Conditional Inclusion (eBook)

This study explores the socio-political role of Islamist movements in Arab and Middle Eastern countries. It investigates the effect of resource distribution on the moderation or radicalization of Islamist movements in Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt. It proposes that high resource mobilization and concentration by Islamist movements lead to radicalization, while resource distribution between Islamist and non-Islamist actors results in moderation. The transition process in Arab countries has shown that Islamists' superiority as a social movement brings their political and cultural discourse closer to the mainstream than their secular opponents, such as in Egypt and Sudan, but this has led to political instability, the overthrow of the political process, and the failure to achieve a democratic transition. So, when the inclusion-moderation hypothesis is raised, we should examine which form of inclusion leads to moderation and what conditions exist in the resource distribution structure that can cause radicalization or moderation. In other words, moderation occurs if certain conditions are met in the structure of a balanced or semi-balanced distribution of resources, with a tendency towards non-Islamist forces. This work addresses a void in current scholarly work by offering an in-depth examination of Islamist movements' influence during the Arab uprisings. It explores the causal link between resource accumulation and the degree of moderation or radicalization within political movements and reveals the circumstances that result in ideological moderation following inclusion.