Political Islam in the Middle East Are Knudsen R 2003: 3 Political Islam in the Middle East Are Knudsen R 2003: 3 Chr. Michelsen Institute Development Studies and Human Rights CMI Reports This series can be ordered from: Chr. Michelsen Institute P.O. Box 6033 Postterminalen, N-5892 Bergen, Norway Tel: + 47 55 57 40 00 Fax: + 47 55 57 41 66 E-mail:
[email protected] www.cmi.no Price: NOK 50 ISSN 0805-505X ISBN 82-8062-043-5 This report is also available at: www.cmi.no/public/public.htm Indexing terms Islam Democracy Politics Middle East © Chr. Michelsen Institute 2003 Contents Foreword ii Executive summary iii 1. Introduction 1 Political Islam 2 Jihad 5 2. Democracy 7 3. Political violence 12 4. Theories 17 5. Conclusion: “Old Islamism” or “New Islamism”? 23 Appendix I: Persons met 26 Appendix II: Islamist performance in parliamentary elections 1965-1995 27 References 28 i Foreword This report provides an overview of the phenomenon known as “political Islam” in the Middle East. The term “Middle East” is used here in a restricted sense with a special emphasis on the Levant (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria). The report may be read in conjunction with the CMI reports on political Islam in South Asia (Knudsen 2002a) and the annotated bibliography on Palestinian Islamist movements (Bangstad 2002). The report is principally a desk-study, but I have also benefited from informal discussions and interviews with scholars working on the subject (Appendix I). They should not be held responsible for the views expressed here which, along with any mistakes, are solely my own.