From Islamism to Post-Islamism: Inclusion and moderation in the Norwegian context

This paper presents initial findings from a new research project on the transformation of Islamism in a European context. Many European countries have seen recurrent debates on Islamism. Is Islamism a threat to European societies or European values? Are Islamist movements present at European soil, and how should states deal with them? These debates, however, are seldom informed by research. Only a small number of scholarly studies have looked empirically at Islamist networks or Islamist-inspired movements in Europe, and how they have changed over time (see for example Dazey 2018, Marechal 2008, Schiffauer 2000, and Schiffauer 2010). In a new research project, we give a contribution to this small literature. We look at the case of Norway, by relying on both qualitative interviews and extensive archival study of documents in Norwegian, English and Arabic. Does political Islamism as such exist in Norway? In Norway there is one particular mosque which has been accused of being close to The Muslim Brotherhood. This mosque agreed to open up its archives for this project, without preconditions. Initial findings indicate that the mosque indeed was close to the Muslim Brotherhood when it was founded. Increasingly, however, the mosque took an independent stance, and took positions which were at odds with the views of many Brotherhood branches internationally. Brotherhood-inspired actors increasingly began to favor democracy without preconditions, and liberal rights for all. This development is understood through the inclusion-moderation thesis: By participating in Norway's well-developed system of dialogue and corporative representation, Brotherhood-inspired actors moved from Islamism to Post-Islamism.