Editing Islamism (section)

===Relationship between Islam and Islamism===
{{further|Political aspects of Islam}}
[[File:A public demonstration demanding Sharia in Britain.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Islamists' public demonstration in the [[United Kingdom]] for [[sharia]], October 2009]]
Islamists simply believe that their movement is either a corrected version or a revival of [[Islam]], but others believe that Islamism is a modern deviation from Islam which should either be denounced or dismissed.

A writer for the [[International Crisis Group]] maintains that "the conception of 'political Islam'" is a creation of Americans to explain the [[Iranian Revolution|Iranian Islamic Revolution]], ignoring the fact that (according to the writer) Islam is by definition political. In fact it is [[Political quietism|quietist]]/non-political Islam, not Islamism, that requires explanation, which the author gives—calling it an historical fluke of the "short-lived era of the heyday of secular Arab nationalism between 1945 and 1970".<ref name="ICGUnderstandingIslam">{{cite web|title=Understanding Islamism|url=http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/Middle%20East%20North%20Africa/North%20Africa/Understanding%20Islamism.pdf|publisher=[[International Crisis Group]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100808200810/http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/Middle%20East%20North%20Africa/North%20Africa/Understanding%20Islamism.ashx|archive-date=8 August 2010|date=2 March 2005|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Hayri Abaza argues that the failure to distinguish Islam from Islamism leads many in the West to equate the two; they think that by supporting illiberal Islamic (Islamist) regimes, they are being respectful of Islam, to the detriment of those who seek to [[Secularism|separate religion from politics]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/it-islamic-or-islamist-73961|title=Is It Islamic or Islamist?|date=22 October 2010|newspaper=Newsweek|author=Hayri Abaza|access-date=12 March 2014|archive-date=4 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004035508/https://www.newsweek.com/it-islamic-or-islamist-73961|url-status=live}}</ref>

Another source distinguishes Islamist from Islam by emphasizing the fact that Islam "refers to a religion and [[Islamic culture|culture]] in existence [[History of Islam|over a millennium]]", whereas Islamism "is a political/religious phenomenon linked to the great events of the 20th century". Islamists have, at least at times, defined themselves as "Islamiyyoun/Islamists" to differentiate themselves from "Muslimun/Muslims".<ref>''Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report'', W.W. Norton & Company, New York, (2004), p. 562</ref> [[Daniel Pipes]] describes Islamism as a modern ideology that owes more to European utopian political ideologies and "isms" than to the traditional Islamic religion.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://nationalinterest.org/article/islam-and-islamism-faith-and-ideology-748|title=Islam and Islamism: Faith and Ideology|date=1 March 2000|journal=The National Interest|issue=Spring 2000|author=Daniel Pipes|access-date=12 March 2014|author-link=Daniel Pipes|archive-date=12 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512141047/http://nationalinterest.org/article/islam-and-islamism-faith-and-ideology-748|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Salman Sayyid, "Islamism is not a replacement of Islam akin to the way it could be argued that [[communism]] and [[fascism]] are secularized substitutes for Christianity." Rather, it is "a constellation of political projects that seek to position Islam in the centre of any [[social order]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sayyid |first=Salman |title=Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonisation and World Order |publisher=Hurst |year=2014 |location=London |pages=9}}</ref>