Islamism is a totalitarian ideology that uses Islam as a means to gain political power. It stands apart from other Islamic movements through its belief that an Islamic government must be installed by force, rejecting democracy as substituting man's rule for God's. Islamists are often well-educated and from lower-middle class backgrounds, frustrated with their own societies. They view events like the Arab defeats in 1967 and the spread of secularism as humiliations to be rectified. Islamism is an eclectic ideology drawing from various sources but is not monolithic, united in objectives, or wildly popular in the Islamic world. It considers the West, Christianity, Judaism, secularism, and other Muslims as enemies.

1. ISLAMISM
A totalitarian ideology using the
religion of Islam as a means to obtain
political power

2. Personal experience with
Islamism
• The assassination of Sadat

3. Personal experience
• Working with Ali Mohamed

4. Personal experiences

5. ISLAMISM
• Stands apart from
– Islamic fundamentalism
– Arabism
– Nationalism
– Socialism
– Humanistic democracy

6. ISLAMISM
• THE PRIMARY GROUPS OF ISLAM
secularists
modernists
fundamentalists
Islamists
radical passive
radical activists

7. ISLAMISM and
FUNDAMENTALISM
• Fundamentalists believe that society must be reformed
according to peaceful Islamic principles as a prelude to
establishing an Islamic state. A form of Islamic
democracy possible (shura)
• Radicals (Islamists) believe that peaceful change
impossible and Islamic government must be installed
by force with a theocratic dictator. Democracy
substitutes rule of man for rule of God and therefore is
evil.
• Oppose secularism, westernization, ”store front” ulama,
and often advocate jihad as the sixth pillar of Islam.
BOTH ADVOCATE THE IMPOSITION OF THE
SHARIA AS THE BASIC SYSTEM OF LAW

8. ISLAMISTS
• WHO ARE THEY?
– Technocrats /well-educated
– Young
– Often from rural areas and new in urban area
– Lower middle class (not from poor)
– Frustrated/alienated from own society
– Mostly Sunni
• For example the homocide hijackers and al Qaeda
leadership……………

9. AL QAEDA
The command structure
Is decentralized and
The leaders are
well-educated,
Financially well-off,
and supremely self-
confident…. to the
point of arrogance

10. ISLAMISM
• TRIGGERING EVENTS
– 67 Arab-Israeli war
– Pak-Indo war 1971
– Modernization-modernity
• Urbanization/extended family breakdown
• globalization
– Arab world political stagnation
– Arab world economic stagnation

11. Islamism
• “For many centuries the world of Islam
was in the forefront of human
civilization. In the Muslims own
perception, Islam itself was indeed
coterminous with civilization and
achievement, and beyond its borders
there was only barbarians and
infidels.”
» What Went Wrong by Bernard Lewis

12. ISLAMISM
“ In the course of the twentieth century it became
abundantly clear in the Middle East and indeed
all over the lands of Islam that things had
indeed gone badly wrong.”
WHY? Islamists say
• Abandonment of Islam and sundry outside
villains as below;
• “……..the blame game –the Turks, the
Mongols, the imperialists, the Jews, the
Americans - continues, and shows little sign of
abating.”
» What Went Wrong by Bernard Lewis

13. ISLAMISM
• Radical militant Islam brought “victory” in;
– The Arab-Israeli 1973 war
– The 1979 Iranian revolution
– The victory of the Afghan mujahedeen over the
Russians
– The victory of the Taliban over the warlords
– The ouster of the Israelis from Lebanon by Hizbollah
– Destruction of the WTC… a symbol of American
power
– And eventually it will bring Israel and the West to
their knees. But……………….

14. In the meantime……
• The humiliation continues;
Each day Israel exists.
The Gulf War debacle.
The collapse of the Taliban.
Continued Indian rule over
Kashmir.
The perception that many
Arab rulers are US stooges
and do our bidding.

15. Islamism
• The violence of Islamist radicals
is not primarily a result of;
– wealth distribution inequity,i.e.,
poverty.
– The lack of “balance” in US policy
in the Middle East particularly
toward the Palestinian issue.
– US intervention in the Arab World

16. ISLAMISM
ENEMIES
The West
Christianity
Judaism and Jews
Secularism
and even other muslims,e.g., Shia

17. Islamism
• IS NOT
– ANTI-TECHNOLOGY
– MONOLITHIC
– UNITED
– PRECISE IN OBJECTIVES
– CLEAR IN DOCTRINE
– WILDLY POPULAR IN ISLAMIC WORLD

18. ISLAMISM
• ISLAMISM IS;
– An eclectic combination of pseudo-religion,
marxist techniques and world view, cultural
mythology, fascist notions of racial superiority,
and capitalistic entrepreneurship.
– A dangerous ideology in a society infected with
“neurotic fantasies and conspiracy theories.”

19. Islamism
• A number of respected observers of Arab society have
recorded and studied an Arab proclivity for extremism
and wishful thinking.
• “The Arab clings to the ideal even while he knows it is
contradicted by reality.”Morroe Berger
• “Semites have no half tones in their register of
vision…..Their thoughts were at ease only in extremes.
They inhabited superlatives by choice.” T. E. Lawrence
• “Thinking and seeing in extremes; oscillation between
controlled and uncontrolled behavior; divorce between
thought and word on one hand and action on the other;
inclination to prefer the ideal to the real”. R. Patai

20. Islamism and the Islamists
Three broad categories;
• The true believer
• The adventurer
• Useful fools

21. Islamism
• The True Believer
• “Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving
for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience- the
knowledge that our mighty deeds will come to the ears of
our contemporaries…”
• “We are ready to sacrifice our true, transitory self for the
imaginary eternal self we are building up, by our heroic
deeds, in the opinion and imagination minds of others.”
• “Dying and killing seem easy when they are part of a ritual,
ceremonial, dramatic performance or game.”
Eric Hofer The True Believer
–A

22. Not all are true believers; some are simply
adventurers.
The case of Ali Mohamed
• Supremely self confident egotist/self
promoter
• Well-read/articulate/loquacious
• Energetic/good physical shape
• Liar…what was real what not?
• Racist traits
• Haughty/contemptuous
• Superficial Islamic knowledge

23. –The Useful Fools
Life’s losers made to feel important
Or wannabees
Reid Heyadet Padilla

24. Islamism
QUESTIONS?