а також впливу релігійного ісламу на міжнародні відносини в контексті впливу політичного ісламу і пошук рішень в рамках існуючих дискусій.

Методи дослідження. У дослідженні використані результати наукових досліджень істориків, що займаються вивченням арабської весни. В ході дослідження використовувалися методи порівняльного аналізу, логіко-системного підходу, узагальнення, аналізу та синтезу, а також статистичні методи.

Наукова новизна дослідження - полягає у визначенні принципів політичного ісламу в вивченні арабської весни, визначенні взаємозв'язку між внутрішніми і зовнішніми факторами і оцінці ролі політичного ісламу в арабській весні з використанням переваг передових історичних методів.

Висновок. Арабська весна - найбільше випробування ісламізму в сучасній історії. Однак це вкрай несподіваний розвиток подій, і оскільки ісламісти також не були готові до цього, вони не змогли впоратися з такою зміною і що випливають із нього обов'язками. Всі демократичні сили повинні продемонструвати серйозну адаптованість, тому що демократія - це питання взаємної відданості, а не система, в якій всі виграють. Вплив арабської весни або, точніше, арабського контексту революцій на політичний іслам було очевидним. Хоча ця тенденція не зіграла значну роль в революційному процесі, вона прийшла до влади в результаті виборів в Єгипті, Тунісі та Марокко і в першу чергу виграла від перехідного процесу. Однак в той же час наявність цієї течії у владі виявило його тріщини і недоліки, спочатку на рівні державного управління, а потім на рівні монополізації влади. Сьогодні проблема арабо-ісламської ідентичності не складає основу управління; Було зрозуміло, що іслам - це не проблема, а рішення. Невдача цього руху до влади призведе до того, що політичний іслам, адаптованих до демократичного порядку, перегляне радикальну ідею, що стосується концепції громадянства, ісламу і свобод.

Однак примітно те, що весняні революції привели до влади ісламістів без попереднього досвіду. Люди знайшли, що країною керує владою, органом, який приймає рішення, грошима і державними установами. На сцені панувала розгубленість думки і виступи, і інші сили рухалися вперед, виступаючи проти ісламістів, підтримуючи їх замішання і намагаючись бути відкинутими за будь-якої причини.

Ключові слова: Арабська весна, політичний іслам, Близький Схід, мусульманське братерство, демократія.

Introduction. The Middle East, which is famous for demographic, political, and economic turmoils and has, therefore, been declared a problematic part of the world, found itself in a state of chaos again at the end of 2010. With the onset of the Arab Spring, the region once again faced change. The protests, which began with the selfimmolation of a young vendor in Tunisia, yielded unexpected results. The incident sparked a major uprising in Tunisia, which resulted in the departure of Zeynal Abidin bin Ali, who seized power in a coup in 1987. However, the reasons for the Tunisian people to rise up were not unique to this country, and, inspired by Tunisia, other Middle Eastern nations facing the same problems revolted against their similar regimes. The collective actions of the Middle East countries against dictatorial regimes have led to major reforms, the collapse of many governments in the region, and civil wars. The wave of protests that began in Tunisia soon spread to all neighboring countries. As a result, in 2011 the process involved more than 17 states.

The Arab Spring has created unprecedented problems for the world. Coups in certain countries have led to the seizure of leadership by radical terrorist organizations. This has turned the recently calming Middle East back into a hot pot. The long years of colonial rule in the Middle East and the existence of authoritarian regimes that suppressed the people with the support of the West have led to people's discontent over time. Democratic demands for more governance, worsening economic conditions, appeals for freedom led to what we call the Arab Spring and created a domino effect in the region. The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most important players in the Arab Spring and known in their countries as the “state within the state,” has continued its efforts to establish an Islamic state and a Muslim union in almost every era.

Acting as a non-governmental organization, they built schools, hospitals, factories, and mosques, their presence in the political sphere was very tangible. In the example of political Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood was reluctant to act against regimes they thought they could not overthrow but tried to overthrow governments they saw as weak. Developments in the Arab Spring process also show this. For some, the voice of the Arab people, the Muslim Brotherhood, seen as a symbol of Islamic values, was a source of concern, as was the rise of Political Islam, which threatened democracy. Although it is not clear that the factors of “pluralism”, “democracy” and “freedom” that brought all opposition groups together against the ruling dictatorships during the Arab Spring will necessarily solve the problems in the region, in the following period “pan-Arabism”, “Islam” and declared concepts of “democracy” would be indispensable.

