An Islamic Worldview: An Attempt to Unify
The lead up to abolishing the Caliphate was a tumultuous time in the Muslim world. The Ottoman Empire was declining for decades. A handful of European countries began to take over swaths of land around the world, including Muslim lands. On top of that, a brain-drain was taking place in society where young Muslims were studying in Europe and eventually living there. The Muslim world lost its creative minority. Arguably the biggest nail in the coffin was placed by Turkish politician Mustafa Kemal, who formally abolished the Caliphate. Since then, there have been attempts at reunifying the Muslim world. The only time unity means conformity is concerning major religious practice and even that has its nuances. Historically, the Muslim world was surprisingly diverse politically and unity was cultivated through it. The modern nation-state has fractured and, in some places, broken that unity. More on this in the next article. What would unity look like though in today’s time?
There have been numerous attempts in history to reestablish an Islamic polity. For some reason, I have found most of them to be political in nature in my research. I am curious as to why, but that is for another time. I present below some movements in the last one hundred years. I am not going to question a group’s intention. That is between them and Allah. But I will be critical.
