“We are Muslims, not Islamists,” the new prime minister of Morocco, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, declared several days ago. In so doing, she aligned herself with a common assumption throughout the Western world — that Islam is benign and should be welcomed, while Islamism is the political, supremacist, and violent imperative that the West must resist, or else cease to be the home of free societies.
This distinction is taken for granted all over. Yet in reality, the gulf between Islam and Islamism is not nearly as wide as many non-Muslims assume. Despite Fatima Ezzahra’s confident assertion, the distinction between Islam as a religion and Islam as a political system that is radically incompatible with Western secular and pluralistic society simply does not exist in Islamic theology or law.
That means that while Baptists and Methodists and Catholics and the rest can read the sign on the front of the church and know whether or not it is one of theirs, there are no signs in front of mosques that say that it’s an “Islamist” mosque as opposed to an ordinary “Islamic” mosque. Although many non-Muslims would like to think that Islamists and Muslims remain far apart and have little or no contact with one another, and even that mutual animosity marks their relationship with each other, in reality, Islamists move among peaceful Muslims with no problem. No one objects to their presence or insists that the mosque they’re in is all about peace and tolerance, and that they should find another place to pray.
This matters because many in the U.S. and Europe today believe that while we should resist the spread of Islamism, we need not have any concerns about Islam itself. The Economist several weeks ago even went so far as to run an article entitled “Islamism is a threat to Britain. Islam is not.” Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri would seem to agree.
And yet not only do peaceful Muslims make no effort to keep “Islamists” from attending their mosques and schools, but what the West thinks of as “Islamism” actually has deep roots within Islam itself. Among the Sunnis and Shi’ites and Wahhabis and Ibadis and all the various sects, branches, and schools of jurisprudence of Islam there is not a single one that does not teach that Islam is a political and legal system, and indeed, one that is divinely revealed, and hence perfect, and to be implemented everywhere. And that political and legal system denies equality of rights to non-Muslims and women, denies the freedom of speech, allows for women to be beaten, and more.
Sure, there are many Muslims who don’t pay attention to any of this, and who don’t have any intention of imposing Sharia upon the rest of us. In fact, many of the Muslims in the West are happy to be living in a society that does not impose Sharia restrictions upon them. But as a practical matter, there is simply no way to welcome Muslims into the West while keeping “Islamists” out. If we’re going to have one, we’re going to have the other. And yes, that means that some of those “Islamists” will wage jihad against non-Muslims, and people are going to get killed.
It was no surprise, therefore, that one Muslim on X responded to El Mansouri in this way: “‘Islamists’ is a Western term and this term ‘Islamist’ does not exist in Islam. The religion is call Islam and its believers are Muslims. Yes she is not an Islamist. ‘Islamist’ is a misleading term against Islam.” This recalled what no less an authority than Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said some years ago: “Islam cannot be either ‘moderate’ or ‘not moderate.’ Islam can only be one thing. Recently the concept of ‘moderate Islam’ has received attention. But the patent of this concept originated in the West…. What they really want to do is weaken Islam.”
In fact, the impulse to distinguish “Islamism” from “Islam” stems from the overwhelming desire of many non-Muslim Westerners not to be thought of as “bigoted” and “racist,” and thus to regard Islam as a wonderful thing, exonerating it from the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings by ascribing them to “Islamism,” which they assume is some kind of twisted version of the true, peaceful, faith. Unfortunately, this is all simply wishful thinking.
Related: Iran Touts Islam's Teachings of Equality. Reality, As Always, Is Different.
If that is true, however, why is Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri trafficking in this spurious distinction? The answer to that is simple: she knows the path to foreign aid. But the pushback she is receiving from other Muslims stems from the illegitimacy of the term “Islamism” in the Islamic world.
Unfortunately, warfare against unbelievers is firmly rooted in Islamic texts and teachings. The Qur’an even says that “those of the believers who sit still, other than those who have an injury, are not equal with those who wage jihad in the way of Allah with their wealth and lives. Allah has conferred on those who wage jihad with their wealth and lives a rank above the sedentary. Allah has promised good to each, but he has bestowed on those who wage jihad a great reward above that of the sedentary.” (4:95)
Buckle in. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.