8

Islam, the Middle East and the

Pan-Islamic Movement
Sohail H. Hashmi

Introduction1

Pan-Islam is an ideology calling for the unity of Muslim peoples world-

wide on the basis of their shared Islamic identity. Apart from this basic
definition, pan-Islam, historically and today, is characterised by great
diversity of motives, goals and tactics. It ranges from what we could
call solidarist visions at one end of the spectrum to pluralist visions at
the other. Solidarist notions of pan-Islam themselves find myriad expres-
sions. Some appeal to idealised versions of Islamic history, calling for the
‘reconstituting’ of the caliphate, one that politically unites most Muslims
in a single state, a ‘new’ dar al-islam. Others envisage pan-Islamic solidar-
ity in cosmopolitan terms, creating a community of individual Muslims
linked through transnational, rather than intergovernmental, institu-
tions. According to this vision, the umma has a life apart from the state
or states. At the pluralist end of the spectrum, pan-Islam accommodates
itself to the realities of a politically divided dar al-islam and a polyglot
umma. Here, pan-Islam finds expression in internationalist terms, as an
interstate society of Muslim states that is a subset of the universal interna-
tional society. All member states are in good standing with the universal
international society and abide by its constitutive principles in their rela-
tions with each other and with non-Muslim states. But the pan-Islamic
ideals come into play in special obligations and claims that Muslim states
have in relation to one another.
The Middle East has figured importantly in all pan-Islamic schemes
because of sacred geography and historical memory. Islam’s holiest sites –
Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem – are located in the region, as are the
capitals of the early caliphate – Medina, Damascus and Baghdad. Istan-
bul was not only the seat of the Ottoman Empire and the embodiment

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B. Buzan et al. (eds.), International Society and the Middle East

© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2009
 Islam, the Middle East and the Pan-Islamic Movement 171

of Islamic political power for nearly 500 years, it was also envisaged
by many Muslims as the epicentre for the propagation of pan-Islam in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Pan-Islam, one could
argue, is devoid of its emotive core if it does not to some extent include
the Middle East in it.
Yet over the past century, pan-Islam has not been a major ideologi-
cal force in Middle East politics, nor have Middle Easterners generally
been its leading proponents. After the flurry of pan-Islamic agitation
centring on the fate of the caliphate in the years immediately before and
after the First World War, the Middle East receded in importance in pan-
Islamic politics. Ethnic nationalism rather than pan-Islam proved the
more potent and contentious ideology in the region. The Turks firmly
renounced any claims to Islamic leadership under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
and set about creating a secular Turkish Republic. The Iranians, as Shi‘i
Muslims, were disadvantaged in asserting pan-Islamic leadership, and,
under the two Pahlavi shahs, they had no desire to do so. The Islamic
Republic of Iran’s efforts to disseminate its revolutionary zeal abroad
were derailed by the devastating Iran–Iraq War. As for the Arabs, the
secular ideology of pan-Arabism proved the dominant challenge to the
emerging Arab states, with pan-Islam taking a decidedly secondary role
to it. Pan-Arabism and pan-Islam always existed in ambivalent tension
with each other, sometimes reconciled, sometimes at odds. The political
and military weakness of the Arab states, so graphically demonstrated by
their repeated losses to Israel, belied not only pan-Arab claims to unity
and strength, but also Arab assertions to primacy in the Muslim world.
At the same time, however, the demise of pan-Arabism following the
Six Day War of 1967 opened the way for a reassertion of pan-Islamic
sentiments as one component of the general Islamic resurgence of the
1970s. The Middle East, thanks in large part to the vast oil wealth of
the Gulf Arab states, became once again a base for the generation and
propagation of pan-Islamic ideals and activity. The Organisation of the
Islamic Conference (OIC), headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is but
the most prominent manifestation of the various expressions pan-Islam
has taken during the past 40 years.
This chapter explores the historical evolution and current significance
of pan-Islam to the regional politics of the Middle East. Pan-Islam here is
understood broadly, encompassing both solidarist and pluralist visions,
as outlined above, which find expression in interstate, transnational
and interhuman domains. This chapter analyses the multiple roles Islam
plays in creating, sustaining or undermining the primary and secondary
institutions of the region. More broadly, this chapter asks the question