The Islamic movement and the post-Corona pandemic

Effectiveness and flexibility crises the
opportunities Corona has brought

Perhaps the most striking attention of those who follow the statements of leaders when they talk about the reality of the world and its future after the "Corona" pandemic, is the phrases that left spaces for mystery and opened doors for interpretation, as former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said, "The truth is that the world after Corona will not be the same kiss her"!

So we are facing expectations - convergence of affirmation - that the world in its current form, with the rules of the ruling game, and the current spheres of influence, will not be the same after the end of the Corona crisis; but how will this change? Where will its focus be? Who will lead him to his advantage?

Nobody can speculate about the complexity of the scene and the overlapping factors affecting it, but what we understand is that there are significant specific changes, which may be economic, political, and geographical, and may include social structures, but they will inevitably be in varying proportions and over a long period of time, such as those that occurred after the First and Second World Wars Describing this crisis as a third world war of another kind!

The crises of effectiveness and resilience
in light of these expectations of the coming changes - after Corona - and inclusive of all ideas and theories and countries; we face a big and important question about the future of the Islamic movement - as an active figure in most societies and part of the social, civil and sometimes political fabric - and its vision and its social and political position.

Before we dismantle the previous big question, we need a quick review of the Islamic movement's handling of global changes in recent years, especially since the start of the Arab Spring revolutions.

Initially and as a kind of self-critical criticism, the Islamic movement must admit that it has been experiencing an "effective crisis" and a "resilience crisis" for years, which were evident in the waves of the Arab Spring. Despite its positive role in its beginnings, it did not reap significant gains from it, but the movement suffered greatly, Old sites were lost, sometimes beaten violently, and sometimes harassed.

Moreover, it entered or entered into the game of stifling axes for any independent political act, as a result of two things: an influential external act which is the “forces of the counter-revolution”, and an internal action translated by the Islamic movement’s inability to correct position and the right act, and its lack of flexibility to avoid the prolonged knock-on strikes on it. Every direction.

And when we talk within this general framework, this does not eliminate the existence of exceptions here and there, or partial successes distributed on the timeline of the Arab Spring, but they did not reach for comprehensive and complete achievements, or achievements that brought about a change in the general scene of the Arab Spring.

In order to define and measure the "effectiveness crisis" carefully, we must monitor the recent political and intellectual development of the Islamic movement, appreciate the moderation of the strength and fragility of political alliances in their surroundings, and read with insight new intellectual theses that address an emerging and rapidly changing reality.

Also, we must carefully weigh the social balance of the movement and whether it is expanding or contracting, and we examine carefully the organizational framework of the movement and its development, flexibility, effectiveness and feasibility, according to the current social, cultural and technical developments.

Sometimes it is absent from the leadership of the Islamic movement that its project will not be allowed to appear anywhere or anytime; this regional and international decision is clear to everyone. So when we talk about the "effectiveness" and "resilience" crises, we mean how to face this war of eradication.

The great changes in the Arab Spring and its results, and what the counter-revolution achieved from the Islamic movement by displacing it from certain locations, and robbing it of its influence in other locations; all this and others say that the movement suffers a real crisis in adapting to this reality, and providing alternative plans and renewed strategies; and confirms its inability to present itself And her theses in a way that preserves her sites of influence. But is there a new and real opportunity to present the movement itself and its project differently ?!

Opportunities brought by Corona:
I think that the current Corona crisis - and its major changes to the structures of societies, ideas, and international and regional projects - will be a real opportunity for the Islamic movement to rise again, by studying the new reality and the spaces of change and opportunities available to it, to present itself and its project differently after Corona.

What is required of the Islamic movement is to reactivate itself in the new social reality, which has for decades influenced a number of civil and social spaces, and to reintroduce its intellectual project to suit these comprehensive changes even to the general mood of the masses.

The three most important challenges - which are also real opportunities - before the post-Corona Islamic movement are:

The first: the possibility of changing the major world powers centers and their positioning, which will provide a real opportunity for new actors, who will be the Islamic movement if they rebuild their international relations and open adequate ventilation windows with the new centers of power.

This requires moving away from the legacy of negative or cold relations or building on the past, and trying to take a new image instead of the stereotype of relations with major powers and international alliances, which closed many doors to the movement and its project by taking into account the interests of others at the expense of self-interest.

Second: To talk about the restoration of the Qatari state's power and local retrenchment, which will spread to many countries, and that will be restored within its borders. Regardless of the consequences of this contempt and its mechanisms, the state’s authority is being invaded under the pretext of protection and security, which will make it the only actor in the public sphere. This challenge, despite its risks, may bear a picture of real opportunities that allow the Islamic movement to work to enable the national project that achieves development and the revival of the homeland.

This requires a different approach to its relationship with the state as a system, and with the political and social spectrum as forces influencing the equation of the state and society, through a vision that realistically presents a national project that draws its strength from the identity of peoples, their history, and their Islamic civilization, and by finding an approach that consolidates the relationship between the state and society on the foundations of freedom and justice.

This project requires a new social contract between the actors within the state, and it may require the Islamic movement not to present itself as a framed organization in which the other parties smell the scent of isolation, but rather appear as a front and a national embracement that everyone can afford, or an open current for everyone who wants to share the concerns of the homeland and its future .

The third: The biggest change - which accompanied the waves of the Arab Spring and will take a deep and different direction after Corona - is the social change that accompanied technical development, the emergence of social networks and their transformation in society, but rather closer to international and global migration - without an alternative option - for digital societies, and storming into all areas Life.

The human of the new millennium is completely different from the human of the eighties of the last century and nineties, where the mechanisms of transmission and reception are different; the Islamic movement is required to reject the traditional methods in its discourse of the individual, society and even the other, we are facing an information space everything is permissible and available, and ideas and information are a constant flow of flow, and this means The power of an idea alone will not help. Rather, it needs modern tools in marketing, speaking, and persuasion.

In a summary of the idea, it can be said that if the Islamic movement maintains the same mechanisms and strategies later as Corona, as it was before it, then this means that it is heading for heavy losses at all levels, or is destined to retreat itself and its social base to be deflected from it.

The opportunity to stand - in a moderate, different and new way - is a real opportunity after Corona; but it will only be provided by reading the scene and the changes in a precise and realistic manner and by an active initiative on all levels, an initiative like the one that was mentioned by former Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross in his book “The Art of Governance” by saying: Who presents On initiative, it can transform reality.