IRAN’S ISLAMIC REVOLUTION AND POLITICAL ISLAM[2]

Just as you have witnessed, the inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution is a phenomenon that used to be known by titles such as Islamic awakening, Islamic reform, Islamic rise, Islamic renaissance, Islamic revival and so on in the Muslim societies including the Iranian society where it was mostly referred to as the Islamic movement. After the abrupt, powerful and extraordinary incident of the revolution named Islam in Iran and its tremendous, deep and widespread impacts in all the Muslim societies, new terms that were used to name what was previously referred to as Islamic movements were terms such as Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic radicalism and political Islam. Nevertheless, none of these new terms gained popularity to the extent of the term political Islam. Presently, political Islam consists of a wide range of different types of Islamic movements around the Muslim world. However, what gave life and existence to the concept of political Islam was Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution, with its extraordinary power, managed to create a crack in the shell of authoritarianism and colonialism and eventually, after fourteen months of astonishing resistant fighting and after going through the twists and turns of hard fighting, attained victory and this means the creation of a flagbearer for the Islamic movements which had been in recession for many years and were in a crisis. The Islamic revolution Islamic movement of Iran liberated the Islamic movements from the state of perplexity, confusion, dispersion, and embarrassment and gave them solidarity, hope and epitome. With Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Islam and the Islamic movements had managed to take the successful political work and make it to the end. Political Islam succeeded excellently in Iran – a revolution with the magnitude and complexity of the Iranian Revolution had achieved victory in a bipolar world dominated by great and assertive powers.

Another matter that demands great attention and also seems to be very vital was that the Islamic movement attained victory in Iran. By doing so, it announced something and remained steadfast on it which was one of the long-standing aspirations of the Islamic movements. This revolution used to announce that first; Iranian society is a part of the ummah of the Muslim world. This issue is even explicitly incorporated into the constitution of the nascent Islamic system of this country. Secondly, by relying upon the modern and in-depth interpretation of the Noble Quran and Islam, it offers a new epitome that is totally different from the government systems of the East (communism and Marxism) or the West (liberalism and capitalism). Thirdly, the established government, which describes its contents and title as ‘Islamic,’ is a government based on the Islamic laws and principles for implementing social justice.

Fourthly, in its foreign policy, this Islamic government was extremely independent and by relying on and emphasizing the slogan “Neither the East nor the West” and fighting against any foreign intervention in its internal affairs. Fifthly, in the internal policy, it is very principle-oriented and religious-oriented. By relying upon the Islamic laws and values, it fights against any kind of influence and imposition of the Western values and greatly emphasizes implementing the Islamic laws (shari’ah).

Sixthly, in the economic aspect, it seriously resists any form of dependence and its slogans are self-sufficiency and self-reliance. Seventhly, in its international system and foreign relations policy, it supports the fight against corrupt and tyrannical governments and sets the slogan of fighting against global imperialism as its epigraph. Eighthly, it calls for the unity of Muslims and fighting against any form of division amongst the Muslims. It supports the unity of the Muslim countries and apart from proposing the idea of non-aligned countries against the bipolar world of the east and west, it also proposes the idea of the unity of the Islamic republics, that is, the idea of forming an independent Islamic bloc at the international level.

The establishment of such an Islamic political system in Iran has made the West refer to it as political Islam and attribute its leadership in the world to Iran. The importance of Iran’s Islamic Revolution is due to the fact that: “Iran’s Islamic Revolution is a status symbol which is not only limited to Iran. Rather, it generally covers the whole of the Arab-Muslim world. We can compare Iran’s Islamic Revolution with the French revolution in the fact that its influences were not only limited to France, rather, it also impacted the whole of Europe and the Christian world.

The government systems in the Arab-Muslim world in 1979, were worried about the inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. The reason being that most of them preferred something in between defective Westernism and Islamist justice. Owing to this reason, they had several reasons for opposing the clear propositions of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, whereby the least one of them was that the people of Iran are Shi’ahs. In the climate in which the Arab world lives, it has seen an interpretation of its desires. With the proposals of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, a large community of the Arab-Muslim world became close to one another and were in tune with each other. This is because the Iranian Islamic orientation is a completely Islamic approach which includes all the religious sects.” 

The Islamic revolution has also left another influence in the Islamic society and that is the feeling of competition between some Muslim sects against political Islam, attained victory in Iran. This sentiment led to more efforts in terms of dynamic and perceptible mobility among these groups, that is, these groups were turning into Salafi-Wahhabism. In regards to this, Fadhl Abu al-Nasr states: “In the new age, a lot of revolutions and coups have taken place in the Arab-Muslim world. Nonetheless, Iran’s Islamic Revolution was the first contemporary Islamic revolution, that has outrightly chosen the Islamic laws and teachings as its own constitution. The reaction against Iran’s Islamic Revolution in the Arab-Muslim world and all over the world was a militant one. The propaganda machines were mobilized in opposition to it unlike no other modern or contemporary revolution. Not only did it face the merciless attack from the Western countries, but also from the neighbouring Arab-Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia and countries that had enacted the Islamic shari’ah to be their constitutions.”

