Tag: Sharia

The protests in Iran are not only about economics and politics, they’re also about Islam. Iran in the 1960’s saw mini skirts, smiling women with uncovered hair, men and women freely holding hands on university campuses, and in the air, there was a sense that progress was possible. Then the Shah was deposed during the… Continue reading Political Islam Part 40

As Muslims begin to assert their religious and cultural identity, they seek authenticity in social structures and it is this search for authenticity that serves as rejection of Western cultural and normative hegemony. Regardless of the success or failure of political Islam, Muslims will seek to politicize Islam in search for cultural independence. Islamic modernism,… Continue reading Political Islam Part 39

After the Arab Spring uprising in 2011, the counterrevolution of 2013 in Egypt that removed the Muslim Brotherhood from power and outlawed it, and sustained protests that forced Al-Nahda to relinquish power in Tunisia in favour of an interim technocratic government, political Islam is once again back in the bunker, fighting for legitimacy and struggling… Continue reading Political Islam Part 38

The Arab Spring – region wide mass uprisings — in 2011 transformed Arab politics by bringing to an end long enduring dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, precipitated reforms in Jordan and Morocco and brought civil war to Syria. The initial euphoria of revolution and early transitions to democratic governance underscored the immense popularity, organizational… Continue reading Political Islam Part 37

Clearly there are many groups that are seeking to establish some kind of Islamic policy, which then can become an instrument for global Islamic resurgence and even political unification. Islamic polities, states or caliphates are not the endgame. They are to become means and instruments of global Islamic resurgence. Political Islamic movements can also be… Continue reading Political Islam Part 36

A movement to be considered one as Political Islam can be global and seeking to establish a global Islamic Caliphate, such as the Hizbut Tahreer, or they can be country-specific seeking to establish an Islamic state such as Hamas in Palestine or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Pakistan.  There are also regional movements; the most prominent… Continue reading Political Islam Part 35

There are many revivalist movements in the Muslim world and Muslim communities in the West, such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), but they do not qualify as political Islamic movements. Only those groups who believe that not only does Islam have a built-in political system but also that all Muslims are required… Continue reading Political Islam Part 34

There is no consensus about what was the primary reason for the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire, but remarkably there is a near global consensus that the Islamic World has been in decline for centuries. Some intellectuals have argued that the reason why Muslims have lost their mojo is because they have abandoned… Continue reading Political Islam Part 33

Many Muslim intellectuals and scholars, since the beginning of the colonial era and the beginning of the enduring domination of the West over Muslim countries, have been lamenting the loss of Muslim Empire, Muslim power and Muslim glory. The key moment when the decline of Muslim power was crystallized in the Muslim psyche was when… Continue reading Political Islam Part 32