Olivier Roy discussed his latest book, Globalized Islam, in which he argues that Islamic revival has resulted from the Muslim diaspora´s efforts to assert its identity in a non-Muslim context. According to Roy, a schism has emerged between mainstream Islamist movements in the Muslim world (e.g., Hamas of Palestine and Hezbullah of Lebanon) and the uprooted militants who strive to establish an imaginary ummah, or Muslim community, not embedded in any particular society or territory.
Summary
The front line in the struggle to contain Islamic radicalism is not to be found in predominantly Muslim regions, such as the Middle East or Central Asia, but in the West, contends Olivier Roy, a leading French scholar on Islam. What Roy portrayed as the "neo-fundamentalist" movement is more interested in keeping Western cultural, economic, and political values at bay than it is in building new Islamic states.
Roy, the author of a new book titled Globalized Islam, outlined his views on neo-fundamentalism during an Open Forum on November 17, sponsored by the Open Society Institute in New York. He portrayed neo-fundamentalist movements, in particular al Qaeda, as a direct response to globalization pressures exerted by Western cultural and economic values. "Islamic radicalization is a pathological consequence of Westernization," he said.
A significant number of neo-fundamentalists are found in countries that are not predominantly Muslim, Roy said. The movement tends to draw people who feel cut off from what they see as a traditionally Islamic lifestyle, including converts to Islam in European countries, such as Britain, France and Germany. At the same time, neo-fundamentalists find themselves unable to fit in to the respective societies in which they are living. The neo-fundamentalists have "recast religion outside of cultural contexts," Roy said. As such, neo-fundamentalists tend to hold idealized notions about Islam. He added that the lack of a firm grounding in traditional Islamic cultural values left neo-fundamentalists vulnerable to propaganda calling on them to express their faith in violent forms.
Roy drew a sharp distinction between Islamists and neo-fundamentalists. Islamists, he maintained, may once have held radical ideas, but those views have largely been channeled into mainstream political activity. He cited Iran as an example. The religious fervor that buffeted Tehran at the time of 1979 revolution mellowed over time, as the ruling elite found it had to moderate its policies in order to maintain power, Roy said.
Neo-fundamentalists are disinclined to work toward the establishment of an Islamic nation state, Roy said. As such, al Qaeda and other neo-fundamentalist movements, tend not to concern themselves with nationalist causes, especially the Palestinian uprising, even if there is a strong Islamic element to them. Many Western policymakers mistakenly assume that the key to solving the Islamic radicalism issue requires a Mid-East settlement. "The idea that we have to solve the Middle East crisis to void al Qaeda—No!" Roy stated.
Roy’s theories on the nature of the neo-fundamentalist movement challenge some of the notions supporting the Western strategic response to radical Islamic-inspired terrorism. Many experts in the West consider the democratization of the Islamic world as the key to containing terrorism. Roy calls this notion only "half true." Democratization would help "isolate" Islamic neo-fundamentalists, he said, but it would not likely dispel the sense of economic and cultural alienation that drives the movement.