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Recent events in the Middle East suggest that Islamist political parties are emerging as serious players in mainstream politics. Voters in Egypt, Iraq and Palestine recently chose candidates and/or platforms with religious background over secular competitors, sometimes by dramatic margins. While the reasons for these successes differ in each individual case and not all of these electoral gains may be sustainable in the long run, evidence from countries with a longer record of Islamist political participation indicate that these groups will remain important political actors for the long haul. Islamists, for example, are expected to be strong players in the next parliamentary elections in Morocco. Likewise, Islamists are expected to play an important role in Syria in the event of any serious attempt at democratization there.
Attempts by governments in the region to keep these groups in check through electoral manipulation or outright repression severely compromise the credibility of their claim they are introducing democratic reform. Similarly, the tacit acceptance by Western countries of policies that seek to contain and isolate Islamist movements calls into question the credibility and sustainability of their democratization policies. Attempts to isolate Islamist movements, furthermore, are likely to lead to their radicalization, with the potential to initiate a disastrous cycle of civil unrest and state violence and/or to fuel the phenomenon of Islamist terrorism.
International actors and bodies intending to support reform and democratization in the Middle East are thus presented with a dilemma: to continue shunning Islamist movements, as they have done in the past; or to include them in the debates on political reform.
In order to discuss these issues, the Heinrich Böll Foundation in cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace organized a one-day workshop in Washington to explore the potential and the limits of engaging groups and movements with an Islamist platform and ideology.
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