Islamism

Islamism is a political and religious philosophy also known as radical Islam, or the Islamist movement. Both of these terms are now commonly used by specialists in Middle Eastern affairs, to distinguish between Islam (as a religion and culture) and the modern day fundamentalist-political movement known as Islamism.

Islamists are sometimes referred to by non-Muslims as Muslim fundamentalists; this term is considered offensive by most Muslims because it incorrectly implies a religious connection between themselves and Christian fundamentalists.

Many historians, both Arab and Western, hold that one of the roots of Islamism are the consequence of an inability of governments to rule Arab countries, under secular rule, also known as Arab nationalism, or Pan-Arabism. Of course, many other factors are involved as well. There are a few secular Muslim nations (e.g. Turkey, Egypt, and Iraq) who have managed to maintain stable secular governments, despite a vocal Islamic population. The case of Iraq, in particular, is of interest because there is a strong Islamist sub-culture intent on overthrowing Saddam Hussein's secular government, and replacing it with a state ruled by Islamic law.

Since the 1970s a large number of Islamist groups have developed in most Arab and Muslim nations; their goal is often to create Islamic theocracies as the governing political bodies of all Arab and Muslim nations, Israel, and all nations that Muslims held at any point in history (e.g. Spain, etc.) Many of these groups are violently opposed to the Arab and Muslim governments currently in existence, as well as to the governments of the United States and Israel. The core supporters of these groups tend to be people in the middle classes who have become frustrated with the corruption, inefficiency, and Western subserviency of the governments currently in power in the Middle East. Many political analysts have characterized Islamism as a symptom of a demographic timebomb in the Middle East in which the population is growing rapidly, but without a correspondingly large growth in the economy.

However, the strength of Islamism should not be overestimated. Islamist movements are generally strongly opposed to by the governments which they seek to overthrow. In countries such as Algeria, Egypt, and Jordan, secular rulers have thus far successfully contained the growth of Islamist movements, albeit often with brutal violations of human rights. In countries in which Islamist movements have taken power, such as Iran, Afghanistan, and Sudan, they have generally been unable to offer improved government over the regimes that they have replaced, and have generally become unpopular.

Due to the predominance of the Islamist movement, Islam in the last 30 years has become increasingly intolerant of any disagreement or criticism. A recent feature of worldwide Islam is the tendency to issue public death threats against Muslims who disagree with the religion, ask to modernize the Quran, or write a book about leaving Islam. The death threats are not the province of a small number of fanatic clerics; in most of the cases cited below there have been public demonstrations by thousands of people in many nations, even in Arabs in Western nations such as England, burning the "heretics" in effigy and calling for their death. Moderates in the Arab community are not empowered to overturn the fatwas (religious edicts) calling for such death sentences. For examples of some of these death sentences, see Fatwa.

Many in the Islamist movement views Jihad (meaning struggle in Arabic) as a sixth pillar of Islam.

Hasan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, called Jihad the sixth pillar of Islam. Its invitation is "to join a movement of social revolution to enforce its own program of reform which it deems best for the well-being of mankind." (Beware of an elite which thinks it knows best the needs of a class, a nation or mankind.) This movement which, the Qur'an calls "Hizb Allah", the Party of God, is left with no other choice except to capture State Authority. Thus Jihad will include Qital (fighting). But "war in Islam is not a casual phenomenon of violence; it is one of the phases of man's striving (Jihad) against all that is evil ... The raising of the sword is only one aspect of the all-round struggle to establish Islam in the world." "Wage war for the sake of Allah. Kill whoever denies Him." (Muhammad) "Jihad has been made obligatory (against pagans and people of the Book) on every Muslim by ....... and in His eyes avoidance of Jihad is the greatest sin."

Each Muslim should have an ambition for martyrdom, be a lover of death. (Every martyr shall have seventy deer-eyed houris as his consorts. ) "Jihad shall continue until the Day of Judgment." (S. A. A. Maududi & A.H. Siddiqi "Jihad in Islam", Lahore, 1991)

Islamist movements:

Afghanistan -- Taliban

Algeria -- GIA

Egypt -- Gamat Ismalia

Saudi Arabia -- Wahhabism

International -- Al-Qaida

Palestinian Authority - Hamas

also see: Osama bin Laden

Links The following report on the Islamist movement was written by Greg Noakes, an American Muslim who works at the Washington Report. [Evaluating the Islamist movement]

The following report on the Islamist movement was written by Aicha Lemsine, an Algerian journalist and author. [Muslim scholars face down fanatacism]

[Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam, and discussion of Islamism]