Political Islam

Short description: Any interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action

This page is about an Islamic political ideology. For politics in Islam generally, see Political aspects of Islam.

Part of a series on:
Islamism

Fundamentals

* Islam
* History
* Culture
* Economics
* Politics
* Secularism

Ideologies

* Islamism
* Qutbism
* Salafi movement
* International propagation
* Shia Islamism

Islamic fundamentalism

Concepts

* Apostasy in Islam
* Takfir
* Caliphate
* Islamic democracy
* Islamic socialism
* Islamic state
* Islamic monarchy
* Islamic republic
* Islamization (of knowledge)
* Jihad
* Islamic terrorism
* Jihadism
* Pan-Islamism
* Political Islam
* aspects
* Post-Islamism
* Sharia
* Shura
* Two-nation theory
* Ummah

Influences

* Anti-communism
* Anti-imperialism
* Anti-Zionism
* Islamic Golden Age
* Islamic revival

Movements

Scholastic

* Barelvi
* Dawat-e-Islami
* Ahl-i Hadith
* Deobandi
* Madkhalism
* Nurcu
* Sahwa movement
* Wahhabism
* International propagation

Political

* Hizb ut-Tahrir
* Iranian Revolution
* Jamaat-e-Islami
* Millî Görüş
* Muslim Brotherhood
* Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan
* List of Islamic political parties

Militant

* Militant Islamism based in
* MENA region
* South Asia
* Southeast Asia
* Sub-Saharan Africa

Key texts

* Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam
(Iqbal 1930s)

* Principles of State and Government
(Asad 1961)

* Ma'alim fi al-Tariq ("Milestones")
(Qutb 1965)

* Islamic Government:
Governance of the Jurist ("Velayat-e faqih")
(Khomeini 1970)

Heads of state

* Ali Khamenei
* Omar al-Bashir
* Muammar Gaddafi
* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
* Ruhollah Khomeini
* Mohamed Morsi
* Mohammed Omar
* House of Saud
* House of Thani
* Zia-ul-Haq

Key ideologues

* Muhammad Abduh
* Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī
* Qazi Hussain Ahmad
* Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani
* Muhammad Asad
* Hassan al-Banna
* Rached Ghannouchi
* Safwat Hegazi
* Muhammad Iqbal
* Ali Khamenei
* Ruhollah Khomeini
* Necip Fazıl Kısakürek
* Abul A'la Maududi
* Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani
* Yusuf al-Qaradawi
* Sayyid Qutb
* Tariq Ramadan
* Ata Abu Rashta
* Rashid Rida
* Navvab Safavi
* Ali Shariati
* Haji Shariatullah
* Hassan Al-Turabi
* Ahmed Yassin
* Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

Criticism of Islamism

* Criticism of Islamism
* Criticism of Islam
* Liberal movements within Islam
* Khaled Abu al-Fadl
* Farag Foda
* Abdelwahab Meddeb
* Maryam Namazie
* Maajid Nawaaz
* Olivier Roy

Related topics

* Islam and other religions
* Islamophobia
* Reform movements
* Modernity (Modernism)

* v
* t
* e

Political Islam is the interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action.[1] It advocates the formation of state and society according to (the advocates understanding of) Islamic principles, where Islam serves as a source of political positions and concepts.[2][3] Political Islam is generally used interchangeably with the term Islamism by authors inside and outside of academia,[1] and thought of as the political element of the Islamic revival that began in the 20th century,[1] rather than just any form of political activity by Muslims. However, there have also been new attempts to distinguish between Islamism as religiously based political movements and political Islam as a national modern understanding of Islam shared by secular and Islamist actors.[4]

## Contents

* 1 Development of the term
* 2 Definitions
* 3 In Muslim countries
* 3.1 Iran
* 4 Research in Europe
* 5 See also
* 6 References
* 7 Further reading

## Development of the term

The terminology which is used for the phenomenon of political Islam differs among experts. Martin Kramer was one of the first experts to start using the term political Islam in 1980. In 2003, he stated that political Islam can also be seen as tautology because nowhere in the Muslim world is a religion separated from politics.[5][6] Some experts use terms like Islamism, pointing out the same set of occurrences or they confuse both terms. Dekmejian was among the first of the experts who made remarks on politicisation of Islam in the context of the failure of secular Islamic governments while he uses both Islamism and fundamentalism at the same time (rather than political Islam).[7]

