Governability and Democracy Islam, Democracy and Secularisation

Mohamed-Chérif Ferjani The Electoral Success of Political against those who are gambling on de- Professor Islam mocracy weakening their influence. Dossier University of Lyon2 Turkey, considered for a long time to be Despite the disillusionment with regard a beacon of modernity and secularism in to the experiences of political Islam in the Muslim world, has become the re- At the beginning of the 1990s Olivier Roy Iran, the Sudan, Afghanistan or Algeria, ference point for all the radical Islamic (1992) had already predicted the failu- and despite the repercussions of the movements who have chosen the same re of political Islam. Gilles Kepel (2000) attacks of September 11 2001, Isla- path. Despite the failure of their first at-

2006 reached the same conclusion in his book mism does not seem to have lost its ap- tempt at participation, which led them to Jihad, the rise and fall of Islamism. For peal among Muslims who are the prin- power and which was cut short by a Med. my own part, (Ferjani, 1992; 1996; cipal losers in these exploits. As it new intervention by the Army for the so- 2005a; 2005b; 2006) I have not ceased happens, many radical Islamic move- called salvation of “secularism” and the to defend the theory that political Islam ments and parties no longer reject in “republic”, Turkish Islamic radicals per- and, what is more, the reinvasion by re- the same way the democracy they con- severed and ended up by regaining po- ligion of the field of politics, are signs that sidered for a long time to be a Western wer, first in the large towns, then during democracy is failing. This theory is ba- system at odds with the teachings of the elections of 2002, in which they won 66 sed on the conviction that a true demo- Islam. They no longer snub the elections 363 seats out of the 550 which make up cracy, which supports social links through to which they once preferred recourse parliament. The army’s coup de force the development of socio-economic and to weapons and uprisings; uprisings that against the Government of Erbakan did cultural rights backed up by public ser- were planned deep within the commu- not curb the Islamic radicals’ influence; vices, will allow Muslim societies to en- nity through mosques and charitable quite the contrary, it legitimized them visage an escape from the despotism and cultural organizations to increase and allowed them to refocus their ef- which has hitherto assailed them by membership among those excluded from forts, stronger and better prepared. other ways than a radical Islamic expe- globalization and the chaotic moderni- Today, the experience of Turkish Islamic rience. Many Muslim thinkers, some of zation which has shattered Muslim so- radicals, more than those in Iran, Sud- whom are from a radical Islamic back- cieties. Everywhere that they have been an or Taliban Afghanistan, who saw po- ground, like the Tunisian H’mida Enneï- able to take part in local or national elec- litical Islam reach the power by other fer, have broken away from political Is- tions, radical Islamic movements and means than through the ballot box, cons- lam, regarding it as bound to fail. There parties have presented candidates and titutes the most claimed example by Is- are but few, such as François Burgat led electoral campaigns which have re- lamic radicals and by those who advo- (1995; 1998; 2005), who constantly vealed their capacity to mobilize sup- cate alliance with Islamic radicals in defend Islamism as leading directly to- porters and their advance on the tradi- Muslim countries, in Washington, or in wards a different modernity from the tional parties and new democratic European capitals which have been con- “Western model”, indeed towards an oppositions. This strategy seems to work verted to the idea of an alternative, ba- “Islamic democracy”. The elections ex- in their favour and against the radical sed on compromise with Islamists. perienced by Muslim countries over re- Islamic movements who continue to boy- The example of the AKP, the Islamist cent years, in particular those which took cott elections, like the Islamic Jihad in Pa- party holding power in Turkey, is valued place between January 2005 and Ja- lestine, the Saadet Party1 in Turkey, the highly by Moroccan Islamic radicals, who- nuary 2006, seem to confirm Burgat’s Justice and Charity party in Morocco, se party has the same name: The Justi- theories and contradict those of his op- the cluster of groups which advocate ce and Development party (JDP), arisen ponents. violent action in Egypt, Algeria, etc. and from the fusion in 1996 of the Islamist or-

