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The main reason for Islamism is the ongoing struggle of Muslims for their freedom and independence from the Western powers.  The existence of this issue contravenes with the Western interests in the area, such as energy and economics, which,  basically, mean the obsession for oil. Still, a further analysis would bring out the fact that these are just secondary concerns and the key issue lays in the fact that Islam is a comprehensive scheme for ordering human life, while politics is the instrument used to secure them within this scheme. The West has always criticized Islam exactly from this point of view, dismissing the fact that Muslims do not have a monolithic perception about their religion any more than any other followers of other great religions. Moreover, it is defective to think that all political acts were based or conformed to religious norms. Throughout history there had been a large number of situations where political regimes had a fine link with religious norms and followed the sharīʿah to a certain extent, only in order to legitimize and support their power (Enayat, 1982:1).

Because of the fact that Muslims rarely studied politics unrelated to other disciplines, there had not been a tradition of political thought until the trauma of European encroachment, which started in the late eighteen century. From that point on the Muslim elite started to write works on different political topics, but their methodology was disputable, especially since they used a lot of Qur’anic evidence and only few foreign references. When some scholars embraced certain Western ideas toward politics, they came to the conclusion that no matter how valid or vital is the independence of Muslim people the actions that have to be taken have to conform, both in form and substance, to the religious laws (Enayat, 1982:3).

When discussing about ‘Islamic threat’ one hast to admit that it is a combination of reality and myth. Starting with the Iranian revolution, the idea of Islam opposing the West has become a frequent issue that preoccupies both sides. It had been generally assumed by Western analysts that Islamist and fundamentalist movements include all Muslims and urges them to impose around the world their political programme, which has its roots in religion. Most of the time, it had been obscured the fact that the great majority of Muslims are not supports of these organizations (Halliday, 2003:107). As a matter of fact, some scholars consider that the concept of the ‘Islamic threat’ is nothing but a substitute to the Cold War, which means that the West has to have a conflict with a menacing, but subordinated ‘other.

It is fairly clear that now, in the twenty first century, the world would be part of a confrontation between Christians and Muslims and, moreover, by the rapidly growing of globalization. The West has realized that the actions taken in countries such as Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, Egypt etc have repercussions within the borders of European countries and the USA (Esposito, 2002:85). As seen in the latest confrontations in the Middle East, jihad is on its way. Islamist movements have been condemned by the West, especially in Israel, with the conflicts between the Jewish state and Hamas or Hezbollah. This, along with 9/11 attacks made the West reach the conclusion that Political Islam has been taken at another level. Officials tend to come forward with a series of certitudes, some of them wrongly assumed, such as the terrorists hate the American way of life, power, prosperity and freedoms, violence and terrorism are integral to Muslim belief and practice and Islam is incompatible with modernity and democracy. On the other hand, I believe it is justly assumed that these conflicts are proof positive for the clash of civilizations between Islam and the West and because of their actions groups such as al-Qaeda can be classified as religious fanatics (Esposito, 2002:131).

In conclusion, the West had a number of fears regarding the uprising of Islamic fundamentalism and political Islam, which led at a certain extent to ‘Islamophobia’, especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. If one looks back in time, this concept has been around for more than two decades now. For example, after the fall of the Soviet Union, in 1991, Saddam Hussein called for jihad in Gulf war and more and more politicians and media representatives saw in Islam a new evil empire that took the place of the communist threat. It is clear that the West saw in militants such as Osama bin Laden a product of the early Islamist movements, reinforced by the religious beliefs. In comparison to Khomeini and other Islamic activists who fought for a change within the national borders and called for jihad in the name of the state, nowadays jihad became an international affair (Esposito, 2002:3-4).

Enayat, Hamid – Modern Islamic Political Thought, University of Texas Press, 1982, pp. 1-3, 69, 84

Esposito, John L– Unholy War. Terror in the name of Islam, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 3-4, 56, 85

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