A brief history of political Islam

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By U. KHAN YUSUFZAI At the time of this writing, the United States has been at war in Afghanistan for 13 years and in Iraq for 11 years. The United States has been engaged in a glob­ al drone bombing campaign since 2001 in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya.

The Arab Spring has opened up a new rift through which arms and money have flowed to groups currently turning Egypt, Syria, and Libya into bloodbaths. And this past summer, the United States and its al­ lies initiated another bombing campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on both Iraqi and Syrian territory.

We are told, in most of these cases, that we are engaged in a “clash of civi­ lizations”—that this is a life-and-death struggle between the secular, democratic Western nations on the one hand, and the barbarous, 7th-century Islamic world on the other. We are told that there are those in the Middle East who are simply evil, or incompatible with modernity, and that the only solution is bombing and occupa­ tion. Or alternately, we are told to reject the interventionist narrative and hold up the most reactionary of groups as “anti-imperialists.” Both of these narratives serve to obfuscate the true na­ ture of politics and economics in the Middle East; the first is in the service of justifying naked imperialist aggression over the region’s resources, and the second is to gloss over the failure to build real, working-class institutions in those countries, which are the only ones capable of effectively re­ sisting imperialist power. The only way to truly understand the dynamics of power and empire in the Middle East is through historical analysis, taking into account the material basis of the social movements that emerged and grew there in the 1970s.

In the years following the Second World War, the terri­ tories of the great colonial powers experienced a period of massive upheaval. In particular, in the Islamic world, the great push to decolonize was led primarily by groups es­ pousing some form or another of radical secular national­ ism. Religious movements had heretofore been relatively minor.

Leaders such as Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt and Mo­ hammad Mossadeq in Iran implemented structural changes in society designed to both reduce the influence of the for­ mer colonial powers, and kick-start economic development after long periods of imperial stagnation. This included land reform, the nationalization of banks and key industries, the expansion of education, and massive state-planned indus­ trialization projects. Of course, this had the immediate ef­ fect of promoting intervention by Western governments. Why intervention? In Iran, there was the direct national­ ization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company; in Egypt, there was the prospect of Nasser’s “Arab Socialism” taking hold and spreading throughout the Arab world. Both of these de­ velopments represented severe threats to the Western domi­ nation of the Middle East’s oil reserves.

In addition, during the depths of the Cold War, these rep­ resented potential allies to the Soviet Union. In Egypt, the U.S. began to support the Muslim Brotherhood, and in Iran, the CIA orchestrated a coup against Mossadeq and installed Shah Reza Pahlavi, ushering in 26 years of brutal absolute rule and culminating with the Islamic Revolution that over­ threw the Shah and instituted the current theocratic Iranian regime.

During this time, the United States increasingly relied on ... Youth on the move!

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obedience arrests.

Such an assertion is, admittedly, not readily quan­ tifiable. After all, no one is required to show proof of age in order to join a demonstration, and marchers do not line up by year of birth. Yet, the evidence is there for anyone to see. Participate in local protests. Watch national television coverage; look at YouTube footage, examine social media, and the conclusion is obvious and undeniable. Political actions, from demonstra­ tions to die-ins, are significantly young and multiracial.

More and more, a new generation of youth is making its first political act in the name of racial justice. They expect and demand that a nation that proclaims “Lib­ erty and Justice for All” must actually live up to these ideals. Young protesters today are not necessarily the veterans of the Occupy movement. Many of the youth who are taking to the streets now were too young to figure in that wave of actions. Instead, they are moved by the injustice that plays out in front of their eyes.

