Posts by WandaKrause:
Is Qatar’s Love Affair with the Muslim Brotherhood Really Over?
January 1st, 2014By Wanda Krause.
SOURCE: CREATIVE COMMONS / FLICKR / XAVIER BOUCHEVREAU
Qatar’s relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood has not ended.
Political analysts are looking at the seismic transfer of power from Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to his 33-year-old son, Sheikh Tamim, in order to examine a number of issues. Sheikh Hamad’s abdication occurred just days before the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, the former Egyptian president, was ousted from power.
One pivotal point of concern is Qatar’s relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. Previously, Qatar’s leadership had been doing more than simply flirting with Islamists in the region. While comparing Sheikh Tamim to the former Emir, analysts argue that he is a staunch “defender of his father’s modernizing vision” but displays a different sentiment to Islamists. However, does this mean the love affair with the Muslim Brotherhood is over?
Qatar’s Support for Islamists
Having held close ties with the Brotherhood for some time, Qatar’s relationship with the movement has only grown stronger in recent years. Notably, while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cracks down on its own Islamists, Qatar has played host to numerous Islamists seeking refuge from its neighbor and the region.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who fled Egypt in 1961, is pivotally linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and their activities emanating from Qatar. The tiny Gulf state has also been a staunch supporter of the Free Syrian Army along with other Syrian rebels. Importantly, Doha brokered a deal for the umbrella organization, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, in November 2012. Qatar’s support for the Syrian opposition is said to involve as much as $3 billion.
Qatar has also long-supported Libyan opposition Islamists, mainly from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, hosting among others Ali al-Salibi in 1999. The Gulf state, at the advent of the Arab Spring, also supported Libyan rebels with arms, training and financial support. Khaled Mesha’al, the Hamas leader, frequently holds strategic meetings in Doha while the Taliban now have an office in Doha, too. The support for Islamists in the region is extensive politically and financially; another key example being Qatar’s financial support for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as well as Morsi during his short term in office.
A Dramatic Shift Under the New Emir?
Yet analysts seem to think that the change of power in Qatar has already resulted in cooler relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists; or it may perhaps lead to a dramatic shift in the near future. Sheikh Tamim’s show of outreach to Saudi Arabia is interpreted as being indicative of a future alliance against Islamists, whereby Qatar might adopt the same stance towards the Brotherhood as the Saudis – perhaps even suppressing the group. Analysts further point out that in recent months, both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have taken the driver’s seat in supporting the rebels in Syria, leaving Qatar in a distant shadow.
As a Syrian opposition member relayed to the author, the coalition is not succeeding but is in a mess whereby members are splitting into factions and major arms support from the West has dwindled to the delivery of small ineffective weapons. The Qatari state does not have a clear strategy on how to move forward due to Syria’s worsening crisis. Indeed, some Islamists in Qatar are anxious about what the state’s transfer of power could mean, as one Muslim Brotherhood member revealed to the author that he and his fellow Brothers are now “shaking.” But this fear still remains unsubstantiated.
Could this be a utopian dream of an Islamist-free Middle East with Qatar no longer meddling in regional politics through support for Islamists? Might some observers be wanting to and expecting to see Islamists disappear so badly that such expectation is placed on the young, Sandhurst-educated Gulf leader?
An assumption that Qatar’s love affair with the Muslim Brotherhood has ended is naively construed. To start, there are no tangible indicators that the relationship has been strained. Qatar’s leadership might be surprised by how events have turned out in Egypt where much has been invested in the Brotherhood. There is much talk about Qatar turning more to domestic concerns, but relations with Islamists are virtually unaffected.
The tiny state continues to host Islamists and, in fact, has accepted some Muslim Brothers, including Ashraf Eddin, Hamza Zawba and Amir Darag. Even Salafists have fled Egypt and sought refuge in Qatar as thousands of Islamists have been imprisoned by the new Egyptian government.
Some hotels are so full with Islamists that they are now known as the go-to-place for journalists and other Islamists as well as their supporters. Several more Islamists have come to Qatar on work visas over recent months.
Islamists’ activities have most definitely not decreased. They are doing business as usual, holding their regular religious study circles and developing strategic plans for all areas of their work. This includes collaborating with a wider circle of local and international networks and leaders with concrete steps, and orchestrating and carrying out wide-reaching charitable projects — usually with some consideration for Qatar’s political interests.
