Organizational Behavior
...contrasting attitudes toward democracy. He shows how reality is quite different from the monolithic models often presented regarding such ideologies and groups, including the debates among their leading activists and philosophers. The concept of Islamist and fundamentalist variations is especially useful, and important for analyzing the future direction of such organizations. He also discusses why this trend has not been more successful in winning over Muslims and seizing power in various countries.
The wide range of Islamic movements -- in social make-up, structure, and program -- have left many observers baffled. Since the Iranian revolution there has been a sharpened distinction between two approaches which might be called, respectively, fundamentalism and Islamism. Islamism can embrace both "progressive" 'ulema and those urban intellectuals who believe Islamic tenets are compatible with such modern values as freedom and democracy. The Islamist view stands in sharp contrast to those held by fundamentalist, traditionalist 'ulema who have had a historical monopoly over the right to interpret Islam and its tenets. (1)
There has been much confusion, especially, over the term "fundamentalist," which implies a return to the past in recapturing the roots of Islamic religion. There is also an implication here that other readings of Islam are illegitimate, since they supposedly neglect traditionally accepted concepts for innovations that are often imports from non-Islamic societies.
Robin Wright shows one side of this approach in pointing out that fundamentalist movements also incorporate a great deal of modernity and innovation. Thus, she denies that most Islamic movements today are: "fundamentalist": The various Islamic movements are often called "fundamentalist" in the West, but most are in fact not fundamentalist in their agendas. Fundamentalism...
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