In recent years, the term "political Islam" was introduced in the media, at cafes and in people's homes during the discussion of certain practices and actions ranging from murder to declaring everyone else an infidel. The term "political Islam" is an inaccurate term which labels groups, movements, and Muslim thinkers, who work vigorously to gain control of power through claiming an Islamic approach to government. Interestingly, the word "Politics" is not mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, not in the verses revealed in Mecca nor the ones revealed in Medina; neither is there any word mentioned with a similar meaning, and those who have read the Qur'an know this fact. What is the source of this term? This term applies to the Sunni and Shiite militant groups including the Salafi Movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State and the Houthis, all of whom have used Islam as a cover for their ideologies whose aim is take over power claiming they will establish the rule of God. They use the slogan "Islam is the Solution", discriminate between citizens on the basis of religion declaring: this person is an infidel and this one is a Muslim, this one is an enemy and this one is an ally. These groups and movements believe that people who pay attention to bits of the teachings of Islam and leave out others, are infidels; and those who do not go beyond performing the acts of worship are also infidels. The truth is that this term came into being in the wake of a number of developments which followed the appearance of the term "Islamic Fundamentalism" in the 90s of the last century, specifically at a conference in Washington D.C. The subject of the conference was "The danger of Islamic Fundamentalism in North Africa". Discussions covered Iran's attempts to deploy the "Islamic Revolution" in Africa through Sudan. The term "Islamic Fundamentalism" was replaced by "Islamic Extremism" following the massacres that took place in Algeria. After September 11, 2001 the term was changed to "Political Islam". After the September attacks, people associated the term "Political Islam" to the violent groups who embraced the principle of murder in the name of "jihad", despite the fact that there are various degrees of "jihad" and the least of them is "armed jihad". History of political Islamic groups The modern concept of political Islamic groups emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of World War I and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who canceled the concept of the Islamic caliphate in 1924. He also canceled reliance on Islamic law in the legislative institutions and he had many religious leaders and conservatives put to death. The idea that Islamic law was not being applied properly and that this was the reason for the decline of the Islamic world spread after the victorious Western powers took control of many Islamic countries in World War I. Some people considered the rise of Arab nationalism under nationalists like Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to be the second Islamic setback in the modern era. At the same time the "Deobandi" Islamic movement came into being in India, led by Syed Ahmed Khan (1817 - 1898) in reaction to the British occupation. Then it spread throughout South Asia. The movement took its principles from the Hanafi school of thought; and then it established the "Darul Uloom Deoband" school in 1866 to teach what the western countries regard as the modern concept of political Islam, which is based on the oneness of Allah, adherence to the Sunnah of the Prophet Mohamed bin Abdullah (peace be upon him), love of the Prophet Mohammed's companions, adherence to the tradition of the oldest schools of Islamic law, and jihad for Allah. The movement spread to Pakistan in 1903 and was adopted by Syed Abul Ala Maududi (1903-1979) who in turn influenced the Deobandi movement in India. Maududi called for the establishment of an Islamic state to apply Islamic law, and in 1941 he established the "Islamic group" which was a political Islamic movement that seized control of 53 seats in the Pakistani Parliament. Later, the Egyptian author and Islamic theorist, Sayyid Qutb was influenced by Maududi's ideas. Qutb and Maududi are considered to be the founders of the "Islamic Awakening" movement. According to the Muslim Brotherhood, the aim of the Islamic Awakening movement, (which includes Hamas in Gaza), is to achieve comprehensive political, social, and economic reform from an Islamic perspective, in Egypt and other Arab countries. It is strange that those who do not differentiate between Islam as a religion and political Islam completely ignore the massacres and terrible attacks, committed by groups and organizations that are part of so-called political Islam, against Islamic countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Syria , Iraq and Sudan.