The degree to which the subject was studied. Academic research on the Arab Spring is of great importance from the scientific literature and practical point of view. While researching the topic of the article, there were studied books, scientific articles, reports published in Azerbaijani, English, and Turkish languages in connection with the Arab Spring, as well as the information reflected in various Internet resources. In the study, it is important to identify the political, socio-economic, and geopolitical causes of the Arab Spring, as well as to study the impact of the issue of Political Islam on international relations in the context of finding a political solution within the existing discussions. Graham E. Fuller «Turkey and the Arab Spring» (2017) [7] in the book described the Arab Spring, which started in 2011 as a search for freedom, democracy and dignity against authoritarian governments. According to Kochler, «Middle East Talks, “Arab Spring” from a Regional and Global Perspective» there are no identities and ideologies behind the riots. Rebellions are an increase in anger towards the conditions of life. The basic dynamic of internal turmoil in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain and Syria stems from deep social unrest (2014) [11]. Ventura L., Prashad V., Samuel Huntington, Salamey I., Cronin S., Heydemann S., Phillips S., Daba§i H., played a significant role in the study of this problem.

Method. To this end, the religious policies of global and regional actors, as well as the interactions and positions of international actors in the discussion formats for finding a political solution to the crisis were analyzed. The Arab Spring process, by its global scale and many other dimensions, will be a critical transition process for the reshaping of Middle Eastern history and geography. In this context, the study of the background and causes of the crisis, as well as the analysis of international discussions to reach a possible political solution, is of great importance and relevance, both for the future of the region and from an academic point of view.

Presentation of the main content. Economic factors have played a special role in the socio-economic and political problems that led to the crisis called the Arab Spring. Although the government has implemented neo-liberal reforms, these reforms have not been adequately supported by welfare policies. This situation has led to an increase in poverty, unemployment, and income imbalance. However, while economic hardship was one of the main reasons for the uprisings against the government that began in 2011, these economic hardships were typical of many developing countries at the time.

As this movement is a process of democratization, the political Islamic movements in Tunisia, Morocco, and Yemen have tried to make concessions to both their local communities and the international community by downplaying what they said when they joined the government. In particular, the pressure of globalization on national states and climate change has led to these difficulties. In the past, there were opportunities for compromise, abandoning the reactive and confrontational approach. On the other hand, since the success of Islamic movements means a change in the status quo in their countries, the decline of Islamist movements under pressure is parallel to the regression of the Arab Spring. Political Islam has always been at the forefront of the Arab revolutions in 2011. The communist system mobilized revolutions and established itself as a dividing line between the two periods. One of the first organizations that come to mind when talking about political Islam is the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan-i Muslimin in Arabic).

This organization, which has both religious and political perspectives, was founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928 and became an important player in the current political scene. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is widespread in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf, and has taken the Qur'an and Sunnah as a guide in building a modern Islamic society, has always been perceived as a threat by secular regimes. As the movement has a more prominent Arab and Sunni identity, it has not had the opportunity to spread to non-Arab or Shiite countries. But it always managed to stay at the forefront of the region.

The roots of all the processes taking place in the Middle East are very connected to the recent past of the region. In this case, it can provide a historical and sociological perspective for a rational analysis of the domestic and foreign political and socio-economic situation in the pre-civil war Arab countries, the causes of the crisis, as well as the behavior and policies of regional and global actors.

According to Norwegian scientist Galtung, one of the three main factors determining a group's identity and how peoples will behave during a conflict is a national trauma that took place in the people's past and left a deep mark on their historical memory. The other two factors of Galtung are the people's sense of selectivity and the national myth. Galtung's formula can be a suitable model for analyzing the national identity and motives of the political behavior of modern Arabs.

According to this formula, the most important example of the modern Arab group's identity as a national trauma influencing its behavior is the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the accompanying Anglo-French invasion. The Sykes-Picot Agreement, which did not conform to the Western powers' promises of freedom to the Arabs in the struggle against the Ottoman Empire and the principle of self-determination, exacerbated this trauma over time. It has also become one of the main reference points in the rise of hostility towards the West among ordinary Arabs and nationalists.

