From Morocco to Pakistan: the Islamic Fault Line

Abstract

In recent years, in countries as distant as Morocco and Pakistan, political forces taking their inspiration in Islam have come dramatically into the political spotlight. Their political and social platforms are as much appeals for a return to the Islam of the Koran and tradition as a model for restructuring society, rejecting with equal vehemence Western materialism and Marxism in its various guises. It is instructive to see how radically the Arab sociologist Hicham Sharabi has altered his views on the role of Islam. In 1963 he observed, In the contemporary Arab world, Islam has become outmoded. Islam as an organised institutional force capable of exerting a direct influence on society and the state is on the wane.In 1979 he was to write, Islamic conservatism is today the dominant ideological force in Arab society.2