How Christians Should Engage Political Islam in the US and the World

Islam is just as much a political ideology as it is a religion. Political Islam (or Islamism) suggests that Islam should rule and dominate every sphere of human societal life.^[1] This religious perspective dictates political actions in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. In The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in Muslim Societies, Mohammed Ayoob defines political Islam as a political ideology rather than a religious or theological one.^[2] He describes political Islam as anti-democratic, enforcing the implementation of sharia as the divine law, and inherently violent in its modus operandi.^[3] This violent ideology is especially dangerous because contemporary Muslims around the world have a misconstrued understanding of the Western world, particularly the United States, as most Muslims view it through Islamic sources and the teachings of the leaders of their Mosques. And now, political Islam has infiltrated the West. How should Christians respond?

Understanding Political Islam

Islamism is often called political Islam because of its religiously motivated political agenda.^[4] Political Islamism emerged as a contemporary puritanical movement that opposes un-Islamic civilization and influences, particularly from Western countries and Christian missionary activities.^[5] Jocelyne Cesari states, “Political Islam and Islamism are terms used interchangeably to describe Islamic parties and movements that have risen to preeminence since the 1960s in opposition to secular states.”^[6] At the broader ideological level, A. S. Ibrahim defines political Islam as “a religio-political ideology that emphasizes religion as an essential part of ruling society.”^[7] This ideological disposition becomes dominant in political Islamists’ religious piety, as Ibrahim rightly argues, “Islamism views the religion of Islam in terms of both worship and political power. It is often labeled as political Islam.”^[8] In Political Islam and Religiously Motivated Political Extremism, Arno Tausch alludes to John L. Esposito, who states, “Political Islam has its roots in a contemporary religious resurgence in private and public life . . . the causes of the resurgence were religious-cultural, political, and socio-economic.”^[9] Political Islamism does not simply want religious influence, but political and cultural dominance as well. Islamic movements of this kind seek a comprehensive ordering of society in accordance with Islamic law and principles, aiming for total Islamic supremacy.

For political Islamists and Muslims, there is no better source to understand political Islam than the Quran and Sunnah. In his article, “Where Do We Stand in Relation to Our Islamic Political System?” Muhammad ibn Shakir al-Sharif reports that the Sunnah provides instructions on the rulings of the political system, which are sufficient and include all the detailed legislation and rulings needed in the Islamic political system, and nothing else is needed to determine and explain this.^[10] He further states that there are clear instructions about the relationship between the ruler and the ruled, and about the relationship of the Muslim state.^[11] For example, Sahih al-Bukhari states that Allah has given the Quraish Muslims the authority to rule, and whoever (Muslims and non-Muslims) opposes their rulership will be destroyed by Allah (Sahih al-Bukhari 3500).^[12] In another hadith, Al-Bukhari states that Muhammad used to fight against pagans (non-Muslims) and that Muslims should fight to rule (Sahih al-Bukhari 7095).^[13] In view of these Islamic teachings from the classical sources, Muslims in other countries, like the United States and the Western world, particularly political Islamists, believe that Islam should rule and that sharia should serve as the governing law of the land. Sharif states that authority in the Islamic political system is derived from sharia, which serves as its basis and is supported by the Quran and Sunnah. Coming from a predominantly Muslim context, I have seen Muslims show high respect and honor for their leaders. However, obedience to them in the Islamic political system is not absolute; rather, it is limited to obeying Allah and Muhammad’s sayings, following his example, and applying the sharia.

