This article is about the political Islamic movement. For the religion of Islam see Islam. For scholarship on Islam see Islamic studies.
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Egypt's Sufis see Islamist threat after Mubarak
CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Down the narrow alleyways of Cairo's Sayidda Zeinab neighbourhood, 100 men sway their heads and clap in rhythm as they invoke God's name.
CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Down the narrow alleyways of Cairo's Sayidda Zeinab neighbourhood, 100 men sway their heads and clap in rhythm as they invoke God's name.
Islamist - definition of Islamist by the Free Online ...
Translations of Islamist. Islamist synonyms, Islamist antonyms. Information about Islamist in the free online English dictionary and encyclopedia. ...
Translations of Islamist. Islamist synonyms, Islamist antonyms. Information about Islamist in the free online English dictionary and encyclopedia. ...
Islamism (Islam+-ism; Arabic: al-islmiyyah) also Arabic: Islm siys lit. "Political Islam" is a set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system; that modern Muslims must return to the roots of their religion and unite politically. Islamism is a controversial term and definitions of it sometimes vary. Leading Islamist thinkers emphasized the enforcement of sharia (Islamic law) on Muslims; of pan-Islamic political unity; and of the elimination of non-Muslim particularly western military economic political social or cultural influences in the Muslim world which they believe to be incompatible with Islam.1
Egypt's Sufis see Islamist threat after Mubarak
CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Down the narrow alleyways of Cairo's Sayidda Zeinab neighborhood, 100 men sway their heads and clap in rhythm as they invoke God's name.
CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Down the narrow alleyways of Cairo's Sayidda Zeinab neighborhood, 100 men sway their heads and clap in rhythm as they invoke God's name.
The Communists and Islammunists are allies http www cornermark com hiddenfolder enemies islamist communist jpg http www cornermark com hiddenfolder enemies islamist communist2 jpg The resurgence of Nazism in Syria Assad Lebanon with Hamas and Hezbollah is very alarming http www cornermark com
http://www.ww4report.com/node/1040
Islamism - LookLex Encyclopaedia
The Islamist construction of a world image involves several ideas about wrong being done ... The Islamist view on women vary a lot, from extremely conservative to more liberal. ...
The Islamist construction of a world image involves several ideas about wrong being done ... The Islamist view on women vary a lot, from extremely conservative to more liberal. ...
Some observers suggest Islamism's tenets are less strict and can be defined as a form of identity politics or "support for Muslim identity authenticity broader regionalism revivalism and revitalization of the community".2
Erdogan leads Turkey - and the Middle East
Situating oneself in a fairly recent decade, if one were to suggest that someday Turkey, a staunchly secularist country, could have an Islamist head of government, it would have seemed a joke.
Situating oneself in a fairly recent decade, if one were to suggest that someday Turkey, a staunchly secularist country, could have an Islamist head of government, it would have seemed a joke.
http www cornermark com hiddenfolder enemies sadr guevara4 jpg The Communists and Islammunists are allies http www cornermark com hiddenfolder enemies islamist communist jpg http www cornermark com hiddenfolder enemies islamist communist2 jpg The resurgence of Nazism in Syria Assad
http://www.ww4report.com/node/1040
Islamism encyclopedia topics | Reference.com
Leading Islamist thinkers emphasized the desire to apply many aspects ... The Islamist group Hezbollah in Lebanon participates in both elections and armed ...
Leading Islamist thinkers emphasized the desire to apply many aspects ... The Islamist group Hezbollah in Lebanon participates in both elections and armed ...
Many of those described as "Islamists" oppose the use of the term and claim that their political beliefs and goals are simply an expression of Islamic religious belief. Similarly some experts favour the term activist Islam34 or political Islam instead.5
Police in Sudan Break Up Islamist Demonstration
Police used tear gas and batons to break up an Islamist demonstration Saturday calling for more troops in disputed southern border regions less than a month before the south's independence, a spokesman for the leading Islamist party said.
Police used tear gas and batons to break up an Islamist demonstration Saturday calling for more troops in disputed southern border regions less than a month before the south's independence, a spokesman for the leading Islamist party said.
a upprta bli snum eigin rum N bk sem heitir The Islamist fjallar um etta Hn er eftir kornungan mann Ed Husain sem netjaist fgasinnaum slamistum gegn vilja foreldra sinna sem eru hfsamt trflk fr trarskla til Saudi Arabu en s villu sns vegar Husain sem er ttaur fr Bangla Desh segir a mslimar
http://eyjan.is/silfuregils/2007/07/05
Islamist.Com
Islamist:Com: Documenting the rise of Political Islam and the Islamists on the world stage
Islamist:Com: Documenting the rise of Political Islam and the Islamists on the world stage
Central figures of modern Islamism include Taqiuddin al-Nabhani Abul Ala Maududi6 Sayyid Qutb Hasan al-Banna and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.7
Contents
1 Definitions
2 History of usage
3 Relation with Islam
4 Influence
5 Sources of strength
5.1 Alienation from the West
5.2 Resurgence of Islam
5.3 Saudi Arabian funding
5.3.1 Grand Mosque Seizure
5.4 Dissatisfaction with the status quo
5.5 Shelter of the mosque
5.6 Charitable work
5.7 Power of identity politics
6 Criticism
7 History
8 Predecessor movements
8.1 Early history
8.2 Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi
8.3 Muslim Brotherhood
8.4 Sayyid Qutb
8.5 Six Day War of 1967
8.6 Islamic Republic in Iran
8.7 Pakistan's Islamization campaign
8.8 Afghanistan
8.9 Persian Gulf War
8.10 Jihad movements of Egypt
8.11 Sudan
8.12 Algeria
8.13 Afghanistan Taliban
8.14 Attacks on civilians
8.15 Hizb ut-Tahrir
8.16 Turkey
8.17 London
9 Action against
10 Post 9/11 issues
11 Other countries
12 Movements
13 See also
14 References
15 Further reading
16 External links
Definitions
Turkey's Islamist-based AKP keeps majority in parliamentary election
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, riding a wave of support from the pious poor and Muslim middle class, garners a majority of parliamentary seats, setting up a third term for Erdogan. No pressing matter of state like the economy or foreign policy compelled Alayrettin Ayyaldiz to head to a polling station in his modest Istanbul neighborhood Sunday and ...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, riding a wave of support from the pious poor and Muslim middle class, garners a majority of parliamentary seats, setting up a third term for Erdogan. No pressing matter of state like the economy or foreign policy compelled Alayrettin Ayyaldiz to head to a polling station in his modest Istanbul neighborhood Sunday and ...
Islamist | Define Islamist at Dictionary.com
Islamist definition at Dictionary.com, a free online dictionary with pronunciation, synonyms and translation. Look it up now!
Islamist definition at Dictionary.com, a free online dictionary with pronunciation, synonyms and translation. Look it up now!
Islamism has been defined as:
"the belief that Islam should guide social and political as well as personal life"8
"the Islamic ideology that guides society as a whole and that teaches law must be in conformity with the Islamic sharia"9
an Islamic "movement that seeks cultural differentiation from the West and reconnection with the pre-colonial symbolic universe"10
"the organised political trend owing its modern origin to the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928 that seeks to solve modern political problems by reference to Muslim texts"11
"the whole body of thought which seeks to invest society with Islam which may be integrationist but may also be traditionalist reform-minded or even revolutionary"11
"the active assertion and promotion of beliefs prescriptions laws or policies that are held to be Islamic in character"3
a movement of "Muslims who draw upon the belief symbols and language of Islam to inspire shape and animate political activity;" which may contain moderate tolerant peaceful activists and/or those who "preach intolerance and espouse violence."12
a term "used by outsiders to denote a strand of activity which they think justifies their misconception of Islam as something rigid and immobile a mere tribal affiliation."713
Somalia's Al Shabaab movement claims responsibility for bomb that killed minister
Somalia's Islamist Al Shabaab movement has claimed responsibility for Friday's bomb attack that killed the country's interior minister, saying it was part of their "holy war" against the Somali government and African Union (AU) peacekeepers.
Somalia's Islamist Al Shabaab movement has claimed responsibility for Friday's bomb attack that killed the country's interior minister, saying it was part of their "holy war" against the Somali government and African Union (AU) peacekeepers.
Islamist terrorism - Definition | WordIQ.com
Islamist terrorism, sometimes called Islamic terrorism, is terrorism that is carried out ... The term Islamist, though often used generically for any political or ...
Islamist terrorism, sometimes called Islamic terrorism, is terrorism that is carried out ... The term Islamist, though often used generically for any political or ...
Islamism takes different forms and spans a wide range of strategies and tactics and thus is not a united movement.
Turkey votes in parliamentary polls
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) -- Turks went to the polls on Sunday in parliamentary elections, with the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) seeking to win a third straight term in office. ollsters mainly expect the AKP, bolstered by economic stability in the country, to grab an easy victory with a minor loss of votes compared to its 47 percent showing in the 2007 elections.
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) -- Turks went to the polls on Sunday in parliamentary elections, with the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) seeking to win a third straight term in office. ollsters mainly expect the AKP, bolstered by economic stability in the country, to grab an easy victory with a minor loss of votes compared to its 47 percent showing in the 2007 elections.
Islamist Watch
ISLAMIST WATCH, a project of the Middle East Forum, combats the ideas and institutions of lawful Islamism in the United States and throughout the West. ...
ISLAMIST WATCH, a project of the Middle East Forum, combats the ideas and institutions of lawful Islamism in the United States and throughout the West. ...
