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Political Instability And Civil Wars

Satisfactory Essays

INTRODUCTION
Political instability and civil wars in the Middle East have resulted in a rise of violent extremist groups calling for the revival of a ‘Caliphate’ across the Muslim world. In June 2014, a violent extremist group captured and controlled around one third of Syria and Iraq and called itself the ‘Islamic State’ –its leader proclaimed himself to be the ‘caliph’ of all Muslims and has gained new currency in the media and public discourses, both in the west and in the Muslim world. The ideology of this and similar groups vastly deviates from the mainstream Islamic understanding and interpretation of Islamic Law, not to mention rejecting the international system’s very norms and principles governing nation states. Moreover, they do not only pose great threats to the security and welfare of the people in the region but also to everyone across the globe.
Historically, Muslim societies were governed by caliphs, kings and sultans and assumed the legitimate central authority of a loosely defined territory called the Dar al Islam (English translation: Abode of Islam). They were part of a political system not similar to the modern-day nation state. In the early twentieth century, call for the re-institutionalisation of the caliphate and for an Islamic state was invoked by most Islamist thinkers and groups for the purpose of unifying Muslims against western imperialism and nationalism. The notion of on Caliphate was re-introduced in the political programme of some of

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