ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we examined the process of state formation in the
Muslim world and the emergence of Islamism as an intellectual and poli-
tical movement in response to the perceived Westernization of modern
regimes and their failure to deliver on the promises of modernization.
Through the ideas and work of figures such as Hassan al-Banna, Abu’l-A’la
Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb, we came to understand how Islamism also
represented a new approach to the creation of a ‘‘living Islam’’ as lay acti-
vists and intellectuals rather than classically trained ulama emerged as the vanguard class of public religiosity understood as the pursuit of a ‘‘true’’
Islamic social and political order. National-secular regimes were perceived
as overly secular and concerned primarily with furthering the interests of
existing political elites. Likewise, the religious scholars had either been co-
opted by the state, or had their heads buried in medieval texts-rendering
them, in both cases, ineffectual in terms of pursuing meaningful social
transformation along Islamic lines.
