Islamism

Islamism is a set of ideologies rooted in the concept of Islam as a political system as well as a religion; in short, that government should be based around Islamic teachings. The term first appeared in French in the mid-eighteenth century, as a name for Islam, rather than in its modern political sense.Coming to Terms: Fundamentalists or Islamists? The term itself is controversial, as it is not a term used by adherents of Islam or Islamism, but applied without convention (and without accepted definition) to various social-political groups within Islam. Almost universally, Islamists are Islamic Fundamentalists — the reverse is not necessarily the case.
The term is used by the media and many western governments to apply specifically to individuals and groups who practice or advocate violence, including sexual assault, in their version of an Islamic world.
Individuals schooled in certain facets of sharia support morality police to harass and arrest any woman found outside without wearing a veil. Organized groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, DAESH, and the Taliban are four of the more (in)famous Islamist groups, though arguably the latter 3 have origins in the former.
==Cause of the rise of Islamism==
Islamists view themselves as under assault by Western social, political, and cultural influences. Debates can range from women wearing bluejeans and lipstickA Taliban leader remarking on the $500 shoes Michelle Obama wore on Inauguration Day claimed Muslims keep women at home to protect them "like a precious pearl" whereas President Obama was pimping his wife to sell shoes. to the use of MSG in processed foods.International outrage over use of pork enzyme in halal food escalates, 9 January 2001. There are several currents within the Islamist movement, most notably a re-born form of Salafism composed of three strains of thought: Islamic purists, so-called "politicos", and the violent jihadi movement.Anatomy of the Salafi Movement, Quintan Wiktorowitcz, Talylor Francis Group, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 29:207–239, 2006.
Islamists refer to themselves as a "resistance movement", borrowing a well-worn phrase from the struggles against imperialism in the 20th century. Resistance can be passive or violent.
==Fundamentalism vs Authoritarianism vs Islamism==
Fundamentalism seeks religious purity. Authoritarianism seeks control over people. To some extent, Islamism is the combination of both, because it seeks to legislate religious purity.
===Islamism vs Extremism/Jihadism===
Writer Reza Aslan draws a distinction between Islamism and Jihadism: "By the end of the millennium, Islamism and Jihadism, once cousins, had effectively split into two opposing, rival movements... Islamism remains a nationalist ideology, whereas most Jihadists want to erase all borders, to eradicate all nationalities, and to return to an idealized past of religious communalism".Reza Aslan, How to Win a Cosmic War, p.29
==Further reading==
*Saudi Arabia Backgrounder: Who are the Islamists?, Middle East Report N°3121, International Crisis Group, Sep 2004.
==See also==
*DAESH
*Iran
*Muslim Brotherhood 
*Ruhollah Khomeini
*Taliban
*Hindutva
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Authoritarianism
Category:Anti-Christian bigotry
Category:Antisemitism
Category:Atheophobia
Category:Fundamentalism
Category:Fascism
Category:Homophobia
Category:Islamic extremism
Category:Islamic fundamentalism
 
Category:Transphobia 
Category:Sexism
Category:Anti-Western
Category:Cults