izens, members of an “imaginary community” the Nation-State. Secular
Western style governments separate from the Church, with representatives
and elected leaders rested on Western traditions ranging from “constitution-
alism” to the self-governance of autonomous Protestant churches. Democracy,
with popular elections of representative lawmakers is seen as contrary to tra-
ditional Islam.
Identity: While most Muslim societies today are quite diverse, despite encap-
sulated realms of cosmopolitan elites, for most people in Muslim societies,
identities remain based on traditional, ascriptive factors, primarily religious
and localist – family, clan, tribe or village that are typically more salient. There
are few alternative sites for the negotiation and transformation of identities.
Neither the spread of industrial labor, nor the growth of advanced services
(medicine, sciences, technologies), nor even the various branches of Western
corporations have spurred the rise of classes (status groups) bearing a ratio-
nal social ethic and/or pressures for renegotiating identities. Further, more
so than other developing countries, in Islamic societies, especially in the
Middle East, the masses tend to have remained quite insular. As was earlier
noted, more so than most societies, the Islamic world translates very little of
the publications of other countries. There are, however, some spheres con-
ducive to alternative identities. Naturally, the universities, especially liberal
arts and social sciences linked to the larger disciplines that transcend national
boundaries – sociology, for example – are conducive to the erosion of tradi-
tion. Similarly, various civil society organizations, NGOs, and local branches
of INGOs that link the local to the global, erode traditionalism. While there
are important segments of military and political classes committed to reform,
and some academics and many of the growing educated classes that do
embrace modernist democratic governance, they remain a minority and are
often challenged by fundamentalists.^34
Outside world: For many Muslims, there are a number of grievances toward
the West in general and the US in particular. Islamic societies, like most oth-
ers, have a certain degree of ethnocentrism, but in many such societies, there
is a disdain toward non-believers, the Others, of infidel nations. Now while
this may not be typical among elites it is interesting to note the extent to
which the knowledge and cultures of other nations is of little interest (except
From the Caliphate to the Shaheedim• 313(^34) This was clear in the Algerian civil war in which modernist nationalists battled
fundamentalists – almost a million people died.