The turbulent Middle East and Islamic world

Joseph Kwon

Editorial Board

Introduction

The war that began on October 7, 2023 with a Hamas raid on Israeli civilians has been going on for over a year.

The war has expanded to include the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and direct airstrikes with Iran have increased tensions across the Middle East.

The turmoil extends beyond Israeli-Palestinian and directly connected Lebanese, Yemeni, and Iranian borders to virtually all Middle Eastern countries.

The current turmoil in the Middle East is sending an important message to the entire Islamic world, and it is traveling at the speed of light through social media, raising a variety of questions and challenges for the entire Islamic world.

And this questioning and challenging of the Islamic world actually began in the late 19th century. This war has been a long-standing struggle for the Islamic world, and this war will bring about significant changes in the Islamic world.

In order to predict the future changes in the Middle East and the Islamic world as a whole, it is necessary to look at the struggles and struggles of the Islamic world from the end of the 19th century until now.

1. Colonialism and Modern Reform Movements (Late 19th - Early 20th Century)

European colonialism, which began in the 19th century, had a profound impact on Muslim societies. Muslim-majority colonized regions such as North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia experienced severe political and social upheaval. European powers introduced new governance systems and economic structures that disrupted traditional Islamic institutions and culture. In the midst of this turmoil, the question of Muslim identity, or the direction in which Muslims should move, began to be debated.

Various Islamic reform movements emerged in response to colonialism, seeking a return to the “pure” practices of early Islam while embracing modernity. Thinkers such as Jamal Atdin al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, and Rashid Rida argued for Islamic modernism, which claimed that Islam was compatible with modern science, reason, and progress. Their goal was to resist colonial influence and seek to reform Islamic societies from within by modernizing education and law while maintaining Islamic values.

2. The rise of political Islam and nationalism (mid-20th century)

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of secular nation-states in most of the Islamic world, including Turkey and Egypt, led to the rise of political movements in the Islamic world that sought a modern model of statehood. In countries such as Atatürk's Turkey and Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt, secular modern nationalism sought to reduce the influence of Islam in public life and pursue modern, secular governance. These moves created tensions between Islamic conservatives and secular elites.

In response, groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Egypt's Hassan al-Banna in 1928, called for the establishment of an Islamic state governed by Islamic law (sharia). The Muslim Brotherhood's vision was to create a state in which Islam would be the standard for politics, law, and society. This was the beginning of political Islam, also known as Islamism. Political Islam emerged as a powerful force that challenged Western-style secularism and proposed and practiced an alternative to Islamic rule in the Muslim world, and the concept itself was an attractive answer to devout Muslims.

3. Islamic revivalism and conservatism (late 20th century)

In the second half of the 20th century, social, political, and economic factors, including the failure of secular nationalist movements, disillusionment with Western imperialism, and economic challenges, led to a resurgence of conservative Islamic values. Events such as the 1979 Iranian Revolution, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, led to the establishment of a theocratic state in which Islamic principles were explicitly incorporated into governance. The revolution sparked similar movements across the Muslim world, especially among Shia Muslims and Sunnis.

Another important event was the rise of Wahhabism, an ascetic form of Islam that gained prominence thanks to Saudi Arabia's oil money. Saudi Arabia exported its conservative interpretation of Islam to the Muslim world, funding mosques, madrassas (religious schools), and Islamic charities that promoted strict adherence to Wahhabi doctrine.

The influence of Islamic law (sharia) became more pronounced in countries such as Pakistan, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia, where efforts were made to “Islamize” their legal and educational systems during this period. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979) also spurred Islamic resistance movements, giving rise to extreme militant jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda.

4. Globalization and the impact of 9/11 (early 21st century)

In the 21st century, Islamic fundamentalism expanded globally, especially after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. The attacks carried out by al-Qaeda led to tighter controls on Islamic terrorism and intensified debates about the relationship between Islamic violence, terrorism, and extremism, especially in the West. As a result, Islamophobia, discrimination, and fear, such as Islamophobia, have increased.

