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November 10, 2005
UK: BBC Describes "How Islam Got Political"
The BBC has just broadcast a programme by Frank Gardner on its radio channel, Radio 4, in its series "Koran and Country". Gardner, the security correspondent for the BBC discusses the radio broadcast here. The broadcast will no doubt be repeated on the World Service, but Gardner's analyses are interesting, if a little simplified for a lay audience.
"Even the term political Islam is a controversial one," acknowledges Frank Gardner. "Most Muslims see Islam as a whole way of life which, in addition to its spiritual aspects, encompasses politics, economics and a social system. However, what is clear is that in the past century a distinct Islamic political movement has emerged, based on the idea that Muslims should be ruled by a state which bases its legitimacy on Islam and implements Islamic law. The growth of this movement seems to have been fuelled in part by an increasing sense that much of the non-Islamic world is hostile towards Muslims."In conjunction with the programme's release, BBC Online has presented five pages of information, which though "easy to read" and not really addressing anything to do with the historical violence and political machinations that arose from the time of Mohammed and the Koran and which have fed and nourrished "political" and "violent" Islam over the centuries, they are nonetheless worth reading.
They are broken up into five sections, which can be accessed here.
How a revolution in Iran influenced thinking around the world.
Two men whose writings influenced political movement
How a holy war against the Soviet Union led to the rise of one man.
How British Muslims became angry over events in Bosnia
How the attacks on America changed thinking and reverberate today.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 10, 2005 4:15 PM
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