The way Islam is categorized and castigated, more recently, is the theme of the paper. Bringing in notions of neo-orientalism and neo-conservatism, Malik presents a defense of what he calls ‘Political Islam’. He argues that the West has too simplistically categorized Islam as a monolithic category, and is not concerned with developments (and schisms) within Islam. For him, Islam is not simply a religion but its variations give rise to different expressions of politics as well. Using examples from across the Muslim world, Iftikhar Malik talks about the class nature (and class conflict) of movements within political Islam. He argues that leaders and activists in the Muslim world are forced to address political, social and economic issues in their own context while relying upon the religious idiom.
