Islamistické organizace v Sýrii, v Jordánsku a v Libanonu
Islamist Organizations in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon

Summary/Abstract: In Syria, the beginnings of political Islamism were connected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which resisted the Baath government and initiated armed revolt in Hama in April 1964. After Hafiz al-Asad seized power, the Muslim Brotherhood split into three factions (ultra-radicals from Hama, a radical faction in Aleppo, and an exiled Damascus moderate faction). In the years 1979–1982, the Muslim Brotherhood war radicalized and oriented towards jihad, which culminated in the Hama uprising in April 1982. However, the Syrian Islamist movement was supported not even by the Islamic revolutionary regime in Iran which, on the contrary, closed strategic partnership with the Syrian regime. The Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood continued getting support from abroad, where two completely independent organizations were established in 1986: one based in Saudi Arabia, and another in Iraq under the name of the National Salvation Front of Syria. In the mid-1990s, during his liberalization campaign, President Asad made several favourable gestures towards the Muslim Brotherhood by giving amnesty to a number of jailed Brethren. In Jordan, the beginnings of the Islamist movement were connected with the Muslim Brotherhood as well. However, Jordanian Muslim Brethren never represented a threat to the monarchist regime, they were legally active and became involved in the democratization process initiated by King Husain in 1989. On the other hand, the extremist Islamic Liberation Party, which was founded in 1953, refused to join in the democratization process. In Lebanon, political Islamism emerged only after the Lebanese civil war in the Shiite religious community. The founder of the modern Shiite political movement was Musa al- Sadr, who established the Amal party in 1974. After the mysterious disappearance of Imam Sadr in 1978, pro-Syrian Amal ceased to be considered an Islamic organization, participated in the parliamentary elections and nominated its leader as speaker of parliament.

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