CHAPTER 10
The Shifting Politics of Identity
Abdulkader Tayob
Introduction
The Six Day War of 1967 marked a turning point in the modern history of
Islam. In a matter of a few days, the Israeli army devastated the armies of both
Egypt and Syria, and with it the hopes and visions of Arab nationalism and
socialism. Many Muslims, particularly Arabs who had pinned their hopes on
the newly independent states, began a slow and inexorable turn to the past.
The heritage (turath) of Islam, Islamic history and Islamic civilisation became
a source, a refuge and a solace of the authentic self that would save the Arab
Muslim from the humiliation of the present, and point towards a brighter
future. Another equally strong sign came approximately six years later when
Arab governments in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) decided to use oil as a weapon against the United States of America
and its allies for unconditionally supporting Israel (Stork 1974; Korany 1984).
Notwithstanding the political complexity of the oil weapon in relation to inter-
Arab confl ict between conservative and radical regimes, this too became a sig-
nifi cant sign of Islam’s new visibility. It signalled to the world, and to Muslims
even more so, that the economic resources of Muslim countries could be
marshalled to secure an honourable place in the contemporary world. Another
six years later, and with the fall of the Shah of Iran, there no longer remained
any doubt that Muslim identities would play a signifi cant role in the political
landscape. It was the Iranian Revolution, in particular, that sent the strongest
signal of all that Islam was going to play a signifi cant role in politics. Symbols
of identity dominated developments in the economic and political spheres, but
personal constructions of identities were also under way in the choice of dress
codes, art, education and, of course, religious devotion. The political and eco-
nomic events sometimes obscured the less dramatic turn towards identity on
an individual, personal level. Identity in all its dimensions became a signifi cant
feature of Muslim individuals and societies.
Muslim identities may be compared and contrasted with related develop-
ments in other parts of the world and in different historical and cultural con-
texts. If we cast our view to developments in Europe and the United States in
the 1960s, we discover a comparable basis for thinking about Muslim identities.
The events of 1968 fi rst in Paris and then in other parts of the Western world