A brother recently criticized me for my stance on the Syrian revolution, saying that I had previously described myself as an Anarcho-Islamist, so how could I be against the revolution? I have changed, he said.
But this is not true at all. My position on the strategy of the Syrian uprising has been the same since the beginning. When I was still in jail, I wrote against it in letters to friends. And as soon as I was free to do so, Ii wrote against it publicly. I have never advocated disruption and destabilization that creates general turmoil for the population, or causes bloodshed. I have never advocated strategies that have no realistic chance of achieving their goals, but which have every likelihood of making the situation worse for everyone.
The key point about system disruption is that it has to be systematic. It has to be highly organized and targeted and tactical; not indiscriminate and broad and chaotic. I believe 100% in the right of the Syrian people to oppose and to even topple the regime, and that is exactly why I lament the path they have taken; because it will not succeed. I wrote that then and I write it now.
What is Anarchistic about my thinking is my opposition to hierarchical organizational models, and my rejection of the idea that the solution to our problems is to “establish an Islamic government”. Any government that we establish is going to fall under the category of Mulk Jabryy, and this means that we live in an era of continuous struggle against government, an era of defiance, an era of perpetual opposition. I do not believe in “state building”, but that does not mean that I believe in chaos and lawlessness.
It is our fate to live in an age of oppressive, corrupt governments. Thus, it is our role as Islamists, as Muslims, to oppose oppression and corruption, and to struggle continuously to make things better, while knowing, and accepting, that this struggle will never be completed with the establishment of a Utopia. It is upon us to fight, oppose, rebel, in the best and most effective ways possible, to achieve improvement.