Political Science An Islamic Perspective by Abdul Rashid Moten. London: MacMillan Press/St. Martin's, 1996, 217 pp., with Index.

Abstract

Adopting an issue-oriented approach toward understanding Islamic and
Western political thought, Professor Abdul Rashid Moten places these two tradition's
within historical and contemporary contexts. Moten's book thereby provides
a comparative analysis of key issues, including Islamic research methodology,
Islamic law, Islamic political and social order, strategies and tactics of
various Islamic movements, and the link between Islam and politics.
In chapter 1, Moten examines the secular domination of Muslim thought and
culture, arguing that secularism was imported into the Muslim world through
the efforts of a Westernized elite. He adds that no such secular state had ever
existed in the Muslim world. This owes much to the fact that there was (is) no
common ground between Islam and secularism (p. 7). With secularism came
nationalism, liberal political institutions, and the pursuit of a capitalist economic
system. Nationalism, Moten notes, wedged its way into the Muslim world,
dividing it into new nation-states and client states (p. 12). Since independence,
secularism has failed to meet the socioeconomic and political needs of Muslim
societies. The rising tide of Islamic revivalism against secular regimes in
Algeria and Turkey demonstrates disenchantment with the shattered secularist
dreams in the Muslim world (p. 16).
Chapter 2 attempts to scrutinize the inherent link between Islam and politics.
The pillars of Islam, Moten writes, go beyond moral and spiritual upliftment;
they entail both practical and symbolic significance in all aspects of life. In
Islam, ethics sets the tone for politics, and the rules of political behavior originate
from ethical norms. Political life cannot be separated from the broader
framework of the religious and spiritual life (p. 21 ). Islamic rulers have hardly,
if ever, emphasized the separation of religion and politics. Since the nineteenth
century, Islamic modernists and revivalists have debated the nature of this separation.
The reemergence of Islam in Muslim politics and societies in the last
quarter of the twentieth century has pointed to a distinct Islamic order and the
reawakening of Muslim identity. Moten cites, among others, Iran and Pakistan
as examples of such a renaissance (p. 30). However, he fails to examine the divisive
effects of lslamization programs in Pakistan (under Zia al-Haqq) and other
countries such as Sudan.
The comparison between Western and Islamic methods of political inquiry is
the subject of close scrutiny in chapter 3. Moten maintains that the Islamic conception
of polity is based on profound religious-cultural grounds and that religion
and polity form an organic unity (p. 37). Likewise, ethics and politics are ...