The set of the positive and negative reactions of the Islamic groups and governments and also the foreign groups and governments against Iran’s Islamic Revolution practically led to the development of political Islam and the formation of different and at times even contradicting styles within it. Among the first groupings within political Islam was the formation of two major movements; 1) the rationalist political Islam, revolutionary and dynamic (principled political Islam) and 2) traditional political Islam and conservative (fundamentalist political Islam). On the other hand, one was under the leadership of Iran while the other one under the Salafi-Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia.

Nevertheless, the victory of political Islam in Iran in 1978, brought the leaders of the Islamic groups toward approximation with Iran. This included the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and the Muslim community of Pakistan, India and the Philippines, groups from Afghanistan, Turkey and Iraq and leaders from Algeria, Sudan, Tunisia, Indonesia, Lebanon and Palestine. All these people were seeking to find out from close how this matter happened and specifically, after getting inspiration and epitomizing political Islam, what was Iran capable of doing after that?

A little while after the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in February 1978, political Islam led to accelerated and hasty movements in most of the Muslim countries. Iraq witnessed widespread popular demonstrations against the Ba’athist regime which were similar to the popular demonstrations in Iran in February 1979. The Brotherhood movement in Saudi Arabia tried to topple the Saudi government by means of an armed seizure of the Holy Ka’bah in 1979 and the widespread uproar caused by the Shi’ahs of these countries living in the oil-rich regions made King Khalid visit these regions and make big promises to them.

The new emerging organization of al-Jihad in Egypt assassinated Anwar Sadat in 1980 and practically led to the break-up of the reconciliation between the Arabs and Jews which had begun with Sadat at Camp David. The Muslim Brotherhood of Syria in a radical movement decided to create unrest in Syria and topple the Ba’athist regime of that country but they were defeated (1982). The Persian Gulf countries especially Bahrain and Kuwait faced popular uproars, demonstrations, bombings and even coups. In Afghanistan, the Muslim mujahidin organized a tough resistance against the Russian occupation forces. In Pakistan, apart from the Muslim community of this country which became very mobilized, other Islamist groups become more active. It is at this juncture whereby the Salafist groups gradually turned towards the formation of the Taliban group for the purpose of controlling the future of Afghanistan.

In Algeria and Tunisia, the Islamist University students, scholars and enlightened people who were inspired by the political Islam of Iran proceeded towards subverting the established government by means of a coup through a coalition with the non-Islamist dissidents (Tunisia) and successful participation in the elections up to the victory of the local councils and parliament (Algeria). In Lebanon, political Islam created an Islamic resistance that not only pushed back the aggressive Israelis but also defeated the invincible Israelis in the long course of the war. In Turkey, by means of continuous and serious participation in the reformist elections, the Islamists, gradually attained power. In Sudan, the people attained power by means of a revolution carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood or at least by a part of the Muslim Brotherhood. In Palestine, by participating in the Islamic movements, the Islamic resistance under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood regained their self-esteem and hope for the future and this matter led to extensive growth and development of political Islam in the next years.

With the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, it became clear that political Islam is not something that was headed for a dead end. Political Islam is a practical program and a source of identity. It is a kind of lifestyle based on a special view of existence, man, the world, and nature. Political Islam believes that man has been created in two aspects and owing to this fact, it also believes that the society that has been formed by this man should also be viewed and administered in two aspects, that is, the materialistic aspect and the spiritual aspect. Political Islam is the messenger of spiritual matters to man and the materialistic world of today. This same emphasis is made upon the semantics which in a natural manner, has established political Islam as an opposing point to the Western materialistic-oriented civilization. Perhaps, before political Islam stands in opposition to the West, the West has stood against political Islam. This is because, today, the West is mainly seeking dominance and views the presence of political Islam as a major threat to them and not vice-versa. The forgotten and neglected justice in the prevailing rules of capitalist international relations is another attractive demand for political Islam in a world that greatly relies on today’s injustice. (al-Musalli, Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalist Movements in the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey, 1999)

In a world where the dominant power unit intervenes in the hegemonic power around the world has become a common thing, the demands of independence and freedom aired by political Islam has presented it with a special charm and of course, all these things have made political Islam and the West and specifically political Islam and the United States to stand in two opposing ends.

Even though during the first years after the victory of political Islam in Iran, there were hasty reactions from its supporters and opposers globally and regionally, however, today and after almost thirty years from the victory, what can be analyzed is that despite leaving behind the ups and downs, weaknesses and strengths, opportunities and threats, friendships and enmities, praises and rebukes which are present and ever-growing, that not only failed to thwart its growth and development, rather, it is in the process of expanding its influence by diversity and multiplicity from the Muslim societies and countries to the other societies including the Western societies. Today, behind the new combined vocabularies such as ‘Islam in Europe: The Politics of Religion and Community’, 1997: 33-328), ‘Islam and Europe: Confrontation or Coexistence?’ (Karlsson, 1994: 13-194), ‘The Image of Islam in Europe’ is in reality speaking about political Islam in the West and Europe. This is because there is no more discussion regarding passive Islam that is merely Islam-religion and Islam-culture. Rather, the discussion is about an active, dynamic and pragmatic Islam, that is, Islamic civilization and Islamic politics. The borders of political Islam are presently growing in a tremendous manner than what was being expected.

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