Political Islam, a matter of hegemony

To this day the “Arab Spring” seems to be an historic event with a deep irony. The reason why Ben Ali and Mubarak were tolerated by the international community was the guarantee of a profitable social and political stability which meant the repression of the Islamic movements. This argument was used in fact, to oppress the entire society, but this always remained a side story which everybody pretended to ignore. What is happening right now, one year after the uprising of the Tunisian and the Egyptian people, is that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and its avatar Al-Nahdha in Tunisia are running the countries and are preparing the new constitutions. The much feared monster of before the “Arab Spring” is tolerated after it and even welcomed as a strategic partner. ´Now that the “political Islam” has the power, everyone is watching how parties are manoeuvring in order to establish a religious political system of governance. The greatest fear is that while democracy brought them to power, they are working to create a new dictatorship. Having the absolute majority in the two chambers in Egypt makes the Islamising process not much more than a formality´ With 48% of the seats in the Egyptian Senate and in coalition with the radical branch of Islamism called “the Salafists”, the Muslim Brotherhood is on the path to completely changing the political system in the country and imposing the constitution it wants. Since October 2011 Al-Nahdha is the largest party in Tunisia and running the country and together with its allies it is fighting tooth and nail to impose a suitable constitution. Things seem to be easier in Egypt than in Tunisia. However, the debate in both countries revolves around the key word “Chariaa”. Let us not forget that the two countries are connected to the same movement, founded by the Egyptian Hassan Al-Banna in the first half of the last century. It reached Tunisia in the seventies. The party was always repressed but never completely disappeared. This situation gave dictators an important argument to keep the entire society under control. Ironically, the repression gave the movement great strength and experience in self organisation. The uprising, by forcing the dictators to leave, put them back in centre stage. Since then, it has been very easy for them to become the main player. Full story : www.eutopiainstitute.org