Page 210 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

islam 1029

Post-modernism is modernism with the optimism
taken out. • Robert Hewison (b. 1943)

themes into their radical nationalist programs, but these Quran’s emphasis on the equality of all believers and
programs were not primarily Islamic in orientation or then noting the influence of more patriarchal perspec-
identification. However, during these first two eras, more tives in the way that the Islamic tradition was histori-
explicitly Islamic groups were created. These groups cally defined. Similarly, some intellectuals have
were modern in organization but in the more puritanical emphasized pluralistic dimensions of the Islamic world-
tradition in terms of intellectual content.The most impor- view and tradition and have also drawn back from the
tant of these groups are the Muslim Brotherhood, estab- emphasis on political activism as a means for imposing
lished in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna in 1928, and the Islamic norms.
Jamaat-i Islam, established in 1941 in India by Abu al- Some of the impetus for these developments has come
Ala Mawdudi. from the emergence of minority Islamic communities in
The third era is the time of the Islamic resurgence of western Europe and North America as important parts of
the final quarter of the twentieth century.The major sig- the broader Islamic world. In those regions issues of gen-
nal that the radical and the secularist nationalist move- der equality and religious pluralism have great impor-
ments had failed to bring the expected prosperity and tance for Islamic community life.
freedom to Islamic peoples was the Iranian Revolution
of 1979, which brought to power a regime dedicated to Future Prospects
a full implementation of Islamic rules and norms. Many people see a worldwide resurgence of religion as
During the early 1980s many other movements with an important feature of the world of the early twenty-
strongly defined Islamic goals and agendas came to first century. This resurgence involves important move-
prominence.These movements represent the emergence ments in evangelical Christianity, Hinduism, and other
of what came to be called “political Islam” because the faith traditions as well as the Islamic faith tradition.
primary focus of the programs was the control of the Within the major religious traditions is a competition
state. Some movements, such as the Islamic Salvation between what some call “fundamentalist” traditions and
Front in Algeria, contested elections, whereas others, traditions of relatively flexible reinterpretation and
such as the Mujahidin in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, adaptation.This competition is not so much a “clash of
engaged in violent opposition defined in its terms as civilizations” as it is a civil war within the great religious
jihad. These movements of jihad became a significant traditions and civilizations in the context of increasingly
part of the Islamic experience of the 1990s. In the con- intense global interactions among peoples, faiths, and
text of globalization, militant global networks such as traditions.
al-Qaeda represented an important part of Islamic inter- The long history of the flexible adaptations of the
action with the world. However, such movements Islamic community and belief system to changing his-
remained only a small part of Islamic life and often toric conditions suggests that new forms of Islamic
were in conflict with the mainstream Islamic organiza- institutions and perspectives will continue to be defined
tions and sentiments that reflected the views of the by believers. These new institutions and perspectives
majority of Muslims. will be defined and articulated, as they have in the
Although the movements of political Islam attracted whole of the modern era, by the interaction of more sec-
the most attention, other important trends also devel- ular reformers,“modernists,” and the fundamentalists of
oped during the 1980s. Intellectuals gave increasing the new age.
attention to the definition of the place of women in
John O.Voll
Islamic society, and by the beginning of the twenty-first
century, an “Islamic feminism” had emerged.This femi- See also Islamic Law; Islamic World; Muhammad; Pil-
nism involved a reexamination of the Quran, noting the grimage; Rumi