Islamism refers to religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism, liberal democracy, capitalism, and other alternatives in achieving a just, successful society.
Ali Shariati Mazinani was an Iranian revolutionary and sociologist who focused on the sociology of religion. He is held as one of the most influential Iranian intellectuals of the 20th century, and has been called the "ideologue of the Islamic Revolution", although his ideas did not end up forming the basis of the Islamic Republic.
Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a revivalist and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. The term has been used interchangeably with similar terms such as Islamism, Islamic revivalism, Qutbism, Islamic activism, and has been criticized as pejorative.
Political aspects of Islam are derived from the Quran, ḥadīth literature, and sunnah, the history of Islam, and elements of political movements outside Islam.
Pan-Islamism is a political movement which advocates the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. Historically, after Ottomanism, which aimed at the unity of all Ottoman citizens, Pan-Islamism was promoted in the Ottoman Empire during the last quarter of the 19th century by Sultan Abdul Hamid II for the purpose of preventing secession movements of the Muslim peoples in the empire.
Farhat Naseem Hashmi is a Pakistani-Canadian Islamic scholar and preacher. She is the founder of the Al-Huda Institute, a network of conservative Islamic religious schools for women.
"Islamofascism" is a term that is a portmanteau of the ideologies of fascism and Islamism or Islamic fundamentalism, which advocates authoritarianism and violent extremism to establish an Islamic state, in addition to promoting offensive Jihad. For example, Qutbism has been characterized as an Islamofascist and Islamic terrorist ideology.
Ayandegan was one of the most influential and popular daily newspapers in Iran during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's rule. It was the first morning daily paper of Iran. It had an independent and critical stance. The paper was also a liberal and nationalist publication in the Pahlavi period.
Saïd Amir Arjomand is an Iranian-American scholar and Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University, Long Island, and Director of the Stony Brook Institute for Global Studies. He received his Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of Chicago.
Nathan J. Brown is an American scholar of Middle Eastern law and politics at the George Washington University. Brown is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs and the former director of its Institute for Middle East Studies.
The Arab Spring or the First Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, the protests then spread to five other countries: Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Rulers were deposed or major uprisings and social violence occurred including riots, civil wars, or insurgencies. Sustained street demonstrations took place in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. Minor protests took place in Djibouti, Mauritania, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Western Sahara. A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is ash-shaʻb yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām!.
Şerif Mardin was a prominent Turkish sociologist, political scientist, academic and thinker. In a 2008 publication, he was referred to as the "doyen of Turkish sociology."
Shadi Hamid is an American author and political scientist, who is currently a columnist and member of the Editorial Board at the Washington Post. Previously, he was a longtime senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer at the Atlantic. He also holds the position of research professor of Islamic studies at Fuller Seminary. This appointment is the first time a Muslim scholar has been hired in the school's history. He has been called a "prominent thinker on religion and politics" in the New York Times and was named as one of "The world's top 50 thinkers" in 2019 by Prospect Magazine. He is known for coining the phrase "Islamic exceptionalism" to describe Islam's resistance to secularization and outsized role in public life. The phrase has come under some criticism.
Sahwa movement or al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya was a movement in Saudi Arabia from 1960–1980 which advocated for eradicating Wahhabi principles in Saudi society and replacing it with Qutbism. The most noticeable effects of the movement were significant restrictions on women's rights, religious freedom, and personal liberties. The movement's core doctrines were shaped by the fundamentalist tenets of Qutbism; such as theological denunciations of democracy and the belief that contemporary governments of the Muslim World have apostatised.
Mariam Behruzi was an Iranian lawyer and former member of the Iranian Majlis. In 1980, she was one of four women elected to the first Majlis of the Islamic Republic of Iran, where she continued to serve until 1996. She worked to improve women's and family issues, successfully campaigning to have a committee on women's issues created within the Majlis. Behruzi also worked to have more women included in the judiciary, and her efforts resulted both in a reversal of a ban that prohibited women from studying law and a change in public opinion on women in law in Iran.
Post-Islamism is a neologism in political science, the definition and applicability of which is disputed. Asef Bayat and Olivier Roy are among the main architects of the idea.
Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin is a book by historian Ervand Abrahamian about the late 20th-century political history of Iran, and a thorough case study of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK). The book also includes a short biography of Ali Shariati and a review of his works in order to explore the influence this had on the group's early ideological traits. The book was a duplicate publication by I.B. Tauris and by Yale University Press, being first published by the former in 1989 in the United Kingdom. It is widely regarded as an important academic source on the MEK.
Ayatollah Mirza Husayn Khalili Tehrani (1815-1908) was an Usuli Shi'a jurist and among the four sources of emulation at the time of Iranian Constitutional Revolution. He worked alongside Akhund Khurasani and Shaykh Abdullah Mazandarani to support the first democratic revolution of Asia, Iran's Constitutional Revolution, and co-signed all major statements issued from the seminary of Najaf in support of democracy.
Shia Islamism is the usage of Shia Islam in politics. Most study and reporting on Islamism has been focused on Sunni Islamist movements. Shia Islamism, a previously very small ideology, gained in popularity after the Iranian Revolution led by Ruhollah Khomeini, whose Shia Islamist policies became known as Khomeinism.
Shariatism is a body of ideas that describes the inspiration, vision, and the life work of Ali Shariati.
