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The Diversity of North Africa's Islamists

North Africa’s Islamists are diverse and cannot be reduced to one category, according to Dr. H.A. Hellyer, who spoke at the U.S. Institute of Peace on April 1.

North Africa’s Islamists are diverse and cannot be reduced to one category, according to Dr. H.A. Hellyer, who spoke at the U.S. Institute of Peace on April 1. Hellyer is a nonresident fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, an associate fellow in international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London, and a research associate at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is a specialist in Arab & Egyptian politics, West-Muslim world relations, and European security policy.

Dr. Hellyer discussed spread of Islamist extremism – as well as Islamism more broadly – and the ongoing implications for North Africa. The following are excerpted remarks from Dr. Hellyer from the event.

Islam and Democracy

“We still have this discussion around Islam and democracy, and whether they’re compatible. And I think it’s a really a question people need to move past. It doesn’t help us to ask that question anymore. It’s not about whether Islam and democracy are compatible, but rather how Islam and democracy engage. We see a conflation between Muslims and Islamists, Islam and Islamism.”

UK Report on the Muslim Brotherhood

“Early last year, the Prime Minister’s office in London ordered a review of the Muslim Brotherhood, focusing not just on its branches in the UK, but the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide.

The review was very interesting, because we’ve gotten to the point where the debate is a little more nuanced. You have these two extreme answers to the question of how we best characterize Islamism. The first answer is that they are basically all al Qaeda in sheep’s clothing. The second answer is that they are the Arab Muslim versions of the German Christian Democrats. I think these two answers are problematic, because the nuance in the discussion gets lost completely. The review, which unfortunately is not going to be released anytime soon, excluded both of these extremes. It didn’t describe the Muslim Brotherhood as the Arab version of the Christian Democrats, and it also didn’t accuse them of being a terrorist organization. Where the Brotherhood falls between these two extremes is a more interesting question.”

Diversity of Islamists

“The Muslim Brotherhood – and Islamists in general – are a pretty diverse group. Some groups within the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide have a very uncomfortable relationship with more radical groups. But others have aligned very clearly with more radical groups. It doesn’t make them jihadis themselves, but it calls into question the wisdom of their choices.

You have examples of groups like Ennahda, who are certainly not the Arab Muslim version of the Christian Democrats, but are a very positive force in Tunisia in terms of its transition towards a more democratic future. They are not responsible, singularly, for the democratic experiment continuing, but they certainly bear a great deal of the credit.

You also have groups that resort to sectarianism and incitement to violence, or at least providing platforms for the same. We see that very clearly across the region, especially in places like Egypt. We also see this discussion unfolding on a more domestic level in the West. There are groups that are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK, France, Germany, and to a lesser extent in the United States and Canada. So the idea that we can just lump all these groups together in one particular category is problematic.

Authorities in both the Middle East and the West are often very opportunistic on that point, grouping all Islamists together. That’s not particularly helpful. But it’s also not helpful to describe the Brotherhood as broadly speaking a pluralistic, progressive force. We have to be far more particular in how we talk about these groups.

To take a more nuanced approach, the question for policymakers is how to break down where these groups fall on particular issues. We also need to think not only about where particular groups fall on the Islamist spectrum, but where they fit in Arab politics in general.

Within the region, you do not see that nuance anywhere. You have a clear division between the Turks and the Qataris on one hand, and the Emiratis and Egyptians on the other, in terms of their views on the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamism in general. You don’t really see anything in between. There might be a few exceptions, but broadly speaking, there’s a tendency to fall into a very polarizing view, and that is not sustainable.

For example, when King Salman took power in Saudi Arabia, he didn’t suddenly decide that King Abdullah’s policy on the Brotherhood was wrong. And he’s very supportive of the authorities in Egypt. But the prioritization of the ‘problem’ of the Muslim Brotherhood has diminished quite dramatically. That’s a result of the geopolitical dynamics of the region. The Yemen conflict has brought together all sorts of strange bedfellows.

The reason is you simply cannot manage to sustain that polarizing attitude for too long, when other events in the region are taking place. I think we will see more of that, on a country level at least, in regards to other issues like ISIS and Iran.”

