How Anti-Colonialism and Islam Became Intertwined
Hassan al Banna, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Seeds of Modern Political Islam
(NOTE: This article is the third in a series of long-form, deep-dive investigations into the development of Islamic political thought during the 20th and 21st centuries. If you haven’t read the first two, it may be worth your while doing so before continuing. You can find them here and here. The aim is to dig into these developments so that we can be much better equipped to face up to the reality of the struggle with Islamist dreams of world domination. We will, of course, get to ISIS and Al-Qaida eventually, but the first few episodes will explore earlier developments that directly fed into their rise. You may want to get a hot drink before tackling the pieces in this series, but hopefully it will be more than worth your valuable time! Also, please do not hesitate to let me know what you think of these articles)
The early 20th century was not an easy time if you were a Muslim who believed that Islam and Muslim values should dominate society. As we saw, Islamic political aspirations were hit with the double whammy of the deposition of the last Khalif and the division of Arab lands by the victorious Allied powers in the aftermath of World War I. Coupled, with the wider phenomenon of Western colonialism, this meant that by the 1920’s millions upon millions of Muslims were living under direct or non-direct non-Muslim control.
On a purely political level colonialism is, of course, viewed as an undesirable situation by colonized people. For this reason, almost every colonizing move by Western powers were met with anti-colonial agitation and organization. It is worth noting, however, that in the Arab world anti-colonial efforts were, initially, not deeply inspired by Islamic ideals. We can, in very broad terms, categorize the majority of Arabic opposition movements as:
Nationalistic: Although many of the ‘lines drawn in the sand’ in the Middle East were initially rather arbitrary, national self-determination very quickly became a key idea for people to rally around. Ultimately, this can in some ways be seen as the most successful anti-colonial thrust in the short term. When decolonization eventually occurred it most often happened under a strongman leader who appealed to national identity and pride. Without looking too far ahead, it can be stated that the failure of nationalism to deliver promised utopias (often due to venality and corruption in the upper echelons), left the door open for other potential solutions. A door through which many movements inspired by Islamic teaching eventually rushed.
Secular Socialist: Some anti-colonialist movements quite consciously tried to plug into international trends, most notably the rise of socialism. This eventually culminated in the founding of the Baath party (1947). Baathism can be seen as a mix of socialism, Arab nationalism, and anti-imperialism. An interesting feature of Baathism was the involvement of Arabic speakers from a Christian background at the highest levels of the movement. This was because they were obviously less likely to identify with Islam as the source of political unity, hence the emphasis on secularism. Baathism would have a long life ahead of it, eventually dominating the politics of Iraq and Syria for decades. However, it made very little impact beyond these limited settings.
Pan-Arabism: The core idea behind Pan-Arabism was the dream that a unified ‘Arab nation’ would be able to effectively bring colonial domination to an end. For those who held to this ideal, national borders (whether colonial or independent), were seen as the greatest curse ever placed on the Arab world. As with nationalism Pan-Arabism eventually proved a great disappointment. Its high-water marks were the short-lived unification of Egypt and Syria (1958-1961) and the founding of the Arab League in 1945. Neither of these experiments was able to showcase Arab unity as achievable, let alone the answer to the political challenges of the region.
Looking back from the vantage point of the 21st century, with Islamist politics dominating the conversation in the Middle East, it may seem a bit surprising that political Islam did not feature on the list above. The purpose of this article is to show how it started the process of moving from the margins to the center of the Middle Eastern, and global, political discourse.