Difference bertween Islam and Islamism
Reader comment on item: The Real Meaning Of The Term 'Islamist'

Submitted by Abdul Ameer, Feb 27, 2013 14:22

You write: "Islamist in this political context is thus distinctive from Muslim, a religious term referring to followers of Islam." However, the distinction is not clear at all because, according to the Koran, the sayings of Muhammad and Sharia law, all religious Muslims are supposed to apply the doctrines of Islam in every aspect of society, including politics. The Moslem religious establishment does not recognize any separate category of "political Islam" as separate from the rest of Islam. Islam is one, and it includes politics just as it includes rituals, theology, personal life and everything else. The so-called moderate Quilliam Foundation says: " The Foundation contends Muslims must embrace "a more self-critical approach." Who are these "Muslims" who must embrace a more self-critical approach? And, just which passages in the Koran and the sayings of Muhammad should Muslims be self-critical about? After all, anything in the least critical about the Koran or Muhammad is considered blasphemy and apostasy -- punishable by death in Islam. The IPT is trying to proclaim a distinction which just does not exist in the world of religious Islam.

Egyptian presidential hopeful and former Hamas-linked CAIR official Bassem Khafagi: "I was the first to expose the notion of 'moderate Islam,' which is used as a means to canonize a 'non-Islamic Islam'" This "moderation" means violation [of the laws] of Islam.

Turkey's PM Erdogan said:

"There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that's it."

Who are we to say otherwise?

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