anizations in order to pursue particular political objectives throughout the Arab world. These objectives are invariably linked to the decontextualizing of Islam, which separates the pure Islamic faith from the socio-economic reality in which the faith has thrived for over a thousand years. In effect, this vision of the Islamic political identity provides Islamists with "a powerful ideological tool that they can use to 'purge' Muslim societies of the 'impurities'àthat are the inevitable accompaniments of the historical process, but which they see as the reason for Muslim decline" (Ayoob 1). Thus, proponents of this view note that the transnational political identity of Islamists involves an almost pastoral conception of the ideal Muslim society. It seeks to strip away the re`lities in which Islamic societies developed, and to abolish the outside influences of the rest of the worldùand in particular of the Western world.
An opposing point of view holds that this idea of political Islam oversimplifies the issue. Proponents of this view point to the rich social, economic, and cultural diversity within the Arab world, and wonder whether a one-size fits all concept of the Arab political identity which is wedded to Islam can adequately capture this diversity. For example:
Is there such a thing as Islamic behavior? What connects Islam at the level of everyday life to Islam of doctrine in the various Islamic society? How really useful is "Islam" as a concept for understanding Morocco and Saudi Arabia and Syria and Indonesia? If we come to realize thatàIslamic doctrine can be seen to justify capitalism as well as socialism, militancy as well as fatalism, ecumenism as well as exclusion, we begin to sense the tremendous lag between academic descriptions of Islamàand the particular realities within the Islamic world (Said xv).
In debating the political identity of Islam and of Arab nations, we should ask some basic questions...