CrossWare Posted July 29, 2016 Posted July 29, 2016 I found and translated this interview from a Hungarian online magazine: Original link: http://mandiner.hu/cikk/20160727_abdesszamad_belhadzs_interju_iszlam_dzsihad_terrorizmus_bevandorlas_migracio For the Jihad anarchy and war-economy is holy, the warlords are saints; the crimes are acts of mercy. Jihadism is heated by a religious and apocalyptic narrative, where the destruction of the infidel West and final victory of Islam is the focus. In reality all this serves economic interests while creates an illusion of religious self-realization - says Abdessamad Belhadj, a social scientist from Morocco who teaches and working on his research in Belgium and Hungary to the “mandiner.hu” (online magazine). Belhadj believes the Muslim migrants have the desire for the elegant West and its lavish lifestyle, but as the crisis of the second and third generation shows they can’t take possession of it. That is why violence can gather ground. Abdessamad Belhadj social scientist born in Morocco in 1974, presently he is a tenured teacher in Leuven Catholic University and member of the MTA-SZTE (Hungarian Science Academy- Szeged Scientific University) Religious Cultures Research Group. He got his first doctorate in 2001 from Islamic Sciences and the second one in 2008 Political and Social Sciences. As guest speaker and researcher works in Finland, France and Germany. He has four books and more than 50 studies published in international publications. http://www.uclouvain.be/abdessamad.belhaj http://vallasikultura.u-szeged.hu/index.php/munkatarsak/54-abdessamad-belhaj Interview by Bianka Speidl. * Recently you had lecture in Brussel about the relations of Muslims to material needs. You stated there, the neoliberal economy profiting from Saria as it regulates the life of Muslims. How did you arrived to this conclusion? While studying the manifestation of different forms of European Islam, I found the phenomenon of “moral economy”. Under moral economy, I mean an informal economical system which looks at religious and cultural works of mercy concordant with Islamic laws as market products. Then it uses its financial success to prove the superiority of Islamic moral. This economical system is embedded into the basic principles of Islam and its societal reality and relies on a circular train of thought: everything regulated by Sharia (Islamic law) must be good, so everything which works must be regulated by Sharia. The moral economy is opaque and manipulative, even so if it declares itself just and ethical. It came up as a research topic when one of the leaders of a Belgian Muslim community explained it: “While the reform of Islam could be justified from moral reasons, any divergence from traditional Islam would be catastrophic for the community.” This is what I call moral economy and this is nothing else but the economy model of Islam. * In the lecture you said the “possession is the tool of the religion” How theology becomes economy? The moral economy has interdependent religious and economical prerequisites. To simplify it, if you have money, you have it because of religion and where religion there will be money also, based on religious redistribution. By Islam all earthly possessions owned by God, when he gives it to a man, as an exchange, he expects the believer to use all of it to serve Allah’s cause. The only valid law; Saria appropriates all wealth to be used for religious purposes so Islamic law has disposal over it. For the believer the wealth is coming from God and not the fruits of work. More to have at his disposal, the more he is convinced, he must return it in a form of donations for mosque, mission and to support Jihad. With this attitude the moral economy, with continues expansion and exhaustion of resources can be sustained infinitely. The circular processes have two important consequences: the believer’s trust in Allah and he’s isolation from the state. * Everywhere in the Muslim world people are living in poverty. Why they still trusting this system? By the logic of the market economy and profit oriented thinking the situation is worse than miserable. The important difference in the thinking, that the Muslim believer has no doubts, while the western man has doubts. Self-assurance, patience and dedication is inseparable from the belief in Allah and this is an important pillar of moral economy, as you can see it, how well the various religious foundations and mosque buildings doing. This relationship to wealth explains the Islamization processes which started in the 1970’s, financed by the so called allowance economies and based on oil sales. Allowance economy is when by the utilization of a natural resources or services gained wealth redistributed on this principle. Iran and Saudi-Arabia used this wealth to re-Islamize European, African and South-East Asian Muslim communities. They think of the profit as gift from God which must be spent on spreading conservative political Islam. The result is very visible with the spread of Salafism and Shiism and the financing of the Islamic State. The moral economy autonomic and different elements present in it, example the “gift economy”, the Islamic view of material wealth, international transactions, family or clan level informal business connections and of course the significance of population growth. * What do you mean under “Gift Economy”? Profit which serves God’s cause? In the gift economy the valuables are not exchanged and not sold, but offered gratis. Someone donates for building a mosque, which will strengthen the identity of the community and he will become the beneficiary of the moral economy. This is the polar opposite of market economy, where products and services are paid for. This is a “sacred” economy in the meaning of every economic activity from the house keeping to the market, has religious meaning. One of the consequence that someone can send support to a radical organization in Brussel without any thought that this is a financial