BOOK REVIEW

Modern Islamist Movements: History, Religion and Politics

Hisham ul wahab P 1

Jon Armajani, Modern Islamist Movements: History, Religion and Politics

(West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2012),
ISBN 978-1-4051-1742-5, pp. xiv+233. Price $39.95

The predominant discourses over political Islam and Islamism gained momentum
after the attacks targeting Pentagon and World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, carried out by
the Al Qaida militants. The self-proclaimed “War on Terror” of United States of America started by
that time against the state-defined “terrorists” and their supporters all over the world, which later
termed as “Axis of Evil”. Meanwhile a vast array of literature and media reports came to the
forefront interrogating the genesis of the terrorism and its immediate causes of Islamic
fundamentalism, better known as in single term “Islamism”. The unilateral definition of this term
made many of the “experts” in dilemma to understand its nature and scope in different regions. The
existing literatures are contradicting each other in various means to give a comprehensive
understanding, in which one can find relatively balanced approach to gain knowledge about this
most discursive phenomena of Islamism. The book under review- Modern Islamist Movements:
History, Religion and Politics written by Jon Armajani -could make a comparable contribution in
this field with a better analysis of wide-range aspects of Islamism and Islamist movements in the
West Asian and North African region. The book contextualizing various forms of Islamist
movements on their specific history and circumstances and analyzing their broader influences
across the national borders.

Jon Armajani, an associate professor of theology at the College of Saint Benedict and
Saint John’s University in Minnesota, is a religious studies scholar with an academic background
focusing on Islamic and Near Eastern studies. He has previously edited volumes on both premodern
and modern Islamic history and is currently completing a book on Iranian Shii politics in the
modern Middle East. He is thus well placed to write a nuanced survey of the role of political Islam

1 Research Fellow
Centre For West Asian Studies, School of International Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
E-mail: hishamulwahab@[Link]

Electronic copy available at: [Link]

in Muslim-majority countries. The book surveying a vast array of Islamist movements across the
region from Egypt to Pakistan including The West Bank, Gaza, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan. It
gives a brief but detailed analysis of the history, ideology and politics of various movements in a
very attractive style of writing, even a non-specialist reader can easily understand this phenomena
and its impacts on global political system.

The book has been arranged in chapter-wise analysis of each country with a detailed
introduction and short conclusion. The chapters are divided as case-studies of Egypt, the Palestinian
West Bank and Gaza under Israeli occupation, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. In the
introduction part he has attempted to provide a basic understanding of Islamism within the
perspective of Islam and its epistemological diversity. He argues that, Islamism must be analyzed by
its various forms of expressions differentiated from general Muslim perspective. Islamist groups
comprise to one part of a modern trend known as fundamentalism, which is “the activist affirmation
of specific beliefs and practices that define a religion in an absolute and literalist manner” (p. 2). He
classifies the majority Muslim world on ideological groupings into four categories, such as
Islamists, Muslim liberals, secularists and 'the floating middlers' (p. 4). But the common notion of
Islamic identity and shared past experience of Western colonialism largely determinative on these
people in making their viewpoint.

He traces the historical roots of interaction between Islam and the west back to the
beginning of Crusades. It continues today with the coining the terms as “Islam and the West”, “The
Orient”, “The Other” etc., to the newer concerns over “War on Terror” and “Promotion of liberal
democracy”. Since the end of European colonial rule over the majority Muslim world, United States
became a major power intervening to the domestic spheres of these countries. According to many
Muslims, the most visible and violent example of American intervention is its support of Israel,
which has been challenging the livelihood and autonomy of Palestinians. The other manifestation of
USA is its role in the overthrowing of elected government of Muhammad Mosadegh of Iran in
1953. The book discusses in detail about the political circumstances in the region, which helped
various Islamist groups to emerge as critical voices of American intervention and their backing of
autocratic regimes. Armajani describes about the common ideological framework of Islamist
movements, despite some differences in its methodology and application. They all concern about
the ultimate sovereignty of God (Hakimiyya) on the earth and in the every fields of life, particular
interpretation of Islamic Law (Shariath), the concept of physical struggle (Jihad) in achieving their
goals and the establishment of an Islamic ideal political system (Siyasah).

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 The book’s chapters on the five case study countries and geographical areas provide
a comprehensive empirical survey of the existing literature on each while maintaining the volume’s
narrative flow. Chapter 2 (Egypt) gives a detailed picture of the emergence and gradual
development of Islamism through the lives and legacies of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century
Muslim reformers Jamal al-din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, and Rashid Rida, and a brief history
of the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood by the school teacher Hasan al-Banna in 1928. The
influence of the thoughts of Sayid Qutb on Muslim Brotherhood and the later Islamists like Ayman
Zawahiri also analyzed with special references. Chapter 3 (the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel)
documents the relatively late emergence of political Islam in the Palestinian sphere. Its emergence
occurred only after the failed moves of liberal Pan- Arab movements such as Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) and Fatah, with the beginning of First Intifada in 1987. A special analysis of
Hamas and its relation with Israel and peace peace processes has given in this book.

Chapter 4 (Saudi Arabia) traces the history of the modern state under the Al Saud
family with the support of Salafi ideology (Wahhabism) formulated by eightieth century scholar
Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab. The rivalry between the ruling monarchy, the Ulama and the
Islamists in Saudi Arabia well described in this chapter. The particular section discussing the rise of
radical Islamism with the emergence of Usama bin Laden, who had been led Mujahideen in
Afganistan during the period of Soviet invasion, opposed American intervention in the First Gulf
War (1990-91). the book describes in detail about the global reach of Usama through the attacks of
September 11 and the transnational networks of radical Islamism promoted by Al Qaida.

Chapters 5 (Pakistan) and 6 (Afghanistan) provide the reader with a more diverse
picture of political Islam in the modern world, emphasizing on various Islamist movements in the
region. The premier leader of Islamism in Pakistan, Sayyid Abul A'ala Maududi and his
organization, Jama't e Islami, has been established a very strong base in the country with its non-
violent bottom-up policy of Islamizing the society. They have gained much vigor in the periods of
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and military strongman Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Afghanistan, the birthplace of
Taliban and Al Qaida, has been a secure haven for Islamist Mujahideens with the support of USA,
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia during the period of Soviet invasion. Later on they have established
Taliban in 1994, and seized the control over Afghanistan in 1996 under the leadership of Amir
Mullah Muhammad Omar. The aftermaths of September 11 Attacks and the US military
intervention toppled the Taliban regime and Afghanistan fell in to a long period of civil wars which
continues till today.

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 This book analyzes the phenomena of Islamism comprehensively which made it
relevant in the academic circle. The book, written in 2012, lacking analysis over the 'Arab Spring'
and recent developments of Islamist movements. The major deficiency of the book is its less
reliance on the primary sources, which led to much mistakes about the subject. For instance, “..the
Dome of the Rock Mosque, the third holiest place in Islam” (pp. 103). This is not its correct name;
its name is Al Aqsa mosque. In the chapter 4, he mostly quotes the book 'Wahhabi Islam' by
DeLong-Bas, and made many mistakes. He only needed to directly consult primary sources or could
have conducted basic field research to avoid such misunderstanding. The survey also includes the
perspectives of Islamists, but somewhere falls to short in explaining ground realities and political
circumstances they have faced in the respective region. It also lacking the analysis of Shia Islamist
groups, such as Hizbullah, working simultaneously in the region. Besides these criticisms, the book
gives a holistic perceptive on the Islamist movements in the West Asia and North Africa region and
fulfills the gap in this academic field.

*This paper can be downloaded from

the Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection:
[Link]

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