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Prof. Boutros Labaki*
Consequences of the decline of Bandung dynamics: Extension of
globalization and religious Fundamentalism
in the Middle East, the Arab World and Lebanon
Contents
- Introduction
1) Fundamentalism and globalization
in the Middle East and the Arab World
2) Jewish fundamentalism in the Middle East and the Arab World
3) Christian fundamentalism in the Middle East and the Arab World
4) Muslim fundamentalism in the Middle East and the Arab World
4-1) Muslim Sunni fundamentalism
4-2) Muslim Shia
fundamentalism
4-3) The
changing situation since the eighties with the end of the cold war
5) Lebanon in this turmoil
5-1) Basic facts about Lebanon
5-2) Political
developments in Lebanon since the sixties
6) Lebanon and religious fundamentalism movements
6-1) Lebanon and Shia'a Muslim fundamentalism
6-2) Lebanon and
Muslim Sunni fundamentalism
6-3) Jewish and
Christian fundamentalism in Lebanon
7) Conclusive remarks
Introduction:
The Bandung Era 1955-1965 was the
period when patriotic, anti colonialist, secular socially minded
movements and regimes were at their climax in Asia and Africa.
Decolonisation was accelerated in Asia, and in Africa. Politically
independent states were aiming at being economically independent.
Patriotic movements, frequently secular and/or socially minded, were
active and growing.
Regional structures (Organization of African Unity, Arab League,...)
were emerging and developing. "Third World" structures were
emerging. States, groups of states and economies were trying to
build independent structures. Countries were recovering a partial
control on their economies (nationalization and/or "indigenisation"
of foreign interests).
Since the mid sixties things started changing.
Nationalist and anti colonial regimes and movements were attacked by
the interests of industrialized countries (Indonesia, Egypt, Syria,
Jordan, Ghana, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Congo,...). In the Middle East,
and the Arab World, this was particularly felt through the 1967
Israeli war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Arabs reacted partly by
a growing of leftist militantism, but mainly by muslim
fundamentalism. A big majority considered that Arabs have been
defeated because they abandoned their faith, for secular and/or
atheist ideologies (nationalism, patriotism, secularism, marxism,
"third world socialism", ...). As a consequence islamist movements
considered that Arabs have to return to the true faith in order that
God will make them victorious of their enemies. In the same period
(1965-1990) Christian and Jewish fundamentalism were growing in the
USA and Israel.
With the break down of the Soviet Block in the late nineties of past
century, globalization accelerated, with as a consequence the
"rexpansion" of western powers in the political, military, economic
and cultural fields. In the Middle East and the Arab World, this
expansion reinforced the rise and extension of muslim fundamentalism
as an ideological tool to confront western expansion.
In this article we are describing how, in the framework of the
strong decline of "Bandung spirit" based movements and regimes,
globalization (which is now mainly the expansion of industrial
countries) and religious fundamentalisms are interacting in the
Middle East the Arab World in general and Lebanon in particular.
1) Fundamentalism and globalization in the
Middle East and the Arab World
To start we try to define very simply
our terms.
We have to start defining very simply religious fundamentalism as a
move in a given religion to return to the original texts and creeds
and to apply them literally and strictly in all aspects of present
time life. These moves are frequently an obstacle to ecumenism and
dialogue with other religious, creeds or philosophies.
Globalization in principle is a process of removing obstacles to the
free movement of goods, services, capital, persons, ideas, cultural
and intellectual messages between all the countries of the world. In
fact it is mainly a way of describing and favoring the economic,
political, cultural and ideological expansion of industrial modern
powers in the rest of the world.
So globalization is an old phenomenon: since the fifteenth century,
European powers (Portugal, Spain, Holland, UK, France, Russia,
Germany, Austria, Italy,...) expanded their military, political,
economic and cultural influence to the rest of the world. They were
followed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the USA and
Japan. Globalization was known in these times under the names of
colonization and constitution of empires.
