From Revolution to Political Participation: Institutionalization of Militant Islamic Movements

Social movements often undergo substantial changes as they grow more politically popular and influential, foremost of which is the shift from a single founding/charismatic leader to a hierarchic structure of representative institutions and rational political decision-making. Such changes are said to enable transformation from revolutionary to reformist strategies based on pragmatic calculations. Despite the wealth of studies on the political development of Islamic movements, this theoretical assumption is yet to be tested, especially in cases of popular Islamic movements identified with jihad as a core element in their ideology of resistance to an alien power. This article takes on to scrutinize the political trajectories of two jihadist-resistant movements, namely, Hamas and Hezbollah. Both Hamas and Hezbollah emerged as contentious, counter-elite movements adopting extreme Islamic agendas, yet along the years, they came to adopt national-Islamic attributes. Moreover, both movements moved from the fringes of opposition to the political center and government, each one establishing itself as ‘a state within a state’. Despite their different sectarian identities (Sunni and Shi`i, respectively) and domestic political arenas, these two movements share major attributes, especially their dedicated involvement in social and community concerns on the one hand, and ideological and practical commitment to jihad against Israel, on the other. At the same time, despite their involvement in violence (in the case of Hezbollah, also international terrorism), both movements made discernible efforts to win international recognition, especially by propagating their broad political constituency and civic activities. Whereas Hezbollah attained representation in the Lebanese governments since 1992, Hamas’s unexpectedly decisive victory in the 2006 elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council forced it to take responsibility as a government. Following its violent takeover of full control over the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Hamas has exercised full internal sovereignty over this territory and won a substantial international recognition, mainly from Islamic countries. Against this backdrop, what changes can be discerned in the thought and practice of these movements? Especially, what effect had the shift from ‘resistance’ to government—or rather, the mixture of both—had on these movements. The article’s working assumption is that notwithstanding processes of popular growth, institutionalization, and generational changes of leadership, neither Hezbollah nor Hamas deviated from their strategic goals and core principles. Nonetheless, on the tactical level, they proved to be innovative in legitimizing temporary deviations from stated ideologies and policies.