In response to these challenges, Muslim leaders and scholars have worked to emphasize the peaceful teachings of Islam and promote interfaith dialogue and moderation. At the same time, the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) sparked anti-Western sentiment in many parts of the Muslim world, leading to the rise of violent, extreme militant jihadis like the Islamic State (ISIS) in the 2010s, which further destabilized the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Syria and Iraq.

5. Trends Today

Islam today is more diverse than ever, and Muslims are working to adapt their faith to local cultures and modern realities in a variety of ways.

There is even a progressive movement among Muslim intellectuals and scholars to reinterpret traditional Islamic teachings in light of modern values such as democracy, human rights, and same-sex marriage.

The internet and social media are also changing the way Muslims engage with their faith. Moderate and extremist views are spreading rapidly through digital channels.

In some Muslim-majority countries, tensions between Islam and secularism continue. In countries like Tunisia and Turkey, there is ongoing debate about the role of Islam in politics.

Conclusion

Until the Middle Ages, the Islamic world was characterized by political systems that remained within the same Islamic religion, meaning that Islam itself was a very stable body of ideas.

However, in the modern era, the Islamic world has been constantly searching for a way forward for the Islamic community in the face of great challenges from Western powers, which have sought to solidify their identity in Islam and build on its strength.

Early Islamic leaders rejected Western ideas of modern education, politics, and science in favor of Islamic values.

As nationalist and secular state models were created in the Middle East, they sought to separate religion and secularity, but this is where Islam's inherent dilemma begins.

Most religions basically separate politics and religion, but Islam is a religion that does not separate politics and religion. Therefore, this general modern state model was not created, and the dilemma that has persisted since then continues. In other words, in the face of the challenge of modernity, the confusion of identity, most religions eventually take the lead in the movement to return to the scriptures and the original spirit of the religion from the confusion of identity.

And most religions, with the exception of Islam, are faced with the dilemma that while these purely religious fundamentalist movements naturally evolved into the concept of separating politics and religion, Islam's fundamentalist movements became more militant political movements.

Add to that the fact that the modern nationalist states of the Middle East and Arab world, created out of Islamic sentiments based on tribalism and clan culture, had autocratic political systems and corrupt leaders that left Muslims feeling frustrated and defeated. Add to that the independence of Israel in 1948 and the defeat of Arab states in four subsequent Middle East wars, and you have a deep dishonor to the honor-based Islamic ethos.

With the end of the Cold War and the end of ideological confrontation, Islamic civilization's response to global values such as individualism, freedom, democracy, and capitalism eventually led to the experimentation of radical Islamic political movements across the Middle East and Arab world, from al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks in 2001 to the Islamic State (ISIS) in the 2010s.

The challenge of radical Islamic political movements has been met by the atrocities of the Islamic State (ISIS), which has created an emotional antipathy among ordinary Muslims, and the global anti-ISIS solidarity against radical Islamic groups like ISIS has led to the rapid disintegration of radical Islamic organizations with precision strikes against radical Islamic leadership groups.

In fact, the only radical Islamist groups that remain influential and organized in the Islamic world are Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthis, and these last remaining radical Islamic political movements are conducting one last experiment of success and failure in the October 7, 2023 war. And it's looking increasingly likely to fail.

Of course, now, through the Internet, individuals can suddenly adopt Islamic radicalism and carry out individual terrorism, but organized radical political movements are expected to be very weak.

Then again, the Islamic world will begin to struggle with its own identity, and this struggle will most likely be linked to a fundamental skepticism about Islam that is different than before.

This is because the failure of radical Islamic political movements to challenge the most fundamental basis of Islam, the Quran, leads to the logical conclusion that Islam has no alternative in the world today.

And this situation leads to the thirst of the Muslim world to find the real truth. In the midst of this great spiritual thirst, the Islamic world needs the preparation and focus of gospel workers and the global church to share the true way, the truth, and the life, Jesus Christ.