After the Second World War, and during the "Cold War" (1945-1989),
the world economy witnessed an "internationalization of capital",
and trends to open markets to the transnational corporations. But,
with the end of the cold war, and the collapse of the Soviet bloc,
globalization accelerated, tariff and non tariff barriers tended to
disappear, the same for the barriers against the flow of capital,
but with strong resistances mainly in the US and the UE. But freedom
for the movement of persons was restrained especially to a number of
rich countries.
The expansion of Western Powers in the Third World and some of its
consequences stimulated religious fundamentalism especially in the
Muslim world, the Hindu world and the Buddhist world. The same
happened with the Jewish religion as a consequence to the social and
political developments in Europe and the Arab East in the 19th and
20th century.
For the Christian churches, fundamentalist movements came mainly in
the late 19 century and the 20th century as a reaction against
modernization and secularization in Europe and North America.
Religious fundamentalism and globalization in the Arab World and the
Middle have old links, since colonial expansion during 19th and 20th
centuries and after the 1967 Arab defeat against Israel.
Three kinds of religious fundamentalisms are active in the Middle
East and the Arab World: Jewish fundamentalisms, Christian
fundamentalisms and especially Muslim fundamentalisms.
2) Jewish fundamentalisms in the Middle
east and the Arab World
are a growing force in Israel and
especially in the US; supporting in ideas and fact the ritualism and
the thesis that Palestine is the Promised Land for all the Jews on
earth and that their religious duty is to go and settle there, and
as a consequence push out Arab Palestinians from their ancestral
land.
So Jewish fundamentalists are a main driving force supporting the
Jewish settlement colonies in what remained of Palestinian
territories (20% of the original) in West Bank and Ghaza. (before
the recent withdrawal).
They provoke all sort of problems for a peaceful solution of the
present Arab - Israeli conflict in particular.
They are also a force of oppression for other Jews in Israel and
outside, trying to impose their concepts and rituals, and pushing to
violence, and assassinations. As examples we can mention:
- Israeli Prime Minister Ishak Rabin assassination in Tel Aviv by a
Jewish fundamentalist in 1995.
- Rubinstein killing 15 Palestinians in Al-Khalyl (Hebron) in 1994.
So, Jewish fundamentalists participate actively directly and
indirectly in oppressive wars and tension in the Middle East.
3) Christian fundamentalisms in the Middle
East and the Arab World
“American Born Again Evangelists", who
even not very directly present in the Middle East, are in spite of
this fact very active there. As an example we can mention the
American Tele Evangelist Pat Robertson who installed a TV station
called "Middle East TV" in Israeli Occupied South Lebanon in the
late seventies to preach his well known interpretation of
christianism. The station was withdrawed with the liberation of
South Lebanon from Israeli occupation in 2000.
Evangelist Christian fundamentalists are also active in Algeria,
where they have a conversion activity among Amazigs (a Moslem ethnic
minority in North West Africa), taking advantage of the conflict of
this minority with the Arab Muslim majority.
Western Christian fundamentalists are also active in trying to
convert Oriental Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and
Irak to their brand of christianism. But their stronger impact is
through their "Christian Embassy" in Jerusalem as a support to
Israel's expansion, and the support and ideological guidance they
provide to their member Georges Bush in his policy in Irak,
Palestine and Afghanistan....
4) Muslim fundamentalisms in the Middle
East and the Arab World
We have two main branches of Muslim
fundamentalisms:
4-1 Moslem Sunni
fundamentalisms:
This branch started at the end of 19th
century, in the decaying Ottoman Empire. But it was institutionally
established by Hassan Al Banna in Egypt under British rule between
the two world wars. Banna and Sayed Kotb established the "Muslim
Brotherhood" which is the central structure of the majority of the
sunni fundamentalists.
This movement was one of the reactions against western colonialism
and expansion in all aspects (military, political, economic, social,
cultural), and took place because the nationalist secular movements
were considered unable to confront victoriously the Westerners.
In the fifties, "Moslem Brothers" were supported and used against
Nasser, by the British and the American governments, the Hashemite
and the Saudi ruling families in Jordan and Arabia, to counter
attack Nasser's moves at political and economic liberation from
western domination of Egypt and at unification of the Arab World on
secular nationalist and socially progressive grounds.