The term political Islam has been used in connection with foreign communities, referring to the movements or groups which have invested in a broad fundamentalist revival that is connected to a certain political agenda.[5] M. A. Muqtedar Khan incorporates into political Islam all the Islamic movements promoting a political system based solely on Islam which must be followed by every Muslim.[8] Some of the experts also use other descriptive terms in order to distinguish various ideological courses within political Islam: conservative, progressive, militant, radical, jihadist, etc.[1] Bill Warner, a retired professor of physics and critic of political Islam, defines political Islam as that part of the text of the primary Islamic doctrine (Koran, Sira, Hadith) that affect non-Muslims (Kafirs)[9] and non-Muslim societies.[10][11] He has been criticised for identifying Islam with Islamism[12] and for his methodology.[13] In 2011, the Southern Poverty Law Center included him in a list of ten anti-Islam hardliners in the United States.[14]

## Definitions

Islamic scholar Gudrun Krämer, a professor at the Free University of Berlin, writes:

> "Political Islam is not synonymous with violent, radical, or extremist Islamism, and it is not restricted to opposition groups. The spectrum ranges from advocates of an Islamic republic to sympathizers of an Islamic monarchy or a resuscitated caliphate, and from self-declared liberals to uncompromising conservatives. Some Islamists are commonly classified as moderate or pragmatic, others as radical, militant, or extremist."[15]

John L. Esposito (Georgetown University) and Emad El-Din Shahin (American University in Cairo) give the following definition in The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics:

> "In recent years, political Islam has manifested itself in two diametrically opposed orientations: an increasing involvement in the democratization process by mainstream movements after the success of pro-democracy popular uprisings in toppling autocratic regimes and a growing inclination toward violence by fringe groups. Political Islam here refers to the attempts of Muslim individuals, groups and movements to reconstruct the political, economic, social and cultural basis of their society along Islamic lines. This process involves different views of the place of Shari'ah in society and the approach to bringing about change. While majorities of Islamic movements have engaged in the democratization process in their respective countries, some have embraced violence and terrorism as an ideological and strategic choice, with devastating consequences for the world and for Islam itself."[16]

Mouhanad Khorchide (University of Münster), as head of the scientific advisory board of the Documentation Center for Political Islam in Austria, stated in 2020 that the term "Political Islam" should be treated as a technical term and therefore written with a capital 'P'.[17] He devoloped the following definition that is also the working definition of the term[18] by the Documentation Center for Political Islam in Austria:

> "Ideology of supremacy that aims at influencing or changing society, culture, state, policy, politics and/or polity according to such values and norms that are declared as Islamic by the actors of Political Islam, but are not shared by the majority of Muslims and are in clear contradiction to the rule of law, democracy and human rights."[19]

The Routledge Handbook of Political Islam provides the following definition by political scientist Shahram Akbarzadeh, a professor at the University of Melbourne:

> "Political Islam is a modern phenomenon that seeks to use religion to shape the political system. Its origins lie in the perceived failure of the secular ideologies of nationalism and socialism to deliver on their promises of anti-imperialism and prosperity."[20]

In another paper, Rüdiger Lohlker criticizes numerous assumptions surrounding the discussion on Political Islam:

> "All the categories we are discussing are affected by this "dubious" assumption that there is a transhistorical essence of religion. "The most dubious" of all these categories may be Political Islam with its background assumption that "true" religion has to be privatised but ignoring that the privatised need for belief is based on a universalised dominance of Christian traditions in public discourse and institutions. Even if political Catholicism may also be regarded as dubious, the notion ignores the fundamental difference of a phenomenon that strives for political dominance (sometimes successful) in the hegemonic European context. Thus, putting majority aspirations and some strands of minority discourses and organisations at the same level is a major failure of analysis. Talking about Political Islam means that we are referring to the ongoing discussion. To rethink this category and others we should think about Islam as a practice, not a transhistorical spectre of religion called Islam that is haunting the Western imaginaire."[21]

The editors of the Handbook of Political Islam in Europe (2024), the Cologne-based political scientist Thomas Jäger and the director of the European Institute for Counterterrorism and Conflict Prevention (EICTP), Ralph Thiele, offer the following definition:

> "Actors of Political Islam pursue the political goals that are derived from the idea that Islam, as they understand it, should play the central role in shaping political, legal, and cultural systems worldwide. While it is a broad and diverse movement with various interpretations, variations, and organizations, there are core characteristics associated with Political Islam in general. The first and most important is the inseparability of religion and politics."[22]

