Date & Time: Sunday 18 May, 4PM – 6PM
Venue: Graha Pemuda, Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/usrah-on-has-political-islam-failed-tickets-11594662949

The “Arab Spring’ that opened a door for Islamists to come to power through ballot boxes posed a serious challenge to the ideology behind those movements. The so-called ‘neo-fundamentalists’ seemingly fail to find effective solutions to economic and social problems of their peoples.

Islamists that concentrate mostly on certain aspects of Islam as morals, mixed education, Western intrusion, proved failed to fully exercise the ideas and principles of Islamic governance in the Qur’an. Inability of the newly elected politicians, sometimes modernized only on the surface, to provide effective economic programs resulted in inability to solve the problems of the countries that had undergone the hurricane of ‘Arab Awakening’. Muslim Brotherhood was seen unable to prove the slogan “Islam is the solution” to be the real solution.

This makes the participants of political process in the Middle East and North Africa rethink the methods of ruling a state. Indeed, separation of state and religion and the modest place of Islam in governmental affairs in several post-colonial countries was not only a cultural influence of metropoles but also a necessity of pragmatic approach to state affairs. Perhaps the Islamist parties should concentrate on producing a cure to social problems that triggered the “Arab Spring’ which have less to do with morals and more with economic hardships.