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The Essence of Islamist Resistance: A Different View of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas |
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| Authors: | ALASTAIR CROOKE |
| Institution: | Legendary former British intelligence (M16) agent, was adviser to EU High Commissioner Javier Solana on Middle East issues from 1997 to 2003 as well as to the Mitchell Commission looking into the causes of the Palestinian intifada. He has been involved in negotiating with Hamas and other Islamist movements, including ending the Church of the Nativity siege in Bethlehem in 2002. Currently, he heads the Conflicts Forum in Beirut. His recent book is Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution;. In June, both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran head into critical elections. |
| Abstract: | The Iranian revolution—the political realization of the "Great Refusal" of Western modernization—was a direct consequence a half century later of the forced secularization of the Ottoman Caliphate by Kemal Ataturk. With the superstructure of the Muslim ummah dismantled and replaced by the Turkish nation state, insurgent religious movements, from the (Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the Shiite imams of Qum and Najaf, moved into the vacuum to reclaim Islam from the shadow of Western dominance. Now, history is turning again. Iran has been seized by violent turmoil as it seeks to reconcile democracy and religious rule. Secular Turkey is governed by an Islamist-rooted party. As they struggle to regain their balance, the global economic meltdown threatens a convergence against globalization that joins the Islamist resistance with populist backlashes elsewhere. Two legendary intelligence agents, a Hezbollah leader, an Iranian dissident philosopher and Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel Laureate, examine this historical turn. |
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