Interview with Professor John L. Esposito

Islamist Gate conducted an email interview with world-renowned scholar Professor John L. Esposito. John L. Esposito is University Professor and Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University. His many books include The Future of Islam.

Interview with Professor John L. Esposito 
Islamistgate - Tuesday 01/October/2013


Islamist Gate: On June 30, many observers declared the death of the Muslim Brotherhood group, and also the death of "the project of political Islam". How do you assess  these two hypothesis - why do you think they are right/wrong? How do you see the future of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and across the Arab world, and the future of political Islam?

Professor John L. Esposito: LET ME EMPHASIZE THAT I AM NOT CONCERNED HERE WITH DEFENDING THE BROTHERHOOD PER SE BUT HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS IN EGYPT.

While I respect the rights of the opposition to Pres. Morsi to have mobilized, demonstrated, called for and insisted upon reforms, I believe that the path to a more democratic and non-authoritarian state requires that change come through ballots not bullets.

The “observers [who have] declared the death of the Muslim Brotherhood” would be wise to remember the famous phrase of Mark Twain, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Or, “Those who do not know history are destined to repeat it.” George Santayana

When Gamal Abdel Nasser attempted to eradicate the MB, many, including experts on the MB, sounded its death knell. Years later they would be proven wrong. There are two lessons to be learned from this period. First, when under Anwar Sadat the MB came out of prison and out of hiding, it reemerged and resurrected itself and rebuilt its movement to become a major social and political movement in Egypt functioning non-violently reform within mainstream society. Second, the negative result of Nasser’s purge was that former MB members as a result of their imprisonment and torture broke with the Brotherhood and, convinced that violent revolution rather than reform was the only way to topple a repressive authoritarian regime turned to violence and terrorism, a reign of terror by a number of extremist groups that stretched from Sadat’s regime and his assassination through the 1990s and the terror during Mubarak’s rule.

Again, the same is true, regarding those who have declared the death of the project of political Islam. A prominent reporter for a major publication once called me up, when in the words of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran had to “swallow the bitter pill” and call an end the Iran-Iraq war, and asked for my reaction to her conclusion that this signaled the end of political Islam. And of course it did not. Years later she called again on the death of Khomeini and repeated the same conclusion, that surely now political Islam was dead. This was not to be the case as demonstrated by the reemergence of the MB in Egypt, the return of Ennahda and Rashid Ghannoushi to Tunisia and their victory in elections, the end of Erbakan’s Welfare Party but years later the emergence of the AKP under Erdogan and Gull’s leadership, not to mention examples from Morocco and elsewhere. Like all social movements and political parties, their survival and success will be the extent to which they are able to learn from their experiences and adapt their ideology and policies to the political and social realities and challenges of their societies.

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