In fact, the desert has simultaneously become the place-to-go for meetings and religious learning, at times with even close to 300 Brotherhood members (with families) gathering. This vertical and horizontal growth of activities and the sheer number of participants is an indicator for a blossoming relationship.
How the Love Affair Works
However, an assumption about a cooling off in relations is naively construed in large part by a misunderstanding of the way love affairs work. Qatar’s foreign and domestic policy has always been opportunistic and ostentatious. The state’s leadership is concerned with its regional influence, as well as its stability and legitimacy. Such affairs thrive on the fulfillment of needs and infatuation. Given their extensive networks and connections, societal support, anti-Shi’a, anti-Wahhabi and even anti-Western rhetoric, the young Emir needs the Muslim Brotherhood.
With the rising tide of Islamism in the region, Qatar saw great opportunity in this relationship. The Qatari leadership may view an ousted Morsi as a setback for the state’s goals and may feel that the umpteen “mistakes” made by Islamists in Egypt and even Tunisia are irritating. But Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood still has strong roots throughout civil society, legislative bodies, and political parties as well links to various other Salafists and Islamists in the region and beyond.
Parting ways with the Brotherhood is simply not an option as Sheikh Tamim must strive for legitimacy, stability, and influence in a region with real threats and, in particular, where Shi’a and Sunni differences are political. He is, in fact, burdened with the responsibility and challenge to keep Qatar at the forefront as the new mediator in regional crises. The Muslim Brotherhood serves this most basic need.
The Importance of the Muslim Brotherhood
As regional crises are kept in purview, the Emir of Qatar will need to turn his attention to long neglected domestic issues. While some Qataris claim that the country now has a growing indigenous religious scholarship — there are a greater number of scholars produced through Qatar University’s Sharia College — most of the internationally-known scholars were actually nationalized. Others do not have Qatari citizenship.
Yet most of these scholars collaborate with Muslim Brotherhood activists locally and internationally or hold an actual affiliation with the group. However, these same scholars will ensure Qatar plays a future leading role in religious teaching internationally. They will supposedly lead a moderating discourse to counter extremist thought and terrorism.
This collaboration offers religious grounding of the state and abating of criticism for Qatar’s role in cultural Westernization and hosting of the US Central Command. Moreover, these Islamists are anti-Wahhabi, an ideology produced just across the border in Saudi Arabia with a stronghold in Qatar itself.
Ideology becomes important, too, when many core activists know how to move financial support out of Doha to war and impoverished zones where the crisis is ideologically implicated and politically strategic — namely Syria. They know how because as Muslim Brothers they are part of established networks of trust. These scholars play a formidable role.
Above all, the Muslim Brotherhood offers the new Emir of Qatar a longer reign. The state officially dismantled its Brotherhood branch, so it is not viewed at this time as a major contender for power. One of Qatar’s most critical fears beyond Iranian expansionist policy in the region, though, is the rise of Shi’a groups to positions of power and influence domestically.
Among numerous endeavors to avoid this prospect, in the last few years, two Shi’a scholars were expelled and a good handful of Shi’a activists have been sent to Iran; all of them were apparently born in Qatar. Beginning in 2002, the majority of Shi’a places of worship have been either shut down, removed, or are supposedly temporarily disabled from operating for a variety of stated reasons.
Some Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated scholars have been highly vocal about the threat of an Iranian expansionist strategy in the region and Shi’a beliefs — al-Qaradawi being a case in point. They have often been quoted as saying that Shi’a are not legitimate citizens and are a threat. These voices are frequently given a platform to speak through the state-owned Al Jazeera network.
While Sheikh Tamim might well be cozying up — at least a bit — to Saudi Arabia, that has nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood. Such an alliance becomes important when Iran and its support for Shi’a communities in the region are framed as a major threat. But in this one example lies a clue for what the more distant future will be like for Qatar-Muslim Brotherhood relations.
Love affairs are based on opportunism and the fulfillment of some kind of need in the moment without foresight for future consequences of action. They have no substance of loyalty and Qatar is most certainly not monogamous. Qatar’s rendezvousing all at once with the Brotherhood among other Islamist groups, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Western powers, Iran and whoever should ascend to power regionally, is highly risky behavior.
The Muslim Brotherhood itself is far removed from its original formation in goals and will not lose sight of its most earnest desire for expansionism, power and influence. Given this cocktail mix of relations and conflicting interests, the potential long-term consequences are unfathomable. But for now, and for some time to come, we have a flourishing Qatar-Muslim Brotherhood love affair.
