ciety – a vision, and go forward in transforming the Muslims to become an operative force at work in modern times. Unfortunately for the adherents of this activist movement the re-affirmation of Islam has become an outlet for emotion. It has become the expression of the hatred, frustration, vanity and at times destructive frenzy of a people who have long been the victims of poverty, impotence and fear. The vehemence and hatred in their literature point more to a group of people who have lost their way, whose heritage has proven unequal to the challenges of modernity. The Pakistan counterpart of Ikhwan is the Jama’at group. The common recurrent themes in these Islamic revival movements are the following: Modernization is seen as a westernization and secularization; a sense that existing political, economic and social systems have failed; a disenchantment with, and at times a rejection of the west; and the conviction that Islam provides a self-sufficient blueprint for state and society. The contemporary Islamic revival movements have common grounds. The key-components of their program are: (1) Islam is the answer; (2) a return to the Qur’an and the Sunnah (traditions) of the prophet; (3) the community is to be governed by the Shari’a (Islamic Law); and (4) all who resist, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, are enemies of God. Similarly, the da’wa(h) phenomenon in many Islamic communities is seen as an integral component of Islamic political revival that threatens the existing order that is more associated with the West. What is or should be clear is that simplistic accounts based on that legacy of anachronistic preconceptions will not do. As a matter of fact, da’wa(h) has become the subject of much concern inasmuch as “foreign” observers see in it shadows of the turmoil in Iran. In Southwestern Philippines, the establishment of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the continuing ...