On December 18, 2010, protests against the central government began in Tunisia. Protests over unemployment, rising food prices, freedom of speech, bureaucratic hurdles, and low living standards later changed their format. Thus, a process called the “Arab Spring” began in the area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. Two weeks later, in early January, Bouazizi died in hospital, but the blaze engulfed first Tunisia and then the entire Arab world. The uprising in Tunisia resulted in the overthrow of Zeynalabdin bin Ali, who ruled the country for 23 consecutive years.

Further, protests erupted in Egypt, and Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled the country for 30 years, resigned after three weeks of protests. Protests in Libya soon escalated into armed clashes, and NATO began bombing Libyan territory. Eventually, the events spread to countries such as Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, and Jordan. Thus, this process, known as the “Arab Spring”, soon led to armed clashes, jihadist calls, and wars in which radical Islamist groups were at the forefront.

These events in the Arab world have been called the “Arab Spring” by the Western media. The concept of spring is a seasonal period. Because it is difficult to define events with this concept, Fьller chose to use the term “Arab revival” [7, p. 263]. The Arab Spring is another important event after Arab nationalism in the 1960 s. This coup led to the collapse of the traditional monarchy associated with the British and French colonies. Kochler uses the term “Arab uprisings” instead of the Arab Spring [11, p. 366]. According to him, the process called the Arab Spring is a mass popular uprising. It is similar to the French and Russian revolutions that lasted for decades. Chas Freeman, a former US ambassador, described the Arab Spring as a “struggle between democratic Islam and despotic Islam.”

In the middle of the 20th century, the secular Muslim republics, or so to speak, national states were the main power in the Middle East and the Muslim world, as a whole: Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Iran, and others. This group of countries, unlike other monarchies, was more active in dynamic military-political processes. This activity, or so to speak, development continued until 1979. The Islamic Revolution in Iran in February 1979 was a change in the Arab-Muslim world as a whole. For the first time, an Islamist movement won and seized political power.

And most importantly, this event took place in a national state - Iran. The Iranian revolution led to the activation of Islamist movements in the Muslim world in general. We can state that Egypt, which became a colonial state after the First World War, has experienced difficult transitions in its political history. The policies used by the governments that came to power in these transitions to determine domestic and foreign policy have led Egypt to a century-long search for democracy.

According to Samuel Huntington, political instability and disorder are caused by the reluctance of political organizations and structures to develop or modify in response to rapid social change by emerging groups. Socio-economic changes, such as urbanization, literacy and education, industrialization, and mass media opportunities, increase political awareness, demands, and participation [16].

These changes, in turn, weaken traditional political power resources and political organizations, making it difficult to create new political institutions based on legitimacy and efficiency, based on new political commonalities. While there are high requirements for political participation and social mobilization, it is impossible to avoid social and political confrontation if political organizations remain inactive. Although Islamist movements inspired by the Iranian revolution did not succeed in Egypt and Algeria, an Islamist awakening had begun in the Muslim East as a whole.

Later, the war in Afghanistan, 9/11, and the international war on terror, the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq served Islamist slogans in general. The rise of Islamists in Turkey (2002), the Muslim Brotherhood's (Ikhwan) victory in the parliamentary elections in Egypt for the first time with 80 independent candidates, and the victory of the Islamist Hamas in the Palestinian elections were the results of the Islamic trend developments. Against the background of all this, in the Muslim Arab world, authoritarian rule in the secular republics was strengthening, and democracy was suffocating.

The “Arab Spring” that began in Tunisia in 2010 was a logical continuation of this process. Thus, all the protests began in the secular Arab republics. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq were the Arab countries that renounced the monarchy and became secular republics after the 1950s but later became authoritarian. Interestingly, it was the Iranian leadership that first called the “Arab Spring” the “Islamic Awakening.” Thus, the Islamic awakening, which began with the Iranian revolution and lasted for 33 years, culminated in the Arab Spring. While most of the regime's strongest figures in the Arab-Muslim Brotherhood confrontation came from the provincial heterodox Muslim minority, members of the Muslim Brotherhood were originally from the urban Sunni middle class.

That is, both forces were opposed to each other, both socially and religiously. In other words, there were a number of reasons why the Muslim Brotherhood emerged as a new political force. Thus, while the political arena of the time consisted mainly of landowners or merchants, the banning of other political parties, the exclusion of secular forces from political life, and the current environment of socio-political pressure led to religious groups filling the gap in the struggle against the secular-authoritarian rule.