Competing Voices: Gender and Ideology in Egypt
October 29th, 2013
Secular and Islamist discourse in Egypt share a core essence of masculine dominance.
Egypt and the wider Middle East are undergoing major change following revolutions. But what is the best way to plan for and navigate the future?
A number of post-Arab Spring political and strategic analyses have managed to move beyond a focus on the state to identify trends in order to propose solutions. Among the significant trends, changes can be seen within ideology — which is borne not merely at the state but also at the grassroots level.
But the attention given to what can be leveraged or rather contained is misplaced. Some of these works are pointing to the grassroots level but are superficially fixated on ideology.
The quick conclusion often drawn is the inevitable end of the Muslim Brotherhood. Despite the acknowledgement of lower-level politics and ideological leanings in the shaping of the state, indeed, one pivotal aspect of this political configuration is virtually absent: gender.
The Gender Question
Leaving gender out of a discussion on ideology and its impact on the future is of enormous consequence. Whether we speak of an Islamist discourse or that emanating from the secular stream, especially in the post-revolution Middle Eastern countries, there are virtually nocreative solutions for diplomatic intervention or real steps towards building trust between those of all ideological stances and thus fostering reconciliation.
Brute force, obstinate stances, and the squashing of women’s and minority rights were part and parcel of the Muslim Brotherhood-led government and also the current military rulers in Egypt.
What we have is that although critique has included ideology — to be precise, Islamist ideology beyond the state level — the larger discourse driving this critique is mainly about secularism vs Islamism. The persistent obsession with this ideological split blinds to the fact that both standpoints share a core essence of masculine dominance. With this current essence comes rivalry, mistrust and, significantly, violence.
Women’s oppression is due to a shared ideology on the role and position of the female gender. Islamist politics cannot be singled out as the only arena for the oppression of minorities and women.
It is this shared essence — rooted in the individual’s ethics and consciousness that is going to determine how the masculine or feminine essence will be expressed in home life — in shaping societal norms, laws related to women, human rights or the lack thereof, and the core essence of state politics.
More than an Imbalance in Numbers
This is important to highlight. Women are sorely underrepresented in positions of power and decision-making. However, when the gender aspect is marginalized, the consequence is not that of an imbalance in numbers.
Critically, we witness an imbalance in and distortion of a crucial essence for true transformation. Ideological positions are irrelevant; they are superficially understood. Their essence or what directs discourse on choices and capacities for civility and peace is core.
Women tend to — though not always — produce the critical feminine voice that must account for half of all the ideas, plans, aspirations and insights expressed. That includes the prioritizations around children’s needs, women’s access, diplomacy, peace, and the innate drive for renewal and restoration.
Indeed, men can and sometimes do produce that greatly needed feminine aspect more aptly than women. In my interviews with men leading up to, during and following the Arab Spring in Egypt, I gained insight into the ability of many men to imbue their activism and politics with both feminine and masculine aspects appropriately and in complementarity to produce actions, for example, of compassion; yet, necessarily assertively so.
However, in my personal interaction, interviews and observations, I gained a strong sense that the masculine essence was so distorted and in such form so aggressively dominant that women’s voices around agendas, such as addressing women’s rights or getting their children’s needs protected through appropriate policies, more often become suppressed.
Tactics include not only marginalizing women from “hard” politics in numbers, but also using laws to discriminate against them. They include banning the wife or daughter from educational endeavors of her choice or sometimes in various ways from having her own income.
Indeed, I learned about the various tactics so many women experience from their home life to public life that disable them from fully contributing their passionately felt ideas and capacities. Very recently, I witnessed an Egyptian husband abruptly stop his wife at the dinner table from speaking, reminding her that she is not allowed to speak about politics, as he continued to do so. And in the scheme of it all, that was not an extraordinary event.
The Feminine and Transformation
I also learned from many female, Egyptian activists how important they knew their feminine aspects were to transformation. For example, women expressed that the most important aspect in dealing with people of different ideological orientations and thinking that has been critical to their struggles during the Arab Spring and today, is patience.
Various forms of an inner capacity to tolerate, cooperate, reciprocate and trust were expressed and observed. Such are the core ingredients for civility to grow and civil society to be sustainable — the bedrock for successful transformation. But how many of us will acknowledge that seemingly apolitical forms of interaction in the home and in civil society organizations are absolutely critical to the future of the Middle East?