1 The dissolution of the Islamist Refah Party (The Welfare Party), of Erbakan, declared illegal in 1998, gave rise to two parties: the Saadet Party (Happiness Party) and the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (Justice and Development Party), the AKP of the present Prime Minister, in power since 2002. ganisation, Al-Islâh wa’l-Tajdîd (Reform hood and also of other different ex- let’s say so – pulling the rug from under and Renewal) and the MPDC (Mouve- pressions of political Islam. Despite their feet! The concessions they allow in ment Populaire Démocratique et Cons- cheating, irregularities and violent inter- this regard are so relevant that one could titutionnel – The popular, democratic and ventions by the ruling party’s police and ask what the difference is between their constitutional movement ). This coalition militant forces (aimed at denying voters politics and the Islamist project. It is the saw 9 of its candidates get into parlia- access to ballot boxes in popular quar- same for several opposition constituents ment in 1997. Becoming the JDP in ters and villages where a massive vote who consider themselves to be secular 1998, it stood in the elections of 2002 in favour of opposition candidates was and democratic. and became the third parliamentary party feared) the Muslim Brotherhood succe- What is taking place in the Muslim coun- with 42 elected members. In reality, the eded in winning 88 seats, and proved tries of the Mediterranean basin reflects JDP would have won more seats if it had themselves to be the main opposition for- what is happening in Muslim countries not given up, following negotiations with ce. Appalled, the only solution that the as a whole, as revealed also by the ris- the Palace, in putting forward candida- reigning power has come up with is to ing influence of political Islam among tes in all constituencies. Opinion polls ca- delay municipal elections until 2008! the Islamic populations and cultures in rried out in 2003, after the intervention The elections in Palestine provide the Europe and everywhere where minority of the United States and its allies in Iraq, most recent illustration of this tendency. Muslim groups live. placed them at the forefront of all politi- After the failure of the call to boycott The object of this reflection is not to lin- Dossier cal parties in the country. All the analysts the presidential elections, which resul- ger upon the social, economic cultural predict their victory in the elections of ted in the election of Mahmoud Abbas and political reasons of the electoral 2007 and their leaders, who refuse to in January 2005 with a participation le- success of Islamic radicals. Many studies take part in a coalition to govern with vel of 70%, Hamas, contrary to Islamic have been dedicated to this subject, other parties, are getting ready to take Jihad, took part in the municipal elections, showing that those who have voted for control of affairs, if their foreseen victory in which they won the largest towns. these movements are not all of them Is- 2006 gives them an absolute majority. Then, to the general surprise of everyo- lamists. The “national disenchantment”, In Algeria, the interruption of the elections ne, including their own leaders, they the failure of chaotic attempts at mo- Med. in 1992 which prevented the ISF (Isla- achieved an absolute majority in the ge- dernisation to which the societies con- mic Salvation Front) from gaining po- neral election of January 2006, with 76 cerned have been submitted; the co- wer and the civil war which followed, seats against 40 seats to their main ri- rruption, the despotism, the social and did not curb the influence of political Is- val, Fatah. economic effects of an ultra liberal glo- lam. The results of the different elec- In Lebanon those elected under the ban- balisation which has thrown millions of 67 tions which the country has seen since ner of Hezbollah number only 12 out of excluded people into unemployment, mi- the end of the 1980s, beyond the irre- 128 because of the electoral system sery and despair, the military defeats at gularities, frauds and the conditions su- born out of the confessional pact of the hands of Israel and powers that do rrounding ballots, allow an estimate of the 1943, with some modifications put in not hesitate to resort to military inter- electoral weight of this political move- place by the Tâ’if agreement. However, vention to impose their hegemony, the in- ment, considering all tendencies toge- the role played by this party in the libe- capacity of existing regimes to stand up ther, at between 30% et 40%; which in ration of the South against the Israeli to the least of challenges, the arrogan- fact amounts to the main political force. occupation and the demonstrations that ce with which Islam and Muslims are It is this weight which explains the he- it succeeded in organising in 2005 to treated by the media and by the ideolo- sitations and the prevarications that may support Syria, as well as the negotiations gical discourse which has prevailed sin- exist regarding the reform of the family