Muslim Brothers acted also against similar regimes in Syria, Irak,
Yemen, Algeria and others.
4-2 Muslim Shia
fundamentalisms:
In Iran, Ayatollah Kachani was very
effective in 1953 in crushing down Mossadegh secular nationalist
regime who nationalized Iranian oil in 1951. With the support of the
CIA and General Zahedi (head of the Iranian military intelligence at
this time), he mobilized Teheran mob to crack down the regime,
restore the Shah and western domination on Iranian oil, and Iran as
a whole.
In the late fifties of last century, a shia'a cleric Baker Al-Sadr
in Irak, afraid by the expansion of nationalist and especially
communist influence among the shia'a youth, even in the shia'a holy
cities of Najaf and Karbala, established a shia'a party, called
"Al-Daawa Party", as muslim shia answer especially to marxism. He
wrote two well known books: "Falsafatuna" (our philosophy) and
"Iktissaduna" (our economy), in order to answer marxist theses in
the philosophic and economic spheres. This party expanded later to
Lebanon.
During the 50's, 60s, 70s and 80s, Muslim fundamentalist movements
were instrumental to combat the Soviet Union and its satellites,
communist movements, nationalist populist parties and regimes in
Indonesia, Palestine, Turkey, Algeria, Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, the Muslim former Soviet republics of Caucasus and
Central Asia, and other countries. There were the base of Zbignew
Brezenski's** theory and
strategy of trapping the Soviet Union, in a pincer movement by
Catholic Poland from the West and by Islamic Movements from the
South. This is probably why the US didn't oppose Islamic Iranian
revolution in the beginning.
4-3 The
changing situation since the eighties with the end of the cold war.
In Iran, in the meantime, in the late
seventies, American viewed with a certain sympathy the rise of shia
muslim fundamentalism with Khumainy (who was hosted by the French
government near Paris), as a protest against, the "dependant
modernization" the Shah regime was promoting. This modernization was
hurting also the interests of the shia clergy (land reform), and big
bazar merchants, and marginalizing other sectors of the population.
The Shah had also hegemonic pretentions (nuclear manufacturing,
South Asian, Common Market); and Brezenski said that: "US cannot
afford a Second Japan in Southern Asia".
After the eighties and with the end of the cold war, some
fundamentalist movements were no more useful to the US, and were put
aside. US troups occupied Saudi Arabia and some small Gulf
Countries, and pushed the Taliban from Pakistan to Afghanistan in
order to establish a regime, who could, interalia, protect a gas
pipe line from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and the
Indian Ocean, avoiding the Iranian territory, and contribute to
drive out Soviet influence from Afghanistan and Central Asian former
Soviet Republics. Ben Laden and his network Al-Kaida, financed,
equipped and trained by the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan turned
against their former protector and the regimes affiliated to the US.
Civil conflicts started in Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, and other countries against regimes considered as
"unbelievers western agents".
5) Lebanon in this turmoil:
5-1 Basic
facts about Lebanon
Lebanon has an area of: 10500 Km2. It
is a very small country having: 4,000,000 inhabitants (including 400
000 Palestinians, 200,000 Syrians and 3,400,000 Lebanese) Around 50%
of Lebanese residents pertain to Christian churches and around 50%
pertain to muslim communities. Lebanese belong to eighteen
communities, living in a mountainous country composed of two ranges
of mountain parrell to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
Mountains and hills count for 80% of Lebanese territory. The density
of Lebanon is 400 inhabitants per square kilometer. It has been
historically a mountainous safe shelter for religious, ethnic and
political minorities persecuted in other parts of the Middle East .
The political regime is a consociational democracy, with
proportional representation of religious communities and regions, in
the Parliament, the executive, the administration, the army and
security forces.
The economy is based on services, banking, tourism, transport,
transit, insurance, etc..., and on export oriented manufacturing
industry and agriculture. 4 to 5 million Lebanese live and work
outside Lebanon in Australia, the Arab Gulf, Africa, EU, USA, Canada
and Latin American countries.