But it soon became clear that not everything was as simple as it seemed. First, in Muslim countries, especially in countries where revolutions took place, the majority of the population was not ready for the establishment of an Islamic government. Second, although initially unprepared by Western and international forces, the Arab Spring later became a controlled process. Islamist groups and movements were incited in the target country, and the process became more foreign-controlled.

This inevitably provoked a backlash. The Arab Muslim countries, Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, where the Islamic government exists, have started to act as parties and players in this process. The revolution went beyond the line of the people's revolution and became a struggle for the interests of powerful states controlled from the outside. For this reason, the process soon turned into an ideological war.

Political Islam is generally defined as “shaping the political, social, and economic life of a country in accordance with Islamic references”, although the definitions vary. This concept goes deeper than Syrian leader Assad's definition of “adapting religion to political aspirations” as he seeks to legitimize his rule. One of the first organizations that come to mind when talking about political Islam is the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikh- wan-i Muslim in Arabic).

This organization, which has both religious and political perspectives, was founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928 and gained stronger importance in the current political scene with the Arab Spring. Spread over a wide area in North Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf, the Muslim Brotherhood, which has guided the Qur'an and Sunnah in building a modern Islamic society, has always been perceived as a threat by secular regimes.

As Arab and Sunni identities came to the fore in the movement, the movement did not have the opportunity to spread to non-Arab or Shiite countries. But it always managed to be at the forefront of the region. In particular, the influence of US political Islam on the Middle East agenda in the 2000s must be taken into account. Following the US policy of democratization in the Middle East after the 9/11 attacks, US policy in the region has strengthened the hand of radical Islamist political parties, including Islam in the administration of justice, especially in countries with high-income inequality.

This is because the peoples, fed up with the poverty created by authoritarian regimes, began to see Islamic agendas as an alternative in their search for a solution. On the other hand, political Islam, which seriously questioned the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes and the current political order, has managed to create effective opposition to political power. As expected, the Muslim Brotherhood was the shining star of this period when political Islam was on the agenda in the Middle East. It is impossible to separate politics from religion in this region.

Because the influence of religion, especially Islam, on political life is not ignored in regimes that call themselves secular. Better organized than liberal and secular communities, the Muslim Brotherhood has brought power to various countries in the Middle East and North Africa where democratization efforts have accelerated. However, it manifested itself not in a revolutionary spirit aimed at rapidly changing society, but rather as a spirit rooted in the goal of developing society and increasing its political participation.

The Arab Spring has created a turning point in the path followed by political Islam for many reasons. Firstly, it has demonstrated that ideology alone cannot ensure political success and that Islamists have a consistent and clear plan for reforms. Second, it was clear that classical Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood would not be able to maintain their support without radical changes in ideology and strategy.

This was also due to the dominance of the Conservatives, who influenced their decisions and their ability to manage the political crisis in Egypt. Third, political Islamic movements could learn from their mistakes. The Nahda party in Tunisia, for example, learned from the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and agreed to share power and make political concessions to other political groups. In general, the Arab Spring has influenced political Islam in various ways and will continue to do so for some time.

Conclusion. The Arab Spring is the greatest trial of Islamism in modern history. However, this is an extremely unexpected development, and the Islamists have not been able to cope with such a change and the responsibilities associated with it because they were unprepared. The influence of the Arab Spring, or rather the Arab context of revolutions, on political Islam, was obvious. The presence of this trend in power revealed the shortcomings, first, at the level of public administration, and, later, at the level of monopoly in power. Today, the problem of Arab-Islamic identity is not the basis of governance. It was understood that Islam had neither a problem nor a solution. However, the Arab Spring revived political Islam. The new generation, which had lost its activist spirit, began to become active again and regained its strength with support given to the Arab Spring.

The so-called Arab Spring movement, as a process of democratization, generally allowed Islamic political parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) and Nahda to come to power. Islamic movements, previously ousted and suppressed, were able to come to power through democratic elections for the first time. Political Islam has existed since the Prophet established his state in Medina and will exist further. Thoughts may change over time, but Islam, as a divine belief system, never changes, fades, or disappears. As long as there are people who adhere to this belief, political Islam will exist. The Islamic consciousness of the last 50 years is the most important evidence of the Arab Spring.

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