Islamism

Islamism, also called political Islam, is a broad set of political ideologies that draw on Islamic teachings and traditions to pursue political and social goals. Islamists generally argue that Islam offers a complete guide to public as well as private life and that government, law and society should be reorganized according to Islamic law, or sharia. Islamism is distinct from Islam, the religion practiced by nearly two billion people with a wide range of political views; most Muslims are not Islamists, and many reject the ideology. Islamism is also internally diverse. It includes parties that take part in elections, social and charitable movements, revolutionary governments and, at its most extreme, militant groups that use violence, whom most Islamists and Muslims reject.

Modern Islamism grew out of nineteenth century reform movements that responded to European colonial power, associated with thinkers such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh. In 1928 the Egyptian schoolteacher Hasan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood, which became the most influential Islamist organization and spread across the Arab world. In South Asia, Abul A'la Maududi founded Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941 and argued for an Islamic state. The Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb, executed in 1966, developed a more radical view that many Muslim societies had fallen into ignorance and needed transformation. Islamism gained wider support after the Arab defeat in the 1967 war. The 1979 Iranian Revolution created a Shia Islamic Republic led by Ruhollah Khomeini. After the Arab Spring of 2011, Islamist parties won elections in Tunisia and Egypt, where Mohamed Morsi became president in 2012 and was removed by the military in 2013.

Scholars commonly distinguish several strands. Mainstream or participatory Islamists, such as many Muslim Brotherhood branches and Tunisia's Ennahda, work through elections and civil society, and some have described themselves as Muslim democrats. Revolutionary Islamism, as in Iran, seeks to remake the state. Salafism ranges from quietist groups that avoid politics to activist ones. Jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State use violence and are rejected by the great majority of Muslims, including most Islamists.

Secular and liberal critics, including many Muslims, argue that Islamism restricts the rights of women, religious minorities and dissenters, and that rule by religious law is incompatible with pluralism. Some Muslim scholars argue that it politicizes faith and narrows a rich legal tradition into a state ideology. Scholars such as Olivier Roy have argued that political Islam failed to deliver workable governments, while others describe a turn to post-Islamism. Supporters respond that Islamism is an authentic, popular alternative to authoritarian secular regimes and Western influence, and that elected Islamist parties have accepted democratic rules. Some scholars also caution that the term is often applied too broadly.

Islamist ideas have shaped governments in Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan under the Taliban and, for periods, Pakistan, as well as elected parties in Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. Islamist movements also run large networks of schools, clinics and charities. Records vary widely, from parliamentary coalition government to authoritarian rule and violent insurgency.