## In Muslim countries

Some factions in the Middle East have come to associate the idea of modernities with the intrusions of colonial imperialism. In some Muslim countries, especially Egypt and Pakistan, political counter-movements with religious ideological leanings took root. The reasons are multifaceted. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire was a seismic event that created many aftershocks. The region experienced turbulence for many years as Arab countries fell within the cultural and colonial sphere of European nations. Under increasing cultural pressures Muslims asserted their national identities and cultural heritage, and some factions emphasized religious dimensions. In Egypt the weakness of Muslims was blamed on poor adherence to scripture. According to Hassan al-Banna, European culture was materialistic, immoral and based on class selfishness and usury. Other contributing factors may have been opposition to modernizing influences, overall poor governance and low levels of education in the population.[23]

### Iran

This section is an excerpt from Cultural Revolution in Iran[ edit ]

## Research in Europe

In July 2020, the Austrian government made up of the ÖVP and the Greens set up the Documentation Centre Political Islam,[24] an organization to research "religiously motivated political extremism" related to political Islam and to monitor related networks and social media.[25][24] It was financed by the Austrian Foundation and through the 2015 Fund Act.[26]

In the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran, the Austrian organization produced a report on the efforts of the Islamic Republic to exert influence abroad in the cultural, religious and educational sectors in Europe through foundations and religious centres, including the Islamic Center in Hamburg and the Imam Ali Center in Vienna.[27][28] In 2022, the organization also investigated the Islamic Association in Austria, an organization that runs a mosque in Vienna's Jewish neighbourhood that is allegedly responsible for propagating antisemitism, anti-Israel hatred, and support for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.[29][30]

## See also

* Political aspects of Islam
* Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah
* Al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya fi Islah al-Ra'i wa al-Ra'iyya
* Post-Islamism
* Islam Yes, Islamic Party No
* List of Islamic political parties

