Political Economy and the Explanation of the Islamic Politics in the Contemporary World

Attempts to explain the often confusing and contradictory nature of Islamic politics may be seen as falling into two main categories. In one approach Islamic politics is understood as a reflection of the ideas, values and doctrines of Islam itself or as the product of a wider Islamic culture. A second approach is focused on the way Islamic politics has been influenced and shaped within larger processes of social and economic transformation and by the upheavals in economic and political power that accompany these. Both of these approaches raise questions about whether religious ideas and values — and the politics they produce — operate independently of deeper social and economic processes or whether they are embodied within them in one way or another.