The Islamist Factory

After the publication of a first report in 2016 on Islam in France and a second in 2017 on France’s Arab policy, Institut Montaigne is publishing a third report focused not on Islam, but on Islamism.

Why this report? Because even though the subject is still very much in the French and European spotlight, it remains poorly understood. What is Islamism? What are its objectives? Its impact? Its key players? The concepts are complex, the words are foreign, the motivations are unclear, and the driving forces behind the development of this ideology are difficult to understand. The ambition of this work is simple: to demonstrate and explain the entire transmission mechanism that leads from the creation of Islamism to the dynamics that enable its spread in France and in Europe: 

• Genealogy: the contexts in which it was born, the philosophical questions it raises, the vision of the world it carries;
• Production: the places where it is manufactured and the administrative machines that produce it;
• Spread: the men and women who convey it, the networks, both political and social, that disseminate it; 
• Reception: the way it has developed in Europe. 

Following the completion of this work, it appears that Islamism is a powerful but poorly understood contemporary ideology. Its aim is clear: to create a global project with religion as the life framework and the project for the individual and society. Its values are often opposed to Western values: group vs. individual, religious norm vs. individual freedom, inequality between men and women vs. the pursuit of equality, etc.

The response to the development of Islamism in France and Europe should be driven by reason rather than fear. To understand this ideology’s creation and dissemination mechanisms. To imagine a new organization of Islam, in France and in Europe. For European Muslims to promote an alternative discourse, compatible with our societies. 

This work is based on numerous documentary sources:

• We reviewed over 200 books and scholarly reports, in English, Arabic, French and German;   
• We conducted about 60 interviews with institutions, associations, prisons, religious leaders and citizens in eight Arab and European countries; 
• We carried out a pioneering analysis of the Saudi Leaks, a set of more than 122,000 Saudi Foreign Ministry documents uncovered by Wikileaks in June 2015; 
• We analyzed 275 fatwas (Islamic legal statements issued by an expert in religious law); 
• We carried out a thorough analysis of a massive quantity of data collected on Twitter and Facebook on the origin and frequency of Islamist content on social networks. 

Different currents of Islamism coexist, the two main ones being Wahhabism and the Muslim Brotherhood. While there are major ideological differences between the Wahhabis and the Muslim Brothers, both groups seek to turn Islam into a way of life and a program for the individual and society, aiming to preserve an Islamic civilization and to establish a universalist and proselyte vision of Islam. It is a comprehensive program aimed at codifying and normalizing social interaction:

• Gender relations (gender diversity is prohibited among Wahhabis),
• Dietary norms (Halal),
• Economic principles (Islamic finance),
• The norms governing relationships with others (al-wala' wa al-bara', which defines among Wahhabis the separation between Muslims and non-Muslims and can go as far as total rejection of others),
• Dress codes and behavioral standards (veil, beard)

 Before being disseminated to the rest of the world, Islamist ideologies were born and developed in particular countries and contexts and transformed the societies in which they were born: the Muslim Brotherhood ideology in Egypt, then in other countries of the Arab world; Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia; Turkish-Islamism in Turkey; the Islamic Revolution in Iran.  

Three Pivotal Moments  

These matrices present fundamental ideological differences, but their history proceeds at a similar pace, through common defining moments:

• The 1920s, the end of the World War I and the Ottoman Empire. In Turkey the sultanate and then the caliphate were abolished and the Republic proclaimed; in Saudi Arabia, Ibn Saud completed the conquest of the Arabian peninsula by taking the two holy places of Islam, Mecca and Medina; in Egypt, a new form of relationship to religion appeared in 1928 with the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood; a new dynasty, the Pahlavi, emerged in Iran.
   
• The end of the 1970s, the powerful comeback of religion in the face of nationalist ideologies (Turkish, Iranian, Arab) running out of breath. In 1979, the Iranian monarchy was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution. In 1979, in Saudi Arabia, the legitimacy of power was contested by a millenarian group that seized the Great Mosque of Mecca. In 1980 in Turkey, a coup disrupted political life and began the “Turkish-Islamist synthesis”, which paved the way for the rise of political Islam in the country. In 1981, Sadat, the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, was assassinated by religious extremists. Finally, the international context favored the rise of political Islam with the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR in 1979, followed by the emergence of an armed Jihad.
   
• A third break can be identified in 2011 with the Arab Spring which led to the electoral victory of political parties linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. While they do not always manage to stay in power, they are carried by increasingly conservative societies, also influenced by Salafism as imported from Saudi Arabia. Finally, Jihadism, the constitution of a self-proclaimed Islamic state within the region, and the restoration of the caliphate by the latter in 2014, continue to raise the issue of the relationship between power and religion. 

Saudi Arabia

Wahhabism is the implementation of Quietist Salafism at the state level, in Saudi Arabia. Islam is the very foundation of the state; religious law (Sharia) is the country’s legal foundation. More than a religion, it embodies an alliance inseparable from politics and religion. It is at once an Islamic way of thinking, a system of government and an omnipresent social framework.

The strength of Wahhabism and the Saudi power is maintained through a number of channels: significant economic power, fueled by oil; remarkable political stability, backed by the Ulamas (theologians), and the prestige of having to manage the Islam’s Holy Sites, a major tool of religious soft power.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Arab World

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna and quickly became a key player of the political life. Its initial objective was simple: to promote a return to real Islam in society. The Brotherhood was first social before being political: it developed a significant community presence on the ground to promote an Islamic renaissance. Its development required a “bottom-up Islamization”, i.e. through social actions that affect the whole population.

The Brotherhood organization has branches in almost all Arab-Muslim countries, which became important players on the political scene from the 1990s (creation of Hamas, Sahwa movement in Saudi Arabia, political party in Yemen and Kuwait, etc.) and during the Arab Spring, which enabled them to gain power, namely in Tunisia and Egypt. They have nevertheless failed, confronted with the reality of a country’s management, and are increasingly challenged in the Arab world.

Turkish-Islamism

Since 2002, a political Islamist party, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been in power: the AKP. Its ideology is conservative and based on religion. But it is politics that govern religion in Turkey; clerics are at the service of public policy.

In Turkey, Islamism has adopted a strong nationalist character - which distinguishes it from the Muslim Brotherhood - to blend into Turkish-Islamism.

Iran 

Iran is majoritarily Shia and is presented as Saudi Arabia’s main competing Muslim model in the region. All the state machinery is under the direct or indirect control of an Ayatollah (the Supreme Leader). However, the expansion of its ideology is limited and focuses on Shia organizations.

Islamism is a globalized ideology. From the 1960s, it spread outside the regions where it was born to develop in the rest of the Muslim world and then to all territories where Muslims are present, including in the West. Several channels formed the basis of its expansion.

Saudi State-Sponsored Salafism

Saudi Arabia has been officially exporting Wahhabism since the 1960s. It does so through theoretically autonomous institutions, but which actually operate at the heart of Saudi state structures:

• The Muslim World League (MWL) acts as central body. It is the Saudi royal family’s diplomatic instrument, whose purpose is to “organize the cooperation between the Islamic state’s different political, economic and cultural areas”;
• The Islamic University of Madinah (IUM) is a training institute for imams, preachers, and missionaries in which 80 percent of students are of foreign origin;
• The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) is an assembly whose purpose is to defend Muslim identity by educating a new generation;
• The International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) represents the charitable arm of Wahhabism, dedicated to the defense and the protection of Muslims.
• In addition, there is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) whose purpose is to strengthen cohesion in the Muslim world, mainly around diplomatic, economic or scientific questions.

Thus, Saudi Arabia's expansionist fervor, supported by funding from the oil industry, reflects the pan-Islamic ideal of the Saudi government seeking to have a monopoly on Islam, on discourse as well as on Muslims. 

Wahhabism as soft power is a diplomatic lever that allows Saudi Arabia to influence the international scene and primarily the Middle East. Its action is now deployed in different parts of the world, as shown by the Saudi Leaks, revealing the country’s strategy on a global scale.

The European Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood’s ultimate objective is rooted in a program of expansion. In Europe, they defend political and social positions that must transcend national origins. The connections between the European Muslim Brotherhood and their Middle Eastern counterparts are undeniable but they are not systematic, they do not take their orders from Egypt but share similar references and goals.

From the 1980s onwards, they took on the problems of Europe’s Muslim communities, such as identity, education and Islamophobia. They then mobilized the Muslim community and formed networks, associations and general or sectoral federations at different levels to represent this community within municipalities, European states or the European Union. The European Muslim Brotherhood draws on an identity-based discourse and proposes a form of Muslim citizenship.

In France, the UOIF, Union des organisations islamiques de France (Union of Islamic Organizations of France) has gradually emerged as a major player of Islam around two central themes: the fight against Islamophobia and the Palestinian question. In the UK, the main organization linked to the Muslim Brotherhood is the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). The objectives are similar and they rely on Islamic charities. In Germany, the Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland is less powerful than its French and British counterparts, the German Muslim community being predominantly Turkish.

While in Europe the Muslim Brotherhood was able to grow adeptly in the 1980s and 1990s, it has had difficulties since renewing its leadership. Above all, they have been caught off guard by the rise of Salafism, which has benefited from European youth’s strong religious needs and from young people’s attraction for this simplified version of Islam.

The Turkish Diaspora’s Supervision Through Religion 

In Europe, the objective of Turkish religious organizations is to maintain the links between the diaspora (about 5 million people in Europe, almost 3 million of them in Germany) and the community of origin. 

This supervision is ensured by the Foreign Affairs department of the Diyanet - an institution issuing official Islam - which maintains tight control over the imams it sends to Europe, and the Millî Görüs network - a political movement - with a dense network of mosques and associations in European countries.

Salafist Preaching in Europe

Salafism, though not predominant, is the most dynamic Islamic movement in Europe. It is primarily  Quietist Salafism (focused on religious discourse and the believers’ behavior) rather than political or Jihadist. It has gradually established itself as the reference from which each Muslim must judge his religious practice. 

This dissemination is not the work of one state alone, it is the result of an accumulation of spontaneous initiatives that certainly emanate from what the Saudis created, but which no longer belongs to them, since this development has largely escaped them. Today, there is no major Salafist organization capable of uniting the movement.

The Media

Saudi television channels, particularly developed in the Maghreb, have contributed to the theological and religious impregnation of French Muslim populations of North-African origin. From their family and friends, these populations have been gradually exposed to this particularly rigorist interpretation of Islam.

The example of Salafism shows the importance of the media in spreading ideology:

• Today, books have played a major role in the spread of Salafism, because their free and simple nature makes them easily accessible;
• Tapes were distributed in the Maghreb and in Western Europe to spread the Islamist message throughout the 1980s and 1990s;
• Satellite television channels were also crucial. Al Jazeera was able to offer an unprecedented political debate in the Arab world coupled with the construction of a propaganda system intended to promote the Muslim Brotherhood and their religious leader, Youssef al-Qaradâwî. Saudi religious television channels (such as Iqraa) have also contributed to the Islamization of Muslims throughout the world;
• Today, the Internet and social networks have taken over, with impressive force.

Islamists in France are Largely a Minority Among French Muslims

Muslims sensitive to Islamist theories represent a minority today in France. This minority is however the talk of the town. There is a gradation in the desire to stand out from the rest of the population, to appear as a community apart and that even breaks away for the most radical. The questions of Halal and the veil are symbols of differentiation; they are identity levers, norms and models that influence daily life and go far beyond the circles of Muslim Brothers or Salafists.

The survey conducted in 2016 by Institut Montaigne suggested the figure of 28% of Muslims classified as “secessionists and authoritarian”. It is the result of ideological work carried out for several years by different movements that have overlapped: preaching (Tabligh) in the 1980s, identity-based mobilization (Muslim Brotherhood) between 1989 and 2005, a movement obsessed with religious practice (Salafism) since then.

Today, the powerful impact of ideology is materialized by the formation of an alternative system: with its ideology, its economy, its social codes and its organizing principle, Halal, which is today an all-encompassing way of life rather than a mere way of ritually slaughtering an animal. Although movements close to Islamists are overwhelmingly setting the standard of religious behavior, adherence to these practices today goes much further than the militant or sympathizing Islamists group alone.

Social Networks, a Unique Sounding Board for Islamist Preaching

Islamism, be it political or purely theological, makes massive use of the Internet and social networks to disseminate its ideology and mobilize its sympathizers. On the Internet, Islamists, and more particularly Salafists, have a monopoly in all matters relating to the Muslim faith.

Saudi Ulamas are among the most influential intellectuals in the world with a specific characteristic: they are not isolated individuals but five or six personalities, unknown in the West, who radiate on Twitter and Facebook and are followed by several millions or even tens of millions of people. Among Muslim influencers, they have by far the greatest impact, far ahead of the main religious figures of the Muslim Brotherhood. Also far ahead of those who today represent a moderate European Islam.

On Twitter, five Saudi preachers are among the 16 most influential accounts within the area of ideas

For eight months, we analyzed with the company Bloom, an analysis solution based on artificial intelligence from social media, speeches relayed on the Internet and more particularly on social networks. This study has allowed us to assess the incredible audience that the major Islamist accounts enjoy on a global and national scale.

In France, when news stories or a societal issue closely or remotely affects a Muslim, there is a massive and consistent reaction by Internet stakeholders, who seize on the episode in question to condone it as an ideological struggle. That was the case during the “Free Tariq Ramadan” digital campaign, or the controversy around the young singer Mennel Ibtissem, episodes that played a key role in identity-driven discourse on the Internet.

And Elsewhere in Europe?

Emerging in the 1970s, their establishment marks a movement of re-Islamization of Muslim individuals and their descendants living in Europe.  This re-Islamization can be linked to Tabligh, as in France, Belgium or the United Kingdom, or to Turkish Islamic networks, as in Germany. In parallel, the Muslim Brotherhood movement developed in Europe, particularly in the 1980s, and in all the surveyed countries. In the 2000s, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom saw the dynamic establishment of Salafist movements.  The magnitude of this movement varied depending on the country, its legislative framework and the Muslims’ history in different societies.