The Islamic Revolution and the Popular Uprisings in the Arab World

450
6 July 2022

Areas of influence of the Islamic Revolution

Many experts and researchers believe that Iran’s Islamic Revolution is one of the main effective factors in advancing the process of the Islamic Awakening and awareness and increasing the effective Islamic activities in Muslim societies. (Qawmani, 2011: 42). After the inception of the Islamic Revolution, Iran became the centre of Islam. In reality, this revolution based on religion helped to revive the religion and the revival of Islam in Iran and the world, whereby one of its dimensions is the continuation of the political life of contemporary Islam in the last two decades. Now the question that arises is: what are the common indicators and areas of influence of the contemporary political movements as well as the recent popular uprisings of Iran’s Islamic Revolution? We have examined below the main indicators which are as follows:

A Common Idea

From the fact that the Islamic Revolution is a Shi’ah revolution, just like the other Islamic movements, it is based on theism, that is (there is no god except God) and the prophetic mission of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s), that is (I confess that Muhammad is the prophet of God). It considers the Holy Ka’bah as the prayer direction (qiblah) of its spiritual aspirations, the Noble Quran as the book of God and as the saviour of the misguided humanity and believes in the world before and after death. Similarly, it believes in peace, brotherhood and equality, as Imam Khomeini said: “We are all unanimous in the word ‘tawhid’ and we are all unanimous when it comes to the interests of Islam. Therefore, let us all unite under the umbrella of tawhid.” (Ja’farian, 1999: 238)

A Common Enemy

The Islamic Revolution and the Islamic movements have a common enemy. This common enemy is that same global imperialism led by the United States and the Zionist regime. Other similar examples to these are the Quraysh infidels, the barbaric Mongols, the extreme crusaders, the European colonialists, Serbian racism and so on which all threaten the nature of Islam. By coining the slogan, ‘Neither East nor West,’ the Islamic Revolution has raised the flag of struggle against the common enemy of the Islamic world. (Jundi, 1992: 257-260)

Common Goals

The Islamic Revolution and the contemporary Islamic movements want the eradication of oppression, corruption, the implementation of the Islamic law, the establishment of Islamic rule in the Muslim community and the raising of the flag of Islam (“there is no god except God”) around the world by denying the powers and relying on the eternal divine power and the masses of the people. The contemporary Islamic movements owe their existence to the Islamic Revolution. This is because it gave the Muslims a new life, emancipated them from the severe humiliation, emphasized the inability of the concepts of Marxism, liberalism, and nationalism to govern the humble Muslims, and designed Islam as the only solution to the political life of the Muslims. (Kadivar, 1993: 99)

Husayn Chaudhry, a British Muslim expert says: “The Islamic Revolution managed to expose the behaviour and practice of the human rights in some Western societies, which violate the rights of people, especially the Muslims, contrary to their ideas of protecting the human rights. (Fars News, 2011). Owing to this fact, the existence and political presence of the Islamic movements depend upon the Islamic Revolution. This matter has provided the necessary grounds for the Islamic movements to be influenced by the Islamic Revolution.

Unity

The emphasis of the Islamic Revolution and its leaders on the necessity of unity of all the strata and all the Islamic denominations in achieving adherence in the domestic and foreign arenas is another context of the tendency of the contemporary Islamic political movements towards the Islamic Revolution. This is because, by epitomizing pure Muhammadan Islam, the Islamic Revolution does not consider any difference between a black and a white person or a European and non-European. This revolution does not focus on the controversial aspects among the Muslims either. Rather, by establishing a base of approximation for the Islamic denominations, inaugurating al-Quds Day, issuing the fatwa of Imam Khomeini (ra) against Salman Rushdie, marking the Islamic Unity Week and so on, the Islamic Revolution has taken a step towards the unity of Muslims. Owing to this reason, a wide range of the non-Shi’ah groups and non-Islamic liberation movements embraced Iran’s Islamic Revolution as their own epitome. (Imam Khomeini (ra), 1982: 768)

It is not a surprising matter that the Sunni Palestinian Muslims carry out martyrdom-seeking operations in the name of Imam Khomeini (ra). In regards to this, Mujibur Rahman Shami, a Pakistani newspaper journalist, states: “Another great influence of Imam Khomeini (ra) is that even though he was only a Shi’ah leader, he did not propagate religious segregation and separation. His whole efforts were meant for all the Muslims.” (Shami, 2000: 33).

Populism

The populism approach of the Islamic Revolution is a factor that has helped in promulgating the revolution and enabled it to be accepted by the Muslim nations. In 1978, the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution believed that all the nations should be valued and not the governments. A prominent feature of the popular nature of the Islamic Revolution has found its way into the Islamic political movements, and the movements have realized that Islam has the ability to mobilize the masses. On this account, they have shifted from relying on the intelligentsia to relying on the people and expanding their popular bases. To cite an instance, the core of the Palestinian struggle is made up of the clerics, students, youth and teenagers.

