Lebanon War Boosts Political Islam

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Lebanon War Boosts Political Islam

uploaded 22 Aug 2006



CAIRO — Hizbullah victory over Israel has left many in the region convinced that while their leaders failed to face Israel and the US hegemony, Islamic movements succeeded in restoring dignity and honor to a bruised identity, further enhancing the political future of such movements, The New York Times said Sunday, August 20.



"The losers are going to be the Arab regimes, USA and Israel," Fares Braizat of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan told the American daily.



"The secular resistance movements are gone. Now there are the Islamists coming in. So the new nationalism is going to be religious nationalism, and one of the main reasons is dignity. People want their dignity back."



The Lebanon war has highlighted, and to many people in the Middle East validated, the rise of another unifying ideology, a kind of Arab-Islamic nationalism, said the Times.



Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah is now widely viewed as a pan-Arab Islamic hero.



An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Nasrallah while attacking, on the one hand, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for her "new Middle East" that they say has led only to violence and repression as well as Arab leaders for their weakness.



Hizbullah has proved a foe to be reckoned with, inflicting heavy losses on the armed-to-the-teeth Israeli army.



Except for Israel's ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, Israel suffered heavier civilian casualties in the Lebanon conflict than in any fighting since it was established at the rubble of Palestine in 1948.



Although Israel conceded the failures of the month-long Lebanon war and its defeat made international headlines, only US President George Bush believed the Lebanese resistance had lost.



A majority of the Israeli public believe that none or only a very small part of the goals of the war had been achieved.



Credit



Experts believe Hizbullah's victory and the failure of Arab nationalism and most recently the false promise of American-style democracy would give more credit to political Islam and Islamic movements across the region.



"People will say Hizbullah achieved a very good thing, so why should we mistrust the Muslim Brotherhood," Hassan Naffa, a professor of political science at Cairo University, told the American paper.



When asked if she would vote for a Muslim Brotherhood candidate, famed Egyptian radio talk-show host Yomna Samah, who defines herself as secular, said, "Yeah, why not?"



"Hizbullah is a resistance movement that has given us a solution," she added.



The New York Times cited the meteoric rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt — after securing 88 seats in the country's parliament — and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, which won landslide in January's parliamentary elections.



"We need an umbrella," said Mona Mahmoud, 40.



"In the 60’s, Arabism was the umbrella. We had a cause. Now we lack an umbrella. We feel lost in space. We need to be affiliated to something. Usually in our part of the world, because of what religion means to us, we immediately resort to it."



Diaa Rashwan, an expert in Islamic movements, said people have come to identify themselves more as Muslims during the last five years "in response to the US-led ‘war on terrorism’ which Egyptians frequently feel is a discriminatory campaign targeting Muslims and Islam worldwide."



But what endears most the lay people to Islamic groups is the fact that they are seen as incorruptible, disciplined, efficient and caring.



"The failure of pan-Arabism, the lack of democracy, and corruption — this drives people to an extent of despair where they start to find the solution in religion," said Gamal El-Ghitany, editor of Akhbar al-Adab, a literary magazine distributed in Egypt.



Ms. Mahmoud says she has more faith in Islam than in the state.



"I have more faith in Allah than in [Egyptian President] Hosni Mubarak," she said.



"That is why I am proud to be a Muslim."



Source: IslamOnline.net & Newspapers

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"The Muslim is a unique Ummah among the whole of mankind:

Their Land is ONE, their War is ONE, their Peace is ONE,

Their Honour is ONE and their Trust is ONE."

[Ahmad]