ISLAM FOR BEGINNERS BRS 107.pdf - CUEA

everything in Islamism begins with the various interpretation of sura12. Surat-ul-Yusufusays: “If not Him, you worship nothing but names which you have named, You and yourFathers, for which God has sent down no authority: the command is for none but God: Hehad commanded that you worship none but Him: the is the right religion, but most menunderstand not...(!2:40)Authority belongs to God alone. This short Qur’anic phrase is part of the central Islamicdoctrine and it is, somehow, the origin of Islamism. In today’s Islam, this short phrasebelongs to political Islam. It becomes the turning point of many ideologies. In other words,the legitimacy of any doctrine does not depend on democracy or on a consensus or on aconstitution or on a single person. Any legitimacy of a given society is solely based onGod’s decrees. This is what could be called a fundamentalist view of Islam: it is Islamism,or a group or ideologies in Islam; this is not Islam.Islamism is an ideology or a group of ideologies that demands man's complete adherenceto the sacred law of Islam and rejects as much as possible any other influence whethergood or bad, with some exceptions (such as access to military and medical technology). Itis imbued with a deep antagonism towards non-Muslims and has a particular hostilitytowards the West. It amounts to an effort to turn Islam, a religion and civilization, into anideology. Therefore, Islamism is a group of ideologies in Islam that want to use the Shariato its full extent, meaning that secular forms of governments and institutions areconsidered foreign to a true Muslim society. For the Islamists, Islam should be applied asa complete code, which provides for all areas of life, whether spiritual, intellectual, political,social or economic.But Islamism has taken many directions so that inside the same society, several trends ofIslamism can be found, and these are cooperating. There are four central motifs inIslamism:DifferencesIslamists are strongly concerned about social differences, between the rich and the poorworld, as well as inside the Muslim communities. As responsibility for the poor and theneedy is central in Islam (cf. Zakat: almsgiving), any situation with unevenly divided wealthand many poor people is unacceptable to a zealous Muslim. Islamists react towards boththe West for its reluctance to address the poverty of the world, as well as towards the richin their own societies, who are considered equally averse.Frederic N. Mvumbi,OP Page 28 of 85