Resurgent Islamic Fundamentalism as an Integrative Factor in the Politics of Africa and the Middle East

Studies of the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, otherwise called the Islamist movements, brought the debate about Orientalism back to public attention. Those who postulate a cultural essence that underlies and unifies Islamic history are considered to beneo-Orientalists. It is significant, however, that there is a convergence between the view of the so-called neo-Orientalists and that of the Islamists, who insist on the monolithic universality of Islam (Zubayda 1997, 103; 'Ali 1999, 2).