often upheld by religious laws and fatwas,there have been various progres-
sive movements and attempts have been made to embrace Western science
and introduce purposive rationality, quamodernity, progressive ideologies and
rational, democratic governance. A number of efforts at modernization and
democratization have been undertaken beginning in the nineteenth-century
(Moaddel 2005).
In the nineteenth-century, it did not seem that there were insurmountable
conflicts between Islam and the West; even some nineteenth-century funda-
mentalists such as Jamal Al Din in Iran and Muhammad Abduh did not see
incompatibility between Islam and Western science, philosophy and law.
Rather, they opposed colonialism and foreign domination. While there were
many critiques of of the West, its imperialist ambitions and colonial prac-
tices, they did embrace Enlightenment notions of general political participa-
tion and willing assent by the governed. Even one party dictatorships with
staged rallies claimed to represent the will of the people. At this point, there
are a number of unique histories in Egypt, Persia or India, each with its own
social, political and cultural narratives where certain Muslim leaders and
intellectuals were seeking new syntheses of Enlightenment rationality with
Islamic religion, laws and customs (Moaddel 2005). European influences grew
and certain modernist-based opposition to traditional authority and heredi-
tary rule emerged. Various versions of Europe’s secular modernity and liberal-
ism began to impact Islamic societies. Such efforts often achieved temporary
success, but for the most part failed to foster lasting structural changes.^27
Turkey is often invoked as the exemplar of Islamic modernity. But the Kemalist
revolution indeed shows that in the face of cultural barriers and the obsta-
cles of tradition, it required a military takeover and a secular army to “sustain”
modernity. Since 1960, three military coups have deposed elected govern-
ments, often banning political parties and imposing sharp limits on political
and personal rights.
Various reformist and democratizing movements have come, and more
important, gone in Islamic countries. The post-colonial independence move-
ments were often led by military leaders such as Ataturk, Nasser or Kessem
From the Caliphate to the Shaheedim• 309(^27) In Turkey, it was not until the twentieth century that the Sultan, ruler of a wan-
ing hegemon defeated in a war, was overthrown by a petty bourgeois military class
who embraced modernization to restore military power. Similarly, in Egypt, Nasser
overthrew the king, but his secular socialism was short lived. Yet autocratic rule has
endured, even ratified in elections.