Faced with these intellectual endeavors and
women’s social struggle for equal rights, a new per-
spective has emerged among reformist clerics. They
now oppose the official and rigid interpretations
of Islam that essentialize gender inequalities, and
present an evolutionist perspective that attempts
to adapt Islam to women’s modern demands.
Mu™ammad Mujtahid-Shabistarì(2000) argues,
“The Qur±àn and traditions should be understood
and interpreted in the framework of a historical
and social approach. The Prophet modified a num-
ber of rights and regulations that he considered to
be unjust vis-à-vis women. He changed flagrant
inequalities that adversely affected women accord-
ing to the understanding of justice that existed in
his time. The main message is that other inequali-
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——, personal interview, Tehran, February 1996.Azadeh Kian-ThiébautMashriq, Egypt, and North AfricaJust as there are differences within any political
ideology and movement, Islamism also embodies
various competing streams of thought and modali-
ties of engagement. Although all these share the
ultimate objective of Islamizing (rendering more
Islamic through the application of Sharì≠a law) both
the state institutions and legislation, as well as the
society as a whole, they differ radically as to the
methods they employ.606 political-social movements: islamist movements and discourses
Fundamentalism and rising religious extremism
are not one and the same phenomenon. Originally,
“fundamentalism” was coined to define a Christian
movement which was literal in its interpretation of
Christian texts in the Western world, and particular
to a certain era. While the literal interpretation of
texts (be they religious or even non-faith based doc-
uments such as legislation) remains an important
aspect of fundamentalism, the movements today
understood as “religious fundamentalist” vary
widely in their composition, objectives, organiza-
tion, and mode of operation.
Muslim, or Islamic, fundamentalism, is thus a
problematic concept – unless used to apply nar-
rowly to those who espouse very literal under-
standings of the Qur±àn, sunna, and ™adìthin their
lives and outlook. Primarily, fundamentalists may
follow a relatively strict interpretation of their reli-
gious tradition in their own personal lives. There is,
therefore, a substantial difference between Islamic
fundamentalists and Islamists. Whereas Islamists
organize and distinguish themselves as political
parties with an agenda to compete for political and
state power (for example, the Muslim Brotherhood
in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and more extreme, that
is, armed, groups such as Jihad in Egypt, Hamas in
Palestine, and Hizballah in Lebanon), many funda-
mentalists abhor political engagement, believing
that the entire process of politics is impure at best
and corrupting at worst. Some fundamentalists
may also be Islamists (that is, belong to Islamic
political organizations), but many Islamists are not
even well-versed in the religious doctrine per se, and
are not literal in their interpretation and practice.
In fact, some leading Islamist ideologues, such
as Sayyid Qu†b, are credited with being creative
and often innovative in their interpretation of text
and tradition to adjust to contemporary political
discourses.
Religious extremism, in contrast, should be dis-
tinguished from both fundamentalism and religio-
political movements. Religious extremism exists
within all religious traditions and definitions of it
vary depending on the vantage point of the
researcher or institution. It is present in both
the private (personal and family) sphere as well as
the larger public (state and society) sphere. At its
base, it can be understood as the use of religious dis-
course to validate violence, in a Machiavellian
sense, as a means to a political end. Not all Islamist
or fundamentalist movements are extremist since
most of them are based on principles that condemn
all violence and are committed to investing in and
serving society and educating people about reli-
gion. Moderate Islamists are known to set up social