carried out by other different parties, ce the end of the Cold War. etc., are the code and the demands of women, which such as Christians or Muslims, with their many factors which have encouraged President Bouteflika has promised to leaders show the importance of this mo- fear and withdrawal towards what is pre- address at the beginning of his first term, vement in the Lebanese political envi- sented to be the hard kernel of woun- or regarding the cultural demands of ronment. ded identity. Faced with the void left by Berber movements (some of which sup- In countries where radical Islamic mo- the collapse of models which were me- ported him); and in relation to the poli- vements are forbidden, like Tunisia, Lib- ant to be an alternative to liberal globa- tical demands of civil society and de- ya and Syria, all serious analysis consi- lisation and to powers that oppressed the mocratic movements, sacrificed in the ders that political Islam represents the people of the South, these very people quest to form a difficult compromise with main force of opposition. Even if there is saw political Islam as a way to express the Islamic radicals. The “national re- no legal political expression, its influen- the rejection of an unjust and arrogant conciliation” which has benefited Isla- ce on society and in the field of culture order. In those places where political mists to the detriment of their victims, is such that the powers feel themselves Islam took power, and had time to show illustrates this orientation of the power compelled to adapt their discourse and that it doesn’t have a miraculous solu- in Algeria under the influence and pres- political practice. The acknowledgement tion even to resolve the problems of sure of the Islamists. of this influence leads those in power, Muslim societies, it has ceased to have In Egypt, the elections of December who present themselves as the last bas- the same attraction. 2005 allowed an evaluation of the poli- tion against the rising tide of Islamism, It is difficult, in this context to develop this tical importance of the Muslim Brother- into outbidding the Islamist claims for – question, or to tackle the different as- pects of the debate aroused by the elec- co-opted by the Egyptian military, who A variant of this attitude consists of ask- toral success of political Islam. It is for hold the essential power, rather than ing the regimes which are the primary this reason that this reflection will limit see them win free elections and ap- obstacle to democracy, and which do not itself to the examination of three ques- pointing a Tariq Ramadan as Minister of hesitate to resort to religion to draw from tions directly concerning the relation- Culture. By the same token, to me it se- it a pseudo legitimacy, to make demo- ship between Islam, democracy and se- ems more desirable to keep the prin- cratic overtures excluding the expres- cularisation: ces of the Saudi royal family on the thro- sions of political Islam in accordance ne, even the ones who maintain contact with the famous adage “no liberty for • To what extent are (or are not) the with Al-Qaïda, than to see Islamist par- the enemies of liberty”. Besides the pro- electoral victories of Islamic radical ties, like those who exist in Pakistan, blem posed even by the idea of a se- movements a confirmation of the take control of the Saudi Kingdom. I the- lective democracy, if one applies this incompatibility between Islam, on one refore support the idea of maintaining the principle, it would be necessary to be- side, and democracy and secularisa- most enlightened dictatorships possible gin by forbidding all political activity to tion on the other? – even those not enlightened at all – in parties and government who have pre- • Does the participation of Islamist Egypt and Saudi Arabia, rather than the sided for decades over the destinies of groups in elections result from a demo- application of democratic principles in the countries concerned and to whom Dossier cratic conversion or from a sort of these areas of the world, which in the im- this question is addressed, just as to duplicity of these movements? mediate future would not be anything the movements of the left which have • Are the developmental conditions but bringers of disorder and violence”. supported the different totalitarian regi- which gave rise to Christian demo- (Adler-Sorman, 2004) When you remind mes of the ex-Soviet empire, Cambodia, cracy comparable to those experien- the proponents of this argument that it Albania, China, Vietnam,. North Korea, ced by the evolutions of political Islam is precisely this route which has allo- etc, and which have never clearly given

