Listing the things that need to be done is not the same thing as making a plan for how to accomplish them. Islamist leaders (leaders of groups and parties, I mean) may say, for instance, “the problem is that we are divided into nation-states, and those nation-states are ruled by client governments who serve the West; therefore, what we need to do is switch those governments for righteous Islamic governments, and then all of these righteous Islamic governments in each country can come together under one Khalifah, and this is how we can unite the Ummah under one Khilafah Rashida”.
And they are deemed to be visionary thinkers.
Imagine a young entrepreneur who wants to start a limousine service. He goes to a junk yard full of broken down, dilapidated cars; cars with no engines, no tires, missing parts, and cars of all different types. He tells his staff, “OK, all you need to do is fix each one of these cars up, and convert them into limousines, and voila! I’ll have my fleet of limos! Come on, everybody, get started, let me know when the limos are ready!”
Do you think he would be esteemed as a visionary entrepreneur? Do you think any investors would support him? He thinks he is going into the limousine business, but he has to go into the car manufacturing business first!
So, “we need to establish Islamic governments in all the Muslim countries…” Yes, we know; welcome to the conversation we’ve been having for the last century.
Their approach, generally, is to support, by one way or another, Islamic parties here and there, to help them move closer to attaining authority; whether by election or by force (and force is usually the default option when they are not electable). The Muslim Brotherhood is not alone in this approach; indeed, everyone seems to believe that what must happen is for their Islamic party to obtain positions in government. Everything, it is supposed, will be easy after that.
Yet, they do not develop a policy platform beyond saying things like “we will have a just government, protect the religion, and promote economic prosperity”; which is basically like saying, “we will be good and we will make everything better”. No plans, no policies, no details. Excuse me, but this sounds like a child, “If I were king, I would make sure everyone is happy and nice to each other.”
There is nothing wrong with setting up a basic framework of long-term goals, but when that framework is basically, “establish Islamic governments and then unite them all into one state governing the whole Ummah”; there is also nothing particularly new or informative in that. We all agreed on that a long, long time ago. The question is, how?
How do you build grassroots support for this, or mobilize the latent grassroots support for it that already exists? How do you address the diminished authority of the state structure vis-à-vis institutions of private power? How do you undertake your efforts in the community when political opposition activities are illegal? How do you fortify your movement against the interference of hostile foreign powers? How do you improve the quality of the people’s Islamic and political education? How do you learn the needs of the people, and what do you propose to do to meet those needs?
And so,again and again I ask, what are your policies if you come to power? Because, if you are elected, or if you are going to seize power, the entire basis for your popular support will be derived from the appeal of your policies. And if you have policy ideas, how will you implement them? Do you even know the demographic data of the country in which you are undertaking your effort, and do you understand how it is relevant? Do you know the details of its economy? Do you know its geostrategic position in the region? Can you anticipate how any of this information is going to impact your movement? Does your party have significant contacts in civil society, students, and the business community? Does the country even have a significant civil society?
Or are you just a group of men with an office, a webpage, abstract religious ideals and vague political ambitions?