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traditions rather than their decline (cf. Bauman 1997, Sztompka 1993). This is what is taking place in the Middle East at present. Not only members of Islamist movements, but broad swathes of Middle Eastern populations react positively both to the politically relevant classical concepts of Islam and to the newly formulated and interpreted traditions. Unlike secular political actors, these traditions speak in the familiar language of Islam. Middle Eastern societies are religious and secularisation has not taken place (cf. Inglehart and Norris 2004, Espozito and Mogahed 2007). Moreover, with its emphasis on individual morality and the resurgence thereof, the ideology of Islamism is intellectually undemanding and accessible. In a vaguely formulated alternative it offers simple solutions to a wide range of complex problems. However, the major cause of the rise of political Islam over the last few decades is the prevailing conviction in Muslim societies of a deepening crisis and the moral degeneration of their political elites. Here is where the political potential of Islam is realised, at the point of intersection between Islam and reality in the Middle East. In post-modern Europe a moralising discourse is regarded as ridiculous, embarrassing and almost indecent. On the contrary, in the Middle East and in the Christian United States, the political discourse is full of terms like good and bad, God and Satan. And this language resonates amongst a segment of the politically aware public.
(4) COSMIC WAR AND THE SATANISATION OF POLITICAL ENEMIES What this means is that not only Islam, but quotidian existence and a frustrating political reality may provide a text suitable for interpretation, especially for Islamists, in whose attitudes and activities this world and its politics are often more important than a transcendental faith (Kepel 2002, Juergensmeyer 2008). For the Islamists, Islam, with its social critique and politically relevant imaginary, is becoming the context for a critical reading of the corrupt world in which they live. Culture, including religion, is a storehouse of interpretations and meanings for understanding and making sense of everyday life, apparent social chaos, and life on the margins. The social appeal of political Islam does not therefore derive simply from a propagandistic popularisation of a specific interpretation of Islam, but above all from the popularisation of a critical interpretation and moralising reading of the real condition of society and its powerful elites. For moderate, let alone militant Islamists, this world is a place where “cosmic war” is being waged4. Islamists share a tendency to read the world in this 4
This way of reading the world is common to all religious and nationalist terrorist movements and is by no means restricted to Islamist circles.
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way, a reading that differs substantially from the rest of the Muslim population, especially from apolitical fundamentalists, official clerics, power elites and secular movements. While to the rest of society the world might appear peaceful, from the perspective of militant Islamists a fundamental conflict has long been underway, sometimes open, other times cunningly concealed and insidious. Ordinary people have not woken up to the fact yet or prefer to avert their gaze from signs of conflict. However, that which people outside the Islamist movement understand simply as an individual social problem or an ordinary political skirmish over power, fame and fortune, the religious militants see as part of a far broader moral and spiritual struggle. Everything is to play for and there is no room for compromise. In the momentous clash between good and evil, either the forces of light or darkness, order or chaos, God or Satan, will prevail. But they cannot coexist. Current earthly conflicts and political problems are placed by Islamists within a broader transcendental context that surpasses the particularity of the “here and now”. They view such problems as part of a more general, metaphysical and universal conflict between good and evil, the pure force of God and the impure forces of Satan, order and chaos, light and darkness. They also regard them as part or the culmination of a mythological historical struggle winding its way through the history of Islam (Juergensmeyer 1994, 2000). One and the same conflict between good and evil is taking place on all levels of reality. On the individual level it is seen as a struggle between faith and the temptation to sin. In the social world it is manifest in a moral conceptualisation of politics as an uncompromising battle between good and evil. And on the metaphysical or cosmic level it is manifest in the struggle between God and Satan. While most believers understand the conflict between good and evil present in every religious tradition to be metaphorical, religious militants regard it as literal. While most believers begin the fight against evil by looking within, i.e. by avoiding sin and bettering themselves in accordance with the jihad of the heart, militants believe that evil is all around us, it is an external force working upon us. It can therefore be attacked with force and destroyed once and for all (Juergensmeyer 2004). What function does such a concept of the world fulfil? A belief in an ongoing cosmic conflict offers confused people orientation in the world. It acts as a compass, providing information as to who I am, why I am suffering, and why the world is moving in the wrong direction. It is a compass that tells me on whose side I stand and against whom I am fighting. Activists therefore experience their awakening as a form of enlightenment. It offers relief and the end of confusion and frustration at not being able to understand the world. However, unless this moment of enlightenment can be elicited in the rest of society it can lead to new frustrations.
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This view of the world leads to symbolic empowerment. The individual now regards himself as part of a grand cosmic struggle between God and Satan that exceeds the merely ephemeral. By participating in this struggle he stands on the side of truth, love, light and God. Life and death take on a deeper meaning. In life he becomes a warrior of God fulfilling a historical mission for the good of mankind, and in death he becomes a martyr. This is both a source of self-esteem and provides the motivation for maximum commitment. The idea of a cosmic war also justifies the use of violence, something that would be impossible under conditions of peace. The duty of the believer is to stand his ground in defence of good against the advancing forces of evil. The idea that the world has long been at war – even though the deluded majority have perhaps not yet caught on – and that religious movements are on the side of the victim and not the aggressor, allows the classical religious concept of a just war to be dusted down and deployed. Violence is permitted for the purpose of defence if all non-violent ways of resolving a dispute have been exhausted. While for people outside the movement its militant acts may seem confusing, shocking and unjustifiable because they disturb the peaceful, seemingly non-violent course of the world up till now, from the point of view of activists theirs is a legitimate, responsible and morally laudable effort to resist the advancing forces of evil in all the forms it takes in a world understood through the prism of cosmic war. Moreover, terror and armed struggle are seen as a “message” sent to mainstream society, an attempt to lead it out of passivity and lethargy, an endeavour to reveal clearly that the world has in reality long been the theatre of a fierce battle between God and Satan. This message aims to assert an opposing interpretation of the world and to show that peace does not reign – on the contrary. Finally, the concept of cosmic war offers hope. It holds out the promise of relationships being repaired and a final victory being attainable in situations that seem hopeless, irresolvable and already lost. The vision of a cosmic war includes an eschatological narrative regarding the final victory of good, truth and God, and the promise of positive changes in personal as well as political and social life. Because religion offers cosmology, history and eschatology, it contains a powerful mobilising element that secular ideology does not offer to the same extent. Islamists have the advantage of being able to connect up and multiply the politically mobilising potential of nationalism and religion. Both moderate and militant Islamist movements build their political career on the extent to which, faced with various earthly problems and political conflicts, they identify convincingly the advancing dark forces of Satan, place them within the context of cosmic war, and promulgate this specific method of reading the world throughout society as a whole. The outcome of a religious reinterpretation of political conflicts is a transformed understanding
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