There is absolutely no other way of moving forward from a consciousness of mistrust, polarization and fear without a capacity to be civil, which is imbued by what I have experienced as largely feminine capacities for compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, receptivity, trust, empowerment, and patience.
Although men can and must contribute to a transformation through such aspects, too, and women do not always live up to any such nurturing, creative or reciprocating role, the torch of the feminine must be carried forward firstly by women.
The majority of NGOs that I entered and studied were mostly populated by women. What is needed, at this point, is that the pivotal actors behind a future transition to peace and prosperity in the Middle East are recognized and embraced for their most essential capacities at the state level, in the judiciary, in strategic planning, and the various projects and initiatives for democratic development.
Deep Democratization in Egypt: How Women are Driving the Changes
October 2nd, 2013
By Wanda Krause.
Political analysts writing on Egypt have tended to focus on the missteps of President Mohamed Morsi. Others are engrossed with how (un)well Egyptians are faring in dealing with frustration of what they are sure will amount to dashed hopes. The problem here is that all angles of critique fail to pick out what may be going right or, if not, offer up any tangible solution. Part of this inability is I think a persistent obsession with the State, especially the Islamist kind, and with street activity. To be sure, Egypt is at a juncture. It can plummet into chaos irreversibly. But it can also transition into some form of democracy. However, unless the main actors behind the transition (and what they are doing) are recognized, I do not see how any solution put forward without them will work.
Firstly, a transition in Egypt did not start with protesters in January 2011. The demands those protestors took to the streets were borne out of a movement that was actually long in place. But, it is hard for most of us wound up in the story of a precarious Islamist State and infuriated young liberal revolutionaries to imagine that it could be something so apparently apolitical. It is centrally women in Egypt that birthed the protests – both secular and Islamic women. This is absolutely critical to understand because they will pose the key determinant if a transition to democracy will, in fact, truly happen.
Few women in Egypt participate in ‘hard’ politics. Instead, women address everyone’s immediate concerns – through teaching crucial skills or mitigating harsh economic circumstances. Above all, many approach their daily tasks through a mothering role. They are in the very arenas political analysts often decree to be outside politics. And so, their activities probably seemed boring if not inconsequential for the political analyst obsessed with acts of dominance and overt reaction. But, acts as basic as helping children acquire positive values or others in their communities acquire reading skills contributed developing the consciousness of dignity, rights and well being. Significantly, consciousness precedes action.
I have seen the impact first-hand. Women who previously could not read told me now their husbands can no longer refer to the Qur’an to limit their choices. These women can read for themselves now. These women do not need to ask others to guide them – they now access information and offer it. Some no longer sell baskets of vegetables; they educate women,
But it is not only empowerment that women gain and extend that motivates the right consciousness into the street. Through their activism, they grow in civil capacities. So many of the women underscored how their activism enabled them to learn the required patience in dealing with people of completely different ideological orientations and ways of thinking. This is the type of inner capacity that sustains an ability to tolerate, cooperate, reciprocate and trust a little more – the core parts of being civil in one’s thinking and acting. There is absolutely no other way of moving forward from a consciousness of mistrust, polarization and fear without a capacity to be civil. In fact, without civility we should rather speak of an Egypt spiraling downward to incivility, chaos and violence.
Women are no small force. It is mostly women who participate in civil society. In a few poor neighborhoods, quite a good number women stated this is because so many of the husbands were lazy or simply always drunk, and from their perspective women had but no choice to innovate and depend on one another. A few elite women said they had the extra time to do something useful with their lives and felt guilty not using it more wisely. All a part of the movement, but otherwise, many men and women from all strata clearly expressed that women have greater capacity for activism – while men could have greater ability to hold down two jobs. In other words, women’s feminine nature of mothering and nurturing better equips them to give of themselves relentlessly. As an outcome, their participation in activities that produce change is much higher and enduring. Walk off the street into pretty much any of the multitudinous Islamic charities and note the ratio. In number and ability, women are key to change.
Thus, women matter enormously to a transition to democracy. However, the only strategy at this point that is workable is one that includes a) developing a consciousness of civility and b) enabling women to decide how to, as well. Women must also be included in ‘hard politics’ because a masculine approach currently dominating decision-making circles seems to be offering more problems than solutions. I am afraid that future peace, stability and security rest on the ability of women to not simply do the same but to be in the forums discussing strategy and policy, too.