1. Islamism

2. The course of the past few hundred years of history has been a story of the exploitation of the poorer areas of the world (in terms of economics and power) by the richer areas of the world.
We needed the poorer areas so that we could get raw materials and maintain our own power, wealth and lifestyles.
We needed to keep them weak so that we could maintain control over them – so we installed puppet governments which were often brutal, and actively prevented education and economic development.

3. The result of all this, was a high level of resentment and also division in the countries which were being exploited.
Communism as an ideological response has been attempted by some groups in these countries (politicising their grievances) – but it too is a western ideology.
Islamism is a non-Western ideology – it is anti-Western, and offers people the opportunity to be empowered in their fight against exploitation. This is why it has become so popular in recent years.

4. Islamism is a political ideology and should not be mistaken as being just the same as Islam – which is a religion.
Islamism is on the bottom right of the political spectrum, it is a reaction against what is seen as the decadence of society – moral decline where people in Muslim countries have taken on aspects of Western life – dress, entertainment etc.
It is important to remember that not all Islamists are terrorists – sometimes politicians misuse the term – it is a political ideology, and fits in with the second stage of the process

5. Islamists tend to believe that the world order has to be completely changed, as modern life has moved us away from the way that Allah had intended the world to be – as made clear through the teachings of Muhammad.

6. Islam
Islam is a religion which began around the year 622, and which and which spread across the Middle East and North Africa between 622 and 1900.
Muhammad is considered by Muslims to be the last prophet sent by God – Muslims, like Jews and Christians, believe that there is only one God. Muslims also believe that Adam, Abraham, Moses and Jesus were all prophets from the same God – so basically Muslims believe in all the same things that Jews and Christians have in common – Muslims just think that their book completes the trilogy.

7. Muhammad was born around 570 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Muhammad was born around 570 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He was orphaned very early in life, and was brought up by an uncle. However, it wasn’t really part of the culture of that time for family members to take care of orphans, and so he was unlikely to have received much in the way of education etc.
He fell in love with a woman who was older than him and already a widow. Her name was Khadija. She married him, and was a strong influence on his life. She was renowned for being quite a strong independent woman – and this is today used as evidence that Muhammad had respect for women.

8. Perhaps as a consequence of his lonely childhood, he had a tendency throughout his life to go away into the desert caves on his own, for solitary contemplation, and he claimed to have been visited by the angel Gabriel during this time – who told him that it was time to unite the people by preaching to them that there is only one God, and everyone must submit to that God.

9. This preaching became the foundation for Islam – today anyone can convert to Islam by repeating this one phrase – in Arabic it’s called the Shahaddah
“There is only one God, and Muhammad is his prophet”
If you accept that, then you are a Muslim. Which is why Islam became a religion that spread quite quickly throughout the world.

10. Muhammad faced a lot of aggression in Mecca for his new teachings and so he had to move to Medina – he fled the city of Mecca in 622, and travelled across the desert to Medina – this was called the Hijra, and is celebrated every year by Muslims from all over the world who are bound to try and do the pilgrimage from Medina to Mecca at least once in their lives (which is why Saudi Arabia is such an important country to Muslims)
He managed to build up a large number of followers in the intervening years – many of his teachings were about charity and setting up a state to make sure that the weakest in society are cared for.

11. However, tribes from Mecca kept attacking, so he raised an army of 10,000 and marched on Mecca – managing to take the city.
This was seen as a miracle, as the army they fought was much larger – and a sign from God that he really did approve of this Islam thing, and so Islam then began to spread quickly across the Arabian Peninsula.

12. Muhammad died shortly after the battle with Mecca – and it is what happened next which has split Islam, and led to a significant conflict in the Middle East in the centuries which followed.

13. During the last years of his life, Muhammad had managed to unite the Arab tribes, and had brought peace to the area. But when he died, a dispute broke out about who should take leadership of the movement.
Some people thought that they should follow the Arab tradition and have one of his close friends and allies take over – Abu-Bakr, had been a loyal follower of Muhammad since the early days
But some people thought that it should be Ali – who was his cousin (and who had been like a brother to him). Ali had also married Muhammad’s daughter Fatima, so there were strong family ties.

14. This caused an early conflict in Islam – those who supported Abu-Bakr became known as Sunni Muslims, they wanted to follow the Sunnah – which is a collection of things that Muhammad had done and said throughout his life. They thought this was the example of how best to live one’s life. They believed that as the world changes and progresses, people might get further away from how Muhammad taught them to be, and so modernity is a threat.
Those who followed Ali became known as Shia Muslims, as they believe that in the future another great Imam will come to lead all Muslims.

15. This split between Sunni and Shia Muslims has continued and deepened through the years.
Sunni make up about 85% of the world’s Muslims, and Shia make up about 15%.
The Arabian Peninsula, including Saudi Arabia is mostly Sunni, whereas Iran is 95% Shia. This means there is a divide between these two areas of the Middle East.
Iraq is one of the only countries which has a close to even split between Sunni and Shia. This has meant that it is most susceptible to violence between the two groups – and has become the battleground for this Middle Eastern conflict

16. In Syria, President Basshar Al Asad is an Alawhite – which is an ethnic group who follow the Shia faith. But the majority of people in Syria are Sunni.
So when the civil war broke out to attempt to overthrow Assad, he deliberately instigated a sectarian war between Shia and Sunni, in order to make himself indispensable to the Shias in the country.

17. Western involvement in the recent conflicts has been problematic, as the US and Britain have appeared to support the Shia in fighting ISIS, who are a Sunni group. This could have the effect of deepening Sunni hostility against the West.

18. As with all political ideologies, there are many different forms of Islamism, and most promote peaceful political protest as a means of moving towards the development of an Islamic State, however, there are some branches of Islamism which do justify the use of violent struggle – or Jihad –
The most famous of thinkers leading such a movement was Sayyid Qutb. Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri were both followers of Qutb.