According to Dr. Hasan al-Turabi, the leader of the National Islamic Front (NIF), the Islamic Revolution gave the idea of popular work and the use of the masses of the people as a precious gift to the experiences of the Islamic call in the Islamic world. The tendency of the popular labour thought led the Islamic movements towards religious and ethnic unity, which in turn, removed the Islamic political movements from discord and division and made them more ethnically organized, with more facilities and broader support and more stability. (Enayat, 1998: 38)

In general, the Islamic Revolution made efforts to revive God as the focus of human life as well as a way of life beyond all national, ethnic and religious differences. This revolution raised the lamp of salvation. Of course, the ability of the Muslims, and especially the Islamic movements to be able to benefit from the light of this lamp and achieve guidance and prosperity, depends on several factors; the most important of which is their will and determination within the framework of Islam and following the example of the Islamic Revolution. The Islamic Revolution is one of the revolutions whose activities and impacts are not limited to the borders of a single country. Rather, it has a transnational perspective.

It is due to this that one of the most significant impacts of the Islamic Revolution upon the movements of the Muslim world goes back to the commonalities between the two. These aspects have minimized the differences and the Islamic movements have been influenced in different ways by the Islamic Revolution. Some of these impacts have happened in the political dimensions while others in the cultural dimensions. Apart from the contemporary Islamic movements, this revolution had its impacts on the Muslim governments from a different perspective.

Source of Dissemination

According to the theoretical framework, it should be stated that the Islamic Revolution is the source of dissemination. By creating the secondary distribution centres, this political phenomenon has also led to the reproduction and growth of alternative discourses; especially in the third decade of the revolution, with the passage of time and the density and saturation of the messages of the Islamic Revolution in the region, this dissemination gradually changes the situation to several centres instead of one centre. (Barzegar, 2003: 36). Some secondary outlets, such as the resistance movements in Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, and Palestine and groups in Iraq, have sought to transfer the genuine Islamic identities, particularly in the United Kingdom.

The Scope, Aim and Place of Dissemination

In regards to the scope and aim of dissemination, we ought to say that naturally, at times it is acceptable because it has intellectual, cultural, religious, social and economic homogeneity, and at times it is unacceptable because it does not have the above-mentioned features. In terms of acceptance, the receptive factors create favourable conditions and convergence and inadmissible factors cause ineffectiveness of the messages of the Islamic Revolution and its divergence. (Rafi’ipour, 1997: 88). On this account, in analyzing the impacts of the Islamic Revolution upon the latest popular awakenings in the Arab world, we come across this issue that the waves of dissemination have entered an environment in which there is an impenetrable environment among some units of these societies, with deep religious, intellectual and cultural, linguistic, economic, racial and many other gaps with the Islamic Revolution.

Aside from this, due to the remoteness of the distance and geographical dimension, expecting a massive impact of the revolution on these countries cannot be a reasonable expectation. However, there are centres and destinations in these areas such as Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain that have accepted and embraced the messages of the revolution. The Muslims and specifically the Shi’ahs in the above-mentioned areas are one of these vital centres and destinations.

Time

Some scholars believe that the impacts of the Islamic Revolution and according to Graham Fuller, the author of “A Sense of Siege: The Geopolitics of Islam and the West” [GS1] (Fuller, 1995: 156), the impacts of the Islamic Revolution were very widespread only in the first years, and after that, with the passing of time, the radiance of these effects has gradually become more limited. In their analysis regarding the vital factors reducing the impacts of the Islamic Revolution in addition to the issue of the increasing distance, they also consider the passage of time as an important factor in reducing the number of acceptors. They believe that the rate of acceptance decreases with the passing of time. (Jordan and Rowntree, 2002: 26). To cite an example, Nikki Keddie believes that the tangible and inspirational impacts of the Islamic Revolution for many Islamic movements in the Muslim world is limited to the time of the revolution and a few months after its victory. (Keddie, 1980: 118)

This article believes that the linear view in the rethinking of the impacts of phenomena such as the Islamic Revolution and its simplification in such analysis while impairing the understanding and perception of reality, will face shortcomings in predicting the results and impacts in the practical scope. These impacts are subjected to fluctuations due to the difference in times, the changing conditions of Iran, the destination country, the region and the international system. All these cases should be considered in the analysis of this issue. In the case study of Western Europe, the evolution of the Islamic Revolution in different periods, from the revolution to the end of the Cold War, and from the end of the Cold War to the incident of September 11, and from this incident until now, has left behind different influential experiences. However, these general periods also include smaller periods.