While most have not placed an “equal sign” between racism and capitalism—at least, not yet—they do in­ sist that the political and legal system must change Thibault Camus / AP Saudi Arabia as a proxy for influencing events in the Mus­ lim world. The state religion of Saudi Arabia is the Wahabi form of Sunni Islam, an ultra-conservative school that is intricately tied with the formation of the Saudi state and the legitimacy of the Saud family’s rule over the peninsula. This factor, combined with the country’s massive oil wealth and relative lack of industry (and hence a sizable working class), meant that Saudi Arabia was especially well-posi­ tioned as a counterbalance to the secular nationalist and so­ cialist/communist movements emerging in the region. In addition, the massive influx of oil wealth enriched large numbers of the native middle class within the oil-producing countries and created a large, internationally mobile middle class in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. The use of oil money and Wahabi ideology as weapons against secular governments in the Third World took a gen­ eral form that was repeated several times over. Using oil windfalls, Saudi Arabia developed a vast financial network across the Islamic world—a banking system that allowed for the transfer of funds to selected Islamic groups, who engaged in political action against and sometimes violent suppression of secular and socialist forces while providing education, social services, and political propaganda in or­ der to spread their ideologies.

Of course, Nasser’s “Arab Socialist” project was only so­ cialist in name. In actuality it was still a nationalist ideol­ ogy rooted in the middle class, advocating for heavy state intervention into the economy but failing to fundamentally change the class relations within Egypt. The story was much the same for the secular Ba’ath parties controlling Iraq and Syria, as well as for Z.A. Bhutto’s government in Pakistan. Thus, these societies were not immune to crises of capitalism, and as the global crisis of the 1970s began to grow, economic development in the Muslim world sput­ tered (in the case of non-oil-producing countries), and these governments collapsed into authoritarian regimes. During this period of economic and political turmoil, the Islamic movements, backed by CIA and Saudi money, be­ gan to make serious inroads into Middle Eastern society. This began with students for whom newly-attained access to education still did not guarantee a place in the new soci­ ety, as well as the middle classes that were newly empow­ ered economically by the oil boom but still suffering severe political repression in their countries of origin.

for the better. They bring to these protests no faith that government will reform itself and no faith in the Democratic Party. It appears more and more that young whites who are compelled to action feel their strongest identification less with the social system that provides them an uncertain future and more with the Black victims of that system. This represents a profound shift and growth in social consciousness.

Polls taken in response to Ferguson show an unsur­ prising racial divide in America. Whites overall are more likely to deny the existence of racism, support the police, etc. Yet, Pew Research data from August 2014 also shows young whites at odds with their par­ ents’ generation regarding issues of race, bias, police misconduct, and other issues.

A positive stand against racism is not an isolated oc­ currence but part of an overall pattern of progressive ideas. This is the generation that believes gays de­ serve the right to marry, that wants abortion not only legal but also available, that supports the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from overseas, that would ex­ tend health care to being a universal right, and favors a healthy environment for people more than healthy profits for corporations.

It has not always been this way. For instance, follow­ ing the police assault on Rodney King in 1991, author and activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson wrote a column in (Left) Rescue team responds to an attack by alleged Islamists on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Jan. 7. The satirical publication has received messages of solidarity from around the world.

Unfortunately, imperialist governments and the corporate media are using this terrible event to whip up hatred against Muslims, and to justify their endless wars in the Middle East.

The New Anti-Capitalist Party of France, while solidarizing with the victims, stated, “We will not be part of any national union with the sorcerer’s apprentices who play with racism, stir up hatred against foreigners and in particular Muslims, or make use of this event to introduce new repressive laws. They have a heavy responsibility for the xenophobic and poisonous climate in which we live today.”

Western imperialism saw an opportunity to counteract So­ viet influence and nationalist aspirations in the Middle East by using the Saudi networks of finance and charity. This is most evident in the rise of Hamas as a counterweight to the Palestine Liberation Organization, and perhaps more spec­ tacularly, in the creation of the Afghan Mujahideen (and later, the Taliban in Pakistan) in order to combat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of the Communist Party of that country. The forces trained and armed by the CIA and Pakistan to fight the Soviet Union in Chechnya and Af­ ghanistan formed the basis of modern Islamist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Thus, a confluence of geopolitical and economic factors led to the rise of political Islamic movements in the 1970s. The economic collapse and neoliberal restructuring of the world economic order led to a squeeze on the booming middle classes, with the call of global jihad against the So­ viet Union particularly promising in light of the political failure of nationalism and powerful financial backers.

The class basis of nearly all Islamic movements, then, is thoroughly modern, rather than a relic of a bygone era. Educated urban youths have made up most of the armed, militarized cadre, and the older, conservative middle class typically have formed the “political” wings of those groups active in electoral politics. In recent years, they have also incorporated numbers of the very poor, and especially members of former militaries and civil administrations. For example, ISIS currently has a number of ex-Ba’ath (an ostensibly “socialist” party) members among its ranks; the Taliban and other reactionary factions in Afghanistan contain several former members of the Afghan Communist Party.

Once we realize that the historical dynamics of Islamist politics in the Arab and Muslim world trace the rise and establishment of a narrow section of petty-bourgeois ele­ ments, we can at once see two things: First, that the “clash of civilizations” conception is utterly false. The intense barbarism wrought by these apparent throwbacks to the 7th century are modern creations that are themselves sustained by repeated attempts by imperialist powers to maintain control over global resources and markets, rather than ap­ parently inevitable consequences of a backward culture.

And second, being thoroughly middle-class in orienta­ tion, it is impossible for these elements to be principled anti-imperialists; petty-bourgeois ideology cannot help but be inconsistent. The working class must utilize its own or­ ganizations to mount a determined struggle for power, par­ ticularly in semi-industrialized countries like Egypt, before fundamental change can come about in the oppressive so­ cial and economic system in the Middle East. n the Guardian newspaper entitled: “Police brutality: Where are the white leftists?” (May 1, 1991, p. 18). He contrasted two demonstrations in Los Angeles, held a few months apart, in which he had participated. The first was a demonstration of 20,000 mostly white protesters against the Gulf War while the second was a demonstration of 6000 or 7000 mostly Black pro­ testers against police violence. “My question: In less than three months, where did the white progressives disappear to?”

Hutchinson continued: “How is it that thousands of white activists can wage passionate campaigns against oppression and human rights abuses in Chile, El Salvador, South Africa, China, the Occupied Terri­ tories and the Philippines but not in the ghettos and barrios of their own cities? Why is it that white pro­ gressives are continually struck by political paralysis and unable to unite with African-Americans in antiracist struggles on U.S. streets?”

This is a different generation than the one Hutchin­ son criticized. A strong impulse of solidarity leads young people to fight alongside minorities, the poor, and the perpetual victims of American “justice.” The same spirit of solidarity that defined the best of past labor and social movements—the conviction that “an injury to one is an injury to all”—is being renewed in today’s national protests. n SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 2015 9

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... Killer cops go free (continued from page 1: “Youth on the Move!”) 550 civilian killings between 2007 and 2012 were not even counted.

Research by Philip Stinson, a crimi­ nologist at Bowling Green State Uni­ versity in Ohio, found that only 41 of­ ficers were charged with murder or manslaughter between 2004 and 2011. Despite the hype, the number of cop deaths has actually gone down.

Albert Burneko, of Deadspin.com, wrote, “America employs the enforcers of its power to beat, kill, and terrorize, deploys its judiciary to say that’s OK. … This not a flaw in the design; this is the design.”

Most members of the new genera­ tion of anti-racist activists taking part in the struggle are, so far, sidestepping the older civil-rights organizations and leaders that are linked to the Demo­ cratic Party. On Dec. 13, dozens of U.S. cities had anti-racist demonstrations.

Tens of thousands participated in the giant Millions March on Dec. 13 in New York City. One protester, Kayesha, told Pacifica Radio, “It’s amazing. It’s empowering. I’ve never seen anything like this. This is my first protest of this magnitude. And I’m just grateful to be part of changing history, because that’s what we need to do—not make history, we need to change it!”

