خلاصة:
Islamic fundamentalism, which since the 1980s has become a major social current in many Arab countries, has sparked much theoretical analysis. This article attempts to evaluate the process through discourse analysis. Despite the numerous differences that separate Islamic fundamentalism in terms of political struggle methods, organization, and organizational structure from other political movements, even religious reformist currents, this article argues that its most important distinguishing feature from previous movements is the outstanding and unique role of the signifier Islam in shaping and articulating its discursive elements. Based on the article's premise, we have interpreted Islam as entering the political equations in Arab societies with Islamic fundamentalism. In this regard, to understand the discursive transformation from nationalism to fundamentalism, we will describe the constituent components of the two discourses of fundamentalism and Pan-Arabism and compare their central and pivotal signifiers; then, the increasing politicization of Islam and the transformation of Islam into a superior signifier and, consequently, the growth of the discourse of Islamic fundamentalism in contemporary Arab societies and the defeat of the discourse of Arab nationalism will be examined based on the category of accessibility.
ملخص الجهاز:
Given that discourses do not arise in a vacuum and their life must be understood along the lines of hegemonic struggles between competing political forces, each claiming to represent the demands and aspirations of the people, and also the important point that discourses typically emerge in response to previous discourses; in this research, to understand the grounds for the rise of the discourse of fundamentalism, we will first analyze the constituent elements of its main rival discourse – Arab nationalism – and then examine the components of the discourse of Islamic politics (1) Here, fundamentalism, which is used synonymously with principled Islam, is opposed to interpretations of Islam that do not prioritize achieving political power and establishing an Islamic government and implementing Sharia law.
Theoretical Analysis of the Position of Nationalism in Ba'ath Discourse To summarize the position of discursive elements in nationalist ideologies, Slavoj Žižek's concept of the "point de caption" provides a useful theoretical tool.
In conclusion, regarding pan-Arabism, it should be said that discourses of this kind, although they may be effective in mobilizing large social groups, especially in national liberation struggles around some common demands such as achieving political independence or preserving territorial integrity, after the realization of those general goals and the irrelevance of the unity of social classes and the exposure of the existing gaps and faults in society and the lack of alignment of the orientations of the demands of different social groups, after a while they will face a legitimacy crisis and their ideological core will disintegrate, and only its name will remain.
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