Thirty years after the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, what is now being assessed is that the agenda behind the neutral compound terms such as ‘Islam and Christianity or Islam and Europe’ (Vertovec[GS2] and Peach, 2001: 328-333), ‘Asia and the West or Islam and the West’ (Karlsson, 2001: 13-194) is indeed about the political Islam in the Middle East and North Africa. This is because it is no longer a question of passive Islam and only Islamic religion and Islamic culture, but of active, dynamic and pragmatic Islam, that is, Islamic civilization and Islamic politics. Owing to this fact, the borders of political Islam are expanding much more than expected in countries like Egypt. The borders of political Islam are expanding much more than what was expected in countries such as Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Bahrain. (Khorramshad, 2008: 49).

In other terms, the beginning of the fourteenth century AH (twentieth century CE) was the starting point of a new transformation and movement in the Muslim world. Although this movement was slow and somewhat intangible, it gradually revived the political and social life of the Muslims and their presence in the battle scenes and introduced the discourses of religious government, justice, independence and the term “Islamic Awakening” in the political and international culture.

The Routes, Channels and Tools of Dissemination

Beyond the involuntary or reflexive dissemination, the Iranian government has not only avoided creating an obstacle to disseminating innovation. Rather, it is the agent of dissemination, and by adopting a policy (exporting the revolution), it has made it possible to transfer it more easily. (Barzegar, 2003: 36). The principle of inception of the revolution by utilizing the four strategies namely; being an epitome for the others, propagation and awareness, education and supporting the liberation movements have been used in interaction with the other countries. (Mohammadi, 2002: 71)

The Theme of Dissemination

The theme of dissemination of the Islamic Revolution is made up of a diverse and wide range of influences, which include: Islamic mode of dress, more presence in the mosques and religious places, seeking prosperity from the mosques by the youths, establishing religious and militant organizations, making religion a serious issue for the Muslim communities, seeking inspiration from the militant techniques of the Islamic Revolution, demanding the implementation of the shari’ah and respecting the religious rites, political self-confidence, promotion and strengthening of the ideal of struggle against Israel, the idea of the unity of the Shi’ahs and Sunnis and the creation of an Islamic society and state. However, it seems that the unity and empathy of the people around the axis of Islam and religious beliefs and the struggle against the autocratic dictators on the one hand, the reviving of the religious identity and national identity of these countries on the other hand and the confrontation with dictatorship and the Zionist regime, clearly delineate that a common indicator has emerged between the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran and the recent popular uprisings in the Middle East. To put it differently, what we are witnessing is that the first century of the third millennium is a kind of repetition of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran.

The fact is, by redefining a set of religious and Islamic values and teachings, Iran’s Islamic Revolution created a wave of religiosity and Islamism in the region, whose spiritual achievements and perceptual transformation are interpreted as a remarkable event for the world. From the fact that Samuel Huntington, a theorist and the author of ‘Clash of Civilizations’ states, “The victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1978 can mark the beginning of the hidden war of the Western and Islamic civilizations. This battle — which is, of course, a spiritual battle of Islam — started more than three decades ago and has achieved a lot of things during this time and has inspired the popular uprisings in the Arab countries.”

As Majid Ahmad Husayn, the general secretary of the main Islamic Party of Egypt says, “Iran’s Islamic Revolution is an epitome for the intifada of the people of Libya, Tunisia and Egypt and other uprisings in the Arab nations.”

The Barriers to Dissemination

The significant growth and spread of Islam in Europe and the United States and the trend of modern Islamism in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa has today become a source of fear for some Western politicians, theorists and writers. Those extremist Western politicians and statesmen fear the re-Islamization of the Arab movements and view Islam as an enemy that is starting a new life and endangering Western interests. It is due to this fact that the Western world is striving to limit the Islamic Awakening politically and financially and cut off its financial backing under various pretexts. The latest American and European measures in closing the Islamic charity institutions and blocking the accounts of the organizations that are helping the oppressed Palestinians in fighting against the occupation of the Zionist regime follows the deceptive methods of the West in dealing with the Islamic Awakening. (Abdus, 2010: 55)

In this way, France fought against the Islamic hijab which is considered to be a fundamental pillar of the Muslim faith and denied the Muslim women in this country their freedom of worship and faith. The intense pressures on the Western countries claiming the freedom and human rights of their Muslim citizens, the hegemonic policies of the United States in the Middle East and the constant incitement of the ruling regimes in the Arab and Islamic countries to counter the wave of Islamism and silence the spirit of Islamic Awakening, all express the feeling of the Western world regarding the resurrection of the sun of Islam and the realization of the goals of the Islamic government throughout the world. This fear and concern of the foreign countries becomes more prominent when the Islamic countries are capable of removing the obstacles to the Islamic Awakening from the domestic dimension. In this regard, we shall analyze the most important internal obstacles to the Islamic Awakening in the Muslim countries according to Imam Khomeini (ra). It seems that division, authoritarian and puppet rulers, dependent clerics and the intellectuals who have failed themselves, are among the factors slowing down the Islamic Awakening. The following table has illustrated this matter in a different manner.