2006 during these days? wed political Islam to triumph in Turkey up the ideas in the name of which they and in countries where democracy has aligned themselves behind these regi- Med. been adjourned in the name of prioritis- mes. Yet it is often from the ranks of Democracy and Secularisation: ing modernisation, of making up for lost these movements that comes this de- is There Such Thing as an Islamic time relative to the West, or to overco- mand for exclusion which would be ap- Exception? me under-development, they reply that plied only to the Islamic radical move- the experiments had not the time to bear ments. If one applies this rule across Secular people of the Muslim world and fruit and that it was necessary to prolong the board, it would be necessary to for- 68 foreign observers, more or less specia- them before implementing “democratic bid groups of the extreme right and the lised in the different disciplines, have overtures” which would have provoked extreme left, indeed many parties and found in the electoral scores of political its failure. This argument is akin to tho- groups capable of attacks upon liberty Islam an additional proof which supports se of the authoritarian regimes which if not in their own countries at least with their concern and pessimism as to the present themselves as indespensible regard to other peoples in the East, the possibility of reconciling Islam and mo- bastions against Islamist obscurantism West, the South or the North. Who dernity. Their reactions follow the logic in order to justify their refusal of every de- would have the right to decide where ex- of the reductionist argument that pos- mocratic overture, their violations of hu- clusion begins or ends? And in the name tulates the existence of an “Islamic ex- man rights, their exploitation of the ma- of which principle can the envisaged ception”. From this, some conclude that chinations of the state to maintain the exclusion be reserved solely for Isla- there is a necessity for a “secular dic- monopoly of the oligarchies which they mists? tatorship” to modernise Muslim societies represent over all the areas of political For those who see proof of the incom- and thus to ensure a “way out to religion” life, from economic to media. This ar- patibility between Islam and democracy against their will, before allowing them gument is also very similar to the choi- in the electoral success of political Islam, access to democracy. Secularisation ce of certain powers which consider it would be important to remember that and the triumph of secularism in these that political democracy is not yet the the first universal suffrage in Europe and countries would be a preliminary condi- main concern in countries where the in other countries was hardly favourable tion to the introduction of democracy. As priority should be economic develop- to democracy. The first elections which long as this preliminary condition is not ment, in order to create jobs, resolve followed the revolution of 1848 in Fran- assured, any free election on Muslim housing problems, allow a greater num- ce brought a reactionary majority to po- soil would be a “democratic burial of ber to have access to education and to wer who straight away buried the 2nd democracy”. There would even be a dan- medical care, to prevent immigration and Republic and plunged the country of ger of international interference which contain the threat of terrorism. This is why the “rights of man and of the citizen” would justify keeping this part of the these powers continue to support regi- back into the days of being “Elder sis- world private from democracy. The es- mes worn down by negligence and co- ter of the Church”. Likewise, it was via sayist and great reporter Alexander Adler rruption, leading them to envisage new elections that Hitler and Mussolini arri- sums up this concept perfectly when alliances if the Islamists cease to take on ved in power, only to drag Europe and he says: “No, at the end of the day, I their interests and presence in a region the world into one of the darkest episo- would prefer that the Muslim brothers be vital for their economy. des of human history. One should fur- thermore consider the election scores cracy and for secularism: the examples and leave out everything that contra- which the extreme right have achieved, of Robespierre in France, of Kemalism dicts these declarations in the actual very linked to religious extremism of a Ca- in Turkey, of the Ba’th in Syria and Iraq, discourse of these same leaders and tholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish, Hin- and of totalitarian regimes where a pseu- hide past and present attitudes of groups du (etc.) nature, before concluding that do secularism made a pretext in order to to which they and other leaders of the the electoral victories of political Islam are stifle democracy, must encourage a bet- same movements belong. They create a sign of an Islamic exception, resistant ter reflection on the relationship betwe- the impression that they really want to re- to democracy and to secularisation, and en