Moderate reformists who accept and work within the democratic process include the Justice and Development Party of Turkey Tunisian author and reformer Rashid Al-Ghannouchi and Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. The Islamist group Hezbollah in Lebanon participates in both elections and armed attacks seeking to abolish the state of Israel.
With tear gas and batons, police in Sudan break up Islamist demonstration backing army
KHARTOUM, Sudan — Police used tear gas and batons to break up an Islamist demonstration Saturday calling for more troops in disputed southern border regions less than a month before the south’s independence, a spokesman for the leading Islamist party said. North and south Sudan fought a more than two-decade civil war that ended with a 2005 peace agreement, and the south voted overwhelmingly for ...
KHARTOUM, Sudan — Police used tear gas and batons to break up an Islamist demonstration Saturday calling for more troops in disputed southern border regions less than a month before the south’s independence, a spokesman for the leading Islamist party said. North and south Sudan fought a more than two-decade civil war that ended with a 2005 peace agreement, and the south voted overwhelmingly for ...
Islamic terrorism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Transnational Islamist ideology, specifically of the militant Islamists, assert ... Transnational Islamist ideology, specifically of the militant Islamists, assert ...
Transnational Islamist ideology, specifically of the militant Islamists, assert ... Transnational Islamist ideology, specifically of the militant Islamists, assert ...
Groups such as the Jamaat-e-Islami of Pakistan and the Sudanese Brotherhood favored a top-down road to power by military coup d'tat.14 The radical Islamists al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad reject entirely democracy and self-proclaimed Muslims they find overly moderate and preach violent jihad urging and conducting attacks on a religious basis.
Police in Sudan break up Islamist demonstration
MOHAMMED OSMAN Associated Press KHARTOUM, Sudan Police used tear gas and batons to break up an Islamist demonstration Saturday calling for more troops in disputed southern border regions less than a month before the south's independence, a spokesman for the leading Islamist party said. North and south Sudan fought a more than two-decade civil war that ended with a 2005 peace agreement, and the ...
MOHAMMED OSMAN Associated Press KHARTOUM, Sudan Police used tear gas and batons to break up an Islamist demonstration Saturday calling for more troops in disputed southern border regions less than a month before the south's independence, a spokesman for the leading Islamist party said. North and south Sudan fought a more than two-decade civil war that ended with a 2005 peace agreement, and the ...
Islamist: Latest News, Videos, Photos | Times of India
See Islamist Latest News, Photos, Biography, Videos and Wallpapers. Islamist profile on Times of India
See Islamist Latest News, Photos, Biography, Videos and Wallpapers. Islamist profile on Times of India
Another major division within Islamism is between the fundamentalist "guardians of the tradition" of the Salafism or Wahhabi movement and the "vanguard of change" centered on the Muslim Brotherhood.15 Olivier Roy argues that "Sunni pan-Islamism underwent a remarkable shift in the second half of the 20th century" when the Muslim Brotherhood movement and focus on Islamistation of pan-Arabism was eclipsed by the Salafi movement with its emphasis on "sharia rather than the building of Islamic institutions" and rejection of Shia Islam.16
History of usage
The term Islamism was coined in eighteenth-century France as a way of referring to Islam. Earliest known use of the term identified by the Oxford English Dictionary is 1747.17 By the turn of the twentieth century it had begun to be displaced by the shorter and purely Arabic term Islam and by 1938 when Orientalist scholars completed The Encyclopaedia of Islam seems to have virtually disappeared from the English language.7
The term Islamism is considered to have first begun to acquire its contemporary connotations in French academia between the late 1970s and late 1980s. From French it began to migrate to the English language in the mid-1980s and in recent years has largely displaced the term Islamic fundamentalism in academic circles.7
The use of the term Islamism was at first "a marker for scholars more likely to sympathize" with new Islamic movements; however as the term gained popularity it became more specifically associated with political groups such as the Taliban or the Algerian Armed Islamic Group as well as with highly publicized acts of violence.7
"Islamists" who have spoken out against the use of the term insisting they are merely "Muslims" include Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah the spiritual mentor of Hizbullah and Abbassi Madani leader of the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front.7
A 2003 article in Middle East Quarterly states:
In summation the term Islamism enjoyed its first run lasting from Voltaire to the First World War as a synonym for Islam. Enlightened scholars and writers generally preferred it to Mohammedanism. Eventually both terms yielded to Islam the Arabic name of the faith and a word free of either pejorative or comparative associations. There was no need for any other term until the rise of an ideological and political interpretation of Islam challenged scholars and commentators to come up with an alternative to distinguish Islam as modern ideology from Islam as a faith.
7
Relation with Islam
Further information: Political aspects of Islam
Al-Liwaa the "state flag of the Islamic Caliphate"
The Raya or "black flag of Jihad"
The concept Islamism is controversial not just because it posits a political role for Islam but also because its supporters believe their views merely reflect Islam while the contrary idea that Islam is or can be apolitical is an error. Scholars and observers who do not believe that Islam is a political ideology include Fred Halliday John Esposito and Muslim intellectuals like Javed Ahmad Ghamidi.
Islamists have asked the question "If Islam is a way of life how can we say that those who want to live by its principles in legal social political economic and political spheres of life are not Muslims but Islamists and believe in Islamism not just Islam"18 Similarly a writer for the International Crisis Group maintains that "the conception of 'political Islam'" is a creation of Americans to explain the Iranian Islamic Revolution. In reality apolitical Islam was an historical fluke of the "shortlived heyday of secular Arab nationalism between 1945 and 1970" and it is quietist/non-political Islam not Islamism that requires explanation19
On the other hand Muslim-owned and run media have used the terms "Islamist" and "Islamism" as distinguished from Muslim and Islam to distinguish groups such as the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria20 or Jamaa Islamiya in Egypt21 which actively seek to implement Islamic law from mainstream Muslim groups.
Another source distinguishes Islamist from Islamic "by the fact that the latter refers to a religion and culture in existence over a millennium whereas the first is a political/religious phenomenon linked to the great events of the 20th century". Islamists have at least at times defined themselves as "Islamiyyoun/Islamists" to differentiate themselves from "Muslimun/Muslims".22
According to historian Bernard Lewis Islamism (or as he terms it "activist" Islam) along with "quietism" form two "particular ... political traditions" in Islam.
The arguments in favor of both are based as are most early Islamic arguments on the Holy Book and on the actions and sayings of the Prophet.
The quietist tradition obviously rests on the Prophet as sovereign as judge and statesman. But before the Prophet became a head of state he was a rebel. Before he travelled from Mecca to Medina where he became sovereign he was an opponent of the existing order. He led an opposition against the pagan oligarchy of Mecca and at a certain point went into exile and formed what in modern language might be called a "government in exile" with which finally he was able to return in triumph to his birthplace and establish the Islamic state in Mecca.
...
The Prophet as rebel has provided a sort of paradigm of revolutionopposition and rejection withdrawal and departure exile and return. Time and time again movements of opposition in Islamic history tried to repeat this pattern a few of them successfully.
Bernard Lewis Islamic Revolution4
Influence
Few observers contest the influence of Islamism. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union political movements based on the liberal ideology of free expression and democratic rule have led the opposition in other parts of the world such as Latin America Eastern Europe and many parts of Asia; however "the simple fact is that political Islam currently reigns as the most powerful ideological force across the Muslim world today".23
Even some of those who see Islamism as fraught with contradictions believe "the socioeconomic realities that sustained the Islamist wave are still here and are not going to change: poverty uprootedness crises in values and identities the decay of the educational systems the North-South opposition and the problem of immigrant integration into the host societies".24
The strength of Islamism draws from the strength of religiosity in general in the Muslim world. Compared to Western societies "what is striking about the Islamic world is that ... it seems to have been the least penetrated by irreligion".25
Where other peoples may look to the physical or social sciences for answers in areas which their ancestors regarded as best left to scripture in the Muslim world religion has become more encompassing not less as "in the last few decades it has been the fundamentalists who have increasingly represented the cutting edge of the culture".25
In Egypt and the rest of the Muslim world "the word secular a label proudly worn 30 years ago is shunned" and "used to besmirch" political foes.26 The small secular opposition parties "cannot compare" with Islamists in terms of "doggedness courage" "risk-taking" or "organizational skills".27
In the Middle East and Pakistan religious discourse dominates societies the airwaves and thinking about the world. Radical mosques have proliferated throughout Egypt. Book stores are dominated by works with religious themes ... The demand for sharia the belief that their governments are unfaithful to Islam and that Islam is the answer to all problems and the certainty that the West has declared war on Islam; these are the themes that dominate public discussion. Islamists may not control parliaments or government palaces but they have occupied the popular imagination.
