ABSTRACT
The terms political Islam, Islamic governance, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic Salafism, Hakimiyya, international Islamism, and Islam as religion and state are not competing concepts pointing to different phenomena. They are synonyms for a single reality: orthodox Islam as it has always understood itself and expressed itself when it has had the power to do so. This paper argues that the conceptual separation between Islam and political Islam is analytically indefensible, historically without foundation, and directly contradicted by the tradition’s own most authoritative contemporary voices. Drawing on a systematic comparison between sharia and modern constitutional law, and an examination of constitutional provisions across Muslim-majority states, the paper demonstrates that political Islam is not Islam’s aberrant politicization but its foundational and persistent institutional expression. The evidence has been publicly available for decades. The West has chosen not to read it.
THE SYNONYMS FOR A SINGLE REALITY
THE HOUSE OF ISLAM
The House of Islam: The Case Against the Islam/Islamism Divide is the inaugural issue of The Ideological Defense Institute Journal, a new publication dedicated to examining the doctrines, movements, and ideological conflicts shaping the future of the West.
