Islam has been a major force in world politics since the 7th century. The
Ottoman Empire, founded in the 14th century, reached its peak in the 16th
century, controlling territories far into Europe, Africa and Asia. By the middle
of the 19th century it had been reduced to a colonial status as a result of
European expansionism, and was dissolved after the First World War. Since the
Second World War, however, Islamic power, and the desire to create a truly
Islamic state, has been resurgent in severalMiddle Eastand Asian countries,
causing no little trouble on the world scene. Libya, under the militant leader
Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi (b. 1942), was the first state to make Islam into a
20th-century revolutionary creed, partly in an effort to unify the whole Arab
world against Israel and its Western allies. At roughly the same time Pakistan,
which had been split off from the rest of the Indian sub-continent in 1947
specifically to make a home for Muslims, began to take this position as well.
There is an increasing tendency to replace Westernized law, especially in
criminal and family law areas, with the Koranic, orShari‘a, law; some
punishments under this system, including amputations and stonings, are
regarded as barbaric in the West. Some moves have even been made to operate
the economy as closely as possible on Islamic lines.
An example of the power of Islam was the sudden and shattering overthrow
of the Iranian state by militant and right-wing Muslim political groups, and its
subsequent violently coercive rule under the direction of Muslim holy men.
The ability of this state to survive an eight-year long war with Iraq, a secular
Arab state, testifies to the ideological and popular strength of the Islamic
revolution. Another example was the fear of dissension among Muslims in the
Asian republics of the Soviet Union, causing the latter to invade Muslim
Afghanistan in 1979. The Soviet occupying force of over 100,000 troops was
frustrated by the Muslimguerrillas, theMujahidin, in what became their
equivalent of the USA’s Vietnam War. Ultimately, as in Vietnam, the
superpowerhad to withdraw, leaving most of Afghanistan in the hands of
the Islamic forces (seeAfghan War).
It is possible that Islam may grow to be as powerful an international political
creed as eithercommunismorcapitalismhave been. Certainly it is equally
hostile to both, and represents, as well as a legitimate avenue for the expression
of aspirations for self rule, a destabilizing force in world politics. However, it
would be a mistake to treat Islam as a unified body; in particular, the split
between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims is potentially as weakening as that between
Catholics and Protestants was to Christianity as a world power in the Refor-
mation period. It is notable that while a large majority, probably 80%, of the
world’s Muslims are Sunni (followers ofSunna, the way of Muhammad), in Iran
Shi‘ites (who pay particular allegiance to ‘Ali, the cousin of Muhammad) are
dominant, and are also in the majority in Iraq, although political and economic
power is largely monopolized by the Sunni.
Islam