28
Moderate strains of Islamism have been described as "competing in the democratic public square in places like Turkey and Indonesia.29 In Morocco the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) supported King Muhammad VI's "Mudawana" a "startlingly progressive family law" which grants women the right to a divorce raises the minimum age for marriage to 18 and in the event of separation stipulates equal distribution of property.30
Islamists in Egypt and other Muslim countries have been described as "not politically dominant today but ... extremely influential. ... They determine how one dresses what one eats. In these areas they are incredibly successful. ... Even if the Islamists never come to power they have transformed their countries." 30
Sources of strength
Amongst the various reasons for the global strength of Islamism are:
Alienation from the West
Further information: Islam and modernity
Muslim alienation from Western ways including its political ways.31
The memory in Muslim societies of the many centuries of "cultural and institutional success" of Islamic civilization that have created an "intense resistance to an alternative 'civilizational order'" such as Western civilization32
Outside Islamdom Christian missionaries from Europe usually succeeded in making converts. Whether for spiritual reasons or for material ones substantial numbers of American Indians Africans Hindus Buddhists and Confucians accepted the Gospels. But Muslims did not."33
The proximity of the core of the Muslim world to Europe and Christendom where it first conquered and then was conquered. Iberia in the seventh century the Crusades which began in the eleventh century then for centuries the Ottoman Empire were all fields of war between Europe and Islam.34
The Islamic world was aware of European fear and hatred:
For almost a thousand years from the first Moorish landing in Spain to the second Turkish siege of Vienna Europe was under constant threat from Islam. In the early centuries it was a double threat not only of invasion and conquest but also of conversion and assimilation. All but the easternmost provinces of the Islamic realm had been taken from Christian rulers and the vast majority of the first Muslims west of Iran and Arabia were converts from Christianity ... Their loss was sorely felt and it heightened the fear that a similar fate was in store for Europe.35
and also felt its own anger and resentment at the much more recent technological superiority of westerners who
are the perpetual teachers; we the perpetual students. Generation after generation this asymmetry has generated an inferiority complex forever exacerbated by the fact that their innovations progress at a faster pace than we can absorb them. ... The best tool to reverse the inferiority complex to a superiority complex ... Islam would give the whole culture a sense of dignity.36
For Islamists the primary threat of the West is cultural rather than political or economic. Cultural dependency robs one of faith and identity and thus destroys Islam and the Islamic community (ummah) far more effectively than political rule.37
The end of the Cold War and Soviet occupation of Afghanistan has eliminated the common atheist Communist enemy uniting some religious Muslims and the capitalist west.38
Resurgence of Islam
Further information: Islamic revival
The resurgence of Islamic devotion and the attraction to things Islamic can be traced to several events. A tenet of the Quran is that Islam will deliver victory and success. For example 23:1: "Successful indeed are the believers";39 Sura 9:14 "Fight them and God will punish them at your hands ... God will make you victorious over them";40 22:40: "God will certainly aid those who aid His (cause): for verily God is Full of Strength Exalted in Might."414243
Yet
by the end of World War I there was scarcely such a thing left as a Muslim state not dominated by the Christian West. How could this happen Only two answers were possible. Either the claims of Islam were false and the Christian or post-Christian West had finally come up with another system that was superior or Islam had failed through not being true to itself.
Obviously a redoubling of faith and devotion by Muslims was called for to reverse this tide.44
The connection between the lack of an Islamic spirit and the lack of victory was underscored by the disastrous defeat of Arab nationalist-led armies fighting under the slogan "Land Sea and Air" in the 1967 Six Day War compared to the (perceived) near-victory of the Yom Kippur War six years later. In that war the military's slogan was "God is Great".45
Along with the Yom Kippur War came the Arab oil embargo where the (Muslim) Persian Gulf oil-producing states' dramatic decision to cut back on production and quadruple the price of oil made the terms oil Arabs and Islam synonymous with power in the world and especially in the Muslim world's public imagination.46 Many Muslims believe as Saudi Prince Saud al Faisal did that the hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth obtained from the Persian Gulf's huge oil deposits were nothing less than a gift from God to the Islamic faithful.47
As the Islamic revival gained momentum governments such as Egypt's which had previously repressed (and was still continuing to repress) Islamists joined the bandwagon. They banned alcohol and flooded the airwaves with religious programming48 giving the movement even more exposure.
Saudi Arabian funding
Starting in the mid-1970s the Islamic resurgence was funded by an abundance of money from Saudi Arabian oil exports.49 The tens of billions of dollars in "petro-Islam" largess obtained from the recently heightened price of oil funded an estimated "90% of the expenses of the entire faith."50
Throughout the Muslim world religious institutions for people both young and old from children's maddrassas to high-level scholarships received Saudi funding51 "books scholarships fellowships and mosques" (for example "more than 1500 mosques were built and paid for with money obtained from public Saudi funds over the last 50 years")52 along with training in the Kingdom for the preachers and teachers who went on to teach and work at these universities schools mosques etc.53
The funding was also used to reward journalists and academics who followed the Saudis' strict interpretation of Islam; and satellite campuses were built around Egypt for Al Azhar the world's oldest and most influential Islamic university.54
The interpretation of Islam promoted by this funding was the strict conservative Saudi-based Wahhabism or Salafism. In its harshest form it preached that Muslims should not only "always oppose" infidels "in every way" but "hate them for their religion ... for Allah's sake" that democracy "is responsible for all the horrible wars of the 20th century" that Shia and other non-Wahhabi Muslims were infidels etc.55 While this effort has by no means converted all or even most Muslims to the Wahhabist interpretation of Islam it has done much to overwhelm more moderate local interpretations and has set the Saudi-interpretation of Islam as the "gold standard" of religion in Muslims' minds.56
Grand Mosque Seizure
Further information: Grand Mosque Seizure
The strength of the Islamist movement was manifest in an event which might have seemed sure to turn Muslim public opinion against fundamentalism but did just the opposite. In 1979 the Grand Mosque in Mecca Saudi Arabia was seized by an armed fundamentalist group and held for over a week. Scores were killed including many pilgrim bystanders57 in a gross violation of one of the most holy sites in Islam (and one where arms and violence are strictly forbidden).5859
Instead of prompting a backlash against the movement from which the attackers originated however Saudi Arabia already very conservative responded by shoring up its fundamentalist credentials with even more Islamic restrictions. Crackdowns followed on everything from shopkeepers who did not close for salah and newspapers that published pictures of women to the selling of dolls teddy bears (images of animate objects are considered haraam) and dog food (dogs are considered unclean).60
In other Muslim countries blame for and wrath against the seizure was directed not against fundamentalists but against Islamic fundamentalism's foremost geopolitical enemy the United States. Ayatollah Khomeini sparked attacks on American embassies when he announced:
It is not beyond guessing that this is the work of criminal American imperialism and international Zionism
despite the fact that the object of the fundamentalists' revolt was the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia America's major ally in the region. Anti-American demonstrations followed in the Philippines Turkey Bangladesh India the UAE Pakistan and Kuwait. The US Embassy in Libya was burned by protesters chanting pro-Khomeini slogans and the embassy in Islamabad Pakistan was burned to the ground.61
Dissatisfaction with the status quo
The original heart of the Muslim world the Arab world has been afflicted with economic stagnation. For example it has been estimated that the exports of Finland a European country of five million exceeded those of the entire 260 million-strong Arab world excluding oil revenue.62 This economic stagnation is argued to have commenced with the demise of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 with trade networks being disrupted and societies torn apart with the creation of new nation states; prior to this the Middle East had a diverse and growing economy and more general prosperity.63
Strong population growth combined with economic stagnation has created urban conglomerations in Cairo Istanbul Tehran Karachi Dhaka and Jakarta each with well over 12 million citizens millions of them young and unemployed or underemployed.64 Such a demographic alienated from the westernized ways of the urban elite but uprooted from the comforts and more passive traditions of the villages they came from is understandably favourably disposed to an Islamic system promising a better world65 an ideology providing an "emotionally familiar basis for group identity solidarity and exclusion; an acceptable basis for legitimacy and authority; an immediately intelligible formulation of principles for both a critique of the present and a program for the future."66
Shelter of the mosque
While dictatorial regimes can preempt opposition nationalist or socialist campaigns by closing down their networks and headquarters the centre for Islamist political organizing is the mosque. It is exempt from government crackdowns in the Muslim world (and often in the non-Muslim world) by virtue of its sacredness. "It is in the mosque where Islamists canvas neighbourhoods in the course of providing social services spread their political messages and campaign for votes where permitted to participate."6768
Charitable work
Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood "are well known for providing shelters educational assistance free or low cost medical clinics housing assistance to students from out of town student advisory groups facilitation of inexpensive mass marriage ceremonies to avoid prohibitively costly dowry demands legal assistance sports facilities and women's groups." All this compares very favourably against incompetent inefficient or neglectful governments whose commitment to social justice is limited to rhetoric.69
Power of identity politics
Islamism can also be described as part of identity politics specifically the religiously-oriented nationalism that emerged in the Third World in the 1970s: "resurgent Hinduism in India ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Israel militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka resurgent Sikh nationalism in the Punjab 'Liberation Theology' of Catholicism in Latin America and of course Islamism in the Muslim world."70 (This is distinguished from ethnic or linguistic-based nationalism which Islamism opposes.) These all challenged Westernized ruling elites on behalf of 'authenticity' and tradition.
Criticism
Main article: Criticism of Islamism
Islamism or elements of Islamism have been criticised for: repression of free expression and individual rights rigidity hypocrisy lack of true understanding of Islam misinterpreting the Quran and Sunna and for innovations to Islam (bid'ah) notwithstanding Islamists' proclaimed opposition to any such innovation.
