How Islamic is an Islamic State: A Theoretical Debate on Islamic Political Order

The Muslim world is at the bottom rung of participatory democracy, representative governance, and political stability in comparison to the rest of the world. Prevalent and perpetual social disintegration, economic stagnation, and resistance to modernity are all problems in search of answers whose validity and relevance are constantly questioned. Some have vested hopes in the ideal of an ‘Islamic state,’ but very few have defined such a loosely defined state, and even fewer have critically analyzed or offered its theoretical parameters. In this regard, Islamist political activism suffers from a theoretical disconnect with the present political reality. They pursue two divergent paths: regression to a largely irrelevant political past or digression from historical models that the reformists claim to champion. In this writing, we delineate the inconsistencies between these arguments and offer solutions.