Furkan Fatih Yeşiltaş 17070411012 International Relations.

The perspective of analyses on political movements normally works from bottom-up,

however, Peter Mandaville have sought to examine the issue of Islam as the system and
Islamisation from above. In this sense, he has elaborated the issue with a great respect to the
genuine meaning of Islamic state. He does not want to cause a conceptual conflict because
distinction between Islamic state and Muslim nation should be well-explained to address a
possible ambiguity in his work. The general work has been detailed by underlining three
Islamic states’ historical and fundamental features.

In this discussion writing, I will be focusing on Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which was
established in 1932 as a Islamic state in her origin. Saudi Arabia has passed a state-led
Islamisation programme, but the key point should be emphasized that we cannot mention
about monolithic structure of an Islamic state. What do we mean by monolith is a powerful
organisation that cannot change quickly and does not consider the ideas or feelings of people
within its entity. So, Islamic states have their duties and cares towards their citizens too. Saudi
Arabia’s Basic Law implies Qur’an as the constitution and state’s authority comes from
Qur’an. Legal system based upon Shariah.

The state linked with Kingdom is seen as the best example of Islamic state for most
people because of Mecca and Medina. The most important question is that what is the
difference between Islamic state and Islamic nation? The exact definition of the Islamic state
concept is that the state’s political order and legal system is need to be defined in terms of
Islam, shariah and Qur’an just like Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Pakistan and
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

There is a relationship which protects the fundamentals of state, such as royal Saud
family, the religious establishment, and Saudi society. Respect and support from Ulama
manages the legitimacy of royal family which can be emphasized as a natural contract
between ruling class and ulama. The conditions of this contract can be categorised as the
protection of shariah, protection of people and their welfare. Of course for those conditions,
people of the Kingdom has to provide support, allegiance and political quiescence. I think
these points are vital in order to understand why recent and former oppositions come up in
this Islamic state. Because the public voice has a limited opportunity to declare themselves on
the agendum of the state.

Another significance about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the impact of oil revenues.
This situation created a need for the new foundations of administration units and even related
ministries. The writer says that it has enhanced the government’s modernisation and growing
capacity in total by affecting the economy, industry, infrastructure, military and bureaucracy.
Even in 2020, oil revenue covers the 62% share of total revenue. Whilst there is a
skyrocketing increase in oil revenues of the state, naturally it brings the power and living
conditions of people within its territory.

In conclusion, I want to mention about the most discussed issue of Islamic states
which differs country to country but there are almost same judgements being made by world
society. Where is the place of women in Islamic states? People from all over the world
always, even their own citizens, ask this question. In most Islamic states, women have a
limited control over their own public life. They must manage how to wear in public according
to Islamic rules. In Saudi Arabia, women have no right to drive a car and they cannot go
public locations without a male family member. Therefore, the conditions of public life makes
women nearly invisible and excluded from a kind of autonomous life.
In the second half of the question frame, I will examine discussion about the rise of
Hamas in the occupied territories of Palestine. Peter Mandaville has especially focused on the
issue of failed or weak Islamic states due to various conflicts. He has taken into consideration
Hamas issue within two points. First one is that comprehensive network of social services and
popular legitimacy. Second one is competition for national legitimacy.

First of all, Hamas has a complex definition which differs according to the point of
view. Some people define Hamas as a political movement or a social welfare organisation,
whereas other group says a terrorist organisation. The problem of defining Hamas is that we
cannot mention about just one way of this group or movement. In the extremely polarized
environment, people who think that security of Israel has been threatening by the activities of
Hamas, have no doubt that Hamas is a terrorist organisation for them. But unlike those
people, there is a other group that sees it is a political movement that runs for the freedom of
Palestinians and Israel is illegally invading to the territories of Palestine.

Hamas has been established in 1987. It has declared uprising against the Israeli
occupation. Its roots can be related to the Muslim Brotherhood. After 1967 Gaza and West
Bank has been taken under the control of Israel, and then Muslim Brotherhood started to be
more aggressive against the Israeli Government by sending volunteers to fight against Israel.
On December 1987, an Israeli truck killed two Palestinian. After this sad day, Sheikh Yassin
and several MB leaders has taken the decision of founding a new political movement to
represent resistance more actively. Muslim Brotherhood announced that Hamas is their strong
arm when it was clear that Hamas was gaining power day to day from public.

Hamas was mostly composed of youths, but later it became a movement that was
charming for merchants and workers. There was no need for the bigger aggressions, youths
were only using rocks and burning tires. However, people became more aggressive and they
started to use explosive materials when Israel arrested Sheikh Yassin. The year 1991 was the
first establishment of military force of Hamas. In 1993 thanks to Oslo agreement, Yasser
Arafat has gained political and national leadership in Palestine. Hamas find the Oslo
agreement dangerous according to the core tenets of conflict. Hamas has been one of the
rejectionists of Oslo. Hamas has operated plenty of attacks against Israel during the 1996
elections which has been won by Netanyahu. But at the time of Palestinian Legislative
Council’s elections, Hamas has played role of participation and electoral victory.