democracy and secularisation. A calm assure and convince themselves that for which it is consequently necessary to reflection on the history of this rela- the Islamists have become true demo- either maintain the ensemble of the Mus- tionship will show those who wish to crats and true defenders of human rights lim world under authoritarian regimes or face the truth, that what is going on in that they make them out to have said on exclude political Islam from all demo- Muslim countries is not exceptional. occasions when they want to hear them cratic life. Where elsewhere has this say. Knowing that the Islamists they pro- type of exclusion been advocated? Have mote accept the idea of referring to de- we to make an Islamic exception or ra- Duplicity or Democratic mocracy and to human rights, but con- ther make exceptional the treatment re- Conversion of Political Islam? tinue to oppose secularism with every last served for Islam? bit of energy, and refuse all ideas of se- Dossier A last point concerning this aspect of the The fact that Islamic radical groups ac- cularisation which are incompatible with debates arising from the electoral vic- cept participation in elections, after ha- the political exploitation of religion, tho- tories of Islamists, relates to the rela- ving long considered democracy as a po- se that talk of the democratic conversion tionship between democracy and secu- litical regime incompatible with Islam, of Islam consider more and more fre- larism. It should be remembered that and the fact that they denounce the au- quently that democracy can be imagined the advent of political Islam, like that of thoritarian regimes in power in Muslim without secularism or secularisation, and 2006 political Christianity and other similar countries by demanding “free, transpa- that it can express itself without pro- expressions with reference to all reli- rent and honest” elections, and by ca- blem in a religious context, whether it be Med. gions, is the product of a certain de- lling for democracy and human rights, is that of Islam or any other religion. This gree of secularisation: it is because po- interpreted in different ways. Some see is the argument defended by the Network litics has begun to distance itself from in it a democratic conversion compara- of Arab Democrats, created in Casa- religion and the religious is no more the ble to that which allowed the develop- blanca in December 2005 on the initia- only mode of legitimization, that these ment of political Christianity at the be- tive of the Centre for the Study of Islam 69 movements advocating an unprece- ginning of the 20th century into Christian and Democracy in Washington – under dented idealogicalization of religion ap- democracy in Europe, then into the the- the aegis of the United States – and peared, which are no more than a reac- ology of liberation of Latin America; with the participation of Islamists known tion to modernity. However, in order that others see duplicity in it and a strategy as moderates, – such as Saadeddine secularisation be complete and lead to aimed at attaining the same objectives Othmani et Mohamed Yatim from the secularism, that is to say to the official that many Islamist groups continue to JDP, and the “secular democrats” – so and real separation of politics and reli- want to achieve by violence, ideological moderate that they have accepted the gion, it is necessary that democratisation indoctrination, the invasion of all sec- shelving of their secularism in order to crosses the threshold allowing politics tors of public life so as to impose an work with those Islamists who have not to do without recourse to religion or any exclusive hegemony on society. given up maintaining a religious refe- form of ideological mystification, from Those of the first opinion only remember rence.2 This is also the position defen- which all non-democratic power tries to the reassuring declarations of certain ded by certain protagonists of the allian- draw a semblance of legitimacy. No- Islamic radical leaders, such as the Mo- ce which was born out of the hunger where other than in the supposedly se- roccan Saadeddine Othmani; the Pri- strikes in Tunis in October and Novem- cular pseudo republics, has the question me Minister and chief of the Turkish AKP, ber 2005, during the World Information of secularism been invoked as a pre- Erdogan; the Sudanese Hassan Turabi; Society Summit.3 François Burgat in condition of democracy. The rare at- certain figures from the Tunisian Al- France, Nathan Brown4 in the United tempts which envisaged such a rela- Nahdha groups charged with relations States and plenty of other researchers tionship between democracy and with human rights organisations (espe- fascinated by political Islam, brought secularism were fatal both for demo- cially in Europe); Tariq Ramadhan, etc.; their scientific caution to the argument.

