Non-Electoral Islamic Activism: Dr. Israr Ahmed’s Critique Of Political Participation
Abstract
This paper looks at non-electoral Islamic activism by specifically looking at the Dr. Israr Ahmed critique of politics participation, by putting his ideas in the context of the general pasture of Islamic revivalism in Pakistan. Although much of the current research into political Islam in South Asia has been concerned with electorally active movements, especially Jamaat-e-Islami, this paper prefigures a different paradigm of revivalist that does not accept parliamentary politics based on theological and methodological grounds. Based on the qualitative analysis of the writings of Dr. Israr Ahmed, speeches, and organizational literature, the article claims that his efforts to reject electoral participation did not occur in isolation since they were part of a coherent Qurayan-based vision of Islamic transformation. Dr. Israr has criticized contemporary democracy as based on popular sovereignty, which he perceived to be inconsistent with the Islamic concept of divine sovereignty, and as endorsing moral compromise, dilution of ideologies, and early claim to power. At the heart of his approach was a firm adherence to the Prophetic approach, with its emphasis on sequential phases of daʿwah, tarbiyah, disciplined organization (tanzīm) and moral change before any approach could be made to the politics of authority.
The article also illustrates how such a non-electoral position made Tanzeem-e-Islami stand out among other revivalist streams in Pakistan such as Jamaat-e-Islami constitutional activism, jurisprudential incrementalism of traditional ulama-led movements, and the devotionalism of the Sufi-Barelvi traditions. The study questions state centred, electoral models of political Islam by analyzing Tanzeem-e-Islami as a unique model of bottom-up, non-electoral revivalism. It concludes that the idea of Dr. Israr Ahmed is a theoretically consistent, albeit practically limited, alternative vision of Islamic activism that suggests the necessity to include non-electoral movements in the wider conceptualizations of Islamic revitalization in Pakistan and other countries.