History
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Predecessor movements
Some Islamic revivalist movements and leaders pre-dating Islamism include
Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (15641624) was part of "a reassertion of orthodoxy within Sufism" and was known to his followers as the 'renovator of the second millennium'. It has been said of Sirhindi that he 'gave to Indian Islam the rigid and conservative stamp it bears today.'71
Ibn Taymiyyah a Syrian Islamic jurist during the 13th and 14th centuries who is often quoted by contemporary Islamists. Ibn Taymiyya argued against the shirking of Sharia law and against practices such as the celebration of Muhammad's birthday or the construction of mosques around the tombs of Sufi sheikhs believing that these were unacceptable borrowings from Christianity: Many Muslims 'do not even know of the Christian origins of these practices.'72
Shah Waliullah of India and Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab of Arabia were contemporaries who met each other while studying in Mecca. Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab advocated doing away with the later accretions like grave worship and getting back to the letter and the spirit of Islam as preached and practiced by Muhammad. He went on to found Wahhabism. Shah Waliullah was a forerunner of reformists like Muhammad Abduh in his belief that there was "a constant need for new ijtihad as the Muslim community progressed and expanded and new generations had to cope with new problems" and in his interest in the social and economic problems of the poor.73
Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi was a disciple and successor of Shah Waliullah's son and emphasized the 'purification' of Islam from un-Islamic beliefs and practices. He anticipated modern Islamists by leading a jihad movement and attempted to create an Islamic state with strict enforcement of Islamic law. While he waged jihad against Sikhs in North-Western India his followers fought the British after his death and allied itself with the Indian Mutiny.74
After the failure of the Indian Mutiny some of Shah Waliullah's followers turned to more peaceful methods of preserving the Islamic heritage and founded the Dar al-Ulum seminary in 1867 in the town of Deoband. From the school developed the Deobandi movement which became the largest philosophical movement of traditional Islamic thought in the subcontinent and led to the establishment of thousands of madrasahs throughout modern-day India Pakistan and Bangladesh. Today Deobandism is represented in Pakistan by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam organization/political party and its splinter groups.75
Early history
Sayyid Jaml al-Dn al-Afghn
The end of the 19th century saw the dismemberment of most of the Muslim Ottoman Empire by non-Muslim European colonial powers.76 The empire spent massive sums on Western civilian and military technology to try to modernize and compete with the encroaching European powers and in the process went deep into debt to these powers.77
In this context the publications of Jamal ad-din al-Afghani (183797) Muhammad Abduh (18491905) and Rashid Rida (18651935) preached Islamic alternatives to the political economic and cultural decline of the empire.78 Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida formed the beginning of the Salafist movement7980818283 as well as the Islamic modernist/secularist movement.84
Their ideas included the creation of a truly Islamic society under sharia law and the rejection of taqlid the blind imitation of earlier authorities which they believed deviated from the true messages of Islam.85 Unlike some later Islamists Salafists strongly emphasized the restoration of the Caliphate.86
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi
Main article: Abul Ala Maududi
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi was a "alumni"clarification needed8788 and an important early twentieth-century figure in the Islamic revival in India and then after independence from Britain in Pakistan. Trained as a lawyer he chose the profession of journalism and wrote about contemporary issues and most importantly about Islam and Islamic law.
In the struggle for the creation of a separate Muslim state in South Asia Maudidi and his party first opposed the establishment of the state of Pakistan but later supported the idea. He was an inspirational figure for modern Islamist groups in South Asia and elsewhere.
Maududi founded the Jamaat-e-Islami party in 1941 and remained its leader until 1972. Although Maududi was educated at Deobandi institution(s)8789 his party is a long-time rival of the Deobandi party/group Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.citation needed
Maududi had much more impact through his writing than through his political organizing. His extremely influential bookTowards Understanding Islam (Risalat Diniyat in Arabic) placed Islam in a modern context and influenced not only conservative ulema but liberal modernizers such as al-Faruqi whose "Islamization of Knowledge" carried forward some of Maududi's key principles.citation needed
Maududi believed that Islam was all emcompassing "Everything in the universe is 'Muslim' for it obeys God by submission to His laws... The man who denies God is called Kafir (concealer) because he conceals by his disbelief what is inherent in his nature and embalmed in his own soul."90
Maududi also believed that Muslim society could not be Islamic without Sharia and Islam required the establishment of an Islamic state. This state should be a "theo-democracy"91 based on the principles of: tawhid (unity of God) risala (prophethood) and khilafa (caliphate).929394
Although Maududi talked about Islamic revolution95 he was both less revolutionary and less politically/economically populist than later Islamists like Qutb.96
Muslim Brotherhood
Main article: Muslim Brotherhood
Roughly contemporaneous with Maududi was the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in Ismailiyah Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al Banna. His was arguably the first largest and most influential modern Islamic political/religious organization. Under the motto "the Qur'an is our constitution"97 it sought Islamic revival through preaching and also by providing basic community services including schools mosques and workshops.
Like Maududi Al Banna believed in the necessity of government rule based on Shariah law implemented gradually and by persuasion and of eliminating all non-Muslim imperialist influence in the Muslim world. Jihad was declared against European colonial powers.citation needed
Some elements of the Brotherhood though perhaps against orders did engage in violence against the government and its founder Al-Banna was assassinated in 1949 in retaliation for the assassination of Egypt's premier Mahmud Fami Naqrashi three months earlier.98 The Brotherhood has suffered periodic repression in Egypt and has been banned several times in 1948 and several years later following confrontations with Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser who jailed thousands of members for several years.
In recent years its status has usually been described as "semi-legal."99 Despite periodic repression the Brotherhood has become one of the most influential movements in the Islamic world100 particularly in the Arab world. Along with being the only opposition group in Egypt able to field candidates during elections (which pundits estimate would receive at least 30% of the vote in free elections)30 it has fostered several offshoot organizations in many other countries.101
Sayyid Qutb
Sayyid Qutb
Main article: Sayyid Qutb
See also: Qutbism and Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq
Maududi's political ideas influenced Sayyid Qutb one of the key philosophers of Islamism and a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. Qutb believed things had reached such a state that the Muslim community had literally ceased to exist. It "has been extinct for a few centuries"102 having reverted to Godless ignorance (Jahiliyya).
To eliminate jahiliyya Qutb argued Sharia or Islamic law must be established. Sharia law was not only accessible to humans and essential to the existence of Islam but also all-encompassing precluding "evil and corrupt" non-Islamic ideologies like socialism nationalism or liberal democracy.
Qutb preached that Muslims must engage in a two-pronged attack of converting individuals while also waging jihad to forcibly eliminate the "structures" of Jahiliyya not only from the Islamic homeland but from the face of the earth.
Qutb was both a member of the brotherhood and enormously influential in the Muslim world at large. Qutb is considered by some to be "the founding father and leading theoretician" of modern jihadis such as Osama bin Laden.103104 Ironically the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and in Europe has not embraced his vision of armed jihad something for which they have been denounced by more radical Islamists.105
Six Day War of 1967
Main article: Six-Day War
The quick and decisive defeat of the Arab troops during the Six-Day War by Israeli troops constituted a pivotal event in the Arab Muslim world. The defeat along with economic stagnation in the defeated countries was blamed on the Arab nationalism of the ruling regimes.
A steep and steady decline in the popularity and credibility of both secular and nationalist politics ensued. Ba'athism Arab Socialism and Arab Nationalism suffered and Islamist movements inspired by Mawlana Maududi and Sayyid Qutb gained ground.106
Islamic Republic in Iran
See also: Iranian Revolution and Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists
Main article: History of fundamentalist Islam in Iran
The first Modern Islamic state (with the possible exception of Zia's Pakistan107) was established among the Shia of Iran. In a major shock to the rest of the world Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led the Iranian Revolution of 1979 to overthrow the oil-rich well-armed Westernized and pro-American secular monarchy ruled by Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi.citation needed
Khomeini's beliefs were similar to Sunni Islamic thinkers like Mawdudi and Qutb: He believed that imitation of the early Muslims and the restoration of Sharia law were essential to Islam that secular Westernizing Muslims were actually agents of the West serving Western interests and that the "plundering" of Muslim lands was part of a long-term conspiracy against Islam by the Christian West.108
But they also differed:
As a Shia the early Muslims whom Khomeini looked to were Ali ibn Ab Tlib and Husayn ibn Ali not Caliphs Abu Bakr Omar or Uthman.