2 See the text of this network’s declaration on the website of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Democracy, based in Washington, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), www.csidonline.org and the articles published on this site pertaining to this question. 3 See the platform of this alliance and the debates which it has encouraged on the press pages of the opposition (notably Attariq Aljadid in the month of May and Al-Mawqif) and on sites such as those of the Comittee for the Respect of Freedom and Human Rights (www.crldht.org) et www.aloufok.net. 4 See in particular the presentation made by the PJD on the occasion of the invitation of Saadeddine Othmani, at the beginning of May 2006, by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) published by AtlasVista Morocco, www.avmaroc.com, on 09/05/ 2006 and the article which was published with Amr Hamzawi and Marina S. Ottaway, (2006). Once again the example of “Christian of the deputies elected under the AKP Under What Conditions can Democracy” was invoked to give cre- banner defend the Saadet positions Political Islam be Absorbed by dence to the idea of a democratic con- which hold power in several of the Democracy? version of political Islam: Why is some- country’s large towns. The two parties thing that was possible in Christian terms refrain from attacking one another and The friction, the spectacular U-turns not possible in Muslim terms? keep their hostility for their secular ad- such as witnessed the recent stances of Those of the second opinion insist on versaries. All the same, in Morocco, Hassan Turabi, the contradictory decla- the duplicity and treachery of Islamic ra- this distribution of roles is made at the rations and attitudes of leaders and of Is- dicals by promoting everything which heart, even at the direction of, the JDP. lamist groups, must be interpreted as contradicts the profession of demo- The Secretary General, S Othmani and the signs of a crisis which has only just cratic faith in figures and trends, pre- a part of the leadership play for the begun. In fact, if it is premature to spe- sented as an example of the democra- respect of the institutions, democratic ak of a democratic conversion in the tic conversion of political Islam: the overtures and moderation whilst Mos- ranks of political Islam, it is important absence of self-critique regarding an- tapha Ramid, certain deputies and lo- not to hold on to a monolithic and re- tidemocratic ideas and practices con- cal executives maintain a line with allows ductionist vision of this movement. The trary to human rights (like the support the JDP to benefit from the vote of the contradictions which exist at its very he- Dossier for the regimes of the Taliban, the Isla- Association of Justice and Charity of art do not only indicate duplicity or a mic Republic of Iran, the crimes of the Sheikh A. Yassine and to keep contact well thought-out and controlled stra- Sudanese State when Turabi was Mi- with the radical expressions of political tegy. The disenchantments with relation nister of Justice, and where M. M. Taha Islam. We will find the same distribu- to the Iranian, Afghan and Sudanese ex- was condemned and executed as a re- tion of roles, more or less mirrored, periences; the consequences of the at- negade for the same ideas that are de- between Hamas and the Islamic Jihad tacks of September 11th 2001 in New

2006 manded today by the same Turabi, etc.), in Palestine, the Muslim Brotherhood York, of May 16th 2004 in Casablanca the silence over what is being said and and the “jihadist” groups in Egypt and and the other attacks perpetrated upon Med. done by other Islamists who continue Jordan, at the heart of Nahdha and Madrid, London and in different countries, to reject democracy and human rights, amongst these and other more or less Muslim or not; the failure of the strate- the persistence of hostile attitudes to- moderate expressions in Tunisia, bet- gies adopted by the Algerian Islamists; wards freedom of conscience (notably ween the different expressions of po- being brought face-to-face with the re- for Muslims who are forbidden to chan- litical Islam in Algeria and everywhere alities of power after electoral succes- ge religion), towards the rights of wo- where strong relationships and the po- ses, as in Jordan in the 1980s, in Turkey, 70 men (it is important to recall on this litical situation oblige