The ‘Arab Uprising’, Islamists and Democratization

Abstract

This article surveys political activities of selected Islamists in three Arab countries in the Mediterranean region: Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. Each is notable for recent growth in Islamist political activity in the context of democratization (Tunisia, Egypt) and political liberalization (Morocco). Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco are undergoing political changes consequent to the recent ‘Arab uprising’. The ‘Arab uprising’ involved country-specific yet variable outbursts of popular political anger, although not necessarily with a clear and consistent democratizing focus. Generally, protests focused on interrelated political and socio-economic demands, including: greater ‘freedoms’, improved human rights, better social justice and economic progress, especially more jobs for millions of unemployed youths. The aim of the article is to explain recent developments in relation to the ‘Arab uprising’ in three Mediterranean Arab countries – Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. The purpose is to complement the individual foci on these countries in subsequent papers in this special issue by providing a thematic overview and to locate the activities of Islamist entities in Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco in comparative context.

Notes

¹ The post-2010 political events in the Arab world are referred to variously as: the Arab Spring, Arab revolutions, Arab intifada or Arab uprising(s). I use the term ‘Arab uprising’ as I believe it captures quite well the nature of the rather generic popular revolts directed against power holders, stemming from interrelated political and economic demands for change, yet without a blueprint to cover what happens next, i.e. after the overthrow of incumbent power holders.

² The Mediterranean region is defined here as countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea (plus Portugal) between about 27° to 47°N and 10°W to 37°E. This includes the following 23 countries and administrations: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Libya, Monaco, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Portugal, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. For further details, see http://www.fao.org/sd/climagrimed/c_2_02.html

³ In this paper, an ‘Islamist’ is someone whose political actions and activities are integrally informed by their Muslim faith.

⁴ Christian democratic parties are parties which seek to apply what they understand as ‘Christian principles’ to public policy.

⁵ The first wave began in the early nineteenth century with the onset of democracy in the USA; it came to an end in 1922 with the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy. The second wave began following the Allied victory in World War II, peaking nearly two decades later in 1962 with 36 recognized democracies globally. Over the next decade the total number of democracies fell to 30 before the third wave began in 1974, with the fall of authoritarian regimes in Greece, Portugal and Spain.

⁶ In Islam, the notion of secularism implies favouring both a secular state and secular society. This implies (1) a separation of Islam and public life and (2) promoting secular political and social values not the ‘traditionalist’ views of the Salafists. Islamic secularism implies separation of public life and civil/government matters from religious teachings and interpretations.

⁷ English text of Morsi's Constitutional Declaration is available at http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/58947.aspx

⁸ Koutla comprised: the Istiqlal Party, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) and the Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS).