TUNISIA: GHANNOUCHI ARTICLE REFUTES 'CLAIMS' OF 'FAILURE OF POLITICAL ISLAM,' ATTACKS EGYPT 'COUP'

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06704855
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2018
• Case Number: F-2017-02456
• Publication Date: October 28, 2013

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COUNTRY: EGYPT, GAZA STRIP, TUNISIA, WEST BANK
SUBJ: (U) TUNISIA: GHANNOUCHI ARTICLE REFUTES 'CLAIMS' OF 'FAILURE
of Political Islam,' Attacks Egypt 'Coup'
SOURCE: Doha Al-Jazirah.net in Arabic 25 Oct 13 (U)
TEXT:
[ (U) Article by Rachid Ghannouchi: "How True is the Claim of the
Failure of Political Islam?"]
[INTERNET]
[OSC Translated Text]
(U) This product may contain copyrighted material; authorized use
is
for national security purposes of the United States Government
only.
Any reproduction, dissemination, or use is subject to the OSC usage
policy and the original copyright.
Whenever Islamists here or there suffer a setback or even a mere
retreat in elections, no matter how slight, Western thinkers, who
follow the progress of the Islamic movement, are accustomed to
shouting out to the public from their loudest speakers announcing
the
failure or the collapse and end of political Islam. This is what is
being reiterated in their forums and statements to the media that
interview them, being experts whose words are wisdom and who hold
the
final say.
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No sooner than their likes in our Islamic countries and employees
in
our media take them for granted and say that they cannot be
mistaken.
The Egyptian events in recent months constituted rich material for
those studies, forums, and assurances. Thus, their market
flourished
and their goods became in demand.
How true are these claims? Is the so-called political Islam in a
major retreat in the direction of final failure and certain
collapse?
Or is the matter no more than a reverse movement here or there
prior
to taking off anew in an upward movement in the general direction,
which proves that even the points of retreat soon follow the
general
movement in an upward direction?
1. The Islamic movement is the term preferred by the Islamists to
the
so-called political Islam. By it, we mean all activities that call
for Islam, being God's final word to mankind, a comprehensive way
of
life, and a discourse to the worlds. All statistics today confirm
that Islam is the most widespread religion and ideology. It has
expanded to win the minds and wills, and its followers are
absolutely
ready to sacrifice everything precious for its sake, out of zeal
and
commitment to it.
The so-called political Islam (the Islamic movement) is moving on a
religious carpet, which is the widest today in the world. Modern
communication technologies have enabled it to reach unprecedented
speeds in history, especially since it barely meets with any
worthwhile resistance in its way, in view of the state of
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ideological
emptiness, existential anxiety, and the collapse of the warm
incubators that harbor the human being in contemporary
civilization,
such as the family and the tribe.
This is taking place at a time of a crisis, represented by the
government s' trend toward quick resignation from the duties of
welfare. This has increased the cases of anxiety, isolation, and
loss
of close friends, as one of the effects of the rapid globalization.
It has also pushed individuals to the search for warm incubators
and
systems, where the demands of the body and the soul, the individual
and the group, the religion and the world, and nationalism and
internationalism, meet. This is where the individual finds
everything
he is looking for in Islam, which is viewed by its comprehensive
principles and known centrism.
This explains why outstanding elites from different creeds and
cultures embrace it despite the war of hatred and demonization that
it is being waged on it and its movements and minorities.
2. The Islamic movement in its broad outlines--forget the small
extremist groups that exist in every ideology and nation--has
introduced Islam as the culmination of the accomplishments and
moralities of civilizations, and not as the opposite of every
aspect
of modern accomplishments, such as education for all, males and
females, and the values of justice and equality in rights and
freedoms, without discrimination on the basis of creed, race, and
color, to guarantee for all the rights of citizenship, humanity,
and
religious and political freedoms, as is known in modern
democracies,
given that equality in rights and freedoms is an essential part of
the divine honoring of the human being. "We have honored the sons
of
Adam." [Koranic verse; Al-Isra, 17: 70]
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3. The Islamic movement, which stems from the authority of Islam,
the
natural religion, to search for solutions to the problems of its
societies and to help in solving the problems of mankind,
benefiting
from all cultural experiences that agree with the values and aims
of
Islam in achieving people's interests, is the closest to the
conscience of our peoples. It addresses them by their familiar
values, concepts, and language that cannot be contested by the
public
if the Islamic preachers grasped people's problems and formulated
them according to people's mentality and belief.
4. For more than half a century, the Islamic movements have faced
an
episode of suppression, which barely calms down a bit when it is
inflamed more than before.
This continuous suppression has led to many results, such as
instilling in Muslims a struggle legacy that they inherited and
that
strengthened them, and a common history among at least three
generations.
The savage suppression has generated public sympathy for them that
provided them with additional gains, the likes of which have not
happened to any other political rival, as you can only go as far as
you push, and peoples preserve for the strugglers their virtues.
5. The Islamists today occupy, more than at any time before, the
noblest and strongest position. They are close to understanding
people's ideological, conceptual, and cultural stands. They stand,
as
they do in Egypt, carrying the noblest of slogans, such as the
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defense of people's will and the resort to the ballot boxes. They
are
leading a brilliantly peaceful revolution that defends the values
of
the revolution: freedom of the media, which their rule preserved
and
which the coup wasted. They are also defending political pluralism
and the nation's great causes, such as the Palestine question.
On the other hand, the old Egyptian liberalism, including the Wafd
Party, stand on the ground of the counter revolution seeking the
support of a military coup, while its tanks are crushing the ballot
boxes and the will of the people and even their bodies, laying
hands
on the media and silencing its voices, keeping the doors of prisons
wide open, and striking at the defenseless masses in their
millions.
As for the nation's major cause, the Palestine question, it has
become a big charge. Wasn't the elected president charged with
communicating with HAMAS so as to justify his ouster, when he is
the
first elected president, and to appease the Zionist entity?
Isn't the role being played by the Egyptian "modernity" elite and
its
Arab likes that applauded the coup a kind of mass suicide? This is
contrary to the honorable stand of the Islamic movement in facing
tyranny with chests that are bare of everything but faith?
Is it possible, from a historical, strategic, and national
viewpoint,
to consider support for the savage coup as a liberal, progressive,
national, or secular victory and consider what happened as a defeat
and an end to political Islam?
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6. We are certain that what happened in Egypt is not a setback for
political Islam as much as it is a setback that will unfortunately
eliminate what is left of the secular Arab nationalists and
liberals
and their heritage unless they reconsider their stands and come to
their senses.
Meanwhile, the coup will provide opportunities for the Islamic
movement to carry out revisions so as to correct its mistakes in
rule
and to be more open to the opposition forces in Egypt and
elsewhere,
particularly in a transitional phase that cannot be ruled by one
party or one current and whose constitution cannot be written by
one
trend.
The Islamic movement in Egypt and elsewhere will realize this and
will be more open to all the national forces, to not only pave the
way for broad participation and alliance with them, but even let
them
assume leading positions in the Islamic parties. Islam is a common
heritage for the whole nation.
7. If the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood [MB] has faced successive
tribulations at the hand of Egyptian rulers since the monarchy, and
especially under the Nasirite administration, those tribulations
cannot be compared qualitatively and quantitatively with what it is
facing at the hand of General Al-Sisi. The total number of victims
in
the past 60 years did not exceed 60 martyrs, which was the first
figure they sustained in their encounter with Al-Sisi outside the
Republican Palace. No sooner it was followed by thousands of dead,
wounded, and detainees, which is a clear indication of the weak
legitimacy of the coup and its reckless rush to compensate for this
by suppressing the mounting heroic peaceful resistance.
8. There is a big difference between the Nasirite suppression of
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the
MB and the current suppression in terms of values. Abd-al-Nasir did
not only strike the MB with the sword of the state, but he also
struck them with big projects that he carried to his people and
nation, regardless of the seriousness of at least some of them.
The security and political suppression had a heavy cover of
attractive and promising cultural and political projects, such as
the
agrarian reform project, the spread of education, the expansion of
Al-Azhar, the liberation of Palestine, the unification of the Arab
nation, the confrontation of imperialism, and the Non-Aligned
Movement. In contrast, what does Al-Sisi carry in the form of
projects for his people and nation? A cover for the savage
suppression that is so intellectually empty that it reached the
point
of charging the imprisoned legitimate president of communicating
with
HAMAS.
9. In the age of open space, the crimes of the tyrants take place
under the most powerful microscopes and brightest lights, none of
which was available to the pharaohs of old times, whose crimes took
place under the cover of secrecy. The Pharaoh of Moses said: "I but
point out to you that which I see (myself)" [Koranic verse; Ghafir,
40:29], thereby imposing absolute authority on his people through
his
control of information. That time has gone and the crimes of the
tyrants now take place in the open. There is no future for Al-Sisi
and his likes in the age of open space.
Conclusion: In light of all the above, I can say with confidence
that
political Islam has not been defeated in Egypt or anywhere else.
The
world of ideology is full of the values of Islam in an
unprecedented
manner since modernity invaded us on the back of tanks and
dominated
the world of elites, pushing Islam to the sideline and promising
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great projects, most of which have failed, whether on the level of
freedom, development, justice, unity, or the liberation of
Palestine.
This has renewed the need to think about Islam and search in it
for a
project for awakening that interacts with and absorbs, and does not
reject, the accomplishments of modernity after planting it in the
field of Islam.
The so-called political Islam is not in a state of retreat, but is
in
the process of correcting its mistakes and getting ready for a new
phase that is not far from the wise exercise of rule. It does not
need decades in order to regain opportunities, which have been
awaiting it in the age of open media channels, and in the face of
coup projects that are bare of a values-based, civilized, and
political cover.
It consists of movements that are deep-rooted in their societies
and
that carry the values of the peaceful democratic revolution and the
values of participation rather the isolation in a successful
intermarriage between the values of Islam and the values of
modernity. "And Allah hath full power and control over His affairs;
but most among mankind know it not." [Koranic verse; Yusuf, 12:21]
[Description of Source: Doha Al-Jazirah.net in Arabic -- Doha
Al-Jazirah.net in Arabic -- Website of Al-Jazirah Satellite
Channel,
influential pan-Arab news channel of the Qatari Government-funded
Al-Jazirah Media Network; generally critical of US Middle East
policy; provides platform to opponents of some Arab governments;
says
it promotes human rights and political and social reforms; URL:
http://www.aljazeera.net/ ]
(U) This product may contain copyrighted material; authorized use
is
for national security purposes of the United States Government
only.
Any reproduction, dissemination, or use is subject to the OSC usage
policy and the original copyright.
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