Two faces of Islam: The Jihadist and The Modernist

One of my doctors is a Muslim (actually three of them are but I know this one very well). It is he who made this point to me. Modern Muslims have to make this distinction and do so out loud: jihadism is unacceptable and reform/renewal/modernism is the way forward.

Modern Muslims need to be able to say clearly that they recognize that Islam is the soil from which extremist, zealous, doctrinaire jihadist grew and which continues to nurture and protect it. AND they have to point out the nature of modern, enlightenment Islam but they fear doing so and then to act on it.

Separating

“Contemporary Islam”

and

“Contemporary Jihadism”

The Testimony

There is no god but God,

Muhammad is the messenger of God.

Jihadism refers to contemporary armed jihad, holy war against the unfaithful, as an expression of Islamic fundamntalism. The term “jihadism” was coined in the 2000s and to cover Islamic insurgency and terrorism since that time, and has been extended to cover guerrilla warfare, and terrorism in the name of the struggle against the infidel and the heretic. Contemporary jihadism ultimately has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th century ideological developments of Islamic revivalism, which is normal described as a return to the pure (and in terms of contemporary Islamic practice “primitive/antiquated fundamentals of the Islamic faith which looks to a literal acceptance of the Quaran and certain scholarship as the direct Word of God which cannot be altered in any way.

Its two most common expression in Qutbism which later became known as Salafism.

Qutbism/Salafism has its roots in the thoughts of the late Sayyid Qutb, the figurehead master of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed in 1966. It has been described as an extremist ideology propagation “offensive jihad, armed jihad, conquering jihad” as its core value.

Both Al Qaeda and ISIS/ISIL have their origins in this movement. Their overall strategy has three fronts: a “system-collapse strategy” to be waged against those governments not aligned with Sunni Islam; “separated enclaves” that keep true Muslims from the “infections” of non-Sunni Islam, of the allures of the contemporary world, and of the Western “satanic” world in particular; “direct assault” on highly symbolic/representational targets in the West.

Contemporary Islam or Islamic Modernism has been described as “the first Muslim ideological response” attempting to reconcile Islamic faith with modern Western values such as nationalism, democracy, civil rights, gender equality, secularism, rationality,, general equality, progress and freedom of religion.

It features a “critical reexamination of the classical conceptions and methods of jurisprudence”, a new contextual and evolutionary approach to Islamic theology and Quranic exegesis/study.

This movement has its roots in the 19th century renovation of Islamic thought called the salafiyya movement

Modernism differs from secularism in that it insists on the importance of religious faith in both private and public life, while still embracing contemporary European institutions, social processes and values.