Chapter 11: Islamism - Discussion Questions §

Chapter 11: Islamism

1. To what extent is Islamism part of a larger phenomenon of religious revivalism?

• Islamism as part of a larger phenomenon of religious revivalism is just a myth.

1. Is Islamism best understood as an example of religious fundamentalism?

• Islamism as an example of religious fundamentalism is actually quite complex based on three main dimensions.
• First, it is commonly linked to a belief in scriptural literalism.
• Second, as religious fundamentalism tends to be expressed through intense and all-consuming belief, it is often associated with a refusal to confine religion to the private sphere. Fundamentalist religion is therefore often expressed through the politics of popular mobilization and social regeneration.
• Third, religious fundamentalism typically turns its back on a modern world that is associated with decline and decay, typified by the spread of godless secularism.

1. Can a meaningful distinction be drawn between Islamism and Islam?

• A distinction is therefore usually drawn between the ideology of Islamism and the faith of Islam, although the relationship between Islamism and Islam is deeply contested. Islam is not merely a religion. It is a total and complete way of life, providing guidance in every sphere of human existence – individual and social, material and moral, legal and cultural, economic and political, national and international. While Islamism extracts a political programme from the religious principles and ideals of Islam.

1. To what extent is Islamism a manifestation of a ‘civilizational’ struggle between Islam and the West?

• Some commentators, indeed, have gone as far as to suggest that Islamism is a manifestation of a ‘civilizational’ struggle between Islam and the West. Islamist ideology is characterized by, among other things, a revolt against the West and all it supposedly stands for.

1. Is ‘moderate Islamism’ a contradiction in terms?

1. Should the Islamic state be viewed as the restoration of the caliphate?

• The Islamic state should not be viewed as the restoration of the caliphate although most of the time it is portrayed as so. This is because there are significant differences exist between traditional form of Islamic administration and modern Islamists. As the caliphs possessed Mohammed’s authority, but not his direct access to divine revelation, they were inclined to consult and consider the views of the scholars, a group of people who claimed legal expertise and came to be regarded as the guardians of the law. This created a constitutional balance of power, in which executive power, represented by the caliph, could be restrained by the scholars’ ability to interpret and administer the sharia. The position of the scholars in this respect was bolstered by the influence they could exert over succession.

1. Is Islamism necessarily linked to militancy and violence?

• Islamism is not necessarily linked to militancy and violence. However, there has also been associations of Islams with these aspects namely groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda (in its various manifestations), ISIS and Boko Haram have been viewed as exponents of ‘Islamist terrorism’, a distinctive form of terrorism characterized by both its religious motivation and the use of suicide tactics. Although the vast majority of Islamist parties are engaged in democratic or at least electoral politics (in South and South East Asia in particular), and many of those who subscribe to Islamist beliefs, even in their radical guise, eschew the use of violence in principle, militant Islamism is a prominent tendency within the larger Islamist movement.

1. Is there such a thing as ‘Islamist terrorism’?

• ‘Islamist terrorism’, a distinctive form of terrorism characterized by both its religious motivation and the use of suicide tactics and it does exist. Islamist terrorism may be better understood less in terms of the doctrine of jihad or expectations relating to the afterlife, and more as part of a broader tendency for terrorism to become entangled with religious motivations and justifications. This tendency can be found not just in Islam but, arguably, in all religions and religious cults. Examples of this include the 1994 assassination of the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi by militant Sikhs, the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo attack on the Tokyo subway system, and the bombing of abortion centres in the USA by fundamentalist Christians.

1. How did Salafism come to be associated with the doctrine of global jihadism?

• Salafism come to be associated with the doctrine of global jihadism though associated with figures such as the Egyptian jurist Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905), the more prominent tendency within Salafism was drawn in an increasingly activist and revolutionary direction. The jihadi groups that emerged out of, or drew inspiration from, the Afghan war in the 1980s transformed Salafism into an ideology of global anti-western struggle, giving rise to ‘jihadist-Salafism’, or ‘Salafi-jihadism’ (Kepel, 2006). The most influential militant Salafi groups have been al-Qaeda and ISIS.

1. In what ways does Shia Islamism differ from Sunni Islamism?

• Shias believe that it is possible for an individual to remove the stains of sin through the experience of suffering and by leading a devout and simple life. The prospect of spiritual salvation has given the Shia sect its characteristic intensity and emotional strength. When such religious zeal has been harnessed to a political goal it has generated fierce commitment and devotion. The Shia sect has, at least since the sixteenth century, sometimes been seen as more political than the Sunni sect.