Blurring geopolitics: Party Politics and Islamist Political Parties in North Africa

Extremist Islamist political organisations or parties eschew two fundamental features of competitive party politics: a) unequivocal support of secular pluralism and unrepentant adherence to the freedom of choice between a multitude of diff erent ideologies (non-Muslim confessional or secular), and b) the process, outcome and ultimate consequences of entry into competitive politics and its possibilities for organising or regulating human aff airs.2 For extremist Islamists, in both cases, the ultimate objective of state capture is the creation of an Islamic state hardly amenable to conventional geopolitics, which bestows sovereignty on God and not the state or people. Secular state or peoples’ sovereignty, in the Islamists’ view, decries the call for ensuring the divine authenticity of the scripture and the universality of the Muslim ummah (or community of believers).

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