Is dissolving Islamic movements the solution?

There can be little denying that Islamist movements are in crisis. Their path to self-destruction continues despite spells of self-reflection and evaluation as you cannot be part of the problem and the solution at the same time. This brings us to the question of just how useful the "Islamic" movements are today.

Claiming to be an Islamist is more dangerous than those who first linked Islam to existing social or political movements first imagined. This is because "Islamist" organisations have nothing to do with the sanctity of religion. In other words, no Muslim has the right to claim the Islamist label.

What we need to do today is not to review the work of Islamist movements... but to question the point of their existence

Human and flawed

By doing so, they cast a shadow over their own movements, particularly as the leaders consider any criticism of themselves or their organisations to be an insult against Islam itself. The members and leaders of these movements are of course open to flaws, just like anyone else, and so there is no real advantage to being a self-proclaimed Islamist.

By adjoining themselves to the term Islam, it means that any failure of their movement is seen as a failure of Islam itself. This leads us to a dangerous and slippery slope that threatens the image of Islam and affects its 1.5 billion followers.

It reminds of the harm caused by so-called Islamic hospitals, schools and financial investment bodies who are dedicated to serving the public under the banner of Islam. Every failure or act of corruption on their part reflects badly on Islam itself, particularly as they have claimed that their organisations are somehow divine.

They are of course not faultless as they claim to be and they have taken advantage of the fact that collectively people believe that if something is Islamic than it ranks the same as the religion itself.

But failures or acts of corruption in religious movements become viewed as a failure of the religion, and Islamist political movements are no exception. The failure of these groups have made Islam and Muslims pay a high price. Their mistakes reflect on the lives of Muslims across the world and others living in Muslim-majority countries.

It is said that no one is entitled to commit sins that affect the lives of other Muslims. Innocent people should not pay the price for decisions made by others.

Collective punishment

One can mention many examples where Muslims have paid the price for the mistakes of Islamist movements despite the fact that they were not in any way connected to them. Even Islam as a religion was tarnished and targeted by those who claim to represent it.

This also applies to Islamist movements working in politics or societal work, as well as those who adopt the jihadist slogan. It would be tiring and extremely difficult to assess the scale of harm these movements have inflicted on Islam and Muslims.

What we need to do today is not to review the work of Islamist movements, and categorise them as political or jihadist, but to question the point of their existence in the first place, be that in terms of the benefits they bring to society or their so called "exclusive" right to tag themselves as "Islamic".

We saw this among jihadist movements who called on all Muslims to pledge allegiance to their sheikhs, describing themselves as caliphs or Muslim rulers. This also applies to ruling regimes that consider disobeying the "ruler" a violation of religion and its teachings.

I recall the advice given by Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, saying that they should dissolve their movement before they meet disaster that would affect all of Egypt. These disasters eventually took place. Erdogan believed what calamities fell on the Egyptian Brotherhood would also befall the people of Egypt, and impinge on other revolutionaries in the region.

The disasters, he argued, would revive the counter-revolutionary elements and have them take the region back in time. This is what has happened. Now imagine what would have happened if the Brotherhood had taken Erdogan's advice.

Immune to criticism

The miserable fate of the Arab Spring revolutions is one of the many results of this terrible dilemma. It requires a daring approach and exceptional strength, because anyone who even calls for thought on the subject is accused of being part of the counter-revolution or even an infidel.

This is a result of the "sanctity" of their "Islamic" cause, something that is employed frequently by Islamist and jihadi organisations to get immunity for their deeds. It raises them to a rank higher than that of human beings who can be criticised or brought to justice.

Who will rise and put an end to this? Who will tell these Islamists to leave Islam alone and stop claiming to represent it exclusively, just as dictators have claimed to act in the name of Islam?

Who will tell them they are entitled to practise political action in any way they choose, and behind any mask, except for that of Islam? Islam is not their religion alone, and they do not have the right to claim representation for it exclusively. Who will dare to publicly say that dissolving all Islamist movements is in favour of Islam and an advancement of its cause?

This would not be against Islam, but rather to save it from desecration, when it is used as a brand name to promote damaged goods - controversial ideas that can either be right or wrong. Those who do this have no right to hide behind the cloak of Islam in order to avoid accountability or criminal action.

What I say is not to question the intentions of those who seek to carry out a genuine religious revival, for they will undoubtedly be rewarded. However, what I say is a modest attempt to start a debate about the right of those who claim to be Islamist or use religion as a banner for their political cause.

Perhaps some will rush in and accuse anyone who defends this viewpoint of being part of a conspiracy that aims to outlaw Islamist movements or describe them as terrorist, or of supporting a ban of religious parties. However, the experiences of the Muslim community requires a daring and critical approach towards these groups, especially after the unrest we have experienced in our region due to the continuing mistakes of Islamist movements.

The impact has been on the entire political and social spectrum, whether for or against them. It is now time for self-confrontation and criticism to put to an end to their massive failures committed by these groups that frustrate our hopes for a better future.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of al-Araby al-Jadeed, its editorial board or staff.