In conclusion, Hamas’s situation in the weak or failed territory of Palestine can be

explained as a mode of Islamism, not in terms of establishing an official political order which
based upon Islam. It is a kind of social consciousness that in search of empowering social
awareness to the point where Islam can only become the source of a popular political power.
Moreover, this sort of regulation might be seen as preferable to the actual exercise of state
power otherwise the situation may cause a great deal of reputational problems in the condition
of failure.
 Samuel Huntington categorised that history of democratisation process in form of
waves. First wave comprises U.S., Argentina, Chile, Switzerland, France, Britain, Italy and
Spain between the years of 1828 and 1926. These movements and events had been mostly
realised by the elite class to make louder public voice. In this wave, fascist rising has been
stopped. Conditions after the first wave gave a birth to the second wave from 1943 to 1962.
The second wave was more like a revival after the devastation of fascists with the great
assistance of decolonisation. Third democratisation wave includes countries in South
America, Soviet Union, Europe and Africa. For instance in Portuguese republic, had been
taken under the yoke of authoritarians in 1933, but then nonviolent military coup has
accomplished a great success in 1974 known as Carnation Revolution. Starting of the third
period has inspired millions of people with desires of freedom, education, and right to express
themselves.

Our main issue is the fourth democratisation stage located in the Arab geography
which has especially taken damage from the major problem of political and administrative
pressure. However, world has observed that Arab spring could not serve to the
democratisation process as it was hoped in general because its impacts could only be
permanent where the first steps has been taken. We saw the sadly failures of democratisation
steps in Egypt and Syria with a great devastation. So, this problem brings us back to the
question that is it impossible to create fourth step of democratisation in Muslim-majority
countries just because of Islamic fundamentals? For example, some youths also prefer to live
in a Saudi type of governance instead of Turkey’s secular model. Even this preference is
explaining a great deal of understanding and perspectives of those people. Nevertheless
process in the Muslim territories did not started with the Arab uprising and will not end with
it.

According to modernisation theory, the share of religion covered in political or

economic percentage of society’s will be diminished when society is getting more enhanced
with the improvements of technological and industrial areas. This perspective is the key point
of secularisation. At the end of the story, religion would be excluded from political, economic
and other parts of life. It should be constrained with the personal interest for everyone as it
has been in Europe. No one can abuse religious fundamentals and responsibilities to obtain
political or economic supremacy. But, on contrary, there are some Arab groups for example
Muslim Brotherhood that are strictly against the secularisation in the Arab societies.

There are some concepts that are faced in the first instance when you search or read
about Arab countries. These can be listed as democracy deficit, freedom deficit, and women’s
empowerment. Some scholars underline that it was a great chance to catch the world for
Arab’s. In Arab countries, sometimes even if democracy is accepted as de jure, however the
de facto acceptance or implication may be ignored by governments. Although there are some
good governance examples of Islamic states, it is highly observed that public voice and
women’s participation in public life is strictly limited when compared to other parts of the
world.

As we see in the reports, some Muslims still do not trust European developmental
approaches and ideas in terms of modernisation and institutionalisation. European colonial
powers (Britain & France) demonstrated a huge influence on that distrustful view of the new
generation of Islamist scholars in Muslim countries. Those secular powers were failed during
the second wave and it led to the creation and domination of authoritarian political and
military powers. It has a critical importance to emphasize that Turkey’s situation in this period
is an exceptional and rare conditions of the nation’s characteristic of itself which shaped
authoritarian beginnings as an independent modern state regime.

In conclusion, third wave brought a new signal to call a halt for authoritarian regimes
in the Muslim majority countries. However the fourth wave could not go beyond the intended
limitations that has been drawn by the corrupt governments during the Arab spring.
Nevertheless, political movements and protests has gained new potential influence which will
never disappear until women, youths, ordinary people of the Muslim majority countries obtain
their natural rights, way of thinking and living in the twenty-first century politics.

References:

Peter Mandaville, “Islam as the System: Islamic states and Islamisation from above”, Peter
Mandaville, Islam and Politics, Routledge: 2014, pages between 203-229.

Peter Mandaville, “Islam for lack of a System: Islamism in Weak and Failed States”, Peter
Mandaville, Islam and Politics, Routledge: 2014, pages between 270-295.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1154249/saudi-arabia-oil-and-non-oil-revenue-share/ :
statistical/information.

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/monolith : word/definition.

John L. Esposito, Tamara Sonn and John O. Voll, (eds.), Islam and Democracy after the Arab
Spring, Oxford University Press, 2016, pages between 1-26.