Another protester on Dec. 13 was Thenjiwe McHarris, who told Pacifica, “What we’re seeing in the U.S. is what some may call an uprising, an uprising of young Black people, but also people across issue, across race, led by young Black people, saying enough is enough, you can’t keep killing Black people. And we’re not going to stop because Black lives do matter!”

At the same march, Frank Graham, fa­ ther of Ramarley Graham—murdered in his own home by a New York cop in 2012—chanted, “Killer cops, killer cops, killer cops must-must-mustmust-go to jail!” In Graham’s case, as in that of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, a grand jury declined to indict the po­ lice officer for trial.

Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, speaking at the thousands-strong pro­ test in Washington, D.C., on the same day, called the demonstrations a “histo­ Tony Savino / Socialist Action ry-making moment.” “It’s just so over­ whelming to see all who have come to stand with us today,” she said. “I mean, look at the masses. Black, white, all rac­ es, all religions. ... We need to stand like this at all times.”

Brown’s death on Aug. 9 sparked months of protests in Ferguson, Mo. Working-class and unemployed African American youth and other anti-racists took to the streets in boiling rage, but usually peacefully. Democratic Party Governor Jay Nixon sent in thousands of militarized police and the National Guard, clubbing, arresting and teargassing protesters. Also arrested were journalists—23 and counting (Dec.18).

Gov. Nixon formally ended the siege on Dec. 17, but the protests and police onslaught continued. The Dec. 31 Daily Dot reported that protesters “swarmed the St. Louis Metro Police Department headquarters and briefly occupied the lobby. Participants handed out a mock ‘Eviction Notice’ and circulated a list of demands, including a meeting with either St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay” or other officials. Police used pepper spray on the crowd.

Militant rallies have taken place in dozens of cities across the U.S., from Oakland and Los Angeles to Nashville and Miami; from Milwaukee and Chi­ cago to Boston. An Amtrak train was stopped by a die-in in California; an­ other die-in was held at a Brooklyn Nets game when Britain’s Prince Wil­ liam and his wife Kate attended. In Oakland, 250 protesters blockaded a police station for hours on Dec. 15.

Major Christmas shopping hubs, like Macy’s in New York City, were disrupt­ ed by die-ins and other forms of pro­ test. In many cities, highways, bridges and tunnels were occupied as protest­ ers, mostly youth of all backgrounds, said ‘hell no to racism.’

Philadelphia has seen many marches and die-ins, involving hundreds of peo­ ple at a time. A broad coalition in Phila­ delphia is organizing a large march on Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 19, which will protest police violence and call for an end to their “Stop and Frisk” poli­ cies.

The diversity of the militant, although mostly peaceful, protests and the ap­ parent leading role of African Ameri­ can activists represents a new and higher stage in the anti-racist struggle. The grand jury masquerade In the “Bonfire of the Vanities,” a nov­ el about New York in the 1980s, Judge Sol Watchler said, in a famous quote, a grand jury could “indict a ham sand­ wich.” Exceptions have historically in­ cluded violence against African Ameri­ cans, as in the recent Brown and Gar­ ner cases. Essentially, when the rulers want an indictment, they get it. Justice Department statistics from fiscal 1994 to 1998 reveal that federal prosecutors obtained 122,879 indictments. Over the same period, in only 83 cases did prosecutors fail to get indictments!

Lynne Stewart, a veteran civil-rights attorney who spent over four years in prison as the victim of a vicious govern­ ment frame-up, insists that the grand jury system, “should be abolished” (see her article on this page).

The grand jury system of secret hear­ ings is responsible for letting many cops walk—as in the Brown, Garner, Martin and Graham cases. Grand juries decide whether to bring charges against cops in a highly manipulated setting. There is no cross-examination of witnesses. Attorneys for victims cannot attend. Most prosecutors have close ties with local police and are loathe to genuinely seek an indictment of cops.

On Jan. 5, a juror who sat on the panel that reviewed evidence in the Fergu­ son, Mo., killing of Michael Brown filed