CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Norwegian Islamism Analyzing the Ideology of the Prophet’s Ummah Stian Paulsen Michalsen Masteroppgave i statsvitenskap, Institutt for statsvitenskap UNIVERSITETET I OSLO Spring 2015 Word count: 30.468 II Norwegian Islamism Analyzing the Ideology of the Prophet’s Ummah by Stian Paulsen Michalsen III © Stian Paulsen Michalsen Year: 2015 Title: Norwegian Islamism. Analyzing the Ideology of the Prophet’s Ummah Author: Stian Paulsen Michalsen http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Copycat Sentrum/Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo IV Summary This thesis sets out to analyze the different components of the political ideology of the Prophet’s Ummah. By analyzing the various texts the group has published online, the videos they have posted, and various other books, research papers and so on, I have explained exactly what the ideological beliefs of the Prophet’s Ummah, and see how they fit in with the historical roots of Islamism, as well as other contemporary groups. The first part of the analysis is of the general theoretical beliefs. The groups of ideas are defined as descriptive of the world, normative as to how the world should be, and method for achieving this. The second part is to uncover which concrete recommendations the group has for the state and society based on the ideas. My main findings are that the Prophet’s Ummah is almost a perfect fit when it comes to the theoretical basis of Islamism. They show almost every indicator when compared to the historical consensus of what Islamism is, and are sufficiently related to the other contemporary groups. The main descriptive beliefs are that they believe that Islam is struck in some form of civilizational struggle with the rest of the world, particularly the West, that this war is both of a physical and ideological nature, and that the influence from outside-sources has weakened and infected the perfect system given to mankind by Allah; Islam. The normative is that all people should follow a specific type of sharia, which is a divine set of rules meant guide both social and political life. Their recommendation is an Islamic State, or a Caliphate, based on these rules. This must be achieved by any means necessary. As such, they defend the use of violence, and adhere to an offensive understanding of jihad. The concrete solutions and recommendations however, are few. My main conclusion is that the Prophet’s Ummah is clear on what they perceive to be the problem, but not on how to solve it. The analysis uncovers that apart from the general belief in an Islamic State, there are few coherent proposals on what it would look like, and how it would run. V VI Acknowledgements There are, of course, many to thank for completion of this thesis. First and foremost my supervisor, Dag Einar Thorsen, who has helped me immensely by always being there when I had questions, for making me hand in drafts when I was supposed to, and for providing useful tips when conduction my analysis. Second, I would like to thank my girlfriend though five years, Marte, who has always been there for me when I needed to take my mind of things, or to tease me by pointing out that I probably never would get a job for studying this. You know I care, even if I’m not always good at expressing it. Third, a big “thank you” to all my friends at UiO; Morten, Tonje, Peter, for always being there when I need a drink; and to Simen, Karoline, Kristina and Benedicte, for pulling me through the course on statistics and methods. Without you guys, I would probably have ended up writing something boring. Fourth, thanks to all my friends and family for supporting me through the writing of this thesis. A special thanks to my Dad, who paid for stuff when the governmental grants didn’t cut it, and to my grandparents, for moral support, practical advice, and cake. And at last, a big thank you to my Mom, who will never read this. I’ll give it my all to make you proud. VII VIII Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 How Islamism came to Norway .................................................................................. 3 1.2 Research question ........................................................................................................ 7 1.3 Core concepts .............................................................................................................. 8 1.4 Outline ....................................................................................................................... 11 2 Methods and materials ..................................................................................................... 13 2.1 Methods ..................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Analysis of Ideology .................................................................................................. 16 2.3 Data ............................................................................................................................ 18 2.4 Validity and reliability ............................................................................................... 21 2.4.1 Reliability ........................................................................................................... 21 2.4.2 Validity ............................................................................................................... 22 3 Islamism ........................................................................................................................... 24 3.1 What is “Islamism”? .................................................................................................. 26 3.1.1 Defining Islamism .............................................................................................. 26 3.1.2 Islam and Islamism ............................................................................................. 28 3.2 The History of Islamism ............................................................................................ 30 3.2.1 Hassan al-Banna and The Muslim Brotherhood ................................................ 30 3.2.2 Sayyid Qutb ........................................................................................................ 35 3.2.3 Abul Ala Mawdudi ............................................................................................. 39 3.3 The Ideological Components of Islamism ................................................................. 41 3.4 Islamism today ........................................................................................................... 45 4 The Ideas of the Prophet’s Ummah .................................................................................. 50 4.1 On Islam and the World ............................................................................................. 50 4.2 On Sharia ................................................................................................................... 60 4.3 On the Islamic State ................................................................................................... 63 4.4 On Jihad ..................................................................................................................... 72 5 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 76 6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 83 Literature .................................................................................................................................. 84 IX X 1 Introduction Few emerging ideologies have gathered more attention in the recent years than radical Islamic movements. Especially after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, the rise of Islamism has had a profound effect on both the understanding of Islam in the West and the application of real-life politics in the Arab world. With the subsequent attacks in London and Madrid, the continuing resistance of Taliban in Afghanistan, the beheading of Lee Rigby in the streets of London and other such incidents, the literature on the different strands of what has gotten the —maybe unfortunate— label of “political Islam” has grown substantially and the contemporary relevance of such studies has only increased. In recent times, the founding of the so- called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in 2014 has once again brought Islamism into the public discourse, as well as made it the main talking point in current international affairs. Furthermore, as Islamism has risen as a factor in the Middle East so has different groupings of sympathizers emerged in the Western world, particularly in France, the UK, and Denmark. Though they vary in terms of size, popular support and ideological background, these groups have adopted many common characteristics that distinguish and unite them. Operating in the boarders between religion and political ideology, they believe Islam to be something more than a “mere” religion; its teachings should be a part of all aspects in a person’s life (Berman 2003). In most cases they also share resentment not only to the western social system, but also what they perceive as “religious weakness” shown by more moderate Muslims immigrating and integrating