Bernard Lewis - Crisis of Islam

Lewis sees the Islamic world as locked in an internal struggle over how best to address and ultimately solve the problems endemic to many of its societies: namely, widespread poverty, extreme economic inequality, the prevalence of government by despotic rulers, and the inability to keep pace with emerging economies. The crisis concerns the choice the Islamic world faces between two diametrically opposed solutions. Opposing those within Islam, who argue for the continued and peaceful spread of economic and political freedoms as a means to solve these problems are the various Muslim fundamentalist movements, most notably Wahhabism, which blame all of these ills on whatever modernization and Western influence the Islamic world has already embraced, and advocate an unreserved rejection of the West. This rejection includes violence against Western countries and interests, and most especially violence against "impious" Muslim rulers, who have adopted "Western" ways. The fundamentalists seek the establishment of states and societies based on Islamic Law and traditional mores.