Khomeini talked not about restoring the Caliphate but about establishing an Islamic state where the leading role was taken by Islamic jurists (ulama) as the successors of Shia Imams until the Mahdi returned from occultation. His concept of velayat-e-faqih ("guardianship of the Islamic jurist") held that the leading Shia Muslim cleric in society which Khomeini and his followers believed to be himself should serve as head of state in order to protect or "guard" Islam and Sharia law from "innovation" and "anti-Islamic laws" passed "by sham parliaments."108
The revolution was influenced by Marxism through Islamist thought and also by writings that sought either to counter Marxism (Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's work) or to integrate socialism and Islamism (Ali Shariati's work). A strong wing of the revolutionary leadership was made up of leftists or "radical populists" such as Ali Akbar Mohtashami-Pur.109
While initial enthusiasm for the revolution in the Muslim world was intense it has waned as "purges executions and atrocities tarnished its image".110
As a model for potential Islamic states the Islamic Republic has been partially successful in achieving its goals:111 ridding Iran of corruption poverty and political oppression could not been achieved112 while Sharia was implemented into the law.113 Internally it has been modestly successful in increasing literacy114115 and health care.116
It has also maintained its hold on power in Iran in spite of the US economic sanctions and has created or assisted like-minded Shia Islamist groups in Iraq (SCIRI)117118 and Lebanon (Hezbollah)119 (two Muslim countries that also have large Shiite populations). During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict the Iranian government enjoyed something of a resurgence in popularity amongst the predominantly Sunni "Arab street"120 due to its support for Hezbollah and to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vehement opposition to the United States and his call that Israel shall vanish.121
Pakistan's Islamization campaign
Main article: Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization
In July 1977 General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew Prime Minister Ali Bhutto's regime in Pakistan. Ali Bhutto a leftist in political competition with Islamists had banned alcohol horse-racing and nightclubs and announced that the "sharia would be fully applied" within six months shortly before he was overthrown.122 Ul-Haq was much more committed to Islamism and "Islamization" or implementation of Islamic law (AKA sharia) became a cornerstone of his eleven-year military dictatorship and Islamism became his "official state ideology". An admirer of Mawdudi Mawdudi's party Jamaat-e-Islami became the "regime's ideological arm" and its members prospered under ul-Haq.123
Under his leadership anyone which showed to oppose his form 'Islam' was persecuted and legitimized to be a victim. The Ahmadi Community was severely persecuted under his dictatorial rule by various Islamist movements who due to the non-action of the government rallied support and immensely grew in numbers and influence. The decades of build up and current Islamist wave in Pakistan is a result of ul-Haq's support for the various Islamist movements. In Pakistan this Islamization from above was "probably" more complete "than under any other regime except those in Iran and Sudan" but Ul-Haq was also criticized by some Islamists for imposing "symbols" rather than substance and using Islamization to legitimize his means of seizing power.124 The program was a dramatic reversal of the traditional secularism of Pakistan's founding Muslim League and its leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah but unlike neighboring Iran ul-Haq's policies were intended to "avoid revolutionary excess" and not to strain relations with his American and Persian Gulf state allies.125
Ul-Haq was killed in 1988 but Islamization remains an important element in Pakistani politics and society.126
Afghanistan
In 1979 the Soviet Union deployed its 40th Army into Afghanistan attempting to suppress an Islamic rebellion against an allied Marxist regime in the Afghan Civil War. The conflict pitting indigenous impoverished Muslims (mujahideen) against an anti-religious superpower galvanized thousands of Muslims around the world to send aid and sometimes to go themselves to fight jihad. Leading this pan-Islamic effort was Palestinian sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. While the military effectiveness of these "Afghan Arabs" was marginal Azzam's group is said to have organized paramilitary training for more than 20000 Muslim recruits from about 20 countries around the world.citation needed
When the Soviet Union abandoned the Marxist Najibullah regime and withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 (the regime finally fell in 1992) the victory was seen by many Muslims as the triumph of Islamic faith over superior military power and technology that could be duplicated elsewhere.citation needed
The jihadists gained legitimacy and prestige from their triumph both within the militant community and among ordinary Muslims as well as the confidence to carry their jihad to other countries where they believed Muslims required assistance.
127
The "veterans of the guerrilla campaign" returning home to Algeria Egypt and other countries "with their experience ideology and weapons" were often eager to continue armed jihad.citation needed
The collapse of the Soviet Union itself in 1991 was seen by many Islamists including Bin Laden as the defeat of a superpower at the hands of Islam the $6 billion in aid given by the US to the mujahideen having nothing to do with the victory. As bin Laden opined:128 "The US has no mentionable role" in "the collapse of the Soviet Union ... rather the credit goes to God and the mujahidin" of Afghanistan.129
Persian Gulf War
Another factor in the early 1990s that worked to radicalize the Islamist movement was the Gulf War which brought several hundred thousand US and allied non-Muslim military personnel to Saudi Arabian soil to put an end to Saddam Hussein's occupation of Kuwait. Prior to 1990 Saudi Arabia played an important role in restraining the many Islamist groups that received its aid. But Saddam embraced Islamic rhetoric and attacked Saudi Arabia his enemy in the war for violating Islamic unity and its role as custodian of the two holy cities by allowing non-Muslims on its soil (traditional Muslim belief holds that non-Muslims must not be allowed on the Arabian peninsula) and he also accused the Kingdom of being a puppet of the west.citation needed
These attacks resonated with conservative Muslims and the problem did not go away with Saddam's defeat either since American troops remained stationed in the kingdom and a defacto cooperation with the Palestinian-Israeli peace process developed. Saudi Arabia attempted to compensate for its loss of prestige among these groups by repressing those domestic Islamists who attacked it (bin Laden being a prime example) and increasing aid to Islamic groups (Islamist madrassas around the world and even aiding some violent Islamist groups) that did not but its pre-war influence on behalf of moderation was greatly reduced.130 One result of this was a campaign of attacks on government officials and tourists in Egypt a bloody civil war in Algeria and Osama bin Laden's terror attacks climaxing in 9/11 attack.131
Jihad movements of Egypt
File:Ayman al Zawahiri.jpg
Ayman al-Zawahiri
While Qutb's ideas became increasingly radical during his imprisonment prior to his execution in 1966 the leadership of the Brotherhood led by Hasan al-Hudaybi remained moderate and interested in political negotiation and activism. Fringe or splinter movements inspired by the final writings of Qutb in the mid-1960s (particularly the manifesto "Milestones" aka Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq) did however develop and they pursued a more radical direction.132 By the 1970s the Brotherhood had renounced violence as a means of achieving its goals.citation needed
The path of violence and military struggle was then taken up by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization responsible for the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. Unlike earlier anti-colonial movements Islamic Jihad directed its attacks against what it believed were "apostate" leaders of Muslim states leaders who held secular leanings or who had introduced or promoted Western/foreign ideas and practices into Islamic societies. Its views were outlined in a pamphlet written by Muhammad Abd al-Salaam Farag in which he states:
...there is no doubt that the first battlefield for jihad is the extermination of these infidel leaders and to replace them by a complete Islamic Order...
Another of the Egyptian groups which employed violence in their struggle for Islamic order was al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group). Victims of their campaign against the Egyptian state in the 1990s included the head of the counter-terrorism police (Major General Raouf Khayrat) a parliamentary speaker (Rifaat al-Mahgoub) dozens of European tourists and Egyptian bystanders and over 100 Egyptian police.133 Ultimately the campaign to overthrow the government was unsuccessful and the major jihadi group Jamaa Islamiya (or al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya) renounced violence in 2003.21 Other lesser known groups include the Islamic Liberation Party Al-Najun min al-nar and Al-Takfir wa al-Hijra and these groups have variously been involved in activities such as attempted assassinations of political figures arson of video shops and attempted takeovers of government buildings.134
Sudan
For many years Sudan had an Islamist regime under the leadership of Hassan al-Turabi. His National Islamic Front first gained influence when strongman General Gaafar al-Nimeiry invited members to serve in his government in 1979. Turabi built a powerful economic base with money from foreign Islamist banking systems especially those linked with Saudi Arabia. He also recruited and built a cadre of influential loyalists by placing sympathetic students in the university and military academy while serving as minister of education.135
After al-Nimeiry was overthrown in 1985 the party did poorly in national elections but in 1989 it was able to overthrow the elected post-al-Nimeiry government with the help of the military. Turabi was noted for his commitment to the democratic process and a liberal government before coming to power but strict application of sharia law and an intensification of the long-running war in southern Sudan136 human rights abuses once in power. The NIF regime also harbored Osama bin Laden for a time (before 9/11) and worked to unify Islamist opposition to the American attack on Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.citation needed
Main article: National Islamic Front
After Sudanese intelligence services were implicated in an assassination attempt on the President of Egypt UN economic sanctions were imposed on Sudan a very poor country and Turabi fell from favor.137 He was imprisoned for a time in 2004-5. Some of the NIF policies such as the war with the non-Muslim south have been reversed though the National Islamic Front (now named the National Congress Party) still holds considerable power in the Sudanese government.citation needed
Algeria
See also: Algerian Civil War
The FIS emblem
An Islamist movement influenced by Salafism and the jihad in Afghanistan as well as the Muslim Brotherhood was the FIS or Front Islamique de Salut (the Islamic Salvation Front) in Algeria. Founded as a broad Islamist coalition in 1989 it was led by Abbassi Madani and a charismatic radical young preacher Ali Belhadj. Taking advantage of liberalization by the unpopular ruling leftist/nationalist FLN regime it used its preaching to advocate the establishment of a legal system following Sharia law education in Arabic rather than French and gender segregation with women staying home to alleviate the high rate of unemployment among young Algerian men. The FIS won sweeping victories in local elections and it was going to win national elections in 1991 when voting was canceled by a military coup d'tat.citation needed
As Islamists took up arms to overthrow the regime the FIS's leaders were arrested and it became overshadowed by Islamist guerilla groups particularly the Islamic Salvation Army MIA and Armed Islamic Group (or GIA). A bloody and devastating civil war ensued in which between 150000 and 200000 people were killed over the next decade. Civilians including foreigners University academics intellectuals writers journalists and medical doctors were targeted by Islamist extremists.138139 although government forces were also accused of killing civilians and of manipulating the brutal takfiri GIAcitation needed
Main article: List of Algerian massacres of the 1990s
The civil war was not a victory for Islamism. By 2002 the main guerrilla groups had either been destroyed or had surrendered. The popularity of Islamist parties has declined to the point that "the Islamist candidate Abdallah Jaballah came a distant third with 5% of the vote" in the 2004 presidential election.140
Afghanistan Taliban
Flag of Taliban
Main article: Taliban
In Afghanistan the mujahideen's victory did not lead to justice and prosperity but to a vicious and destructive civil war between warlords making Afghanistan one of the poorest countries on earth. In 1996 a new movement known as the Taliban rose to power defeated most of the warlords and took over roughly 80% of Afghanistan.citation needed
The Taliban were spawned by the thousands of madrasahs the Deobandi movement established for impoverished Afghan refugees and supported by governmental and religious groups in neighboring Pakistan.141
The Taliban differed from other Islamist movements to the point where they might be more properly described as Islamic fundamentalist or neofundamentalist interested in spreading "an idealized and systematized version of village customs to an entire country."142 Despite Afghanistan's great poverty they had little interest in social economic and technological development at one time explaining that "we Muslims believe God the Almighty will feed everybody one way or another."143
Their ideology was also described as being influenced by Pashtunwali tribal law Wahhabism and the jihadism pan-Islamism of their guest Osama bin Laden.144145
The Taliban considered "politics" to be against Sharia and thus did not hold elections. They were led by Mullah Mohammed Omar who was given the title "Amir al-Mu'minin" or Commander of the Faithful and a pledge of loyalty by several hundred Taliban-selected Pashtun clergy in April 1996. Like most Islamists the Taliban enforced strict prohibitions on women but these were so severe for example effectively forbidding most employment and schooling that they created an international outcry.146
The Taliban also banned other activities music TV videos photographs pigeons kite-flying beard-trimming etc. and for the energy and the resources which they used to enforce the bans including hundreds perhaps thousands of religious police officers armed with "whips long sticks and Kalashnikovs."147
The Taliban also opposed Shi'ism and have been accused by human rights groups of indiscriminately killing thousands of Shia.148 They were also overwhelmingly Pashtun and were accused of not sharing power with the approximately 60% of Afghanis who belonged to other ethnic groups. (see: Taliban#Ideology)149
The Taliban's hosting of Osama bin Laden despite the attacks he organized against the United States led to an American-organized attack against which drove them from power following the 9/11 attacks.150 Taliban are still very much alive and fighting a vigorous insurgency from bases in the frontier regions of Pakistan with suicide bombings and armed attacks being launched against NATO Afghan government targets and civilians.citation needed
Attacks on civilians
Main article: Islamic terrorism
Some Islamist groups call for and/or engage in attacks on not only police/military enemies but non-combatants as well. These groups include several mentioned above: al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) of Egypt Islamist groups in Algeria Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank and Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda group.
