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Islamism and Islam
A distinguished scholar of international politics clarifies what is widely misunderstood in the West: Islam and Islamism are not two words for the same thing
Despite the intense media focus on Muslims and their religion since the tragedy of 9/11, few Western scholars or policymakers today have a clear idea of the distinctions between Islam and the politically based fundamentalist movement known as Islamism. In this important and illuminating book, Bassam Tibi, a senior scholar of Islamic politics, provides a corrective to this dangerous gap in our understanding. He explores the true nature of contemporary Islamism and the essential ways in which it differs from the religious faith of Islam. Drawing on research in twenty Islamic countries over three decades, Tibi describes Islamism as a political ideology based on a reinvented version of Islamic law. In separate chapters devoted to the major features of Islamism, he discusses the Islamist vision of state order, the centrality of antisemitism in Islamist ideology, Islamism's incompatibility with democracy, the reinvention of jihadism as terrorism, the invented tradition of shari'a law as constitutional order, and the Islamists' confusion of the concepts of authenticity and cultural purity. Tibi's concluding chapter applies elements of Hannah Arendt's theory to identify Islamism as a totalitarian ideology.
Despite the intense media focus on Muslims and their religion since the tragedy of 9/11, few Western scholars or policymakers today have a clear idea of the distinctions between Islam and the politically based fundamentalist movement known as Islamism. In this important and illuminating book, Bassam Tibi, a senior scholar of Islamic politics, provides a corrective to this dangerous gap in our understanding. He explores the true nature of contemporary Islamism and the essential ways in which it differs from the religious faith of Islam. Drawing on research in twenty Islamic countries over three decades, Tibi describes Islamism as a political ideology based on a reinvented version of Islamic law. In separate chapters devoted to the major features of Islamism, he discusses the Islamist vision of state order, the centrality of antisemitism in Islamist ideology, Islamism's incompatibility with democracy, the reinvention of jihadism as terrorism, the invented tradition of shari'a law as constitutional order, and the Islamists' confusion of the concepts of authenticity and cultural purity. Tibi's concluding chapter applies elements of Hannah Arendt's theory to identify Islamism as a totalitarian ideology.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published December 19, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 2, 2021
Islamism considers the superiority of Islam to be beyond question and takes it as a grounds for the claim to purity. Islamists are reluctant to acknowledge that Muslims today lag not only behind “Western Science” but also behind the earlier standards reached by their own civilization. A complacent sense of superiority and consequent reluctance to learn from the cultural other is a hazard for any civilization ; but it has reached new highs in the recent Islamist agenda of the cultural purification of knowledge. The need of a “knowledge society” is not on the Islamist agenda.
- Bassam Tibi, Islamism and Islam
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First of all, kudos to the author. I was not fully prepared to immerse myself in this literary piece. I was doing “learn, unlearn and relearn” while reading this book. I figured this book will not be popular among muslim readers especially when it is being critical towards some of the prominent scholars in Islam like Sayyid Qutb, Hassan Al Banna, Yusuf Al Qaradawi just to name a few. The author even mentioned his severed friendship with Edward Said over the disagreement of his famous book ‘Orientalism’. The author dismantle the idea of looking fundamentalism and Islamism in 2 different lens. Instead, he asked us to compare them side by side and thats where you can draw a conclusion that no one should underestimate the impact of islamism. I would only recommend this book if you can approach this book in academic mode because trust me, people get triggered easily hence my advice. Of course i dont agree with all the points he made in this book. Ultimately, i drew the line on sub chapter of Islamism and Antisemitism when he discussed about Palestine (particularly on Hamas and Fatah ideology). However, i definitely agree that Muslims need to learn the distinction of Jews and Zionists (which unfortunately many failed to distinguish these 2 and ended up being labeled as anti semitic). Bassam Tibi also calling out the west for failing to recognize that Islamism is trend that cannot be undermined as most authors only simply acknowledge it as a minor movement or phenomenon.
