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[email protected] www.erpic.org Marta Murzanska August 2016 THE MANY-FACED IDEOLOGY OF POLITICAL ISLAM AND ITS CHALLENGE TO LIBERAL DEMOCRACY Summary For the first time since the end of the Cold War the Western liberal democracy is facing an ideological challenge. It is a challenge posed by a religious absolutist ideology of political Islam, also known as Islamism, a phenomenon more complex, elusive and insidious than the communist threat ever was. It is an ideology which regards Islam not simply as a faith system concerned primarily with man’s spirituality, but an all-encompassing system of a divine law which must be applied to every aspect of human existence, including public and political sphere. Its claim to universal domination is driven by the nostalgia for Islam’s past glory and a deep-rooted contempt for the Western civilization, perceived as spiritually inferior, decadent, degraded, and on its way to either self-destruction, or Islamic conquest. In particular, it viciously attacks the Western-originated nation-state system of international relations, with all its underpinning institutions, norms and values, such as democracy and popular sovereignty, secularism, human rights, gender equality, and liberal freedoms. After its emergence in Egypt in the first half of the 20th century, the contemporary Islamist movement was initially focused on Muslim lands where it launched activities aimed at “de- Westernization”. However, as a by-product of Muslim immigration it has also firmly established itself in the West, and particularly in Europe.