Islamists to opt for in Palestine and elsewhere; the lack of subject that many Islamists known as this type of strategy, which is a double support of Saudi Arabia and of certain “moderate”, like Tariq Ramadhan and edged sword. financial backers, etc.; – all of these fac- the Tunisian Rachid Ghannouchi sit Beyond that which opposes them, the- tors shook convictions, upset schemes, beside Y. Qaradhawi in the European se two viewpoints – democratic con- challenged plans, and divided the unity Council of the Fatwa, which defends version and duplicity – have in common which the Islamic movement displayed, polygamy) and towards secularism. an overestimation of the unity and the when it was still no more than a critical They suspect that the Islamists are sha- strength of political Islam. The first con- project playing on the failures and the dif- ring out the roles: some playing the de- siders it to be a force which from now ficulties of its adversaries. Today Isla- mocracy and human rights card to re- on has to be reckoned with, and with mists are held to account for their cour- assure the United States, the European which one must compromise and ally in ses of action, to justify and assess, to States and those powers ready for cer- the hope of gaining its friendship, or at give explanations on the actions for which tain democratic overtures, to win the least not attracting its wrath; the second they are responsible, and to answer sympathy of the defenders of human sees it as a monster capable of calling questions concerning their attitudes. All rights; the others continue to defend an all the shots without giving anything of this cannot happen without effects, orthodox Islamist line, demanding the in- away, and that it is necessary to exclu- and U-turns are not unheard of, nor are troduction of a Muslim theocracy faith- de it by every means in order to prevent prevarications, contradictions, omissions, ful to the teachings of A. Mawdudi, H. harm. They also have in common not silences over embarrassing subjects, Al-Banna, S. Qutb, Khomeini, etc. The- seeing the reality of political Islam other double-speak and everything that is hid- re is no lack of examples on the sharing than from the angle which reinforces den by those who speak of a democra- out of roles: The AKP in Turkey play their own party view: for or against the tic conversion of political Islam and em- for the respect of republican and secular opening up of the political arena to Is- phasised by those who insist upon the institutions – at the same time as main- lamic radical groups, for or against an duplicity and deceit of Islamic radical taining their reference to Islam – the alliance between democrats and the en- leaders. These are the concrete mani- rapprochement with Europe and the thusiasts of political Islam? It seems to festations of a crisis which will finish, moderation with which the Saadet party, me that the question is more complex sooner or later, by producing separa- the other branch of the Refah party, and needs to be tackled differently than tion and division between those who maintains a line faithful to the traditio- from the exclusive angle of immediate po- are sincerely in favour of the democra- nal demands of Turkish Islamists. Many litical considerations. tic cause and those who will stay faith- ful to the theocratic ideas of political Is- dible alternative to current powers , and a profound hope of modernity, freedom, lam. But it will not be able to play a part to political Islam. equality and dignity, an associative mo- until, on one hand, democratisation pro- vement which carries forward these as- duces its effects upon Muslim reality, at pirations, and democratic forces which, an institutional level and in terms of so- Conclusion if sufficiently united, recognised and ai- cial relations and peoples’ attitudes, and ded, can help to make such a regression on the other hand, when Islamists come The electoral successes of political Is- totally unnecessary. face to face with rational democrats ca- lam are not the product of an adheren- pable of confronting them uncompro- ce to its ideas of the world, social rela- misingly and ready to defend them when tions and politics. It is elsewhere very References they are unjustly deprived of their rights. difficult to identify a coherent and com- Today, these conditions are far from mon project for all the groups of the ADLER-SORMAN, “Le mythe