Contemporary Trajectories in Political Islam and Islamism

Contemporary political Islam and Islamism are going through a phase of unprecedented change and ferment. Given their multidimensional nature, political Islam and Islamism have undergone deep transformations at every stage of their history. Today, however, these transformations appear to be faster, more intricate, and markedly transnational. 

The present paper aims to analyse three of the major trends in contemporary political Islam and Islamism: the crisis of the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Brotherhood-inspired groups, the development of woke Islamism, and the emergence of the Akh-Right as a new, dynamic radical ecosystem. The work posits the existence of a domino effect involving old-school political Islam, Islamist wokeism, and the Akh-Right. 

Indeed, the inability of the structured, old-school forms of political Islam in the Middle East and the West to keep pace with the rapidly evolving political culture was one of the primary reasons for the birth and success of woke Islamism. In turn, the growth of Islamist wokeness and its progressivist, patronizing political and intellectual attitudes triggered intolerance and mockery against fellow Muslims, which are two of the pillars of the Akh-Right milieu. This domino effect suggests that contemporary political Islam and Islamism are particularly heterogenous phenomena that require original and comprehensive analyses.