Introduction
In most countries with a Muslim majority, Islam is proclaimed the 'state religion' and shari'a[1] the principal or sole source of legislation 'Political Islam' defines itself as a project to install government based on the Qu'ran, the Hadith and its associated values, which are promoted as sovereign norms, as well as the islamisation of codes, practices and discourse in the public arena. 'Islamisation' is not a monolithic movement, even if all those who support it are characterised by a binary vision of the world, with dar al-islam[2] on one side and dar al-kufr[3] on the other. It has taken three distinct forms, each one conveying a relationship with the world and specific operational modalities:
political Islamic movements (al-harakat al-islamiyya al-siyassiya), represented by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, matrix of other organisations in the Maghreb and Middle East with a different identity.
Missionary Islamic movements aimed at conversion (al-da'wa). Their prime aim is not political power but the defence and promotion of an orthopraxy, of orthodoxy, of an identity, a moral order in opposition to what they call 'unbelief' (kufr or zandaqa).
Jihadist movements (al-harakat al-jihadiyya), which call for armed struggle against the 'close enemy', that is, regimes which make reference to Islam but are considered 'heretical' (nuzum kaffar), and for global struggle against the 'distant enemy', that is, as a priority, 'the non Muslim West', but also the Buddhists and Hindus in Asia. They follow in particular the thinking of Sayyid Qutb[4] .
