Standing up to the Islamists.

THE SHORTCOMINGS of Islamism are, in the words of not unsympathetic commentators, manifest and legion. Its intellectual, social, political and military failures are, in the words of Alex de Waal:

 
   evident not just to political scientists and analysts, 
   but to the citizens of the countries concerned. For 
   example, at the time of writing there is widespread 
   popular support in Sudan for an American-led 
   initiative to end that country's civil war and 
   establish a more representative and less Islamist 
   government. The disastrous experience of political 
   Islam is part of every Sudanese's personal 
   experience. Yet, Osama bin Laden is a figure of 
   cult adoration for many Africans, and political 
   Islam continues to raise the banner of resistance 
   against US global hegemony. And the nature of 
   Islamist writing, specifically its attachment to a 
   utopian ideal of political community fixed in the 
   past, makes it very difficult for Islamists to admit 
   their failures. 

And not just Islamists. While the USA and her allies appear to be losing the propaganda war, despite their military and economic strength, Islamists, against all the odds, and despite the irrationality and intolerance of their doctrines, and their violent and outspoken opposition to democratic values, are accorded a curious degree of respect by certain media and deference by some people in public office.

Take for instance the following report on the Muslim Brotherhood that appeared in the Australian early in April:

 
   Australia has granted asylum to five men who 
   claim their membership of an organisation accused 
   of ties to al-Qa'ida would expose them to 
   persecution in their home countries. The men from 
   Syria, Egypt and India sought protection on the 
   basis of their membership of the Muslim 
   Brotherhood, which has been banned in Syria and 
   is considered the father of terrorist groups including 
   al-Qa'ida. Osama bin Laden's right-hand man 
   Ayman al-Zawahiri adopted the organisation. And 
   earlier this month, the Weekend Australian revealed 
   that one of the five asylum-seekers, Ahmad al-Hamwi, 
   who arrived in Australia ten years ago, was 
   a senior al-Qa'ida bagman linked to 1993 World 
   Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef. US terror 
   expert Steven Emerson said the practice of allowing 
   Muslim Brotherhood members into Australia was 
   "extremely dangerous". Mr Emerson, credited with 
   being the first expert to warn about al-Qa'ida, said 
   Britain had a similar policy to Australia, which had 
   led to a "high concentration of radicals" and the 
   establishment of extremist networks there. 

The worrying statistic is not only the number of those who were accepted by the Refugee Review Tribunal as refugees because they could prove that they belonged to the Brotherhood or Ikhwan al-Muslimin, but the far greater number who were rejected because they could not do so. The Department of Immigration accepts as a datum that "The Muslim Brotherhood is not an extremist group", and describes the Brotherhood as follows:

 
   the Egyptian government under President Hosni 
   Mubarak has, over the past decade, increased its 
   efforts towards the suppression of the Brotherhood. 
   Whilst Mubarak and his officials claim that the 
   Brotherhood is little more than the political wing of 
   the more extreme (and violent) Islamic groups 
   which have been outlawed in Egypt such as the 
   Islamic Group and Islamic Jihad, other 
   commentators have suggested that the success of 
   the Brotherhood in capturing various professional 
   groups and its successive political alliances which 
   have made the Brotherhood a de facto opposition 
   party are at the root of Mubarak's repressive 
   actions.