Both Muslims and non-Muslims have been among the targets and victims. Some of the groups have proudly proclaimed the attacks others have been silent or denied involvement.citation needed
Justification for attacks on Muslims often comes as takfir an implicit death threat since under traditional Sharia law the punishment for apostasy in Islam is death. Justification for attacks on non-Muslims is often the allegation that the targets had "waged war against God" are occupiers of Muslim land or tourists unwelcome on Muslim land.
Suicide or "martyrdom operations" are a lethal technique among radical Islamists sometimes motivated by the much disputed explanation that "God will give" those who kill themselves in the path of jihad 70 or 72 female "virgins" and "everlasting happiness."151
Religious or sectarian attacks in situations where Islamists are active have been particularly serious following 2004. In Iraq 8262 people were killed in terror attacks in 2005 and 13340 in 2006152 although not all of theses casualties came from attacks by Islamist groups. Islamist or fundamentalist attacks are also on the increase in Afghanistan153154 and in Pakistan where hundreds have been killed in 2006 and 2007155 although in both countries not all of the attacks have been on civilians.
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Main article: Hizb ut-Tahrir
An influential international Islamist movement is the 'party' Hizb ut-Tahrir founded in 1953 by an Islamic Qadi (judge) Taqiuddin al-Nabhani. HT is unique from most other Islamist movements in that the party focuses not on local issues or on providing social services but on unifying the Muslim world under its vision of a new Islamic caliphate spanning from North Africa and the Middle East to much of central and South Asia.
To this end it has drawn up and published a constitution for its proposed caliphate state. The constitution's 187 articles specify specific policies such as sharia law a "unitary ruling system" headed by a caliph elected by Muslims an economy based on the gold standard public ownership of utilities public transport and energy resources and Arabic as the "sole language of the State."156
In its focus on the Caliphate HT takes a different view of Muslim history than some other Islamists such as Muhammad Qutb. HT sees Islam's pivotal turning point as occurring not with the death of Ali or one of the other four rightly guided Caliphs in the 7th century but with the 1918 or 1922 abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate.
This is believed to have ended the true Islamic system something for which it blames "the disbelieving (Kafir) colonial powers" working through Turkish modernist Mustafa Kamal.157
HT does not engage in armed jihad or vote-getting but works to take power through "ideological struggle" to change Muslim public opinion and in particular through elites who will "facilitate" a "change of the government" i.e. launch a bloodless coup. It allegedly attempted and failed such coups in 1968 and 1969 in Jordan and in 1974 in Egypt and is now banned in both countries.158
The party is sometimes described as "Leninist" and "rigidly controlled by its central leadership"159 with its estimated one million members required to spend "at least two years studying party literature under the guidance of mentors (Murshid)" before taking "the party oath."159 HT is particularly active in the ex-soviet republics of Central Asia and in Europe.
In the UK its rallies have drawn thousands of Muslims160 and the party is said to have outpaced the Muslim Brotherhood in both membership and radicalism.161
Turkey
Necmettin Erbakan was the first Islamist Prime Minister of Turkey elected in 1996 but was removed from power by a "postmodern coup d'tat" in 1997.
In Turkey there is a strong Islamist tradition among political parties. Necmettin Erbakan was the leader of the Islamist parties National Order Party (Milli Nizam Partisi) National Salvation Party (Milli Selamet Partisi) Welfare Party (Refah Partisi) which all have been banned by the constitutional court for its anti-secular activities he is also a member of the Felicity Party (Saadet Partisi).
Ismet zel an ex-Marxist convert and the most prominent Islamist intellectual argued that it was Atatrk's reforms that ironically Islamicized Turkey by forcing people to internalize and value their religious identity and not simply take it for granted as in the past. He has drawn upon his knowledge of Western philosophy Marxist sociology and radical Islamist political theory to advocate a modern Islamic perspective that does not hesitate to criticize genuine societal ills while simultaneously remaining faithful to the ethical values and spiritual dimensions of religion. He says "As a political system in Turkey socialism is possible Turkism is probable Islam is certain."
London
Main article: Londonistan (term)
Greater London has over 600000 Muslims162 (most of South Asian origins and concentrated in the East London boroughs of Newham Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest) and among them are some Muslims with a strong Islamist outlook. Their presence combined with a perceived British policy of allowing them free rein163164 heightened by exposes such as the 2007 Channel 4 documentary programme Undercover Mosque has given rise to the term Londonistan. Following the 9/11 attacks however Abu Hamza al-Masri the imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque and others were interned without charge which has caused many Islamists to leave the UK to avoid internment.citation needed
A February 2006 demonstration in London protesting the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons featured banners calling for Muslims to "Behead those who insult Islam." Five of the protesters were later arrested.165
Among the proportion of Muslims who hold the position that Western military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq justify attacks on civilians in Western countries (often considered to be terrorism)166 include the perpetrators of several bombing and planned bombing the most deadly being the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
Action against
Several governments including the U.S. government have engaged in efforts to counter Islamism or violent Islamism since 2001. These efforts were centered in the U.S. around public diplomacy programs conducted by the State Department. There have been calls to create an independent agency in the U.S. with a specific mission of undermining Islamism and jihadism. Christian Whiton an official in the George W. Bush administration called for a new agency focused on the nonviolent practice of "political warfare" aimed at undermining the ideology.167 U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for establishing something similar to the defunct U.S. Information Agency which was charged with undermining the communist ideology during the Cold War.168
Post 9/11 issues
It is important to distinguish between Islamists and Islamist terrorists: "While ignoring the overwhelming majority of Islamists who have nothing to do with terror and making them virtually irrelevant and stigmatized in Western political discourse ... To ignore the complexity of political Islam and tar all Islamists with the same brush of terrorism guarantees Bin Laden's success."169 International Crisis Group warns that the tendency of "policy-makers ... to lump all forms of Islamism together brand them as radical and treat them as hostile ... is fundamentally misconceived."19 Furthermore it states:
"...the issues and grievances which have been grist to the mill of Sunni jihadism across the Muslim world have not been resolved or even appreciably attenuated since 2001 but on the contrary aggravated and intensified. The failure to address the Palestinian question and above all the decision to make war on Iraq and the even more extraordinary mishandling of the post-war situation there have unquestionably motivated and encouraged jihadi activism across the Muslim world. Unsophisticated Western understanding and rhetoric that tends to discredit all forms of political Islamism coupled with the lumping together of the internal irredentist and global jihadis..."19
Other countries
Main article: Islamic Movement in Israel
In the 1990s Islamist conflicts erupted around the world. In 1995 a series of terrorist attacks were launched against France. Malaysia is described as a "soft" Islamist state whereas Iran is considered a "hard" Islamist state.170
A considerable effort has been made to fight against Western targets especially the United States. The United States in particular was made a target of Islamist fire because of its support for Israel its presence on Saudi Arabian soil what Islamists regard as its aggression against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and because of its support of the regimes that Islamists oppose.
In addition some Islamists have concentrated their activity against Israel and nearly all Islamists view Israel with hostility. Osama bin Laden at least believes that this is of necessity due to the historical conflict between Muslims and Jews and believes that there is a Jewish/American alliance against Islam.
