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March 13, 2013,
Secularism, the Arab Way
By ISSANDR EL AMRANI
CAIRO Free Arabs, a new Web site run by a group of Arabs some in the Middle East, others in the West is causing a stir. Gathered under the slogan Democracy, Secularism, Fun, it laments the fact that millions of Arabs have internalized the notion that secularism is tantamount to faithlessness, and is all about demonizing Islam and promoting a dissolute way of life.
Not only can secularism coexist with religion, Free Arabs argues, but it protects the free exercise of religion and can help promote other civil liberties, like gay rights.
The group is defending a no-compromise version of secularism one that may be too much to ask of many Arab politicians, particularly those in the fledging new liberal parties that have emerged since the Arab uprisings.
Some dont want to be dragged into culture wars, a favorite ground for Islamists who bank on the fact that many Arab societies are still socially conservative. Others are just plain conservative themselves, even on issues far more basic than gay rights like whether gender equality should be applied to inheritance and other questions traditionally governed by Islamic law.
Still, the controversy triggered by Free Arabs is just the kind of debate Islamists and secularists in the Arab world should be having, if only because they couldnt have had it under the old regimes. Also, theres plenty of room for debate: In this part of the world, the term secular means very different things to different people.
Morocco, for instance, is a monarchy ruled by divine right. King Mohammed VI is not just a temporal ruler; he is also Commander of the Faithful and is said to have baraka (be blessed) because he descends directly from the Prophet Muhammad. Yet Moroccos establishment is often described as secular meaning Western-leaning, relatively liberal socially and hostile to Islamists.
Similarly, in Libya, the winners of last years elections were described as secularists for defeating the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, even though they have since called for the application of Shariah.
In Tunisia, on the other hand, the Islamist party Ennahda, which leads the governing coalition, has accepted that Islamic law will not be part of the next Constitution. Does this make Ennahda a secular party with a socially conservative bent? Probably not, but it shows that secularists, just like Islamists, come in different shades. Secularism is more established in Tunisia than perhaps anywhere else in the region, and as a result the Islamists there are more ready to make compromises in its name.
Compare that with Egypt, where a major political crisis divides Islamist parties and parties usually described as secular. Yet the countrys so-called secularists have advocated a constitution that bases all legislation on Shariah (they opposed the one proposed by the Islamists only for going too far).
They also prefer to call themselves madani (civil) rather than alemani (secular). The difference between the two words is unclear, but caring about it suggests that, to some, secular is a toxic notion, associated with a hostility to religion. Frances ban on full-face veils in the name of laïcité strikes many Egyptians as outright Islamophobia.
When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who hails from the Islamist Justice and Development Party, known as A.K.P., traveled to Egypt in 2011, he was jubilantly welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood. But after urging the Brothers to adopt a secular system of government arguing that in Turkey thats what had protected the rights of the religious he was booed and told that Egypt was not interested in the Turkish model.
Free Arabs makes the case for one brand of secularism, and one that is perhaps still too radical for many Arabs. It probably also overstates the claim that the Arab world is hostile to secularism. In the past few years, secular ideas have bloomed throughout the region, sometimes in surprising ways. An open debate with an atheist was held in a Cairo mosque recently. A civil-society movement in Morocco is opposing official bans on eating in public during Ramadan. And a new law on civil marriages in Lebanon allows the state to marry people of different religions, countering decades of institutionalized sectarianism.
The Islamists might have scored major electoral victories since the Arab Spring, but as these countries various attempts to define, each in its own way, the proper relation between religion and the state reveal, a new openness has come to the region.
Issandr El Amrani is a Cairo-based writer
Secularism, the Arab Way
By ISSANDR EL AMRANI
CAIRO Free Arabs, a new Web site run by a group of Arabs some in the Middle East, others in the West is causing a stir. Gathered under the slogan Democracy, Secularism, Fun, it laments the fact that millions of Arabs have internalized the notion that secularism is tantamount to faithlessness, and is all about demonizing Islam and promoting a dissolute way of life.
Not only can secularism coexist with religion, Free Arabs argues, but it protects the free exercise of religion and can help promote other civil liberties, like gay rights.
The group is defending a no-compromise version of secularism one that may be too much to ask of many Arab politicians, particularly those in the fledging new liberal parties that have emerged since the Arab uprisings.
Some dont want to be dragged into culture wars, a favorite ground for Islamists who bank on the fact that many Arab societies are still socially conservative. Others are just plain conservative themselves, even on issues far more basic than gay rights like whether gender equality should be applied to inheritance and other questions traditionally governed by Islamic law.
Still, the controversy triggered by Free Arabs is just the kind of debate Islamists and secularists in the Arab world should be having, if only because they couldnt have had it under the old regimes. Also, theres plenty of room for debate: In this part of the world, the term secular means very different things to different people.
Morocco, for instance, is a monarchy ruled by divine right. King Mohammed VI is not just a temporal ruler; he is also Commander of the Faithful and is said to have baraka (be blessed) because he descends directly from the Prophet Muhammad. Yet Moroccos establishment is often described as secular meaning Western-leaning, relatively liberal socially and hostile to Islamists.
Similarly, in Libya, the winners of last years elections were described as secularists for defeating the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, even though they have since called for the application of Shariah.
In Tunisia, on the other hand, the Islamist party Ennahda, which leads the governing coalition, has accepted that Islamic law will not be part of the next Constitution. Does this make Ennahda a secular party with a socially conservative bent? Probably not, but it shows that secularists, just like Islamists, come in different shades. Secularism is more established in Tunisia than perhaps anywhere else in the region, and as a result the Islamists there are more ready to make compromises in its name.
Compare that with Egypt, where a major political crisis divides Islamist parties and parties usually described as secular. Yet the countrys so-called secularists have advocated a constitution that bases all legislation on Shariah (they opposed the one proposed by the Islamists only for going too far).
They also prefer to call themselves madani (civil) rather than alemani (secular). The difference between the two words is unclear, but caring about it suggests that, to some, secular is a toxic notion, associated with a hostility to religion. Frances ban on full-face veils in the name of laïcité strikes many Egyptians as outright Islamophobia.
When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who hails from the Islamist Justice and Development Party, known as A.K.P., traveled to Egypt in 2011, he was jubilantly welcomed by the Muslim Brotherhood. But after urging the Brothers to adopt a secular system of government arguing that in Turkey thats what had protected the rights of the religious he was booed and told that Egypt was not interested in the Turkish model.
Free Arabs makes the case for one brand of secularism, and one that is perhaps still too radical for many Arabs. It probably also overstates the claim that the Arab world is hostile to secularism. In the past few years, secular ideas have bloomed throughout the region, sometimes in surprising ways. An open debate with an atheist was held in a Cairo mosque recently. A civil-society movement in Morocco is opposing official bans on eating in public during Ramadan. And a new law on civil marriages in Lebanon allows the state to marry people of different religions, countering decades of institutionalized sectarianism.
The Islamists might have scored major electoral victories since the Arab Spring, but as these countries various attempts to define, each in its own way, the proper relation between religion and the state reveal, a new openness has come to the region.
Issandr El Amrani is a Cairo-based writer
