ABSTRACT
The era from World War I until the middle of the 1960s was a time of significant and dramatic changes within the Islamic world, in both political and ideological terms. Throughout Islamic history, the transnational sense of community had been a key element of Islamic identity. Although the political units created were artificial, they defined the territory for the modern states in the Islamic world. The Islamic modernist position was equally adaptationist but did not accept the separation of religion and polity. In the emerging nationalist movements, the emphasis on local conditions meant a withdrawal from a more rigorous attachment to Islamic unity. Inspired by fundamentalist ideals, the Muslim Brotherhood grew directly out of the challenge modernizing secularism posed to Islamic values. It was established in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna, a schoolteacher with a background of individual and family religious studies and a modern-oriented education.
