Political islam: reformism as a possible response to the challenge of radicalism

Abstract

The article highlights the problems of political Islam in the context of analyzing the ideas of the most influential and significant Muslim political thinkers of the first half of the twentieth century. The object of the research is the concepts of major Muslim thinkers, and the subject is Muslim reformist and human–oriented thought in the aspect of countering the process of radicalization of world Islam in the current political situation. In addition to general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, implemented when working with narrative sources, as well as the logic of information presentation and the organization of the structure of the text, we used cultural, historical and socio-psychological analysis, supplemented by the method of political analysis.
The issue of increasing manifestations of religious radicalism and extremism in the context of the strengthening of the global terrorist threat is included in the agenda of modern politics. The socio-economic, political and socio-cultural dynamics of the countries belonging to the Muslim world prompts researchers to raise the question of the origins of this phenomenon. Are modern intellectuals and politicians representing Muslim states capable of interpreting the existing legacy of Muslim political thought of the twentieth century in such a way as to give a meaningful response to the challenge from radicals and fundamentalists?