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Voll, John O.; Sonn, Tamara (2009). "Political Islam" (in en). Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets. doi:10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0063. http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/id/obo-9780195390155-0063. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
2. ↑ Krämer, Gudrun. "Political Islam." In Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Vol. 6. Edited by Richard C. Martin, 536–540. New York: Macmillan, 2004. via Encyclopedia.com
3. ↑ March, Andrew F. (2015). "Political Islam: Theory". Annual Review of Political Science 18 (1): 103–123. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-082112-141250.
4. ↑ Jocelyne Cesari (2018). What Is Political Islam. Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 978-1-62637-692-2. https://www.rienner.com/title/What_Is_Political_Islam. Retrieved 2023-01-01.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kramer, Martin (2003-03-01). "Coming to Terms: Fundamentalists or Islamists?" (in en-US). Middle East Quarterly. http://www.meforum.org/541/coming-to-terms-fundamentalists-or-islamists. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
6. ↑ Kramer, Martin (1980). "Political Islam". The Washington Papers VIII.
7. ↑ Dekmejian, R. Hrair (1980). "The Anatomy of Islamic Revival: Legitimacy Crisis, Ethnic Conflict and the Search for Islamic Alternatives". Middle East Journal 34 (1): 1–12.
8. ↑ Khan, Muqtedar (2014-03-10). "What is Political Islam?" (in en-US). https://www.e-ir.info/2014/03/10/what-is-political-islam/.
9. ↑ Warner, Bill. "Learn about Political Islam" (in en). https://www.cspii.org/learn-political-islam/.
10. ↑ Bill., Warner, Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, ISBN 978-1-936659-37-1, OCLC 1099523781, http://worldcat.org/oclc/1099523781, retrieved 2022-11-24
11. ↑ Mohanty, Nirode (2018). Jihadism : past and present. Lexington Books. p. 264. ISBN 978-1-4985-7597-3. OCLC 1107447247. http://worldcat.org/oclc/1107447247.
12. ↑ Bale, Jeffrey M. (2017). The Darkest Sides of Politics, II: State Terrorism, "Weapons of Mass Destruction," Religious Extremism, and Organized Crime. Apple Academic Press. pp. 217–231. ISBN 978-1138785625. https://books.google.com/books?id=eXo4DwAAQBAJ&q=The+Darkest+Sides+of+Politics,+II:+State+Terrorism,+“Weapons+of+Mass&pg=PT5. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
13. ↑ Khan, Aysha (2019-07-16). "A Push to Deny Muslims Religious Freedom Gains Steam" (in en-US). https://religionandpolitics.org/2019/07/16/a-push-to-deny-muslims-religious-freedom-gains-steam/.
14. ↑ Steinback, Robert (17 June 2011). "THE ANTI-MUSLIM INNER CIRCLE". Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2011/anti-muslim-inner-circle.
15. ↑ Krämer, Gudrun (2016). "Political Islam". in Martin, Richard C.. Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills: Macmillan Reference USA. p. 895. ISBN 978-0-02-866269-5.
16. ↑ Esposito, John L. (2013). "Introduction". in Esposito, John L.. The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1. ISBN 978-0-19-539589-1.
17. ↑ Khorchide, 17 11 2020 um 14:12 von Mouhanad (2020-11-17). "Sind wir nicht schon längst auf den Politischen Islam hereingefallen?" (in de). https://www.diepresse.com/5898835/sind-wir-nicht-schon-laengst-auf-den-politischen-islam-hereingefallen.
18. ↑ Der Politische Islam als Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Auseinandersetzungen und am Beispiel der Muslimbruderschaft. In: Grundlagenbericht 2020. Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam, 1. Dezember 2020.
19. ↑ "Overview - The scientific analysis of religiously motivated political extremism" (in en). https://www.dokumentationsstelle.at/en/research/overview.
20. ↑ Akbarzadeh, Shahram (2021). "Political Islam under the Spotlight". in Akbarzadeh, Shahram. Routledge Handbook of Political Islam (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 1. ISBN 978-1-138-35389-3.
21. ↑ Lohlker, Rüdiger (2023). "Islamic Fundamentalism: Beyond Islamism, Extremism, and Political Islam". in Marko, Joseph. Religious Diversity, State, and Law. Leiden: Brill. pp. 342. ISBN 978-90-04-51585-7.
22. ↑ Thomas Jäger, Ralph Thiele: Introduction. In: Thomas Jäger, Ralph Thiele (eds.): Handbook of Political Islam in Europe: Activities, Means, and Strategies from Salafists to the Muslim Brotherhood and Beyond. Springer Handbooks of Political Science and International Relations. Springer, Heidelberg 2024, ISBN 978-3-03146172-9, p. 3.
23. ↑ Ataman, Kemal. "Forerunners of "Political Islam":An inquiry into the Ideologies of Al-Banna and Al-Mawdudi". Uludag Universitesi Ilahiyat Fakultesi Dergisi. https://www.academia.edu/31302085.
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Austria takes 'pioneering' approach to tackle influence of political Islam The National News, Retrieved 2023-01-10.
25. ↑ "About us". Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam. https://www.dokumentationsstelle.at/en/aboutus/.
26. ↑ Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam nimmt Arbeit auf Bundeskanzleramt, Retrieved 2023-01-10.
27. ↑ Dokumentationsstelle sieht Einflussnahme des Iran in Österreich msn.com, Retrieved 2023-01-10.
28. ↑ Dokumentationsstelle sieht iranischen Einfluss orf.at, Retrieved 2023-01-10.
29. ↑ Austria launches probe into ‘antisemitic’ mosque The Jewish Chronicle, Retrieved 2023-01-10.
30. ↑ ‘Cursed Zionists’: Austrian Authorities Order Investigation into Rampant Antisemitism at Vienna Mosque Algemeiner, Retrieved 2023-01-10.

## Further reading

* Nazih Ayubi: Political Islam: Religion an Politics in the Arab World. Routledge 1991, ISBN 978-1-134-84970-3.
* Jocelyne Cesari: What Is Political Islam? Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder 2018, ISBN 978-1-62637-692-2.
* Shahram Akbarzadeh (Hrsg.): Routledge Handbook of Political Islam. 2\. Auflage. Routledge, New York 2023, ISBN 978-0-367-68099-2.
* Gudrun Krämer: Political Islam. In: Richard C. Martin (Hrsg.): . 2. Auflage. Macmillan Reference USA, Farmington Hills 2016, ISBN 978-0-02-866269-5.
* Ankerl, G.(2000): Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations. Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. (INU PRESS, Geneva.)
* Hamid, S. & McCants, W. (2016). Rethinking Political Islam. Brookings Institution.
* Hoover Institution. (2017). Islamism in Maritime Southeast Asia. The Caravan, 1715.
* Tausch, Arno (2023). Political Islam and Religiously Motivated Political Extremism. SpringerBriefs in Political Science. Springer, Cham. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-24854-2_2, Published 16 February 2023, Print ISBN 978-3-031-24853-5

