The War Against Modernity: The Theology and Politics of Contemporary Muslim Extremism

Abstract

Daniel Chirot – Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, University of Washington, Seattle. Address: box 353650, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. E‐mail: chirot@u.washington.edu

This article explores the social history of fundamental Islam in the Middle East and beyond. The rise of fundamentalism is regarded as a conflict against the global forces that inadvertently promoted the evolution of radical ideas in Islam. Salafism or the original trend in fundamental Islam is rooted in the failure of secular trends of development in the Islamic world. Once a glorious Caliphate that challenged the power and influence of other states, the world of Islam ended as a conglomerate of states deeply mired in backwardness and dependent on others. The weakness of the Islamic states led to their colonial subjugation at the hands of Western powers. Awareness of the Islamic states’ inferior status led to conflicting trends in Islamic thought. In the 20th century it gave rise to a nationalism that brought to power modernizing regimes in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and other states with a mainly Islamic population. However, in most cases secular modernization and anti-colonialism failed, giving birth to corrupt and inefficient forms of government and a lack of visible success in economic policy. The obvious failure of secular nationalism provided grounds for the renaissance of Islamic fundamentalism that sought to explain the failure of nationalism and modernization by the obvious departure of the Islamic societies from the so-called true and pure Islam that had led it to success in the times of Caliphates. Islamic theologians such as Sayiid Q’tub called on Muslims to return to pure Islam and rid themselves of Western domination. Fundamentalist ideas increased their influence in the urban areas where social despair increased social pressure. The political factor also played a role in the spread of fundamentalist ideas. The Saudi regime struck a compromise with Wahhabism and secured its own power by funding the fundamentаlists’ drive to proselytize beyond what became Saudi Arabia. Islamic thinkers gradually evolved an even more violent set of ideas that came to fully reject modernity, and a reliance on a military confrontation that would put an end to the domination of the West and result in the final battle when Islam would restore its past glory. The inept policies of Western powers including the war in Iraq and Afghanistan poured oil on the fire of local frustrations. These ideas formed a basis for the creation of ISIS that has now spread its influence to many countries where Muslims are in the majority. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism emerges as a concurrence of historic trends when historic memories, the resentment of modernity, social desperation, failed hopes of nationalism and a game of global contradictions form the basis of violent extremism.