----- Original Message -----
From: mohebbollah kazi
Phenomenon of Islamic ’Justice and Development’ Parties
IkhwanWeb - Egypt
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Hossam Tammam*
In its history in political work, the identity issue overwhelmed the Islamic
movement and was a top priority for issues like Islamic state, rule of Islam
and applying Sharia (Islamic law). These identity-oriented issues were the core
of any political slogan or party platform they may propose. Even when political
or legal restrictions prevent them from making public the identity issues, they
have been including them in their slogans, speeches and platforms like Turkish
Islamic leader Necmettin Erbakan who was forced by the strict legal
restrictions in the Kamalist secular system to raise the slogan of building a
fair system and bringing the country back to the age of glory and prosperity.
Everyone knew that he implicitly means establishing the Islamic system that
applies Sharia and restores the Caliphate.
In this context, Islamic parties have been keeping in their memory the issue of
identity not only in their programs but also in their names. The most
well-known parties have names which either directly reflect their Islamic
identity like "the Islamic Party" in Malaysia, " the Islamic Action Front " in
Jordan or "the Islamic Salvation Front" in Algeria . Or they give a priority to
a pillar of the Islamic project like "Sharia Party" (an Islamic party draft in
Egypt), "Virtue Party" in Turkey or "Movement for the Society of Peace" in
Algeria.
However, a decade ago, the phenomenon of Justice and Development parties
emerged to put justice and development issues a central position in their
discourse and names as well. The phenomenon started in Morocco with the
establishment of the Justice and Development party (PJD) in 1998 to extend to
the Arab and Muslim world in the shape of parties which are already founded and
others which are still under construction. In Turkey, the middle generation in
the Islamic movement established a party with the same name Justice and
Development (AK Party); in Indonesia, Islamists established the party of
Justice and Development and in Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim, the former leader of
the movement of Muslim Youth, founded a new party named the Keadilan party, or
the People"s Justice . In Iraq, a Shiite Islamic group adopted the idea and
established a party named Justice and Development, although it is still in the
sidelines of the overall Islamic scene in the political scene in general. In
Mauritania, Islamists established "The National Gathering for Reform and
Development", another variation of Justice and Development coined by their
Moroccan Islamic neighbours. It has a charisma and influence in the Mauritanian
Islamic case. There is also a botched attempt in Bahrain, and another one in
Egypt, in a group on the margin of the Islamic movement but were rejected by
authorities. All of them are parties or drafts of parties bearing the name of
Justice and Development which emerged from the Islamic movement in their
countries.
We are seemingly facing a phenomenon that needs to be studied specially that it
presents questions more than answers. The first question is why this
name-Justice and Development-mushrooms in drafts of Islamic parties, while
traditional names related to the core of the Islamic ideology like Al-Umma
(Nation), Sharia (Islamic Law), Al-Islah (Reform) and Al-Nahda (Renaissance)
retreated. This change may be with a bigger and a deeper shift that the Islamic
phenomenon has witnessed in the past two decades. This shift moved it from a
political platform to a social platform as a part of the changes in the Islamic
and Arab societies, and changes all over the world which is witnessing the
waning or end of ideologies. In the midst of this change, the social platform
and its slogan (justice and development) have become more attractive and more
powerful to pave the way for these Islamists towards power. We can also link
between this phenomenon and what took place throughout the last decade,
including reviews inside the Islamic discourse mostly related to the Islamic
vision of the idea of a state and its excessive sensitivity to the issue of
identity. Most of these reviews were carried out under pressure of the secular
criticism to the Islamic political discourse accusing it of using hollow
slogans and ideology. However, the phenomenon can be at the same time linked
with increasing demand especially in the West and the United States for
"Moderate Islam" whose characteristics of moderation are determined with
abandoning the political and coming closer to the social and developmental.