ISIS Fighters from North Africa

“A lot of people are surprised that Tunisia, which everyone regards as a great success story of the Arab uprisings, provides far more ISIS fighters per capita to ISIS in Syria and Iraq than other countries. I think people look at the problem too late. They identify this as an issue that takes place in 2011, 2012, and 2013. But we have to view the uprisings not as a beginning of a process, but as the release of one that started much earlier. Imagine a pressure cooker whose lid has flown off. Are you going to identify the point where the lid has flown off, or when the fire was lit beneath it? This is my main critique of the Ennahda movement in Tunisia, that it didn’t recognize the danger coming from that type of Salafi movement in Tunisia early enough. It got to it eventually, and I think the delay was far more about naiveté than willful support.”

“Across North Africa, people are continuing to join ISIS. I am going to say something politically incorrect – ISIS is very attractive. It’s an attractive idea, a utopian idea. You can rise to the top very quickly. Look at the contrast with something like the Muslim Brotherhood, where there are a lot of layers of membership and different duties. But with ISIS, within a few weeks you can become a superstar. Mohammad Emwazi, who came from the UK and is now famously known as Jihadi John, didn’t go through a long, complicated process to get to his role in ISIS. It was a fairly short process. So ISIS provides a very easy, quick way to become relevant.

Another point is that unlike terrorist groups like Ansar al Sharia, Ansar Beit al Maqdis, and others, ISIS has territory. They talk of building a caliphate, and actually seeing their dreams realized. You can not only join ISIS as a fighter, but also bring your wife and children. You can actually build a society, and I think it’s a very powerful idea. They realize that, and it plays into their strategy.

There was something interesting at the end of one of ISIS’s videos. They couldn’t really talk about expansion anymore in Syria, since they weren’t really grabbing new territory at the time. In fact, they were being pushed back in some places. But they can’t admit that, because the whole doctrine of the Islamic State ideology is that it is expanding and remaining. So instead, at the end of the video, they showed flags being put up across the region. You saw flags being put up in Yemen, Sinai, and other places in North Africa to provide the impression that they are getting new territory, to maintain this narrative.”

ISIS and Islam

“There are two views on this: ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, and ISIS is extremely Islamic. On the one hand, just because there isn’t a hierarchical, classical church authority for Muslims, it doesn’t mean there’s no such thing as religious authority in Islam. To describe ISIS as ‘very Islamic’ is problematic, because you’re not really describing how you define something as Islamic in the first place, and whether simply using Islamic vocabulary is sufficient. In Nazi Germany, you had something called positive Christianity. It was a quasi-cult, and had a lot of followers among the Nazi leadership. And you actually saw ‘Christian’ symbols being deployed. But I don’t think anybody would describe Nazis as being ‘very Christian.’ So I question that sort of approach.

On the other hand, if you take the view that ISIS is not very Islamic, it is still legitimate to ask: what is the relationship between extreme, radical groups that say they are Islamic, and Islam itself? You don’t normally hear people ask that question, I think there’s an assumption that ISIS has everything to do with Islam, or nothing to do with Islam. And I think we need to move past that point as well.”

ISIS Affiliates

“Some have attempted to describe ISIS as a new al Qaeda in terms of a franchise model, and I’m not sure that’s really useful. There are certain groups internationally that don’t really want to associate themselves with that brand. After certain attacks, ISIS will release statements praising them – but it’s not really the same as having direct control. Having said that, there are also groups that very clearly have command and control structures linked to ISIS. At least one ISIS affiliate in Libya received an actual commander. In Egypt, within Ansar Beit al Maqdis, a number of fighters traveled from Egypt to Syria and Iraq, and then came back. Boko Haram very famously made a pledge of allegiance and is now being recognized as an ISIS affiliate. We know that there have been discussions going on between them for quite some time.

But not every group who claims to be ISIS has that sort of recognition. There are lone wolves, who are carrying out their own operations. So they might pledge allegiance, but that doesn’t mean they’re being recognized. I think we have to take seriously the idea that ISIS is spreading, but also take some of the claims with a pinch of salt.”

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