ABSTRACT
At the structural level, the Middle East and North Africa have repeatedly proved to be a distinctive example of the de-regionalization process – rooted in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and establishment of the territorial states by the colonial powers. For instance, the two alliances that were created to fight the group (the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition and Russia–Syria–Iran–Iraq coalition) were merely manifestations of the Saudi–Iranian rivalry. Post-2011, Salafi-jihadism grew quickly as a response to what democracy and political Islam of al-Nahda could not deliver. Following the de-territorialization of the Islamic state, the authors argue that political Islam, at least in that form is on the run. In the case of Iran, while Islam is entrenched in the society through the power of the elite in power, it will have to either abandon the current Islamic style of governance or pursue modern forms of justice.
