“Dangerous Concepts” and the Struggle Within: Reclaiming State and Politics from the Islamists

Abstract

In 1996 a global Islamist group proclaimed the intellectual and political battlefield between their Islamist ideology and the West. It was and remains a call primarily to Muslims because the ideological struggle, which in recent years has violently affected America and the world, has in fact been playing out for decades inside Muslim-majority nations among Muslims themselves. Attacks on the United States have “embroiled the United States in [this] intra-Muslim ideological battle…”¹ Here is what they said:

Dear Muslims… you must wake up and realise the reality behind what the infidels and their followers are plotting. You are today called upon to defend your creed, your ideology… It is time to distinguish Truth from Falsehood as clear and distinct as life is from death. On one side, the side of Falsehood—are America, the infidel West and your rulers and their supporters… allured by Capitalism and seduced by its way of life, together with those who call for democracy, pluralism, human rights and free market policies. And on the other side, the side of Truth—are those carriers of the Islamic call… from among the Muslim people who adhere to their ideology. It is indeed a decisive battle in which your destiny is determined… there is no room for neutrality in this decisive battle.²