The current issue of Newsweek has an interesting commentary titled, “As Economies Sink, Religious Radicals Suffer Setbacks.” Apparently, the financial crisis is killing the prospects for more political Islam. The examples given are from: Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, and Lebanon. In Turkey, the AKP has lost support after focusing on Islamist platforms instead of Turkish economic concerns. In Indonesia, the people are saying that the government should focus more on economic development – leading to the results in the elections last week. In Iran, President Ahmadinejad is up for re-election, and although it is not clear that the economy will ruin his chances, the Iranian economic woes are seriously hurting the President’s conservative base. Finally, Adam B. Kushner and Solenn Honorine refer briefly to Lebanon and the positive steps the government there has taken to “insulate its leaders from the global crisis by making savvy economic moves.” The voters, therefore, may be able to push for more ideological agendas. This commentary, however, refers only to “voters” and the official democratic processes. Political Islam in societies, which are far less democratic or among the people who aren’t involved in the democratic process, cannot possibly be hurt by the economic crisis. Among the poorest segments of Muslim societies, political Islam will still appear to be a solution to government failures – particularly corruption.
