Islamism (Islam+-ism; Arabic: إسلام سياسي Islām siyāsī, "Political Islam", or الإسلامية al-Islāmīyah) is a set of ideologies holding that Islam is "as much a political ideology as a religion".[1] Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary (see below). Leading Islamist thinkers emphasize the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law); of pan-Islamic political unity; and of the elimination of non-Muslim, particularly Western military, economic, political, social, or cultural influences in the Muslim world, which they believe to be incompatible with Islam.[2]
Some observers suggest Islamism's tenets are less strict, and can be defined as a form of identity politics or "support for [Muslim] identity, authenticity, broader regionalism, revivalism, [and] revitalization of the community".[3] Following the Arab Spring at least one source has described Islamism as "increasingly interdependent" with democracy in much of the Arab Muslim world, such that "neither can now survive without the other."[4]
Many of those described as "Islamists" oppose the use of the term, and claim that their political beliefs and goals are simply an expression of Islamic religious belief. Similarly, some experts favor the term activist Islam,[5][6] militant Islam,[7] or political Islam instead.[8]
Central figures of modern Islamism include Sayyid Qutb, Hasan al-Banna, Abul Ala Maududi,[9] Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,[10] and Navvab Safavi.
