ABSTRACT

Islamism is a new phenomenon that owes more to politics than to religion, even though it expresses itself in religious terms. It is a product of the early twentieth century, reflecting the impact of European totalitarianism. Yet the Khomemist system is several degrees more democratic than those of other Islamist ideologues, because it allows women to vote, and generally all citizens. Other Islamists, especially in Pakistan, want voting rights to be restricted to male elite and have devised a system of a 'separate electorate' according to which non-Muslims are not allowed to vote for Muslim candidates and vice versa. Despite Islamist claims to represent 'true Islam', they rarely find much following among the Muslim masses and their share in the vote is usually insignificant, the Algerian 'protest vote' of 1990 being a rare exception. Classical scholarship has produced a great deal of literature on the perceived differences between Christian and Islamic ethics.