government

Baybars at Austrolabe wrote about why Islamism is a failed ideology and Tariq Nelson wrote more about it.

Its fascinating that some people say that this violent phenomenon results from not following a school, some say it is because of following a school, others say its from modernity. The Prophet said, "ad-deen yusr" and we have verses in the Quran about Allah not burdedning souls. However, almost every example we have of conptemporary Islamist governments are bad examples: sin is only pushed underground and sometimes even increases; people rebel outwardly and inwardly; the governments achieve very little other than enforcing the most superficial aspects of being Muslim such as clothing and other public and even in-home behaviors. In short, contemporary Islamist governments do not seem to be good for either the people or for the worship of Allah (I would say "Islam" but people have a tendency these days for saying such things as "Islam says..." as if Islam were the object of worship). In short, they have not achieved "adl" and "ihsan".

Allow me to propose that there is something quite wrong here. Perhaps the problem is that religion has become coercion. The state now enforces prayer, fasting and other things that the worshipper must do voluntarily. The state invades homes and controls almost every aspect of behavior, something both Islamist governments and the nationalist regimes do.

People beleive that Islamic government is the norm, but it has not been. Exactly how were the Umayyads Islamic? The Abbasids? The Seljuks, the Ottomans, the Jawi sultanates, the Sokoto Empire? These were ruled by secular sultans who were not Islamic scholars and the mode of government largely followed the people’s cultural models. The scholars were largely critics and confirmers of the sultans’ and peoples’ actions, not the originators of those actions! So, this whole idea that the state should strictly enforce shariah is something that does not seem to have ever been successfully accomplished by people other than the Prophet.