The jailed leaders of the Egyptian Islamist opposition organization, Jamaa Islamiyah, have reportedly decided to change their political views as well as their methods which landed them in jail.
The organization was responsible for killing hundreds of innocent people, plundering jewelry shops and destroying government establishments. Their subversive activities, which created a great deal of confusion among ordinary people, continued until the mid-1990s when several of its leaders and members of its militia were arrested. The movement’s new stand is apparently a contradiction of what it originally stood for because it, in fact, abrogates earlier fatwas which exhorted the public to assassinate presidents and leaders such as Anwar Sadat.
Does this change of mind signal that the leaders’ consciences have been awakened? Or is it a crafty ploy, as some have suggested, to lessen the rigors of punishment and overcome the obstacles to the activities of the movement after Sept. 11? The attacks in the US made the activities of any organization that resorted to violence for its political ends very difficult.
I hope that the leaders of Jamaa are sincere. If so, it will mean a radical change in the political climate of the Muslim world that has been racked by violent political upheavals for decades.
There are, of course, people who doubt the veracity of the report. They believe that it has been fabricated by some government agencies with the aim of convincing the public that the government has succeeded in totally crushing the Jamaa. But the doubt about the truth of the report is, on the surface, illogical because the government no longer needs to prove anything. The organization has already been rendered ineffective and possesses little power to do anything as most of its leaders and activists are behind bars.
The Jamaa leadership has been convinced that its efforts have been a waste because it was unable to bring about the fall of the government. All similar organizations in the Muslim world have failed to achieve political change in the countries where they operated. The Sudanese revolution and the subsequent takeover of the government by an alliance, including the Islamic movement, was an exceptional one. Basically, it was not a revolution masterminded by an Islamic movement. It was, in fact, a coup led by the military which found an ally in the lslamist movement. The movement had to withdraw later from the alliance when it found the alliance going against what it saw as its interests.
Barring this partial involvement, the movements of violence did not achieve anything anywhere. On the other hand, their rivals - governments— increased their popularity because of the notoriety of the Islamist movements which terrorized the people with merciless murders and massive destruction.
The attacks of Sept. 11 in the United States were a mortal blow to the organizations of violence as those who supported or approved their activities or exploited them no longer dared to challenge the international alliance against terror.
Since then, the organizations of violence have been put under international surveillance which is unlikely to diminish or end in the foreseeable future. Since the leaders of the Jamaa have realized some basic realities, it is quite reasonable to believe that their change is genuine and not a ploy or something made up for effect.
