Political Challenges Confronting the Islamic World

Abstract

Over the past five decades, Muslim nations have been challenged by several political elements including, for example, political Islam being influenced by many fundamentalist ideologies. Certain boundaries between religion and state have been crossed to develop particular power oriented ideologies, secular or religious, serving specific groups with challenging political agendas. The study addresses the political challenges facing Muslim nations focusing on external or global and internal or local political factors behind these challenges. In addition to scholarly work from the fields of anthropology, political science, religious studies and sociology, the present inquiry uses data collected from international data collection and reporting agencies such as the Social Progress Index (SPI), Freedom House, the Institute for Economics & Peace, particularly the Global Peace Index (GPI), Vision of Humanity, and the Pew Research Center. Using information provided by the Social Progress Index (SPI), the study focuses on 39 of the 57 Muslim countries belonging to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Information regarding other Muslim countries, not included in the SPI Index, is separately obtained from other data collecting institutes. Selections of political indicators are used to display the most crucial challenges confronting the Islamic world. Some of these indicators include political rights, democracy, personal rights, political terror, corruption, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and association, freedom of movement, freedom of religion, religious tolerance, discrimination and violence against minorities, and peace.