http://monthlyreview.org/1207amin.htm in which Samir Amin argues that political islam mirrors the u.s. rightwing's strategy of turning everything into a "culture war" and does an effective job of applying bandaids to gangrene with its 'third way', civil society approach to social problems:
:every current of political Islam chooses to conduct its struggle on the
terrain of culturebut "culture" reduced in actual fact to the conventional
affirmation of belonging to a particular religion. ... The exclusive
emphasis on culture allows political Islam to eliminate from every sphere
of life the real social confrontations between the popular classes and the
globalized capitalist system that oppresses and exploits them. The
militants of political Islam have no real presence in the areas where
actual social conflicts take place and their leaders repeat incessantly
that such conflicts are unimportant. Islamists are only present in these
areas to open schools and health clinics. But these are nothing but works
of charity and means for indoctrination. They are not means of support for
the struggles of the popular classes against the system responsible for
their poverty.
(Aside: For the last 2 lines, dewd deserves a hummer.... I really love this analysis of the poverty of civil society/third way thinking. Outstanding. I wish he'd developed it more.)
"On the terrain of the real social issues, political Islam aligns itself with the camp of dependent capitalism and dominant imperialism. It defends the principle of the sacred character of property and legitimizes inequality and all the requirements of capitalist reproduction. ... Political Islam is not only reactionary on certain questions (notably concerning the status of women) and perhaps even responsible for fanatic excesses directed against non-Muslim citizens (such as the Copts in Egypt)it is fundamentally reactionary and therefore obviously cannot participate in the progress of peoples' liberation."
Amin takes on arguments that leftists should support political Islam. He sees three major aspects of this argument outline below. What I appreciated about this article was that it's by far the strongest argument I've seen yet that political Islam is in no way progressive or revolutionary and is, rather, regressive and ultimately supports imperialism:
1. "political Islam mobilizes numerous popular masses, which cannot be ignored or scorned."
2. "political Islam, even if it is reactionary in terms of social proposals, is "anti-imperialist."
3. "the necessity of combating Islamophobia."
http://monthlyreview.org/1207amin.htm
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