What's next, Hamas?

Hamas needs to place its Islamist agenda on the backburner and concentrate instead on alleviating the suffering of Palestinians, argues Galal Nassar
The problem with Arab Islamist movements is not just that they consistently make the wrong choices but that their mistakes have caused a lot of suffering for everyone else. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is a case in point. Founded in the late 1920s, it has spawned a host of like-minded groups yet it has still to provide a single clue as to what it plans to do to resolve any of the problems haunting Arab societies.

Had such movements confined themselves to social, educational and charitable affairs -- the activities under which cover they operate -- they might have helped themselves and others rather than alienating everyone with their holier-than-thou perspective.

Had these movements done that, they would have been an asset rather than liability.

The MB once claimed to "preach not judge", a slogan it has consistently failed to live up to. The slogan was nothing but a smokescreen: the group continued to form secret outfits and death squads, challenging the rest of society across the board. Does anyone need to be reminded of the ferocity with which the MB sought to undermine Nasser's nationalist policies.

The Islamists' tendency to confront rather reconcile started with Sayed Qotb, a man who borrowed copiously from the extremist Indian scholar Abul-Aala Al-Mawdudi, who in turn believed that all Islamic societies were rotten and needed to be brought by force to the path of true Islam.

It is no coincidence that Islamists in Malaysia and Turkey have succeeded where their counterparts in India and the Arab world have failed. Though some people claim the Justice and Development Party used guile to arrive in power in Turkey -- pointing out that first Erbakan tried and failed, then Erdogan and Gul got better at politics and managed to grab power -- such an analysis flies in the face of fact.

Erdogan and Gul succeeded because they represented a thread integral to the fabric of Turkish society. They embraced nationalist tendencies and sentiments and were thus able to capture public imagination where others, such as the Kurds, had failed in the face of ferocious secular opposition. The Islamists came to power in Turkey because they didn't call other people names or felt they were dealing with infidels who needed to be goaded onto the right path. They didn't look down upon the rest of society. This is why the Justice Party has succeeded and is still promoting its agenda from a standpoint of tolerance and moderation.

The same thing goes for Malaysia, a country in which Islamist politicians have succeeded beyond all expectations. Since the beginning Mahathir Mohamed and his party took a serious look at the problems of their society. They took into account the nature of that society and its considerable ethnic diversity. They didn't take sides with any ethnic group but forged a middle-of-the-road path that allowed them to keep the country together. This happened in a country that has more than its fair share of MB-style Islamists. But Mahathir, and later on Badawi, focussed on what the country needed, blending Islamic ideas with commonly-shared nationalist sentiments and reaching out to other Muslim and non-Muslim countries.

Nothing similar is happening in the Arab world. The MB hasn't pursued such a path, and neither has its affiliates in Algeria, Sudan and Palestine. Instead, the MB attempted to tear up the national fabric and has paid the price. The confrontation was costly not just for the Islamists but all Egyptians and Arabs as the Islamists have set back their own cause as well as the cause of Arab liberation and renaissance. Yet it seems the MB and its affiliates have yet to learn the lesson. They still seek to challenge and denigrate rather than reconcile and cooperate. In Algeria in the 1990s, and in Palestine today, the outcome has been regrettable. Why do all the conferences held to reconcile nationalists and Islamists fail? It is because MB-influenced Islamists have not yet found a way to work with others. They haven't deigned to embrace national ideals, something that events in Palestine make crystal clear.

Hamas is affiliated with the MB, and yet one hoped that it could find a way to work within the resistance movement. During the first Intifada, it seemed that Hamas was willing to see itself as a Palestinian movement first and as Islamist second. Alas, this was not to be. Hamas said all the right things about resistance and people listened. Then it said it wanted political partnership and ran for office. That was a turning point. Hamas finally seemed willing to work together with other Palestinian groups, perhaps mend the flagging administration.

There was a hope that Hamas might take the Palestinians down the road of Turkey or even Malaysia, opting for reconciliation rather than sabotage and offering itself as a role model for other movements in the region, a model of unity rather than division. It was not to be.

The real shock was in the choices Hamas made after its victory in the last legislative elections. One was to abandon what is Palestinian in favour of what is Islamist. In other words, Hamas turned its back on the factor that could have made it a full partner in the quest for national liberation. Then the movement began implementing regional agendas. It embraced the same slogans that got the MB nowhere, plotting and denouncing, killing and maiming. Hamas talked resistance while getting ready to haggle, pretended to be laying down the foundation while it was all the time intent on bringing down the Palestinian house.

Hamas is now up to its tricks in Rafah, as if the desert beyond might offer a path to national salvation. It is engaged on a perilous course of division and brinkmanship. Hamas is cruising along a road that will lead to the further Balkanisation of a nation already living in cantons. In following this path Hamas is not just jeopardising the future of the Palestinians but the entire region. Is it too late for Hamas to see the error of its ways? Is it too much to ask the movement to see itself as Palestinian first and Islamist second? Perhaps Hamas can still do the right thing, instead of abandoning its Palestinian identity and dragging the region towards the abyss.

Hamas needs to reconsider its alliances with regimes that are themselves in crisis. It still has a chance to become a national liberation movement though to do so it must think less of power and abide less by the MB's agenda.

The debacle began when Hamas made the transition from opposition to government, at which point it was faced with two choices, both hard to swallow. One was to succumb to international pressure and Israeli demands. The other was to pretend that it had no political obligations whatsoever, which placed Hamas and the entire Palestinian people in jeopardy and gave Israel a licence to kill, with full US backing. Is this what Hamas really wanted?

Hamas would do well to leave office altogether and return to opposition. Its seats in parliament would leave it in a position to influence policy and government rather than determine it, and the judicious use of that influence might allow the group to reassert its credibility, remain faithful to its programme, and keep the option of resistance open. What you cannot do is stay in power and act as a resistance movement at the same time. Hamas can free itself from pressure once it abandons executive power. And it would be doing the Palestinians a favour.

But shouldn't groups that have won elections exercise the right to rule? In answering the question we must remember that the situation in Palestine is hardly comparable to that in a Western democracy. The Palestinians don't even have a state. What the Palestinians are going through is a process of national liberation, which is why Hamas must put the interests of the nation first and think more about the people and their suffering and less about itself. Let a presidential force police the crossing points so aid, medicine and foodstuffs can reach Gaza unhindered and the sick can seek treatment abroad.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg