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Fez – I feel some moral responsibility toward my interlocutors to open the discussion on another level that may not be the target of their visions. This is because they are not speaking their minds, which are under the dizziness of the others who are taking the responsibly of thinking and exporting their ideas. They do this insisting that others should swallow these ideas as facts or they intentionally seek the root behind the idea of the ex-colonizer’s superiority. It is high time to decolonize our mind and not be like a parrot.
We should build the bridge of knowledge to move to the third space, where we can produce an idea of conformity with data and not like that lazy pupil who was asked by his teacher to describe an imaginary trip to Paris; the poor student began describing the experience, but, because of his weaknesses, he couldn’t complete his homework and find the pretext to not go further in his task. He wrote that because of the bad weather we cancelled the trip. He did not allow room for using his brain to inspire and produce an outcome based on analytical data.
The production of neutral and constructive ideas stems from the friction of ideas of different disciplines and not of the monopolization of streams of ideas over the others. If not, we will not be producing real knowledge, but rather typical proverbs and monotonous clichés. Accordingly, as we discuss subjects like political Islam and the new wave of the Arab spring, we should not focus on one trend of ideas at the expense of others, lest we will be reproducing the same ideas instead of producing new and original ones.
Concerning the issue of what is called, “The Arab Spring,” or what I prefer to call, “The Fall of the Arabs,” or “The Farce of the Islamist Currents,” can be discussed from different perspectives.
The end of the Cold War marked the start of a new international environment highly supportive of political freedoms and democratic values. Under pressure, the existing historical system decided to launch a direct political opening, mainly to polish their shrinking images at the international level and to divert domestic and international criticism away from human right violations [3], while also gaining more political, social and economic support for their regimes after showing some reform-minded steps leading to a greater implementation of democracy and human right values.
In this vein, the Islamists blindly took advantage of the openness of the political horizon in front of them and leaped for power without being trained or equipped with sufficient mechanisms of ruling; investing their religious background and reputation that they set up to be the unique fierce opposition to the ruling systems in the absence of other opposition alternatives, especially after the decline of the left. They gained more ground filling the gap left by other political organizations and was thus ranked as the main remaining interlocutory voice of the majority of urban society—including the poor.
The Islamists of the Arab World seized the new encouraging opportunity of integration into the official political sphere after spending decades in clandestine work. Amid the first wave of the backlash against the disintegration of human rights values and political pluralism, the Islamist groups primarily sought change within the official circles and expressed no desire for top management positions, such as the presidency. However, at a propitious occasion they reneged their pledge as their greed became quite conspicuous to their supporters. They ended up presenting their candidate for the presidential elections in spite of their previous declaration concerning the inappropriateness of their participation in contests for high levels of political office [4].
Here, the Islamists fell prey to their thirst for power and because of their lack of readiness to take part in official politics and to implement what they call a “communal project”, the Islamists fell into a trap that is woven tightly by their own endeavor to monopolize power in a hectic period that needs the unification of all the countries’ political sects.
This unhappy ending for the countries that experienced the Arab Spring may raise different logical speculations.
Some alternative notions
-The local and international lobbies conspire against the moderate Islamist currents as a second phase of war against the Islamist groups after the end of the first phase of war against the extremist trends of the Islamists in the aftermath of September 11.
-To declare the end of the Cold War against the Islamists through a process that started the day the Islamists were found to curb the influence of the left and ended when they succeed to possess power and sovereignty
-To ride out the storm brought about by the international financial crisis until the situations calm down
-To appear as a democratic system. Its historical hostility with the Islamists does not prevent it from handing the Islamists “the reins of power.”
-To implicate the Islamists in a crisis that it is not theirs and cannot bear its responsibility, which will lead citizens after the Islamists failure to fulfill their promises toward their electors to say that: people give power to the Islamists, but they abused their responsibilities, so that people despair of any good expected of them.
From the above discussion, it has become clear that the Islamists of the countries of what it is called the Arab Spring are in a real trap due to their lack of experience and the raise of the level of expectations of the people of these countries. They are under the anvil of their internal and external political foes and the hammer of the demands of people. If they succeed to manage their political dispute with their political adversaries, get rid of the feeling of lamb and get integrated in the process of building their nations with the other political parties, they will succeed with the others to put their countries on the rail towards democracy and development.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
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