Finally, the phenomenon has a confirmed link with social and class changes
inside components of the Islamic movement itself that generally witnessed a
social tide on the one hand and coming closer to people, their cares and
interests on the other hand, making it moving further from the strict and pure
ideological nature, hence traditional issues of this ideology like rule and
sharia retreated.
In the Justice and Development parties, we should have a stop at what can be
considered a common factor that gathers them and make them be collective
considered a phenomenon. Definitely, the similarity exceeds the issue of
bearing the same name or its variations. There are other factors that gather
them. I think that they revolve around a general approach that gives priority
to the demand of achieving justice among people, and developing societies.
Thus, they give the issue of justice and development a priority sometimes at
the expense of the issue of identity and related issues. As every country has
its specialty and every Islamic movement has its own experience, The Justice
and Development Party in a traditional Muslim Arab country like Morocco- a
state which is based on a religious legitimacy (state of the commander of the
faithful) is different from Kamalist Turkey that canceled the caliphate and
established a secularist model that wants to end any thing of Islamic nature.
While the elite and grassroots of the Moroccan Islamic movement are more
related the Islamic rituals, symbols and meanings, unlike its Turkish
counterpart where the relation with the west is deep-rooted not only on the
geographical level but also as a view and a future project adopted in any
reform view. Thus, be careful lest you are deceived that they are similar.
Assessing the Justice and Development experience in a decade, how far these
Islamic parties have a development model that distinguishes them from other
liberal and socialist parties. Add to this seeking to know details of this
model in economy and social affairs in general. In this regard, we will be
surprised to know that this model that links its origins with a certain Islamic
vision, is either identically similar to the western economic and development
model as is the case in the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AK party) or
People"s Justice in Malaysia ( where there is a relation with the western
capitalist model and its centers, and the big influence of neo-liberalism), or
it is like Moroccan Justice and Development party (PJD) which is closer to the
market economy, with a social role from the country and with a hesitation or
unsettling of core issues like the distribution of wealth and the policy of
economic monopolies, the challenging issue in a country like Morocco, or that
its visions are incomplete because it is still young and for the specialty of
its country as is the case in Mauritania which is still closer to the stage
before the foundation of the modern state.
Future questions over the phenomenon of Justice and Development parties are
still unanswered especially concerning issues related to the model it offers in
Islamic political work. These questions include the ones related to how far the
development approach as an alternative to the identity approach is stable
without backpedaling in a time of in which the identity discourse rises or how
far the Islamic movement, whatever its care for people"s issues and
development, exceeds the identity and applying Sharia issues, and the way or
forms through which identity issues are handled for the Islamic movement
represented by the Justice and Development parties, if we agree that it is
difficult for them to fully exceed them. Add to this how these Islamic parties
understand Islamic Sharia, and how far they disagree with traditional Islamic
counterparts and finally view of these parties, specially in countries that
took considerable steps in modernism and secularization, to ways of lowering
the authority of Sharia in a secular reality.
Here, we can know a huge diversity in experiences of the Justice and
Development parties. The Moroccan PJD party for example distinguished between
the missionary and political, to cover up its withdrawal from identity issues
leaving them to a separate missionary movement and to be dedicated to political
issues. However, it did not and can"t get fully divorced from identity issues
in a country where Francophone has a big influence, specially in the cultural
circles although its political regime is a monarchy. While the Turkish party
did not stop for long at such issues. It got fully divorced from them and
presented itself as a political party that cares for identity issues that enjoy
a Turkish consensus, and is finally having a secularist Kamalaist hue with an
influential national spirit.
It is difficult to give a final or decisive answer, but tentatively, there is a
disparity between responses of the Islamic Justice and Development parties in
front of these challenges and problems. We are seemingly in front of two
contradictory kinds of response and other responses are in between: Two models:
one of them seeks to Islamize modernism as is the case in the Moroccan Justice
and Development Party (PJD) while the other the Turkish AK party sees that it
starts with modernizing Islam.
_________________________________
*A researcher in Islamic movements
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