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One of my favorite chapters is Islamism and Democracy. Islamist stressed on the concept of God’s rule and point out that democracy is an imported solution and explicitly known as western approach but will still use democracy instrument to advance their agenda. The secular concept remains unpopular despite it is the best approach to curb islamism. I remembered one of my classmates asked me why i preferred secular state? I just answered that i dont want religion interference in the state affairs. As simple as that and nothing more. Over the years, I still am stand by my stance over a secular state. Sadly, recently i have seen the creeping of islamisation into my country lately has become a lot more stronger. Despite Malaysia constitution guarantee its secularity but over the years the attempt to nullify it is much more visible. Its not just a problem in Malaysia, it happened to Turkey too. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk managed to build a republic with a stronghold centre based on the secular principles. However, it has been weakened by the current administration and the islamism started to penetrate Turkey bit by bit.
.
.
Islamism and violence chapter highlighted the argument of conditional peace that faced by non muslims should they turned down the invitation to islam conversion. This
chapter further strengthen what i have felt so long especially reading about Jihad Wars that has been going on back then after the prophet’s death. Of course, i cannot voice it out because rather than debating about it, i will just be branded as ‘Liberal’ or ‘Kafir’ or ‘western brainwashed’. Another chapter that deserved a spotlight is Islamism and Totalitarianism, drawing a paradoxical comparison of Egypt and Turkey, yet islamist indoctrination have not changed. Majority believe that Islamists are the only political power eligible replace the corrupt authoritarianism.
- Bassam Tibi, Islamism and Islam
.
.
First of all, kudos to the author. I was not fully prepared to immerse myself in this literary piece. I was doing “learn, unlearn and relearn” while reading this book. I figured this book will not be popular among muslim readers especially when it is being critical towards some of the prominent scholars in Islam like Sayyid Qutb, Hassan Al Banna, Yusuf Al Qaradawi just to name a few. The author even mentioned his severed friendship with Edward Said over the disagreement of his famous book ‘Orientalism’. The author dismantle the idea of looking fundamentalism and Islamism in 2 different lens. Instead, he asked us to compare them side by side and thats where you can draw a conclusion that no one should underestimate the impact of islamism. I would only recommend this book if you can approach this book in academic mode because trust me, people get triggered easily hence my advice. Of course i dont agree with all the points he made in this book. Ultimately, i drew the line on sub chapter of Islamism and Antisemitism when he discussed about Palestine (particularly on Hamas and Fatah ideology). However, i definitely agree that Muslims need to learn the distinction of Jews and Zionists (which unfortunately many failed to distinguish these 2 and ended up being labeled as anti semitic). Bassam Tibi also calling out the west for failing to recognize that Islamism is trend that cannot be undermined as most authors only simply acknowledge it as a minor movement or phenomenon.
.
.
One of my favorite chapters is Islamism and Democracy. Islamist stressed on the concept of God’s rule and point out that democracy is an imported solution and explicitly known as western approach but will still use democracy instrument to advance their agenda. The secular concept remains unpopular despite it is the best approach to curb islamism. I remembered one of my classmates asked me why i preferred secular state? I just answered that i dont want religion interference in the state affairs. As simple as that and nothing more. Over the years, I still am stand by my stance over a secular state. Sadly, recently i have seen the creeping of islamisation into my country lately has become a lot more stronger. Despite Malaysia constitution guarantee its secularity but over the years the attempt to nullify it is much more visible. Its not just a problem in Malaysia, it happened to Turkey too. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk managed to build a republic with a stronghold centre based on the secular principles. However, it has been weakened by the current administration and the islamism started to penetrate Turkey bit by bit.
.
.
Islamism and violence chapter highlighted the argument of conditional peace that faced by non muslims should they turned down the invitation to islam conversion. This
chapter further strengthen what i have felt so long especially reading about Jihad Wars that has been going on back then after the prophet’s death. Of course, i cannot voice it out because rather than debating about it, i will just be branded as ‘Liberal’ or ‘Kafir’ or ‘western brainwashed’. Another chapter that deserved a spotlight is Islamism and Totalitarianism, drawing a paradoxical comparison of Egypt and Turkey, yet islamist indoctrination have not changed. Majority believe that Islamists are the only political power eligible replace the corrupt authoritarianism.
June 30, 2013
Bassam Tibis analysis would be difficult to understand for people who don't understand the culture and history of the middle east. A must read for western policymakers, especially if they want to tackle rising influence of Islamist neo nazis in the Islamic diaspora.