On the other extreme (i.e. the moderate end) of the Islamist movement the Muhammadiyah movement in Indonesia has stated that it is concerned with "far more important issues than the application of Sharia" namely strengthening the education health economy and society of that Muslim nation a task they maintain represents "the greater Shari'a" or path of God.171
Other moderate Islamist groups include the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) in Morocco which supports Mohammad VI's "Mudawana" a progressive family law which grants women the right to a divorce raises the minimum age for marriage to 18 and in the event of separation stipulates equal distribution of property. Muslim Brothers in Jordan condemned the Iraq War while their comrades in Iraq sat in the Iraqi government.30
Movements
Country or scope
Movement or movements
International
Al-Qaida Hizb ut-Tahrir Muslim Brotherhood
Afghanistan
Taliban Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin
Algeria
Groupe Islamique Arm Islamic Salvation Front Groupe Salafiste pour la Prdication et le Combat Movement of Society for Peace
Bahrain
Al Wefaq Al Asalah
Egypt
Muslim Brotherhood Gama'at Islamiya Labour Party Egyptian Islamic Jihad
Indonesia
Nahdlatul Ulama Muhammadiyah United Development Party Prosperous Justice Party Jemaah Islamiyah
Lebanon
Hezbollah Islamic Jihad Organization
Kurdistan/ Iraq
Islamic Movement in Kurdistan Islamic Group of Kurdistan Islamic Union of Kurdistan SCIRI
Iran
Khabat Jundullah
Israel
Islamic Movement in Israel
Malaysia
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party
Palestinian territories
Hamas Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
Somalia
Islamic Courts Union Al-Shabaab Hizbul Islam
Pakistan
Jamaat-e-Islami Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Lashkar-e-Taiba SIMI HUJI MMA Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
Turkey
Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front Turkish Hezbollah Turkish Islamic Jihad
Yemen
Islamic Jihad of Yemen Al-Shabab al-Muminin Al-Islah
See also
Clash of Civilizations
Islamic religious police
Islamofascism
Political aspects of Islam
Islam and modernity
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Muslim Brotherhood
References
Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism by DALE C. EIKMEIER From Parameters Spring 2007 pp. 85-98.
Fuller Graham E. The Future of Political Islam Palgrave MacMillan (2003) p.21
a b "Understanding Islamism" International Crisis Group http://merln.ndu.edu/archive/icg/Islamism2Mar05.pdf Archived September 21 2010 at WebCite
a b Islamic republic by Bernard Lewis
Trevor Stanley Definition: Islamism Islamist Islamiste Islamicist Perspectives on World History and Current Events July 2005. URL: http://www.pwhce.org/islamism.html Downloaded: 11 June 2007
Fuller Graham E. The Future of Political Islam Palgrave MacMillan (2003) p.120
a b c d e f g Coming to Terms Fundamentalists or Islamists Martin Kramer originally in Middle East Quarterly (Spring 2003) pp. 65-77.
Berman S "Islamism Revolution and Civil Society Perspectives on Politics" Vol. 1 No. 2 June 2003 American Political Science Association p. 258
Shepard W. E. Sayyid Qutb and Islamic Activism: A Translation and Critical Analysis of Social Justice in Islam. Leiden New York: E.J. Brill. (1996). p. 40
Burgat F "Islamic Movement" pp. 39-41 67-71 309
a b Fred Halliday from "The Left and the Jihad" Open Democracy 7 September 2006
Speech by Robert H. Pelletreau Jr. Council on Foreign Relations May 8 1996.
Ayatollah Fadlallah in interview by Monday Morning (Beirut) Aug. 10 1992. "Fadlallah later revised his position" saying he preferred the phrase 'Islamist movement' to Islamic 'fundamentalism.' Quoted in Coming to Terms: Fundamentalists or Islamists by Martin Kramer
Roy Failure of Political Islam (1994) p.24
Fuller The Future of Political Islam (2003) p.194-5
Roy Olivier The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East Columbia University Press (2008) p.92-3
Oxford English Dictionary
Abid Ullah Jan Wikipedia: Good Intentions Horrible Consequences Al-Jazeerah Op-Ed 27 February 2006. (archive.org accessed 2007-10-24).
a b c Understanding Islamism Middle East/North Africa Report N37 2 March 2005
Algerian group joins al-Qaeda brand
a b Egypt frees 900 Islamist militants
Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States The 9/11 Commission Report W.W. Norton & Company New York (2004) p.562
Fuller The Future of Political Islam (2003) p. 67
Roy Failure of Political Islam (1994) p. 27
a b Cook Michael The Koran: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press (2000)
Murphy Caryle Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: the Egyptian Experience Scribner (c2002) p.161
Murphy Caryle Passion for Islam (c2002) p.160
The Age of Sacred Terror by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon Random House 2002 p.172-3
Farr Thomas F. "Islam's Way to Freedom" First Things November 2008 p. 2428 (p.26)
a b c d The Islamism Debate: God's Counterculture Sonja Zekri Sddeutsche Zeitung / Qantara.de 2008 Translated from the German by Phyllis Anderson
From the article on westernization in Oxford Islamic Studies Online
Fuller E. The Future of Political Islam (2003) p.15
Pipes Daniel In the Path of God: Islam and Political Power Basic Books (1983) p.173
Islam and the Myth of Confrontation Fred Halliday; (2003) p.108
Lewis Bernard Islam and the West Oxford University Press p.13 (1993)
Hassan Hanafi Islamist philosophy professor at Cairo University quoted in Passion for Islam by Caryle Murphy p.172
Haddad/Esposito pg.xvi
Kepel Gilles Jihad Harvard University Press (2002) p.218
AL-MUMENOON (THE BELIEVERS)
AL-TAWBA (REPENTANCE DISPENSATION)
AL-HAJJ (THE PILGRIMAGE)
An example of Islamic belief in victory is: "If you understand the true character of a Muslim you will be convinced that he cannot live in humiliation abasement or subjugation. He is bound to prevail and no power on earth can overwhelm him." (Towards Understanding Islam by Abul A'la Mawdudi p.26)
'Islam is a martial civilization. If you succeed that means God is on your side.' from: Lippman Thomas W. Understanding Islam New American Library (1982) p.50
Edward Mortimer in Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam in Wright Sacred Rage Simon and Schuster (1985) pp.64-66)
Wright Sacred Rage p.64-6
Wright Sacred Rage p.66 from Pipes Daniel In the Path of God Basic Books (1983) (p.285)
from interview by Robin Wright of UK Foreign Secretary (at the time) Lord Carrington in November 1981 Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam by Robin Wright Simon and Schuster (1985) p.67
Murphy Passion for Islam (2002) p.36
Kepel Gilles Jihad: on the Trail of Political Islam Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2002) pp.69-75
Dawood al-Shirian 'What Is Saudi Arabia Going to Do' Al-Hayat May 19 2003
Abou al Fadl Khaled The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists HarperSanFrancisco 2005 pp.48-64
Kepel Gilles Jihad: on the Trail of Political Islam Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2002) p.72
Nasr Vali The Shia Revival Norton (2006) p.155
(Murphy Caryle Passion for Islam (2002) p.32
Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology
An interview with Minister Mentor of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew
Wright Sacred Rage (2001) p.148
Masjid-ul-Haram: Sacred and forbidden
Wright Lawrence The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. New York: Knopf (2006) pp. 103-104
Wright Robin Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam p.155
Wright Robin Sacred Rage: The Wrath of Militant Islam p.149
using statistics from mid-1990s Commentary "Defeating the Oil Weapon" September 2002
What went wrong in the Muslim World
Fuller Graham E. The Future of Political Islam Palgrave MacMillan (2003) p.68
Kepel Gilles Muslim extremism in Egypt: the prophet and Pharaoh Berkeley: University of California Press (c2003) p.218
Lewis Bernard The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (2003) p.22
Lewis Bernard The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (2003) p.23
Fuller Graham E. The Future of Political Islam Palgrave MacMillan (2003) pp.33-4
Fuller Graham E. The Future of Political Islam Palgrave MacMillan (2003) p.28
Fuller Graham E. The Future of Political Islam Palgrave MacMillan (2003) pp.70-71
Mortimer Faith and Power (1982) p.58. Quoting Aziz Ahmad Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment Oxford University Press (1964) p.189
A Fury For God: the Islamist Attack on America by Malise Ruthven 2002 p.135. source: Muhammad 'Umar Memon Ibn Taymiyya's Struggle against Popular Religion with an annotated translation of Kitab Iqitada ... (the Hague 1976) pp.78 210
Mortimer Faith and Power (1982) pp.67-68.
Mortimer Faith and Power (1982) p.69
Islam and the Muslim World (2004) p.374
Mortimer Edward Faith and Power (1982) p.85
ottoman empire: debt
Mortimer Edward Faith and Power (1982) p.93 237-240 249
Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World Macmillan Reference 2004 v.2 p.609
The New Encyclopedia of Islam by Cyril Glasse Rowman and Littlefield 2001 p.19
The Oxford Dictionary of Islam by John L. Esposito OUP 2003 p.275
Historical Dictionary of Islam by Ludwig W. Wadamed Scarecrow Press 2001 p.233
see discussion section
www.islamic-considerations.blogspot.com
Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: the Egyptian Experience by Caryle Murphy p.46
Roy Failure of Political Islam (1994) p.33
a b Maulana Maududi's Two-Nation Theory
Mawdudi trained with two Deobandi ulama at the Fatihpuri mosque's seminary in Delhi and received his certificates to teach religious sciences (ijazahs) in 1926. Bonney R "Jihad: From Qur'an to Bin Laden" Palgrave Macmillan Hampshire 2004 p. 201
Bonney R "Jihad: From Qur'an to Bin Laden" Palgrave Macmillan Hampshire 2004 p. 201
A. Maududi's 'Towards Understanding Islam'
Abu al-A'la al-Mawdudi "Political Theory of Islam" in Khurshid Ahmad ed. Islam: Its Meaning and Message (London: Islamic Council of Europe 1976) pp.159-161.
