Musthafa Abd. Rahman: JI is a Splinter Group of Ikhwanul Muslimin

The debate about the presence of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) continues. Some people say that the claim about the presence of JI in Indonesia has been intentionally blown up to discredit the Muslim community. People believe that JI is not an organization but only a designation for the whole Muslim community.

JI was born within a specific social political condition in Egypt. This group is a splinter group of Ikhwanul Muslimin. This opinion is conveyed by Musthafa Abd. Rahman, journalist and a PhD candidate of political science in Beirut University. He has been living for tens years in Egypt to observe and write about the social-political and economic conditions in the Middle East. He was interviewed by Ulil Abshar-Abdalla form Kajian Islam Utan Kayu on Thursday,  18^th  September 2003:

ULIL ABSHAR-ABDALLA: You’ve been living in Egypt and observing Middle East politics. Could you tell us about the history of the emergence of Jamaah Islamiyah in Egypt since the existence of this group is in doubt?

MUSTHAFA ABD RAHMAN: Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) which was born in Egypt is a splinter group of Ikhwanul Muslimin. Of course, JI is always identical to the radical Islam movement. This movement was born around the time of the death of Anwar Sadat on 1981. At that time, Egypt was enduring a sensitive social-political situation, since two years before Sadat’s death the peace agreement was settled between Israel and Egypt which was recognized as the Camp David agreement (1979). Those two years (1979-1981) were very sensitive since Sadat signing the peace agreement and making that political breakthrough was very unpopular.

That brave decision of Sadat was very different from the beginning of his leadership following after the death of Gamal Abdul Nasser (1970). The beginning of Sadat’s governance was marked by a policy to embrace as many Islamic groups as possible. It was done to stem the strong influence of Nasserism based on the ideology of Arabic nationalism. Nasserism was not only powerful in Egypt, but also in Syria and Iraq. It came along with the success of the Baathist party in taking over supremacy in both countries. In Libya, Moammar Khadafi who also admired the figure of Abdul Nasser took over the regime there. The same thing happened in Algeria, when Colonel Houari Boumedienne who was also the admirer of Gamal Abdul Nasser succeeded in a coup which replaced the previous government. Accordingly, the Arabic nationalist movement based on socialism came to dominate the region.

ULIL: Did Sadat intentionally embrace the rightist Islamic group in order to compete with the nationalist Arabs or leftist leaning Islamists?

MUSTHAFA: Yes. The moment after that Sadat declared war with Israel in October 1973. In that moment, he did not uphold the banners of Arabic nationalism anymore, but fought beneath the flag of Islam. It was different with the Arab-Israel war of 1967 waged under the authority of Gamal Abdul Nasser. We have to remember that the war in 1973 was followed by the oil embargo executed by the conservative Arab countries. The embargo which had a strong Islamic color, especially as it involved the Gulf countries.

From here the Islamic movement found its moment or opportunity from the Egyptian ruler to emerge onto the stage of national politics. Then the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and Sadat embraced the Islamic groups. Many Egyptian youth were sent to Afghanistan with the permission and support of the government.

ULIL: Is Ikhwanul Muslimin included in the Islamic movements embraced by Sadat?

MUSTHAFA: Yes. Sadat had a different political policy to Gamal Abdul Nasser’s policy. In his regime, the Ikhwanul Muslimin movement was oppressed, but they were embraced in the time of Sadat. The honeymoon between the government and the Islamic movement went on until the agreement of Camp David on 1979. After that, the Muslims automatically became furious with Sadat, since they felt betrayed. Since then, the Camp David agreement is often mentioned as the reason for the divorce or split between Sadat and the Islamic group.

ULIL: Was there any split within the Ikhwanul Muslimin before 1979 or before Camp David?

MUSTHAFA: Actually there was a split already. A year after the war of 1973 a splinter group of Ikhwanul Muslimin became known as the Thalai’ul Fath group. Those who joined in this faction tried to engineer a coup through attacking the Military Technical Academy of Egypt but failed. This faction is a splinter group that is not satisfied with the internal policies of Ikhwanul Muslimin. So the points of dissatisfaction with Ihkwanul Muslimin occurred in a sense after 1973.

Ikhwanul Muslimin movement was a very important movement in Egypt having been established in 1928 by Hassan Al Banna. This movement had a huge influence on several Muslim countries including Indonesia.

ULIL: When was JI established in Egypt?

