ABSTRACT
The movement that developed in the 1970s was not a 'traditional' Islamic movement. The Islamic movement has been depicted in the West as an attempt to re-create the society and values from the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The Islamic movement was as much a social statement, as it was a religious assertion. The Islamic movement also found a sympathetic audience amongst the socially 'disinherited' and the university population. The Sunni movement's preoccupation with a discussion on virtue and its unwillingness to deal with the practical implications of an Islamic state has prevented the Sunni movement from transcending the theoretical to achieve the practical manifestation of its goals. The Islamic movement in Iran and elsewhere in the 1970s brought Islam into the sphere of political activity throughout the Middle East. The Iranian movement by giving Islam a definite political, legal and social form completed the use of Islam as an ideology.