Ayman Ibrahim has also conducted extensive research on Muhammad’s conquests and military expeditions by critically analyzing primary Islamic sources. He argues that Muhammad’s sayings and actions are foundational to political Islam and to Muslims today.^[14] For instance, Suleiman Mourad alludes to the exemplary polemics and Islamist actions of Ibn Taymiyyah, some leaders, and other scholars like Nur al-Din (1118–1174), Saladin (1137–1193), and Ibn ‘Asakir (1105–1176), who battled and rallied the Muslim community to wage jihad against the crusaders and their Muslim cronies, as a great influence on political Islam.^[15] This is the reason Muslims who are political Islamists only welcome Islamic civilization as the standard for religious-cultural, political, and socio-economic lifestyles. They oppose any Western influence on religious-cultural, political, and socio-economic lifestyles, as they consider those influences un-Islamic. Today, the Islamic ideological groups like Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Taliban, ISWAP, and other related Islamist groups consider Western ideology as Christian ideas. They are following the example of Muhammad and reflecting on the framework of Political Islamists’ ideologues, first, for the sake of ruling, to establish the house of Islam in the Western world, and second, to implement sharia as the governing law. Christians in Western countries and around the world should consider political Islamism alarming and dangerous because the ideology is embedded with an Islamization agenda through religio-political and social engagements, such as activism, militancy, and social connections.

Ways to Engage Political Islam

Christians in the United States and around the world should expose the strategy of the Political Islamists through Christian publications, including books and journal articles, and media channels, including podcasts, television programs, online video content, and blogs. The need for Christian scholars of Islam cannot be overstated, as this would help the Western and global church trust resources written from a Christian perspective. Publications and media channels are powerful tools for debunking Islamic falsehoods about political Islam and for challenging misconceptions and perceptions that are intended to fight for the sake of Islam in Western countries and other non-Muslim countries.^[16] These resources counter the Islamic falsehoods, lies, and misconceptions with biblical truths. This approach would empower Christians to serve as apologists who defend the Christian faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ with clarity and simplicity. An example is the work of the Coptic saint and theologian Būluṣ b. Rajāʾ (b. c. 955; d. c. 1010) entitled Kitāb al-Wāḍiḥ, in which he employed kalām-style interrogation to defend Christianity and critique Islamic truth claims.^[17]

Christians in the United States and around the world should expose the strategy of the Political Islamists to counter their ideology of fighting for the sake of Islam.^[18] Jesus Christ came into the world to expose the works of darkness, and he made us the light (Matt. 5:16), saddling us with the responsibility to expose the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5:11). If it is true that political Islamists exploit vulnerabilities in Western and non-Muslim countries to advance their Islamization ideology, then Christians have the moral responsibility to apply their God-given wisdom not only to expose the evil of Islamism but also to stop programs that promote the flourishing of such Islamism and its ideological trends, including those that promote Islamic activism, militancy, and social connections such as marrying non-Muslims for proselytization purposes. Political Islamists would fight for sharia and Islamic rule, as exemplified by Muhammad and recorded in the hadiths. Therefore, Christians are to engage Muslims in the West and non-Muslim countries with love and compassion, yet with the offensive truth that transforms and sets them free from all unbiblical ideologies (Jn. 8:32).

