Crackdown on 'Political Islam': Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, Receives Death Threats after Closing Mosques

An anti-terrorism probe has been launched in Austria after the county's chancellor Sebastian Kurz received death threats. It's believed the threats are linked to the government closing seven mosques and expelling dozens of imams over alleged links to extremism

Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Dave Rubin on Political Islam, Sharia Law, and “Islamophobia” (Full Interview)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Human Rights Activist) joins Dave Rubin to discuss the preaching of Islam, the left’s alliance with Islamists, the dangers of political Islam, Sharia law, "Islamophobia", her serious fight against the practice of female genital mutilation as well as, her political and idealogical awakening, her foundation and activism, and much more. *This episode was filmed on location, not in The Rubin Report studio.

Bill Warner, PhD: The Political Side of Hijabs

Most people see the hijab as religious or cultural, but the hijab is a symbol of the Sharia and has a very political meaning.

Countering Radical Islam – A Reformist Muslim Speaks Out

Political Islam Explained by Bill Warner

Bill Warner: Poltical Islam

Head to Head: Has Political Islam Failed?

Islamic intellectual Tariq Ramadan discusses Islamism and the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Netanyahu Sees Mursi Fall as Sign of Political Islam's Weakness

SWISSINFO.ch: BERLIN - In rare remarks on Egypt's government crisis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested that the fall of the president, Mohamed Mursi, demonstrates the weaknesses of political Islamist movements.

"I believe that over the long haul these radical Islamic regimes are going to fail because they don't offer the adequate enfranchisement that you need to develop a country economically, politically and culturally," Netanyahu told the German weekly Welt am Sonntag.

He said he thought radical Islamism was wholly unsuited to dealing with a global economic and information revolution, and "goes right back to medievalism against the whole thrust of modernity, so over time it's bound to fail". » | Reuters | Sunday, July 21, 2013

Political Islam Poised to Dominate the New World Bequeathed by Arab Spring

THE GUARDIAN: The Muslim Brotherhood's success in the first round of Egypt's elections has added to western fears of an Islamist future for the Middle East. But this does not necessarily mean that democracy and liberal policies face extinction

Among the potent symbols of the Arab spring is one that has been less photographed and remarked on than the vast gatherings in Tahrir Square. It has been the relocation of the offices of the Muslim Brotherhood, the once banned party, now set to take the largest share of seats in Egypt's new parliament.

Before May this year they were to be found in shabby rooms in an unremarkable apartment block on Cairo's Gezira Island, situated behind an unmarked door. These days the Brotherhood is to be found in gleaming new accommodation in the Muqatam neighbourhood, in a dedicated building prominently bearing the movement's logo in Arabic and English.

Welcome to the age of "political Islam", which may prove to be one of the most lasting legacies of the Arab spring. It is not only in Egypt that an unprecedented Islamist political moment is playing out. In the recent Tunisian elections the moderate Islamist Ennahda party was the biggest winner, while Morocco has elected its first Islamist prime minister, Abdelilah Benkirane.

In Yemen and Libya, too, it seems likely that political Islam will define the shape of the new landscape.

None of which should be at all surprising. Indeed, if elections in Egypt and Tunisia had been held at any other time in the past two decades, the same result would almost certainly have ensued, reflecting both the levels of organisation of Ennahda and the Brotherhood and the countries' cultural, economic and social dynamics.

"It was a change that was supposed to happen a long time ago," says Omar Ashour, who lectures on the subject of political Islam at Exeter University and is currently in Cairo.

So what, precisely, does the rise of electoral Islamist politics mean for the Middle East and North Africa? » | Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor | Saturday, December 03, 2011

It's amazing that journalists keep on talking about "political Islam". There is no such thing as a-political or non-political Islam. Islam is nothing if not political. There is no separation of mosque and state; in Islam, religion and politics are inseparable. So why newspapers go on about "political Islam" all the time for, I do not know. – © Mark

Failure to Understand Political Islam Is 'Dangerous'
THE DAILY STAR: BEIRUT: The West has fundamentally misunderstood the meaning and significance of political Islam and the world is "a more dangerous place" as a result, a former broker of unofficial talks between Western powers and groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah said on Friday. Alistair Crooke directs Conflicts Forum, an NGO committed to creating dialogue between Islamist movements and the West. He was speaking to promote his new book, entitled "Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution."

He said that the West's failure to consider political Islam, particularly Iran's Islamic revolution, as anything more than an attempt to fill a void left by poor economic decisions and the failure of Arab nationalism has led to ineffectual policy toward the Muslim world.

"The rise of Islamism was not just about filling a void. They did not simply rise out of the decline of nationalism and pan-Arabism," he said. Instead, he argued that the phenomenon is a "huge transformative change that is exciting and energizing millions of people." >>> By Andrew Wander, Daily Star staff | Monday, March 23, 2009

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A Political Challenge to Political Islam: Maryam Namazie, Ex-Muslim, UK

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)