ABSTRACT
This chapter, the aim of which is to discuss what basically boils down to ‘Islam and politics in the modern world’, seems at first glance incongruous with the chapters that precede it, for they were about Islam, while this is about Muslims. The two are often conflated: Islam, it is often believed, is what Muslims are about, and is judged, more often than not, by the behaviours of those who claim to adhere to it. However, this chapter has very little to do with the religion of Islam per se, for considerations such as the fundamentals of belief and the articles of orthopraxy – the ‘pillars of Islam’ – are largely absent from contemporary religio-political discourse.
