“Obaid Omer was born in India and grew up in Canada. He is an advocate for free speech and Enlightenment values.”
He is also an honest man in an age when such people are extremely rare.
The “Islamism vs. Islam” distinction is spurious, as I’ve explained many times: there is no Islam without a political and supremacist component. Fuzzy thinkers out there may need at this point to be reminded that this doesn’t mean that every Muslim holds political or supremacist aspirations.
“The Problem Is Islam—Not Islamism,” by Obaid Omer, Quillette, August 23, 2024:
I first heard the word “Islamism” in a video of a 2010 debate between Maajid Nawaz, Zeba Khan, Douglas Murray, and Ayan Hirsi Ali. Nawaz explained that he used the term “Islamism” to denote an ideology that advocates establishing Islamic supremacy and “Islamist” to describe anyone who wants to further that aim. This terminology allowed him, he argued, to distinguish between moderate and fundamentalist Muslims. But it is telling that we do not make this distinction with regard to any other religion. In his choice of lexicon, Nawaz was applying a double standard. He wanted to avoid tarring all Muslims with the same brush, but this could have been done by using qualifiers such as “fundamentalist,” “extremist,” or “radical.”
One of the reasons Nawaz offered for this choice was that he wanted to educate Westerners about the differences within Islam. But this goal would be better served by adapting terms with which Westerners are already familiar in a Judeo-Christian context. For example, Nawaz could have described organisations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the US and 5 Pillars in the UK as the equivalent of Evangelical Christian groups, who try to influence national policy in support of their religious beliefs. (CAIR has lobbied for such things as the introduction of sharia family courts and Islamic-compliant banking services and the encouragement of hijab.) Instead, Nawaz introduced a new term to an audience that was perhaps already confused.
If Nawaz thought that using “Islamism” instead of “Islam” to differentiate between peaceful, moderate, and fundamentalist versions of Islam would enable people to avoid being accused of Islamophobia, he was wrong. To those eager to discredit valid criticisms of Islam as racist—or who genuinely believe that such criticisms are motivated by bigotry—the change of terminology is likely to seem like merely a sleight of hand. Indeed, in 2010, CAIR stated that “Islamist is largely used to describe any Muslim individual or movement at odds with the agenda of those using the pejorative term.” Likewise, comedian Frankie Boyle recently tweeted: “If I see the word Islamist, I just assume I’m about to read the incoherent ramblings of a crazed racist.”
My own family and their close friends are moderate Muslims by any measure. Yet they certainly believe in Islamic supremacy. As I grew up, they often told me that Islam would eventually spread across the whole world, and everyone would become Muslim. They didn’t say that they would help to make this happen themselves, nor did they try to convince my siblings and me to proselytise, let alone to take part in violent jihad. They just took it for granted that Islam would come to dominate the globe. If you call that belief “Islamism,” which you see as an extreme version of Islam, you will have little hope of understanding how Muslims like my family see the world.
Over the past decade or so, the definition of the term “Islamism” has evolved. At first, it meant creating a society based on sharia, using political means. Then it slowly began to change to mean a desire to create an Islamic society using any means, including violence. But since we already have the terms “theocracy” and “theocrat,” why do we need new words, specific to Islam, to describe this ambition?
To use “Islamist” to mean simply someone who wants to spread Islam—by any means, peaceful or otherwise—is to equate Hamas and ISIS with CAIR. Whatever you feel about CAIR’s ideological leanings, it is a political group, not a terrorist one.
In many Islamic countries, girls as young as nine can be married to men decades older than them. This is not “Islamism”; it is Islam. Muhammad married Aisha when she was six and consummated the marriage when she was nine. The governments of Iran, Yemen, and a host of other countries use the reasoning that if The Prophet, the most perfect of humans, married his bride when she was six, it must be acceptable for Muslim men to marry pre-pubescent girls. Pretending that this practice is peripheral to Islam will not help us to solve the problem….
FYI says
When I see people who think criticism of islam is racist I always think “Leftie?”
Or is that a “far right” thing to say?”Racist” or something?I’m generally apolitical.
What about muslims/ex-muslims who are critical of islam?Are they just “islamophobic?”
When I see the word “murtad”{apostate from islam} especially if it is a woman,I always think “now that’s a Smart lady”.Is that offensive to the lefty?Are you offended by that?Well “call the police there’s a madman around”
What about Hindus,Sikhs,Buddhists?Are they not allowed to be critical of islamic violence?In theory yes as free speech should apply to all but not anymore,
I imagine an elderly Hindu/Sikh/Buddhist couple terrorized in their home by islamic thugs.