5-2 Political
developments in Lebanon since the sixties
Lebanon has been infiltrated since
1965 by Palestinian fighters, supported, armed, trained and pushed
by the Syrian Baathist regime in the framework of its competition
with Nasser for the Arab leadership. After the 1967 Arab defeat,
Palestinians started their guerrilla war against Israel from
Lebanon, especially after they failed to take control of Jordan in
1970. They tried to take control of Lebanon in 1969 and 1976 with
local forces (a coalition of Muslim, Druze and leftist political
groups). At this period, Syria, after supporting Palestinians in
Lebanon to weaken the Lebanese government under Christian hegemony,
made an alliance with this government and introduced her forces in
Lebanon, in order to control the Palestinians and to gradually
control Lebanon between 1975 and 2005. This was done in spite of
Israeli invasions in 1978 and 1982 and an Israeli occupation of
South Lebanon until May 2000.
With the end of the cold war in 1989, the US moved to stop the wars
in Lebanon. In 1990, with the agreement of Israel and the support of
the US, (mainly against Syria's support to pull out Saddam from
Kuwait), Syrian troops entered in the only unoccupied zone of
Lebanon, crushed down the legal government, and installed a pro-
Syrian government.
During the wars on Lebanese territory between 1975 and 1990: 25% of
Lebanese population was displaced, 30% emigrated, per capita GDP
falled to 50% of its 1974 level, 3% of Lebanese were killed, the
infrastructure, the educational system and the economy were partly
destroyed.
The Syrians tried to legitimize their occupation by anti
constitutional and unfair legislative elections, widely boycotted by
the population (85%) in 1992. The same illegality and unfairness
applied to the 1996 and 2000 legislative elections.
In 2000, with the withdrawal of Israel from South Lebanon, popular
moves for the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty, who, since 1990,
were mainly Christian movements, extended to other communities:
Druzes and Sunni Muslim. This happened after the extension of the
presidential mandate, under Syrian pressure in 2004, and the
assassination of ex Prime Minister Hariri, (a prominent muslim sunni
leader) in February 2005. After all that, the Sunni community joined
massively the opposition to Syrian occupation. Syrians were forced
to withdraw militarly from Lebanon. They were forced also by France
and the US who passed the 1559 Security Council resolution in
September 2004, calling for the withdrawal of all foreign forces
from Lebanon, for the respect by foreign forces of the sovereignty
and the constitution of Lebanon and for the disarmament of the
Lebanese and non Lebanese militias.
Elections were held, in May and June 2005, after the return from
exile of ex Prime Minister General Michel Aoun. These elections even
organized under the "year 2000" anti-constitutional electoral law,
produced a parliament were pro syrians become a minority.
6) Lebanon and religious fundamentalist
movements
6-1 Lebanon and
Shia'a Muslim fundamentalisms
The main Shia'a Muslim fundamentalist
group in Lebanon is the Hizbullah. Other groups like the Al-Daawa
Party, Amal Islamiya and Tufaily group are less important. Hizbullah
is a Lebanese extension of Iranian Hizbullah, and the Iranian
"Guardians of the Revolution" (Pasdarans). They developed in Lebanon
especially after the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979, and gained
ground in the muslim shia'a community. They are mainly supported by
the Iranian regime, and its ally the Syrian regime, as a tool for
their "war by proxy" against Israel. Hizbullah was effective in
driving out Israeli occupation from South Lebanon in 2000, with the
support of the Iranian and Syrian regime, and the Lebanese regime
under Syrian control (until 2005). Hizbullah suppressed the secular
resistance movements to Israel movements, mainly driven by the
Lebanese Communist Party and the Syrian National Social Party.