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1. By Islam, I mean the ideology of Muslims, and by politics, I mean the religiopolitical engagements of Muslims with Muslims and non-Muslims in Western countries and around the world. ↑
2. Mohammed Ayoob, The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in Muslim Societies (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020), 2. ↑
3. Ayoob, The Many Faces of Political Islam, 1–2. ↑
4. See scholarly debates about the appropriate use of the terminology from Islamic fundamentalism to political Islam, in Roxanne L. Euben, “Fundamentalism,” in The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, eds. Gerhard Bowering, Patricia Crone, Wadad Kadi, Devin J. Stewart, Muhammad Qasim Zaman, and Mahan Mirza (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), 181. ↑
5. Political Islamists align their ideology with the framework of political ideologues such as the Hanbali Islamicist Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), the forerunner of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792). ↑
6. Jocelyne Cesari, “Political Islam: More than Islamism,” Religions 12, no. 5 (2021): 299. ↑
7. A. S. Ibrahim, “Stop Playing Around with Islamism: The West must Understand the Dangers of Groups Like the Muslim Brotherhood,” World Opinions, January 23, 2025. See Islamism or political Islam in A. S. Ibrahim, “Is Islamism Really Dangerous for the West?” World Opinions, March 22, 2024. ↑
8. Ibrahim, “Stop Playing Around with Islamism.” See Ibrahim, “Is Islamism Really Dangerous for the West?” ↑
9. See more on political Islam and Islamic extremism in Arno Tausch, Political Islam and Religiously Motivated Political Extremism (New York: Springer, 2023), 7, 12–17. ↑
10. Muhammad ibn Shakir al-Sharif, “Where Do We Stand in Relation to Our Islamic Political System?” Majallat al-Bayān, no. 3–5 (1406 AH/1986 AD): 4824. ↑
11. Ibn Shakir al-Sharif, “Where Do We Stand in Relation to Our Islamic Political System?” 4824. ↑
12. Sahih al-Bukhari, “Virtues and Merits of the Prophet and his Companion,” volume 9, book 56, hadith 705. ↑
13. Sahih al-Bukhari, “Afflictions and the End of the World,” volume 9, book 88, hadith 215. ↑
14. See Ibrahim’s literary work on early Islamic expansion through Muhammad (622–641) in Ayman S. Ibrahim, The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (622–641): A Critical Revision of Muslims’ Traditional Portrayal of the Arab Raids and Conquests (New York: Peter Lang, 2018), chaps. 2 and 5. See narratives about conquests in Ayman S. Ibrahim, Conversion to Islam: Competing Themes in Early Islamic Historiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 85–155. I recommend the entire literary work of Ibrahim on Muhammad’s Military Expedition, but see where he states, “Muslims cherished and circulated numerous traditions about Muhammad’s expeditions, calling them Maghazi rasul Allah (the expeditions of Allah’s messenger)” in Ayman S. Ibrahim, Muhammad’s Military Expeditions: A Critical Reading in Original Muslim Sources (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024), 1–11. See one of the oldest biographies of Muhammad’s expedition in the modern era in Maʻmar ibn Rāshid, and ʻAbd al-Razzāq ibn Hammām al-Imyarī, The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad, ed. Sean W. Anthony (New York: New York University Press, 2014), 95–112. ↑
15. Suleiman Mourad, “Understanding the Crusades from an Islamic Perspective,” The Conversation, July 9, 2018. Cf. ʻĀšūr,Saʻīd ʻAbd al-Fattāḥ forme avant 2007. Al-Ḥaraka Al-Ṣalībiyya (Maktabat al-Anglo al-Miṣriyya, 1982). Dirāsah wa-taḥqīq Aḥmad ʻAbd al-Karīm., Aḥmad ʻAbd al-Karīm Ḥalawānī, and ʻAlī ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn al-ʻAsākir. Ibn ʻAsākirwa-dawruhu fī al-jihād ḍidda al-Ṣalībīyīn fī ʻahd al-dawlatayn al-N rīyah wa-al-Ayy bīyah (Dimashq: Dār al-Fidāʼ,1991). ↑
16. See Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s strong assertions about political Islam stating that “There is no point in denying that political Islam as an ideology has its foundation in Islamic doctrine,” in Ayaan Hirsi Ali, “How to Counter Political Islam,” Hoover Institution, March 22, 2017. See her book on The Challenge of Dawa: Political Islam as Ideology and Movement and How to Counter It (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2017), 51–59. ↑
17. David Bertaina describes that Ibn Rajāʾwas a Muslim convert to the Coptic Church in Fatimid Egypt and was familiar with the Islamic ḥadīth tradition and made use of them in his religious arguments. See David Bertaina, “Ḥadīth in the Christian Arabic Kalām of Būluṣ Ibn Rajāʾ (c. 1000),” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 2, no. 1–2 (2014): 267–286, https://doi.org/10.1163/2212943X-00201016. ↑
18. See Ali’s recommendation about policymaking in Ali, “How to Counter Political Islam.” ↑