Inside Islamism

Today, the political reform group met with Dr. Abdul Latif Arabiyat, former secretary general for the Islamic Action Front. The IAF is the political wing of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, and it was interesting to hear the perspective from someone inside the movement upon which many of our other discussions have turned.

We met with Dr. Arabiyat in the formal and quite luxurious portion of his home near the University of Jordan. He began by listing the achievements of the Islamic movement in Jordan: pluralism and recognition of other parties, democratic internal structure, support for the political role of women, a universal citizenship model, and participation in Jordan's existing system.

Dr. Arabiyat seemed to prefer speaking in general terms about the effect of civil liberty restrictions on the Islamic movement and role of the movement in relation to the state rather than answer our direct questions about the impacts economics, the government of Jordan and US foreign policy have on the movement. Recent laws restricting civil liberties in Jordan have severely hampered the social work executed by the Muslim Brotherhood. For example, donors now have to register their contributions to the Brotherhood with the government, and the Public Gatherings law often limits events that the Brotherhood would like to hold. Dr. Arabiyat did make the interesting notation that the law itself only requires people to submit their event information before holding it; the granting of permission is not an explicit mandate of the law. Nevertheless, the authorities disperse certain events often by force and at the limit.

One of Dr. Arabiyat's main points was that a strong showing of Islamists in Parliament would "build confidence between people and the state". The Brotherhood has the social capital to continue to increase its support in Jordan because of the large amount of social work that they do. Not surprisingly, Dr. Arabiyat argued that these social programs strengthen the IAF's position among the people.

Working towards a relationship between citizens and the state that is based on rights and duties rather that favors and opportunities was reiterated in this meeting. Yet to the extent that the political IAF and socially minded projects of the Muslim Brotherhood, I worry that some Jordanians might simply begin to see the Islamic movement itself as a patron. If that is the case, the Islamic movement will truly have become a "parallel system" complete with its own bureaucracy, security and technicalities. In such a vision, the movement does not contribute to the flowering of truly ideological partisan politics in Jordan, but simply an alternative way to access power and resources.

-Margaret