Comments on: Confessions of a lapsed Islamist

By: Ed Husain: this week's Prestor Jon

Ed Husain: this week's Prestor Jon — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:54:08 +0000

[...] from a Muslim with which to club 1.3 billion Muslims. Given my previously expressed views on the modern religious innovation of Islamism, one would expect us to be sympathetic to Husain, but you would be mistaken. Husain’s [...]

By: OmarG

OmarG — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:44:47 +0000

Salam Baybars,

>>on living Quranic ethics and we should leave progressive politics to people who wear sandal and linen pants.

I agree. I wrote recently about how I did not like temporary political positions attached to the practice of Islam and took alot of heat for it. Some Muslims define “adl” as social justice and while it sounds reasonable, I often am unsure of where the Socialist connotations will lead us, not to mention that adopting it also means being associated with Socialists. I usually see Islam as being on a level above Socialism vs Capitalism (and any pairing of -ism’s, actually). So, your original question at the beginning of your post: “Is Islamism, Islam” I would say most Muslims say “Yes”, and I don’t think it is a good thing for us or the deen.

By: skepticlawyer

skepticlawyer — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 13:37:27 +0000

Good stuff – Jason has done a link in his weekly ‘Ozblogistan’ round-up. Just a quick request – could you update your link to catallaxy in the sidebar? It’s still the old busted ‘badanalysis’ one, which we can’t seem to revive.

By: Amir

Amir — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 06:22:05 +0000

Another flaw with much of the Islamist thinking is that their goal is to reconstruct the systems and polities of the past. For example, to create a model of government that mirrors the structure of the Umayyads or the Ottomans. In much the same way as much of the thinking on Islamic finance remains fettered to the past, there isn’t a terrible amout of originality (as far as I can tell) in the thinking of the so-called Islamist groups and ideologues. Therefore, it’s unclear how their utopian state would fare in a world that is substantially different to the world which moulded the models they are attempting to recreate.

By: Baybers

Baybers — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 06:01:46 +0000

There are really 2 issues here.

the first is , how should Islamic belief and practice be advanced in Muslim countries? this is really none of our concern, and we should get over it. Power speaks to power and not to bloggers

the second and more useful question is how we should approach our local situation?

I would probably begin by dumping all the books that one has on Islamic revival, Milestones, political Islam etc..

concentrate on actually being a Muslim and not an extra in a B grade middle east political thriller. I remember a particularly notable Muslim activist telling me that Muslim Australians need to have a “position” on aboriginal dispossession” and on social justice.

This is precisely what we DONT need. We should have a “position” on Tahjud salat (preferably prostration), and on living Quranic ethics and we should leave progressive politics to people who wear sandal and linen pants.

By: Tobias

Tobias — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 23:51:17 +0000

exactly, i wish they would read more widely: burke, locke, jefferson, adams and to be more circumspect rather than adopting philosophies whole.

By: Amir

Amir — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 23:28:01 +0000

I don’t think the issue is that Islamists are influenced by Western thought or ideas, but just that they mostly seem to be influenced by the bad ideas. For example, their worship of the state, crypto-socialist economic theories and so on. HT even want to nationalise the steel/iron/metals industry a la Harold Wilson and British Steel.

There are plenty of non-Muslim and Western economists and political philosophers from whom Islamists could learn a great deal. However, largely as a result of their own intellectual pedigree or the pedigree of the figures they follow and read, many Islamists seem to gravitate overwhelmingly towards revolutionary politics, statism and highly-regulated command economics.

By: ABD

ABD — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 16:46:51 +0000

as-salam alaykum. i’m sympathetic to your critique, and yet i find that critics of islamists often don’t have a cogent alternative that meets their own criticisms (not that that you meant to do so within just one post). if islamists are modern, are the rest of us not? if islamists are influenced by western thought, can anyone else give us a purely islamic alternative? you suggest by the end that islamists will have to read up on other non-muslim thinkers (i.e., not the marxist ones) if they are to last. seems to me like it’s a choice of which west and not which islam.

here’s my own attempt to work through some of these problems: http://othermatters.wordpress......-islam-i/. (i return to this theme in a post that’s still on the home page: “City of God II”.) my point of reference is clearly western, but not modern. i can’t say how authentically islamic it is, but my hope is that it is at least a corrective to uniquely modern (whether western or islamist) views on the nature of politics.

By: Amir

Amir — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 14:46:37 +0000

The raison d’etre for HT in the West seems to be primarily to warn Muslims against the evils of voting. As far as I can tell, from speaking to HT members, they want to “raise awareness” and recruit people into the Party in the hope of eventually reaching some sort of Critical Mass where they can reach for the levers of power in the Muslim lands. In that sense, they seem inspired by the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary model.

By: null

null — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 12:44:18 +0000

“Not the HT guys I have experienced – most said voting is haram!”

Oh dear! I didn’t know that!

“They are very sophisticated in their recruitment, their indoctrination and thought policing. If I have time I will write about it.”

Yes please!