Hizbullah has a security branch and an armed branch, the "Islamic
Resistance" (Al Mukawama Al Islamia), in spite of the end of Israeli
occupation of Lebanon. It has also a political branch: the "Party of
God" (Hizbullah) which have deputies in the Parliament, and two
Ministers in the Cabinet. They control a number of municipalities in
South Lebanon, the Bekaa, Beirut southern suburb and some other
areas. Hizbullah is also very active in the lebanese civil society:
in trade unions, student unions, and through a varied network of
religious, charity and social organizations. He owns a TV, a radio,
publications, and a research center. Hizbullah is also active in the
Lebanese economy through a number of companies and other
institutions in several sectors (construction, public works,
agriculture, services, manufacturing activities, trade activities,
telecommunications, financing and others type of trades...). They
have a number of social institutions (health-institutions, safety
networks, regular schools, and religious schools). Some tendencies
of Hizbullah are trying to establish in areas they control, Islamic
courts, to implement "sharia", through an association called "Al amr
bil maaruf wal nahi bil munkar". They have also housing and marriage
schemes, an organization called "Jihad - Al - Bina'a" for building
infrastructure and development activities, youth, boy scout and girl
scout movements. They have representatives in foreign countries.
They have also organizations in the Shia Lebanese communities abroad
(in Arab countries, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australia).
So the Hizbullah shia'a fundamentalist movement is a strong multi
faced movement, very active in the Lebanese society, economy,
culture and politics. Some analysts say Hizbullah is a "State within
the State". Dominant force in the Shia'a Lebanese community,
Hizbullah is also a strong instrument in the hands of the Islamic
conservative forces ruling Iran, for their policies in Lebanon, in
the Arab-Israeli conflict, and for their international influence.
Other Shia'a fundamentalist movements (like the "Hizbul da'awa" of
Iraki origin) are also active in Lebanon through a network of clergy
persons, of schools, charity organizations and other social,
religious and financial organizations. But they have no armed
branch, and no public political organization comparable to
Hizbullah.
6-2 Lebanon
and Muslim Sunni fundamentalisms
Sunni fundamentalists are less
influent than shia'a fundamentalists in Lebanon. They belong to
several organizations:
- The "Jama'a Islamiya", is the Lebanese branch of the "Muslim
Brotherhood". It exist in Lebanon since the fifties of last century
at least. They are active in the Sunni areas of Lebanon especially
in Tripoli, Saida, Akkar, Dinnieh, the Bekaa, Iklim al Kharoub and
in the Palestinian camps. They had deputies in the Parliament in the
1990's for Beirut, Tripoli, Dunnieh and Akkar. They have schools, a
university, publications, and networks of social organizations.
They are also active in student unions, and other youth and women
circles.
- Another group is the "Jamiyat Al-Mashari' Al Khairiya al Islamiya"
(Association of Islamic Charity Projects). Better known as
"Al-Ahbash": from the name of their founder the Muslim activist
Sheikh Al-Habashi, an Ethiopian muslim cleric escaped from Harar
(Ethiopia) under late Hailé Sélassié, who came to Beirut, were he
established his movement. This movement coordinated his moves since
at least the early nineties with Lebanese and Syrian military
intelligence in Lebanon, and was used by the later as a "puppet
fundamentalist" Sunni movement to combat other real fundamentalist
movements. The "Ahbash" were influential especially in Sunni areas
of Beirut, where they have also a publishing house, medias, schools,
bookshops, a University, and a deputy in the Parliement during the
1990's.
- We must add some other small movements related in the past to PLO:
Rabitat Al Ulama'a al Muslimin, of Sheikh Maher Hammud, and Haraket
Al Tawhid Al Islami of late Sheikh Said Shaaban, and others mainly
located in Palestinian camps.
- The Sunni fundamentalist movements in Lebanon, were sometimes
supported by Syrian occupation forces, until 2005, in order to
destabilize partly Lebanon. They were also sometimes persecuted by
Syrian forces and intelligence, when the laters were fearing their
influence in Syria, and when they wanted to please the US after
2001...
6-3 Jewish and
Christian fundamentalisms in Lebanon
We have no Jewish fundamentalists in
Lebanon, because the Jewish Community has practically disappeared
from Lebanon, gradually since 1967 and especially during the 15
years of wars in Lebanon (1975-1990).