du déclin amé- being met. Democracy is threatened movement. Outside the demand for an ricain”, Le Figaro, 6 September 2004. everywhere by the effects of globalisa- “Islamic State”, which is more a standard BROWN, Nathan, HAMZAWI, Amr et OTTA- tion or the economic liberalism calling than a clear vision of what it ought to be, WAY, Marina S. “Islamist Movements more and more upon clericalisms, old of the rejection of what Islamists attribute, and the Democratic Process in the and new, and prefers to lean on autho- pell-mell, to “Western influences” – se- Arab World: exploring gray zones” Dossier ritarian regimes rather than on the de- cularism, the total respect of freedom of Carnegie Paper n° 67, mars 2006. velopment of democracy. In the majority conscience, and complete sexual equa- BURGAT, François L’islamisme en face, of Muslim countries, it is still a demand lity – on all the other questions, political La Découverte, 1995. made by associations and movements Islam has nothing specific and the groups L’islamisme au Maghreb: la voix du who have little influence upon society, which comprise it are very divided. It is Sud, Paris, Karthala 1988. confronted by the authoritarianism of the vagueness of its policy documents L’islamisme à l’heure d’Al-Qaïda, la 2006 reigning powers and the rise of political and the radicalism of its arguments Découverte, Paris, 2005. Islam. Often, their weakness drives them, against hegemony, as well as the arro- FERJANI, Mohamed Cherif Islamisme, laï- Med. simultaneously or one by one, to place gance of Western powers and their allies cité et droits de l’Homme, L’Harmattan, themselves behind dictators who stifle – including corrupt and authoritarian Paris, 1992. them for fear of the danger of Islamic ra- Muslim regimes – which explain politi- Les voies de l’islam: approche laïque dicalism, or behind political Islam to cal Islam’s success, coupled with the des faits islamiques, CRDP de Fran- show their rejection of the corruption absence of another credible, sufficiently che Comté, Besançon, 1996. 71 and tyranny of the powers that be. We organised alternative to these regimes. Le politique et le religieux dans le are very far from the conditions which It would therefore be improper to con- champ islamique, Fayard, Paris 2005ª. allowed the passage from a political clude from this any specificity of Islam “Islam politique aujourd’hui et chris- Christianity in Europe which arrogantly which would make it a religion particu- tianisme politique en France avant la rejected democracy, human rights and larly incompatible with democracy and seconde guerre mondiale”, Cahiers all forms of secularisation to a Christian secularisation, as the supporters of a de recherche, Centre Jacques Berque, democracy which was made up of the certain reductionist cultural simplification n° 2, Rabat, 2005b. established members of a modern, de- and the prophets of cultural wars like to “Qui a intérêt à agiter le spectre de la mocratic and secularised society. This is relate . Even if it is too soon to talk of an guerre des cultures?”, dans Paix et why the urgent priority for democracy is end to political Islam, either by a con- guerre entre les cultures, entre Europe not to make an alliance with political Is- version to democracy of the groups et Méditerranée, Actes Sud/MMSH, lam in the name of a hypothetical de- which represent it, or by the arrival of an 2005c. mocratic conversion, total or partial, of alternative secular democracy which has “Démocrates, pouvoir et islam politi- its supporters, nor to play along with trouble in asserting itself, the total triumph que en Tunisie”, le mensuel Attarîq authoritarian powers who want to ex- of these groups does not constitute a fa- Aljadîd, n° 47, Tunis, mars 2006. clude arbitrarily from political life the ad- tal destiny from which the Muslim world KEPEL, Gilles Jihâd, expansion et déclin versaries which they fear to be a threat will not be able to escape and with which de l’islamisme, Gallimard, Paris, 2000. to their hegemony over society and the it is necessary to compromise, in the ROY, Olivier L’échec de l’islam politique, state. The urgent priority is to create a hope that it will be, “a fertile regres- Seuil, Paris 1992. democratic pole capable of being a cre- sion”.5 There exists in Muslim societies

5 Views of L. Adddi on the subject of the electoral victory of the FIS in Algeria at the beginning of the 1990s.