or illegal act. He is convinced that his act only a religious duty. * The state law and any secular laws means so little then? Compared to the Holy – or so called – laws the human law is weightless. The sanctification of the economy is this: every act; every transaction is subservient tool to Islam to spread, to ensure the survival and strengthening of the community. The gift economy typical manifestation is the Muslim charitable organizations. In Europe this is usually directed by Islamists mostly from the circles of Muslim Brotherhood whom have international connections from the United States to Indonesia. They provide missionary activities and support Hamas and other Islamist organizations. They also have numerous business groups and projects worldwide and in Europe. * Why do they give, when they are in need of assistance? This kind of economic system has a charismatic aspect, which attracts converts. The moral economy looks like works with God’s blessing. There is a specific expression for this type of godly providence in the Arabic language: “rizq”. This can be received without any special reason, just because a Muslim brother done well by God’s commandments and he is benefit from this. The strategy of rizq sends a message to the convert: “if you submit to God and join us, your life will be blessed.” The freshly converted learns very quickly that to receive the gift he has to donate too. This redistribution system makes it possible to survive even 30 years in the periphery without work, while he breeds the most offspring. * Where the politics comes in? The socialist and social-democratic parties had their part in the gift economy by providing social benefits and exchanging it for votes. Of course they supported the mosque buildings. This alliance at the end isolated the Muslim communities from the integration and from employment. When the Islamists become the managers of moral economy, they overshadowed the leftist politicians. Now when the neoliberal governments decreasing the social support, the moral economy is losing an important income source and as a result some turn to radical Islam, while others will follow more moderate ones whom the neoliberal system offers the role of intermediaries. * What is the connection between the neoliberal economical order and the Islamic moral economy? In the neoliberal economic system, where the state has minimal regulatory role, it need an adapted minimized society, where the people does not cost anything to the state and only earn just enough to keep up constant consumption. In this society the cohesion is very weak, because the lack of social support system and the lack of common cultural values. So nothing really connecting the people to each other and the state has a diminishing role. The weakening of the middle class is well observable with the decrease of health and education services, because the neoliberal state measures everything with cost/benefit ratios. While the government keeps up the people’s ability to consume and a democratic pluralist political system, it can keep up their trust in the system. For a neoliberal economy one who can produce a cheaper product will have unlimited advantage, important a cheap, unskilled workforce aka immigrants. The side effect of this process is the polarization of the society and the increase of right wing popularity. The objective of neoliberalism is to establish a society where “sustainable” poverty will not lead to revolts, because it leaves the people’s ability to consume, while controlling them with it. This is what I call “creative controlled chaos”. * But how Islam comes into the picture? From the various religions, Islam is the one which in its present form, both radical and moderate versions, capable to work with the playbook of neoliberalism. Some of the Islam basic principles even consonant with the neoliberal economic logic. * What are those? In the Islam there is no normative high authority that could practice control. It looks at itself as a universally valid system, suppresses national feelings and Saria which works as a primary controller, other than forbidding a few things, pretty permissive as you can see it with many type of food religious validation (halal), or even the invention of halal beer. While the survival also ensured with the moral economy, albeit with minimal income, a large quantity of people can be kept alive. The neoliberal “utopia” finds a natural environment in the Muslim outskirts where the state is no longer present. The significance and strength of these areas comes from the fact that more and more people can squeeze into them. * So the parallel societies are desired side effects in this system? In some aspects yes. I believe the neoliberal system has no convincing narrative for the people. Human rights and dignity, free speech and social care which has strong emphasis in Christian-democratic parties, strong middle class are old fashioned ideals for neoliberalism and maybe only exists as slogans. All of this looks too expensive for them. Think of it how excited the Western European neoliberal thinkers and businessman were to welcome the migration and repeated ad nausea, how Islam is compatible with the European value system. The cooperation of Islam and neoliberalism is structural and not a coincidence. * So the neoliberals are made a marriage of convenience with Islam? And this idyllic relationship is not ruined by the self-segregation of the migrants? In the Muslim world the available resources are not infinite. When the poverty is unsustainable some of the people migrate away, to restart somewhere else the same circular parasitic existence. In the Muslim narratives the migration is the start of Islamisation of Europe. They are to take the “rich land” and change the future of Islam by making it from the religion of the poor to the religion of the rich. Of course this is a paradox because poor people only making Europe poorer. A migration to a non-Muslim land can only be justified, if the community