Artikel

Fundamentalisme, integrisme en islamisme: de radicale Islam vanuit een theoretisch perspectief

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Abstract

Fundamentalism, integrism, islamism : a theoretical analysis – Radical Islam or Islamism can be regarded as a political translation of Islam into a radical ideology, emerging in several Muslim countries and creating a strong political dynamic throughout the Muslim world. It is perhaps the end of the cold war — which opposed two western ideological models — that stimulates the growth of this first non-western and non-westernized ideology. This coincides with the end of the ideological control of the western world over its ancient peripheries. But it is also the deadlock of Arab nationalism which contributes to the rise of Islamism, since the national ideological space is left empty. On the national level, the rise of Islamism creates a tension between two different cultural groups, rather than between social classes. The first group is composed of the westernized power-elite and those parts of the population which depend directly on the power-elite or which have integrated the western cultural pattern relatively well. The other group is composed of the urban masses, suffering from the disintegration of traditional solidarity relations (due to new urban living conditions and the negative effects of social and economic development). But this group is guided by a marginalized intellectual elite, which creates the radical ideology. An economic and/or political crisis may bring the intellectual counter-elite closer to the proletarianized and alienated masses to form a strong opposition to the westernized power-elite. If the ideology of this opposition can gain political power, it will result in a cultural project (the ’reislamization of Muslim society’) which will satisfy the counter-elite (partly composed of members of the ancient politico-religious elite who lost social power by the secularization of Muslim society) and reintegrate the urban masses. It will also eliminate the negative aspects of the western cultural and developmental pattern which are considered incompatible with the values of Islam. Hence, it can be regarded as a process of decolonization in the Muslim world, still continuing on the cultural level.

How to Cite:

Angelet, B., (1990) “Fundamentalisme, integrisme en islamisme: de radicale Islam vanuit een theoretisch perspectief”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 35(4), 404–420. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95056