MUSTHAFA: I supposed JI in Egypt was born prior to the death of Sadat on 1981, although it is not clear. But it is strongly supposed that it was born in 1979 with the Camp David agreement. At the same time, a more radical movement was born in Egypt which was later known as Tandzimul Jihad (the Jihad network).

So, there were two radical wings and splinter groups of Ikhwanul Muslimin movement, Jama’ah Islamiyah and Tandzimul jihad. Both these radical wings were supposed to merge and be recognized as Jamaah Al-Jihad led by Ayman Al-Zawahiri who is now the second person in Tandzimul Qaidah (Al-Qaidah network). This Jama’ah Al-Jihad succeeded in murdering president Sadat in October 1981.

ULIL: Did radicalism increase in Egypt after the two groups’ merged?

MUSTHAFA: The tendency is like that. But after murdering Sadat, the future of the merger was unclear since they suddenly disappeared. However, the vacuum in the political constellation dominated by both movements was followed by another big movement; the birth of Tandzimul Qaidah which suddenly appointed Ayman Al-Zawahiri as the second man after Osama ben laden. Therefore, it is supposed that there was a merger between Tandzimul Qaidah dan Jamaah Islamiyah. They currently become the main topic in the Middle East political arena.

ULIL: What is the main idea, notion, or ideological bases of JI as you see it?

MUSTHAFA: Like any other radical movement, JI was inspired by the works of Sayyid Qutb and Hassan Al-Banna which are full of anti-foreign hegemony and anti-American ideologies. That is their foundation.

ULIL: Is there any idea regarding Islamic khilafah or Islamic state as brought by Abdullah Sungkar’s JI in Indonesia?

MUSTHAFA: Yes. JI is obviously upholding the Pan-Islamic movement carried out by Jamaluddin Al-Afghani in the 19^th century. In their view, Pan-Islamism is an alternative system of the nation state which should be transformed since it delivers Muslim countries from foreign hegemony.

ULIL: Does that mean that the nation state concept as the characteristic of the modern state is considered to be a non Islamic concept?

MUSTHAFA: Yes. Therefore, to them, there should be an Islamic alternative of the available system. It is the notion strived by Tandzimul Qaidah with Ayman Al-Zawahiri as the master.

ULIL: How closely connected are they with terrorism? What have they done since murdering Sadat?

MUSTHAFA: There was a lot of violence in Egypt after the death of Sadat, for instance the attacks upon foreign tourist. The latest case of terrorism directed against foreign tourists was in Luxor in 1999. There were also other attacks on tour buses.

ULIL: Why do they target foreigners as we experienced with the Bali blast?

MUSTHAFA: If we look at it in the wider context, it is perhaps a manifestation of their antipathy towards foreign hegemony. But if we look at it in the narrower context, we can observe it from another perspective. Tourism sector is the biggest foreign exchange earner in Egypt besides the Suez Channel, oil, and Egyptian’s remittances of salaries from those who work outside Egypt. Thus hitting at foreign exchange occurs because it is one factor maintaining the government’s supremacy.

ULIL: what is their actual vision and mission; terrorism only or undermining the ruling government or other plan which can be considered by the enemy or west?  MUSTHAFA: As I’ve said previously, they believe in Pan-Islamism. This notion is similar to the notion of Islamic khilafah, the call to establish an international Islamic state. Hence, they wish to return to a type of state akin to the Ottoman Empire. Simply put, the notion is to establish an international Islamic state, as declared by Tandzimul Qaidah on 1998. I think in their view, that “noble” aim has been prevented by the Jewish conspiracy.

ULIL: If the objective is that extreme then why do its manifestation occur through attacking tourist or bombing buildings? I mean, why does it emerges simply as a sort of frustration?

MUSTHAFA: It is indeed regretted by many parties. They might not have any other way. They can’t seem to be able to find other ways. The Egyptians regretted, disagrees, and have even cursed such actions. To them, these movement do not change conditions at all, and actually worsen the situation. 

ULIL: What about the attitude of Ikhwanul Muslimin as the umbrella organization which initially was the mother of these groups?

MUSTHAFA: As I’ve told you before, their movement is a splinter group of Ikhwanul Muslimin. So Ikhwanul Muslimin did not support nor act against them. Those who take this radical way consider Ikhwanul Muslimin to be too accommodative or as being too soft to face the Middle East regimes. So this movement is a reflection of the dissatisfaction toward Ikhwanul Muslimin itself.

(Translated by Lanny Octavia, edited by Jonathan Zilberg)