interprets it as a victory. The Islamic moral economy destructive power lays in the fact that is a nomadic migrant system and not a stable local one. They use the income to prove its moral superiority: with population explosion, continuous migration and conversions to increase their numbers in the community while exhaust all the resources, then looking for new areas to exhaust. * Is this system works inside Europe too? The European Muslim communities’ moral economy using two sources: partly the Muslim countries whose populations always ready for donations, the other one the Muslims already living in Europe. This is not a simple charity but societal market, because a mosque brings profit for the moral economy of the community. The mosque establishes school, create organizations, open stores, it has international bank accounts, provide employment for the young and also cooperates with Muslim countries. So the Islamisation has people who have stakes in it: families, clans, business men, who are not religious authority but work for the cause of the religion. Also have owner stock interests: imams and religious lawyers whom represent the authority and have its symbolic capital. I had discussions with young Muslims living in Europe and it became clear to me, even when they have a loose connection to religion, they still think that Islam is the best societal system in this world which seems to be falling apart. Good example for their view point, that they send more than $4 billion dollar per year to Morocco to build houses, mosques, to keep large families and keep the money in bank accounts there, while they are living in Europe on minimal income state welfare. * They live in poverty while they build mosques? The continuous mosque building is another example for this process. This is not coming from state money but we can see that a small group of believers can build their own mosque in just a few 8years. How? Of course this is from donations. In this process the Islamism becomes an economic architect: it recruits the young ones so they can join to the Middle Eastern Jihad moral economy and also causing the rise of Islamist capitalist class in Turkey and other parts of the Muslim world. These are all the manifestations of the Islamic moral economy. * How Jihad connected to the moral economy? At first it seems to be two very distinct phenomenon. The Islamic State had a $2 billion dollar budget at the peak of its success. The radical movements are stimulating the organized chaos, while emphasize the community consciousness and the importance of submission to the people living in the fringes, while also preach about paradise in the afterlife and victory in this one. The award is not something theoretic or incomprehensible as western man would think so. For Jihad anarchy, war-economy is “holy”, the warlords are saints; the crimes are acts of mercy. To rephrase the theory of Benjamin Barber: Jihad vs McWorld, I would say the Jihadist loves the dead McWorld, the fruits of western economy and society. The Islamist movements and migration shows how the McWorld is appealing for Jihad. Partly present the desire for the elegant West and its lavish lifestyle, but in the other hand as the crisis of the second and third generation shows they can’t take possession of it. That is why violence can gather ground. Jihadism is heated by a religious and apocalyptic narrative, where the destruction of the infidel West and final victory of Islam is the focus. In reality all this serves economic interests while creates an illusion of religious self-realization. The creation of terror strengthen the Islamic moral economy and it shows the superiority to its followers, while prepares for the long awaited victory. * The neoliberal elite still wants the Muslim migrants? The immigration is very useful for a globalist neoliberal model to wipe out national borders and establish a minimalist society, but it is very harmful for the European citizens. A many million invited migrant’s initial costs will return on medium term with the low wages. While the native European residents will become poorer because the average wages will decrease and the unemployment will rise. By the rules of neoliberalism the cheaper producer will rule the market, so it looks at the Muslim migrations as cheap source of profit. * So terrorism is just falls into the category of an adverse side effect? Exactly! They underestimate the source of two serious dangers and only looking at it as additional problems. First the fact that Islam moral economy relies on exhaustion of resources, uncontrollable, ruins the society, causes decay and finally collapse. Second that Jihad is an integral part of Islam’s moral economy, which shows very clearly that violence is an indispensable means of sustenance. The neoliberals are underestimating these risks and embracing the momentary market advantage brought by redistributing, isolationists, minimal wage communities, whom after the termination of social benefits will be financed from Malaysia to the United States. * Not long ago published German survey shows that for Muslims living in Europe, more important the Sharia than obeying state laws. What tools are available for the governments? First of all an attitude change required from the state: they have to address the individuals not communities. They should not adapt to the demands of Muslims, just like they should not adapt to any other migrant group either. The immigrant, an individual must adapt to the country accepting him. It requires a coherent strategy from the state, which contains a strict integration contract which emphasizes the importance of cultural and societal cohesion, the laws, ethical norms and accepted lifestyle expected by the society. Societies based their economy on multicultural norms for now accepting this anarchy caused by immigration waves, which only serves the control system of the neoliberal economy, while brings Europe to collapse.
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