by ANDREAS KRIEG
Abu Dhabi has capitalised on orientalist fears in the West to stigmatise “Islamism” as a catch-all phrase encompassing any form of extremist ideology coming out of Islam
The recent spike in terrorist attacks perpetrated by religious extremists in France and Austria has led to an increased receptiveness of European audiences to the Islamist bogeyman.
Under the banner of defending civil liberties, illiberal liberals have declared a war on “Islamism”– a term that originally referred to non-violent Islamic activism and has now been deliberately conflated into a derogative label of “Islamic fundamentalism” and “terrorism”.
Islamist bogeyman
French President Emmanuel Macron has been widely criticised for his divisive language over Islamism, borrowing orientalist narratives trying to subordinate Islam to a false sense of French civil superiority, the masterminds who conceived the Islamist bogeyman are not western but Arab authoritarians.
At the forefront of the crusade against “Islamism” are the United Arab Emirates, an absolutist tribal monarchy where civil liberties are absent and where Islamic scholarship has been subordinated to religiously justify the oppression of civil society, freedom of speech and any form of political activism.
The Emirati Fatwa Council has developed into a powerful tool of state control domestically and strategic communication internationally. Led by Sufi scholar Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah, the Fatwa Council has become a political means for the regime in Abu Dhabi to reshape Islamic discourse based on an empty narrative of “tolerance” that only applies to those who submit to quietist political obedience to the regime.
Thereby, while the pursuit of genuine tolerance would be commendable to fight extremism in all its shapes and forms, the Emirati concept remains hollow as it does not allow for any open-minded, theological discourse on the role of Islam in 21st century socio-politics.
State repression
Although claiming to de-politicise religion as a means of moderation, the Emirati version of Sufism paradoxically re-politicises religion not as an instrument of the public sphere but as an instrument of state repression.
The recent statement by the UAE’s Fatwa Council that declares the Muslim Brotherhood a “terrorist organisation” draws upon a highly political concept that is preeminent in the scholarship of bin Bayyah and his followers: wali al-amr – the idea that obedience to the political ruler is absolute.
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