Explaining the Foundations of Islamic Countries Divergence and the Failure of Islamic Unity Idea in the Modern Era

پژوهش ‎های جغرافیای سیاسی

Article 1, Volume 7, Issue 3 - Serial Number 27, October 2022, Pages 1-20   

Document Type: مقالات علمی -پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/pg.2022.68679.1018

Author

Hadi Veicy^*

Associate Professor of Political Geography, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The world of Islam with a historical brilliant civilization in the framework of a unified Islamic state has suffered fragmentation and nationalism due to the collapse of the caliphate system in the face of modernity and the nation state system in the contemporary period. In the last century, some reformers and Islamic political activists, influenced by the early history of Islam and the Qur'an teachings of the “United Ummah” or "Islamic Ummah", have proposed the unity and solidarity of the world of Islam to rebuild and revitalize Islamic civilization and to confront the dominating Western powers. Although many efforts have been made, so far no tangible achievements of unity and convergence have been observed in the world of Islam. Therefore, the main question is what are the main problem and root causes of lack of convergence and domination of divergent forces over convergent elements in the world of Islam and why the idea of Islamic unity has been failed. This research has attempted to explain the roots and fundamental causes of divergence in the world of Islam. The results show that the conceptual ambiguity of the world of Islam, economic non-complementation of Islamic countries, dependence on the world outside of world of Islam and competition and ideological contradictions of regional powers in the world of Islam have caused divergent Islamic countries.

Keywords

World of Islam; Islamic Countries; Convergence; Divergence; Islamic Ummah

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