Western civilization in the eleventh century

Western Civ II

How would you define Radical Islamism? What are its origins and its goals? Why has Islamic reformism been linked to terrorism?

Radical Islamism may be defined as an anti-Western ideology that offers a theocratic, rather than a secular lens upon the world. It envisions a world governed by the Koran and a return to a purer state of global affairs where religion and the nations of the world committed to Islam reigned. It is not a unified ideology, as both Shiite and Sunni Muslims may identify themselves as radical fundamentalists who base their lives and politics around what they see as the true words of the Koran, rather than secular institutions and leaders. Not all leaders opposed to the West are radical Muslims, as the former leader of Iraq; Saddam Hussein was a secular dictator, although a Sunni by birth.

Islamic reformism has been linked to terrorism in the minds of Westerners, particularly Americans, largely because of the overthrow of the regime of the Shah in Iran by radical Shiites. The Shah was an American-supported secular dictator, and the Shiite fundamentalists who came to power afterwards thus turned against America. In defiance of conventional diplomatic protocol and respect, the American embassy was stormed and the inhabitants were taken hostage by Iranian students. Because the government of Iran did not force the students to turn over the hostages, Iran was treated as a terrorist regime by the United States ("Iran hostage crisis," the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 1994). The Shiites saw themselves as reformers, eradicating Iran of Western influence and civic corruption as embodied by the Shah, but the U.S. did not understand this worldview, and could only see the violence the overthrow of the Shah had caused.