December 15, 2021
I love this book for introducing me to Islamism however the book does gets a bit messy a bit in the organization of its content. I'm so glad to learn and differentiate between Islamism and Islam, despite being a Muslim myself because I have experienced and seen with my own eyes the violation of human rights that I know deep in my soul that its wrong but it is justified through religion thus render me unable to question it because the lack of knowledge and information on what actually is wrong. Another thing that I noticed from this book is the tone of the author. I think there is anger, frustration and disappointment in his voice. I recommended this book to Muslims who is searching for definition of why that Islamist party in your government did something that is wrong but you couldn't find the right word to describe or define it, and to non-Muslims to differentiate Islamism and Islam in order to discourage from thinking that Islamism (and terrorism) is Islam when it is not.
November 15, 2025
Frankly quite a depressing read. While his indictment of Islamism is convincing, what is far less convincing is both his distancing of islamism from Islam proper, which seems to be a matter of degree rather than kind- precisely the kinds of degree likely to be lost on the average believer- and his insistence on the possibility of the development of a civil Euro-Islam. On the former, he tries to distinguish the polity of early Islam from what contemporary Islamists place their hope in- an Islamic state. His argument seems to be that the polity of early Islam was never a state proper, as it did not override existing ethnic loyalties (this seems debatable as the one example he cites to justify this claim is from a religious context and from very early on, and seems to ignore the later development of the caliphate) and because it did not really have a unified and codified system of sharia law- this was always a rather ad hoc collection of scriptural interpretation and post hoc justification for imperial decision making.
Be this as it may, to me it seems rather less than convincing to argue that the Islamist desire for an Islamic state is in religious terms an illegitimate development of this nascent polity- indeed, his grounds for thinking so seem entirely based in secular liberalism, and this is unlikely to hold water in a culture which rejects precisely that source of authority. In this regard, his embarrassed reflection on the traditional Islamic attitude to war- that war to spread Islam is inherently just, its opposition inherently unjust, and all non-Islamic regions potential arenas of war- rather undermines his whole argument, speaking as it does precisely of a religious entity capable of exercising one of the chief prerogatives of a state-warfare- and in the most chauvinist terms possible.
The sources of his hoped-for civil Euro-Islam seem likewise to be entirely non-Islamic, and the internal impetus to reform more or less non-existent, so the grounds for hope seem slim indeed. Given the post-colonial ethnicisation of Islamic identity that he so rightly identifies, which surely militates against wholesale reforms on the basis of ultimately non-Islamic ideals the possibility seems vanishingly remote.
Aside from all this, the prose itself is turgid- circular and repetitive in the extreme, iterating and reiterating the same basic points without much elaboration.
Be this as it may, to me it seems rather less than convincing to argue that the Islamist desire for an Islamic state is in religious terms an illegitimate development of this nascent polity- indeed, his grounds for thinking so seem entirely based in secular liberalism, and this is unlikely to hold water in a culture which rejects precisely that source of authority. In this regard, his embarrassed reflection on the traditional Islamic attitude to war- that war to spread Islam is inherently just, its opposition inherently unjust, and all non-Islamic regions potential arenas of war- rather undermines his whole argument, speaking as it does precisely of a religious entity capable of exercising one of the chief prerogatives of a state-warfare- and in the most chauvinist terms possible.
The sources of his hoped-for civil Euro-Islam seem likewise to be entirely non-Islamic, and the internal impetus to reform more or less non-existent, so the grounds for hope seem slim indeed. Given the post-colonial ethnicisation of Islamic identity that he so rightly identifies, which surely militates against wholesale reforms on the basis of ultimately non-Islamic ideals the possibility seems vanishingly remote.
Aside from all this, the prose itself is turgid- circular and repetitive in the extreme, iterating and reiterating the same basic points without much elaboration.
June 1, 2017
Bacaan yang sangat bermutu untuk mempertajam wawasan mengenai bagaimana perbedaan antara Islam sebagai ajaran dengan Islam sebagai alat politik.
September 9, 2021
An invaluable book! Tibi differentiates Islam with Islamism. The former is a realm of faith while the latter in the sphere of politics.
June 8, 2022
Scholarly and not light reading but highly informed.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews