Religion and politics should be kept separate to ensure stability in conflict-stricken countries, they said
By Caline Malek, The National
Political Islam has no future in the region and religion should be kept separate to politics, experts said on Monday on the closing day of the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate.
“Over the past year, Daesh has dominated large areas of Iraq and Syria,” said Dr Abdullah Abah, professor of philosophy and social studies at the University of Nouakchott. “But we are now seeing its military defeat so political Islam has entered into a dilemma.
“It was a destructive power in the civil society of many Arab countries, we saw a lot of sectarianism and divisions in the political arena but there is an end of the embracing of political Islam movements.”
Political Islam came to fill a vacuum in the region, caused by failed secular ideologies which dominated a large part of the Arab world, including pan-Arabism and socialism. “It was used to fight communism in the region and the Soviets in Afghanistan,” said Dr Ebtisam Al Ketbi, president of the Emirates Policy Centre, an Abu Dhabi-based think tank which organised the event.
“Policies have been limited to uprooting the phenomenon so far but we must look into the future of political Islam through more effective ways and discussing the roles of countries like Qatar and Iran in feeding it.”
Islam is the only religion in the world which includes a military dimension such as jihad and martyrdom. “So they have awoken this giant and we are suffering from this issue,” said Dr Mustafa Alani, senior adviser and director of security and terrorism at the Gulf Research Centre.
*picture: Dr Abdullah Abah, Professor of Philosophy and Social studies at the University of Nouakchott, (second from the right) speaks at a panel during the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate on Radicalization, Extremism and Terrorism on Monday. Khushnum Bhandari / The National
