Western Domination and Political Islam Challenge and Response by Khalid Bin Sayeed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995, 197 pp.

Abstract

The first two decades of the twentieth century saw the direct or indirect
colonization of the Muslim world by various western countrie , thus
representing one of the bleakest periods of Muslim history. In the interwar
years some rays of hope emerged in the Muslim world with the
launching of various independence movements. This period also saw the
rise to prominence of two Islamic movements that were to have a major
influence on the Islamic response to the western challenge for the rest of
the century: the Ikhwan al Muslimum in Egypt and the Jama'at-i Islam1
in the Inda-Pakistani subcontinent. The socioeconomic, geopolitical, and
intellectual-cultural challenge of the West to the Muslim world produced
varying responses on the part of the Muslim world. While movements
such as the Wafd Party or the Muslim League represented the "nationalist"
response to this challenge, the Ikhwan and the Jama'at were manifestations
of the "Islamic" response.
After more than fifty years of struggle, it is becoming painfully clear
that the response articulated by these movements to the western challenge
is proving co be ineffective. Despite some impressive historical achievements,
they find themselves marginalized in their own countries, having
almost no influence whatsoever on policy formulation and the intellectual
and cultural character of society, for these areas continue to be dominated
by westernized elites. As a result, Muslim intellectuals have started to ask
"Why?" Why have these movements, which at one time held so much
promise and even produced some impressive results, failed to respond
adequately to the western challenge, and what steps need to be taken to
remedy the shortcomings? Questions of this nature are being asked ...