Abu al-A'la al-Mawdudi Islamic Way of Life (Delhi: Markazi Maktaba Islami 1967) p.40
Esposito and Piscatory "Democratization and Islam" pp.436-437 440
Esposito The Islamic Threat pp.125-126; Voll and Esposito Islam and Democracy pp.23-26.
he was the author of the book S. Abul A'la Maududi The Process of Islamic Revolution (Lahore 1980)
Maududi on social justice: "a man who owns a car can drive it; and those who do not own one should walk; and those who are crippled cannot walk but can hop along" (Nizam al-Hayat fi al-Islam 1st ed. n.d. (Bayrut: Musassast al-Risalah 1983) p.54) See also Radical Islamic Fundamentalism: the Ideological and Political Discourse of Sayyid Qutb by Ahmad S. Moussalli American University of Beirut (1992)
The Message of the Teachings Hasan al-Banna
Egypt A Timeline of Recent Events
Free Republic. The day before and after It's been 25 years since the Islamist genie first went on the rampage
"The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood" Robert S. Leiken & Steven Brooke Foreign Affairs Magazine
Egypts Muslim Brotherhood; Understanding Centrist Islam by John Walsh. Harvard Review. Winter 2003dead link
Qutb Sayyid Milestones The Mother Mosque Foundation (1981) p.9
Fawaz A. Gerges The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Bronxville N.Y.: Sarah Lawrence College) ISBN 978-0-521-79140-3 prologue
How Did Sayyid Qutb Influence Osama bin Laden
The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke in Foreign Affairs March/April 2007
Mayer p.110
"The Islamic Resurgence: Prospects and Implications" by Kemal A. Faruki from Voices of Resurgent Islam ed. by John L. Esposito OUP (1983) p.283
a b Khomeini (1981) p.54
Ranstorp Hizb'allah in Lebanon (1997) pp.103 126
Kepel Gilles Jihad Harvard University Press (2002) p.118
Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih (book by Khomeini)#Criticism
What Happens When Islamists Take Power The Case of Iran
"The Western Mind of Radical Islam" by Daniel Pipes First Things December 1995
National Literacy Policies IRI
unesco country report iran
Howard Jane. Inside Iran: Women's Lives Mage publishers (2002) p.89
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq#History
Bakhash Shaul The Reign of the Ayatollahs Basic Books (c1984) p.233
"Hezbollah is coy about revealing the sums it has received from Iran. ... Reports have spoken of figures ranging from 5 to 10 million dollars per month but it is possible that Hezbollah has received larger sums. It is only in recent years (after 1989) that Iran has decreased its aid." from: Jaber Hala Hezbollah: Born with a vengeance New York: Columbia University Press (c1997) p.150
'Removing Saddam strengthened Iran' Quote: "They went directly for the kind of things that make them very unpopular in the West and very popular on the Arab streets. So Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad started to attack Israel and question the Holocaust."
Ahmadinejad: Wipe Israel off map OCTOBER 28 2005
Asian Survey 6 n.29 William L. Richter "The Political Dynamics of Islamic Resurgence in Pakistan."
Kepel Jihad (2002) pp.98 100 101
Fuller Future of Political Islam (2003) p.131
Kepel Jihad (2002) p.98
The Islamization of Pakistan 1979-2009
"blowback revisited" Foreign Affairs 2005 Peter Bergen
"How the CIA created Osama bin Laden". Green Left Weekly. 2001-09-19. http://www.greenleft.org.au/2001/465/25199. Retrieved 2007-01-09.
bin Laden interview with Peter Arnett March 1997
Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam Gilles Kepel pp.205-217
Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam Gilles Kepel p.207
Wright Lawrence Looming Tower (2006) p.332
Timeline of modern Egypt
Mazih Ayubi Political Islam 1991 p73
Fuller Graham E. The Future of Political Islam Palgrave MacMillan (2003) p.108
Human Rights Watch 1989 Sudan
Wright Lawrence Looming Towers (2006) pp.213-215
Kepel Jihad (2002) p.262
Algeria Timeline
"International: Freer and more peaceful; An election in Algeria" The Economist April 17 2004. V.371 n. 8371; p.56
Rashid Taliban (2000) p.26 32
Is Islamism a Threat A Debate Middle East Quarterly December 1999
Agence France-Presse 'Taliban reject warnings of aid pull-out' 16 July 1998
RashidTaliban (2000) p.132 139
Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (2004)
For example in 1998 feminist groups in the United States applied serious pressure on the Unocal oil company to end its relationship with the Taliban regime. Rashid Taliban (2000) p.174
RashidTaliban (2000) p.105
Human Rights Watch AFGHANISTAN: THE MASSACRE IN MAZAR-I SHARIF
Rashid Taliban (2000) p.98 101
BBC article stating that bin Laden is "a man without sin"
Virgins What virgins
Report: Global terrorism up more than 25 percent
Afghan Suicide Attacks Rising Report Shows
... increasing number of armed attacks that either target civilians or are launched without regard for the impact on civilian life
The Assault of Suicide-Bombers in Pakistan and Afghanistandead link
Draft Constitutiondead link
an-Nabhani Taqiuddin The System of Islam (Nidham ul Islam) Al-Khilafa Publications www.khilafah.com 1423 AH 2002 CE p.58
"Fighting the War of Ideas" Zeyno Baran. Foreign Affairs Nov/December 2005
a b For Allah and the caliphate
"9000 mainly young people attend HT Rally" September 15 2002
"The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood" Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke From Foreign Affairs March/April 2007
Area: LondonReligion (UV15) (Office for National Statistics.) Retrieved 2 March 2009.
BBC
BBC NEWS UK UK Politics Image of bombers' deadly journey
Five arrested over London cartoons protest
Sciolino Elaine and Don Van Natta Jr. "For a Decade London Thrived as a Busy Crossroads of Terror". The New York Times July 10 2005. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
NOVEMBER 30 2008 1:36 P.M. ET Information Warfare Matters
Creating a New Public Diplomacy Cabinet Post. Spring 2008
Graham E Fuller The Future of Political Islam p.83
Cohen Stephen Philip The Idea of Pakistan Brookings Institution Press (2004) p.297
Fuller Graham E. The Future of Political Islam Palgrave MacMillan (2003) p.199
Further reading
Ankerl Guy Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim Bharati Chinese and Western. INU PressGeneva 2000. ISBN 978-2-88155-004-1
Hassan Riaz Inside Muslim Minds Melbourne University Press 2008
Hassan Riaz Faithlines: Muslim Conceptions of Islam and Society Oxford University Press 2002
"On Suicide Bombings" by Talal Asad
A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and Emergence of Islamism' by S. Sayyid London: Zed Press.
The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism Organized Crime And the Coming Apocalypse by Paul L. Williams
The War for Muslim Minds by Gilles Kepel
Gilles Kepel The Roots of Radical Islam London: Saqi 2005 (originally published in French as Le Prophete et Pharaon 1984)
Esposito John L. (2003). Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford University Press USA. ISBN 978-0-19-516886-0.
Fethullah Gulen's Thoughts on State Democracy Politics Terrorism
Paul Berman: Terror And Liberalism W. W. Norton & Company New York 2003
Robert Dreyfuss: Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam. Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books November 2005
Philip S. Khoury: "Islamic Revival and the Crisis of the Secular State in the Arab World: an Historical Appraisal." in Arab Resources: The Transformation of a Society. ed. I. Ibrahim. London: Croom Helm 1983.
Mandaville Peter: "Transnational Muslim Politics" (2001) London: Routledge.
Bernard Lewis: The Emergence of Modern Turkey London Oxford University Press 1961
Beverley Milton-Edwards: Islamic fundamentalism since 1945. London: Routledge 2005
Nazih Ayubi Political Islam (London: Routledge 1991).
John Esposito Voices of Resurgent Islam Oxford: Oxford University Press 1983.
John Esposito The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality Oxford: Oxford University Press 1992.
John Esposito and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad Islam Gender and Social Change.
Fred Halliday Islam and the Myth of Confrontation London: I.B. Tauris 1996.
Khomeini Ruhollah (1981). Algar Hamid (translator and editor). Islam and Revolution: Writing and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Berkeley: Mizan Press.
Mayer Ann Elizabeth "The Fundamentalist Impact on Law Politics and Constitution in Iran Pakistan and the Sudan" In: Fundamentalism and the State Martin Marty & S. Appleby (eds.)
External links
Look up islamism in Wiktionary the free dictionary.
Evaluating the Islamist movement written by Greg Noakes an American Muslim who works at the Washington Report
Islamist.Com Documenting the rise of Islam and Islamists on the world stage. Lots of links on Islamist political prisoners
Islamism fascism and terrorism (Part 1)
Qantara.de-Dossier: Islamism
(English) Asabiyya: Re-Interpreting Value Change in Globalized Societies
(English) Why Europe has to offer a better deal towards its Muslim communities. A quantitative analysis of open international data
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With President Absent, Yemen Battles Islamist Militants
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