Islamic Fundamentalism and Political Mass Mobilization

Saeed Rahnema

The paper discusses the emergence of three important movements in the Islamic world, namely the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jama’at Islami in Pakistan, and Khomeinism in Iran. It argues that Islamic Fundamentalism is the product of failed modernization programs sanctioned by the international capital and implemented by the corrupt undemocratic governments throughout the Islamic world. Suppression of secular forces by these dictatorial regimes, as well as the failures of the left, and the liberal nationalist movements in these societies, further contributed to the rise of radical Islamic movements.

These countries have historically witnessed three Islamic trends, the traditional establishment Islamists, the Islamic reformers, and the radical fundamentalists, each with different class bases and political projects. The traditionalist clerics, with few exceptions, have always been an integral part of the political establishment and have been the supporters of the status-quo. The liberal Islamists, mostly from new middle classes have sought moderate and gradual reforms from the above. Unlike the traditional clerics, that have direct access to the masses of the faithful, but have no intention of mobilizing them, and the second group, or the liberal Islamists, who neither have access nor the intention of mobilizing the masses, the third group, the radical fundamentalists, directly target the masses to mobilize against the status quo. It is argued that so far as the fundamentalists’ activities are limited to the middle classes, they cannot pose a very serious threat, but when and if they get to mobilize the masses, then the problems get out of hand.