Voices
in numbers and vitriol, the Salafists appear to be in the minority,
as witnessed in recent election
results across the Arab world. The
majority, however, has not coalesced around a coherent ideology that can provide an alternative
vision for progress and development. The Muslim Brotherhood
in Egypt, while trying to be pragmatic, have been muddled in their
message following the initial antifilm protests, because even their
own slogan in effect limits debate:
Islam is the solution. Thus, the
outpouring of demonstrations in
Libya trying to reclaim the public
space from more radical fringes
could be the exception rather
than the trend.
We are therefore at a dangerous
crossroads throughout the Middle
East, North Africa and into South
Asia, where given this political
vacuum, radical Salafists are trying to overtake the public square,
if not by numbers than by default. Moreover, certain interests
within the Gulf are pushing these
groups, which for them are preferable to more moderate Islamist
forces that are seen as threatening to their regional legitimacy.
This strength, combined with the
growing neo-Islamic McCarthyism
TAUFIQ
RAHIM
HUFFINGTON
10.07.12
practiced by the Salafist political
forces could mean that the silent
majority is definitively silenced for
the foreseeable future.
There is no easy way out, and
the situation within
each country is different. If the curWith the
rent crisis is viewed
revolutions
through the prism of
in Libya,
a provocative film and
Tunisia, Egypt
an offended Muslim
public, we are missing and Yemen,
we have
the broader political
seen secular
implications. In efautocrats
fect, we are seeing a
swept from
shift from the postpower and
9/11 decade fight of Al
Islamist
Qaeda versus autocratic regimes in the
forces come
region, to the people
to the
versus the populists.
forefront.”
The film has only
served as the pretext
for what is now termed the “outrage industry” that fuels radicals
in so many Muslim countries.
If the current situation is to
change, it will only happen if forces, within and outside the Muslim
world, empower the marginalized
majority that is seeking to define a
more inclusive and
pluralistic future.