Abstract
The contemporary phenomenon popularly referred to as political Islam or Islamism has existed for well over a century, and yet much of the scholarly literature on it only appeared after the 1960s. This was due largely to regional developments that overshadowed the Islamists’ visibility, including the British and French occupation of Middle Eastern lands after the Ottoman Empire’s collapse shortly after World War I, the region’s subsequent decolonization after World War II, and the indigenous struggle for independence. But more importantly, during this tumultuous period Islamists were no more than marginal players in a region ideologically dominated by secular nationalist forces. Consequently, the scholarly literature of that time reflected this reality and was therefore dominated by books and articles on Arab nationalism.
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Notes
John Esposito, ed., The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1990).
Nikki R Keddie, Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981);
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For a detailed examination of this incident within the broader context of Islam in Saudi Arabia, see James P. Piscatori, “Ideological Politics in Saudi Arabia,” in Islam in the Political Process, ed. James P. Piscatori (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983);
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Martin Kramer, “Coming to Terms: Fundamentalists or Islamists?” Middle East Quarterly (spring 2003): 65–77. Also available online at http://www.meforum.org/541/coming-to-terms-fundamentalists-or-islamists.
Guilain Denoeux, “The Forgotten Swamp: Navigating Political Islam,” Middle East Policy 9, no. 2 (June 2002): 61.
Mohammad Ayoob, “The Future of Political Islam: The Importance of External Variables,” International Affairs 81, no. 5 (2005): 951–60.
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There is some debate among those who follow Hizb al-Tahrir as regards its relationship to political violence. While the party itself does not engage in violence, its modus operandi does entail mass protests calling for a military coup against the incumbent order. This approach carries a high risk of violence. Moreover, it is not unknown for individuals to leave the group and begin to blend its antidemocracy and antination-state ideas, as well as its calls for reestablishing a transnational caliphate, with the jihadist view of armed struggle—all of which leads to militant offshoots. Both of these aspects are problematic, but by and large the group is still very different from jihadist forces and hence radical but not militant. That said, some scholars subscribe to the conveyer belt theory about Hizb al-Tahrir, namely, that it serves as an intermediary forum for radicalized youth who then graduate from nonviolent radicalism to militancy. See Zeyno Baran, “Fighting the War of Ideas,” Foreign Affairs 84, no. 6 (November/December 2005): 68–78.
Holly Fletcher, Militant Extremists in the United States (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, April 21, 2008), http://www.cfr.org/publication/9236/.
Fawaz Gerges, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
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© 2013 Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai
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Bokhari, K., Senzai, F. (2013). Understanding the Complexity of Political Islam. In: Political Islam in the Age of Democratization. Middle East Today. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313492_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313492_2
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