The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned in Jordan and was listed as an illegal organization after one of its cells was accused of "planning to carry out terrorist attacks." One semi-official characterization circulated by the media was that the group, which is closely linked to Hamas, "endangers the lives of Jordanians."
This development coincided with the Syrian Interior Ministry's arrest of Islamic Jihad leaders, as well as revelations about Hamas's responsibility for the rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon, almost certainly with Hezbollah's approval. While Sharaa regime supporters are inclined to label him a "former" Islamist, getting rid of non-Syrian Islamist militants, the most obvious embodiment of the clash between political Islam and the Syrian state and Syrian patriotism, tops the list of demands made of Syria’s de facto ruler.
Such developments suggest that a security struggle has come to dominate the scene in the Middle East, and Islamist factions taking heavy blows are making their way in the world as gangs of pure violence that is mixed with only a minimal dose of politics. Traversing national borders and turning countries into conduits for violent operations, an illicit activity by definition, is the core of their political “program.” Arms, possessing arms and using them, ultimately eclipse all their causes and struggles. In Lebanon, the disarmament of Hezbollah is the number one political issue, and the same question is leaping to the forefront of Iraqi political life amid growing demands for clipping the Popular Mobilization Forces’ (PMF) fangs and seizing their weapons. With Iran weakened, this trajectory will probably accelerate.
Dominant language has taken on the task of clarifying everything that this activity has not shed light. Indeed, terms typically associated with border smugglers and outlaws, such as "smuggling,gangs," and "crossings..." are becoming increasingly pervasive in conversations about Islamist militants. Hamas adds "kidnapping," a familiar term in the world of smugglers, to this lexicon- not only because it kidnapped hostages on October 7 but also due to its refusal to release the remaining hostages and thereby render Netanyahu’s genocidal war untenable.
This same approach has also been taken with Iran, which, at least in the eyes of Western states, is seen as a "rogue state." Just last week, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Iranian ambassador in protest over his tweet about a "conspiracy" to disarm Hezbollah, and he did so after Lebanon banned Iranian flights to its country and as the Lebanese authorities work on imposing their control over its land and sea borders.
In other words, political Islam, with its Sunnis and Shiites, its rulers and subjects, and its leading state and the foot soldiers of its proxies, is cultivating the image of a security concern far more than that of a political phenomenon. While governments have been accused of mainstreaming this image, their job was made easier by the fact that Islamists have never been known for political visions and ideas that go beyond their platitudes about religion, states, and jihad. In turn, "Al-Aqsa Flood" crowned this lack, or it constituted the material incarnation of this lack. In addition, the Islamists- or most of their movements- developed characteristics associated with militias, operating as illicit groups that undermine the state and a peaceful way of life.
With their current responses to everything governments throw at them, all the Islamists are doing is affirming their political vapidity by leaning into security threats. In Lebanon, we see this in the relentless threats of civil war or to "cut off the hands" that reach for Hezbollah's weapons. As for Jordan, a newspaper tied to the ‘Axis’ accused its government of "taking a gamble on stability" with its ban on the Muslim Brotherhood...
"Addressing the nation and galvanizing its people" has been reduced to oratorical hyperbole, which mosquitos are intelligent enough to snub, about the successive victories and achievements of shattered organizations in Gaza, Lebanon, with the most caricatural being the Yemeni Houthis’ announcements of "hitting targets deep inside Israel."
Accordingly, we are facing a new phase of Islamist bankruptcy that will become another chapter of erasing the traces of "Al-Aqsa Flood."
So, is a post-political Islam era upon us?
It is too early to give a definitive answer. Islamists are masters of capitalizing on others’ failures, and who knows, we could see some of them proselytize a retreat into open terrorism in frustration, while others might restore Sayyid Qutb, casting societies into a life of “Jahiliyya” (pre-Islamic era, literally translates to ignorance) awaiting salvation at the hands of a "vanguard of believers." In any case, however, security solutions should be the beginning, not the end, or that is what those seeking durable solutions that pave the way for stability aspire to. There is a pressing need for political and intellectual formulations that drain the wastewater of this politics, cultivating a patriotism that fills the void left by Islamism’s atrophy, and putting a lid on sectarian and ethnic struggles that could embrace this or that form of political Islam. Broadening the space for furthering citizens’ interests and safeguarding their rights also remains essential, as does working on a theory which ensures, in the longer term, that politics and legitimacy are liberated from the non-political. All of these objectives call for abandoning the contrarian worldview that has often created fertile ground for Islamist excesses. However, ending Israel’s murderous rampage in Gaza remains a necessary prerequisite for meeting any of the other requisites.
