The Islamist leaders today who are seeking power and position, I guarantee you, will pass into historical oblivion within a generation or two. Because the truth is, we have a very long road ahead of us. Our work is not going to be done in our lifetimes. We need to chart a vision on a time frame of at least 100 years; and we have to start now.
In most of our countries, civil society is in utter disarray. We have no popular institutions through which, and around which, to organize or mobilize, to educate and train, or to understand our conditions or advocate our needs. We have no recourse, and this creates desperation and radicalization.
In a country like Egypt, the military is quite simply the most organized, most disciplined, most capable institution in the country. As long as this remains the case, I do not see how anyone else can undertake the task of managing the state.
We are being invaded now by institutions that are even more organized, are even more disciplined, and are even more capable than any of the domestic institutions we have, including our militaries. Multinational corporations are like floating states unto themselves, enjoying borderless sovereignty, and operating according to a highly efficient, systematic, rigid chain of command, with clear and comprehensive agendas which they pursue methodically. And they are huge. They have their own rules and cultures; they instill new affinities that supersede religious identity, nationalism, and any other type of group feeling. Their logos are the new flags. They are moveable feudal states. And we have nothing that can rival them.
Yes, the situation is dire.
Islamism cannot afford to be myopic. In the United States, the major political parties draft their policy platform in the run-up to elections, stating in as much detail as possible what the party’s priorities are, and how it plans to serve these priorities through specific policy initiatives. This platform is crafted with the input of dozens of citizens’ groups and the research and expertise of sometimes hundreds of people from a variety of academic and professional fields across the country. We have never done that; and we do not even have the community resources to do that.
So, clearly, we have a tremendous amount of work to do.