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Religion in politics

General concepts

* Anti-clericalism
* Anticlericalism and Freemasonry
* Caesaropapism
* Clericalism
* Clerical fascism
* Confessionalism
* Divine rule
* Engaged Spirituality
* Feminist theology
* Thealogy
* Womanist theology
* Identity politics
* Political religion
* Progressive Reconstructionism
* Religious anarchism
* Religious anti-Masonry
* Religious anti-Zionism
* Religious communism
* Religious humanism
* Religious law
* Religious nationalism
* Religious pacifism
* Religion and peacebuilding
* Religious police
* Religious rejection of politics
* Religious segregation
* Religious separatism
* Religious socialism
* Religious views on same-sex marriage
* Secularism
* Secular religion
* Separation of church and state
* Spiritual left
* State atheism
* State religion
* Theocracy
* Theonomy

Christianity and politics

* Blaine Amendment
* Christian anarchism
* Christian anti-communism
* Christian anti-Masonry
* Papal ban
* Christian anti-Zionism
* Christian communism
* Christian corporatism
* Christian democracy
* Christian egalitarianism
* Christian environmentalism
* Evangelical environmentalism
* Christian fascism
* German Christians
* National Catholicism
* Positive Christianity
* Protestant Reich Church
* Christian feminism
* Mormon feminism
* Christian humanism
* Christian law
* Christian left
* Evangelical left
* Christian libertarianism
* Christian pacifism
* Christian peacemaking
* Christian reconstructionism
* Christian republic
* Christian right
* Christian socialism
* In Utah
* Christian state
* Christian Zionism
* Cisalpinism
* Dominion Theology
* Febronianism
* Gallicanism
* Liberation theology
* Papal state
* Pillarisation
* Political Catholicism
* Relations between the Catholic Church and the state
* In Argentina
* Sphere sovereignty
* Subsidiarity
* Temporal power
* Theodemocracy
* Ultramontanism
* Neo-ultramontanism

Islam and politics

* Hui pan-nationalism
* Human Rights in Islam
* Imamate
* Islamic anarchism
* Islamic anti-Masonry
* Islamic anti-Zionism
* Islamic democracy
* Islamic fascism
* Islamic feminism
* Sharia law
* by country
* Islamic nationalism
* In Pakistan
* In South Asia
* Islamic pacifism
* Islamic republic
* Islamic socialism
* Islamic state
* Islamic Zionism
* Islamism
* Criticism
* Islamization
* Khilafat
* Petro-Islam
* Political quietism
* Taliban
* Talibanization
* Two-nation theory

Judaism and politics

* Halachic state
* Jewish anarchism
* Jewish anti-Zionism
* Haredim
* Jewish Autonomism
* Jewish democracy
* Jewish fascism
* Kahanism
* Revisionist Maximalism
* Jewish feminism
* Jewish law
* Jewish left
* Jewish pacifism
* Jewish political movements
* Jewish right
* Jewish secularism
* Jewish socialism
* Bundism
* Humanistic Judaism
* Poale Zion
* Religious Zionism
* World Agudath Israel

Hinduism and politics

* Akhand Bharat
* Hindu feminism
* Gandhism
* Hindu law
* Hindu modernism
* Hindu nationalism
* Hindutva
* Hindu Rashtra
* Panun Kashmir
* Bangabhumi
* Hindu revolution
* Hindu revivalism
* Hindu environmentalism
* Integral humanism
* Indigenous Aryans
* Rama Rajya
* Saffronisation
* Shuddhi
* Uniform civil code

Buddhism and politics

* Buddhists anti-communism
* Buddhist feminism
* Buddhist law
* Buddhist modernism
* Buddhist nationalism
* 969 Movement
* Nichirenism
* Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism
* Buddhist socialism
* Engaged Buddhism
* Humanistic Buddhism
* Secular Buddhism

Other

* American civil religion
* Imperial cult
* Ancient Rome
* Gottgläubig
* Khalistan movement
* Neopaganist feminism
* Religious aspects of Nazism
* Creativity (religion)
* Nazi Satanism
* Personality cult
* State Shinto

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