ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises the three major tendencies within the world-systems school reveals that Islam is denied a longue duree of its own, which occludes its specificity, and which complicates efforts to critique civilizationism. The world-systemic denial of the reality of Islam stems from a justified abstractions and monolithic constructions on the basis of 'religion'. In the words of scholar of Islam Willem Bijlefeld, that the invocation of Islam 'does not mean that the complex reality of individual lives, national situations, and international relations anywhere in the Muslim world can be interpreted solely by a reference to Islam, solely Islamically', however much Bijlefeld recognize that 'being Muslim' implies much more than the acceptance of a particular set of beliefs, and the question of identity is for most Muslims infinitely more than a matter of private introspection'; it remains a fact that 'Islam is undoubtedly an extremely important dimension of the life of individual Muslims and Muslim societies.