Concerning Christian fundamentalists, we have few movements in the
different churches (protestants, and some catholics). They are still
limited in members but they are expending, in spite of the fact that
they have still no appearent political influence. We can mention
very quickly some Baptist and born again circles in the protestant
sphere, the Opus Dei, Neo Catecumenate and other groups in the
Catholic Churches, coming mainly from Spain, Italy and Latin
America, with a strong support from abroad.
7) Conclusive reflexions
In the Arab World and the Middle East
as in other parts of the world, globalization and religious
fundamentalism are interrelated. Globalization is accelerating as a
consequence of the crack down of the Soviet bloc: the present
liberal, but not democratically controlled, globalization is a new
brand of colonization, domination and exploitation of poor and weak
communities and populations by rich and strong ones.
The religious fundamentalism of the religions of the "South" mainly
Islam, is a reaction against these forms of oppression, taking
sometimes violent forms: terrorism. (I am not here trying at all to
justify this type of violence but to explain its roots).
Jewish fundamentalism started in the late 18th century, in Eastern
Europe as a reaction against the influence of modern liberal, ideas
on the Jewish communities. Jewish fundamentalism was accelerated by
the persecutions, the Jews suffered in the 19th and XXth centuries,
and its now expanding in the US, as a reaction against the
assimilation of US Jews, and in Israel against the secular culture
that dominated the Zionist movement and the Jewish state during its
first decades. It is now flourishing as an ideology for the
expansion of Jewish colonization in the remaining parts (West Bank
and Ghazza) of Arab Palestine...
For Arab and Middle Eastern Christians, Christian religious
fundamentalism (in its two branches Protestant and Catholic) is
clearly imported from US and Europe, and has no local grounds.
Christians are minorities in the Middle East and the Arab World, and
they had an important role in the 19th and 20th centuries as
pioneers in the processes of modernization and renaissance of the
Arab East, in the intellectual ideological, political social and
economic spheres. Christians were among the pioneers of ideologies
such as nationalism, liberalism, secularism, socialism, and marxism.
And the rise of religious fundamentalism now is a big threat to
their role, their existence and their future in this part of the
world.
Lebanon is in the heart of the Arab World and has been a safe heaven
for several christian and muslim religious and political minorities,
persecuted elsewhere in the Middle East. It has developed a form of
consociational democracy where all religious groups can share in the
state power and live their own cultural and religious specifities.
But the expansion of Israel especially after the 1967 war, as a part
of the Western domination of the Arab East, has destabilized the
Lebanese state and society. And the consequence of the Arab defeat
in 1967, transformed Lebanon in a battle ground for the wars by
proxy between Arab states and organizations (Syria, PLO, Irak,
Lybia...) and Israel on the Lebanese territory, without important
losses for the non Lebanese Arab sponsors... The 1967 Arab defeat
exacerbated muslim sunni fundamentalism in the Arab East on the one
hand. On the other hand the failure of the "dependant modernization"
the Shah was trying to impose on Iran, exacerbated shia
fundamentalism and lead to the "Islamic Revolution" of 1979 in Iran,
and the development of Shia'a fundamentalist movements elsewhere
especially in Lebanon.
These two fundamentalisms are developing in Lebanon as a reaction to
western expansion through Israel and through western economic (oil
companies) and military forces in the Arabian-Iranian Gulf. So in
Lebanon, the Arab World and the Middle East, as in many other parts
of the world, "globalization" and religious fundamentalism are
strongly interacting.
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* Professor of Development Economics
and Director of research at the St. Joseph University of Beirut.
* Chairman of the Lebanese Institute for Economic and Social
Development. (Beirut).
* Regional Vice President of "Centre International Lebret Irfed"
(Paris- Geneve), for the Middle East and Arab World.
* Senior Vice President of the Council for Development and
Reconstruction of Lebanon (1991 - 2000). (Beirut).
** Zbignew Brezenski's was the
Security Advisor of US President Carter
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