ABSTRACT
The agenda set up after 11 September focused on two connected issues: the war on terrorism and the democratisation of the Arab world. The idea was that the authoritarian and stable status quo provides fertile ground for terrorism. Islam, fundamentalism and Islamic states face series of dilemma. Islamism encompasses different trends. As the opposite of scholarly research that repeatedly stresses the mutual compromise between governments and moderate Islamists, it would be better to ask for a mutual clarification from states and fundamentalists as well. However, this double ambiguity is rooted in a series of causes. First, neither the governments nor the Islamists are willing to get rid of this confusion between religion and politics. Second, the genuine advantage according to which Islam is freed from an official clergy is nowadays reversed in a dramatic shortcoming. Medieval Islam shaped by a kind of Church represented by official scholars committed to jurisprudence. Third, the tradition of Islam is open to interpretation.