Should they call the Police?But then the police might accuse them of “islamophobia”,as they are clearly racist,far right fascist bigots filled with hate for a persucuted creed,islam….and might have to be deported..
I like Comedy but not so much lefty comedians:maybe that’s why modern comedy is so dire,so politically correct,so “virtue signalling”,So “woke”,so boring..so …lefty.
When i see the word “comedian” I expect the person to know Comedy.Yet that’s not the case there day..
Steven Faurote Faurote says
Very good explanation. I love everyone’s comments on this site.
Gives me a hope for the future!
࿗Infidel࿘ says
The best illustration of the fictitious aspect of these terms – “islamism”, “islamist”…. is the fact that these are English-only terms invented in the West. Granted, there may be Spanish or German or Italian translations of those terms, but here is the litmus test one can put
If “islam” is a different concept from “islamism” as explained in English, what would be the translations of the term “islamism” and “islamist” in the following languages, that are different from Islam or muslim?
➤ Arabic
➤ Urdu
➤ Turkish
➤ Malay
➤ Bahasa Indonesia
➤ Bengali
➤ Pashto
➤ Dari
➤ Farsi
➤ Somali
➤ Chechen
Note that the challenge here is not to find a translation of the term “islam” or “muslim” in any of these languages: we all know they exist. The challenge is to find the translations of the newly invented terms “islamism” and “islamist” which are different from the former two
I’ll wait. But not hold my breath
Troybeam says
“Fuzzy thinkers out there may need at this point to be reminded that this doesn’t mean that every Muslim holds political or supremacist aspirations.” Robert Spencer
Disagree, may not be speaking out loud however Islam is like the Borg (Star Trek) work as a unit. There are some Muslims that act upon the wording of the Koran, sharia law etc. Yet put Muslims in a large group even those that claim to be peaceful and watch all that verbal peace speak be forgotten. Mob mentality run supreme and if they oppose they are turned against by other Muslims.
Holger Jahndel says
Also see the book “The misery of Islam” by Jaya Gopal about Islam and Islamism and Islamists.
Walter Sieruk says
Let’s be honest and keep within the bounds of reality bogus word “Islamism” is a fake word that was make up after September 11, 2001 in order not to offend or upset peaceful Muslims.
Likewise , the artificial word “Islamist” is also very dishonest. There is no valid reason to even attempt to “water-down’ the English lanuage to evade the disturbing and terrible truth that the of Islam ,based on the Quran inspires Muslim terrorists. as that “holy book” of instructs in , for example,2:191, 4:89. 9:,5,133. 47:4. So, we should call them for what is actually ,really are, which are Muslim terrorists.
By the same token, plain talk and much better than politically correct terms . Therefore, the reality based words ,as “Muslim terrorist” far surpasses the PC term “Islamist.” So, we should call them for what is actually ,really are, which are “Muslim terrorists.”
As for what was already made clear which is that Islam causes and inspires Muslim terrorism , otherwise fittingly called “Islamic terrorism.”
Related to the above sentence, a former Muslim Ibn Warraq in his well researched book has avery appropriate title about all this. For the heading of his publication ,which is THE ISLAM IN ISLAMIC TERRORISMi
Dan W. Dagovitz says
The Muslims have exposed their cult as being cruel and vicious in its teachings…
It takes people and converts them to drooling, rabid animals.
Islam is evil to its rotten core; do not stop until it is removed from the face of the earth!
jerry glenn says
Duh.
Patricia Krol says
Theauthor says that his family, while not advocation violence, “assumes” that Islam will be become dominant globally. He declined to word it more specifically in the context of does family DESIRE that Islam dominate? Do they WANT sharia law implemented globally (though perhaps not by violent means)? If so, they are NOT “moderate” Muslims.
Lizabee says
Islamism was invented to allow Islam to get a foothold in the West. It’s part of their deception taqiyya thing. That allows the West and “moderate” Muslims (who want to continue their family tradition of identifying as Muslims but don’t want to be killed for leaving Islam) to criticize their heinous, violent Islamic co-religionists as radicals, extremists perverting their mostly “peaceful religion” of Islam. “Islamist” is the magic word that makes them feel comfortable to continue to cling to their family religious customs even after assimilating to Western culture.
But like Erdogan has said, there is only one Islam. A “reformed” Islam does not and, cannot exist. It would be against the “religion” of Islam; it would be blasphemy.
OLD GUY says
Just remember Islam wants WORLD DOMINATION.