I’ve never been much of a one for the distinction between “Islam” and “Islamism”.
Though I do recognise its usefulness as a tactical split to acknowledge the millions of Muslims who do not follow their faith down all its prescribed, violent, tenets. (Which I call the Trinity of Islam).
Still, it only takes a small percent of islamists to cause havoc and chaos. Just as it only took 5% of Russian Bolsheviks to make Revolution. Nazis were a small minority of Germans when they took power.
/Snip
“… Islam is not a private faith but an inherently political ideology, with expansionist ambitions embedded in its foundational texts and history. From this perspective, vigilance requires scrutinizing anyone with ties, however historical or familial, to Islamist networks, lest the West repeat the mistakes that allowed groups like the Muslim Brotherhood to embed themselves within democratic institutions.
A neat phrase encapsulates this conundrum:
“Islamists (or Jihadis) are snakes in the grass. Islam is the grass”.
Dan Burmawi analyses the issue in “The Islam-Islamism Trap”.
