You observe, "On the other hand, the polling is rather consistent with how people in that part of the world actually vote. Such is clearly the case in Egypt as well as in the PA."
Depends what you mean by voting. Ironically, the PA elections probably were more fair than those in Egypt, if for no other reason than no PA faction was able to control the elections. Modern Egypt has not yet had free and fair elections, compared with those Maghreb states that have been independently judged to have open multiparty elections.
"And, it is certainly consistent with religious revivalism which has swept the Muslim regions. If people vote for Islamist parties, would they not also favor the program espoused by such parties?"
Revivalism that has swept "the Muslim regions?" Indonesia is not Islamist, although it has the largest Muslim population of any state. I've mentioned Maghreb voting. Turkey is a special case, in that the Army acts as a guarantor of secularism.
Is Lebanon a "Muslim region"? Kuwait has an increasingly open political process; why, then, are women taking an increasing role?
"And, is it not the case that the understanding the rulers of the various Muslim countries have taken from the "street" is that people want Islamic law?"
Not necessarily. I have not noted the governments of Syria, Egypt or Saudi Arabia being terribly concerned with the wishes of the street. I don't agree there has been a "clear trend" to Islamicize, but I don't necessarily understand what you mean by "the region". Arab? Middle Eastern including what -- Persian, Turkic, Maronite, Druze? Central Asian? Maghreb?
"I am thus ask that you provide evidence showing that Khaldun, Ignaz Goldhizer, Avicenna, al-Ghazali and Bernard Lewis' understand of the mainstream view is wrong such that the pro-Jihad strain of thought is one among many mainstream views held by the bulk of Muslim scholars." I'm willing to go with one of many. Since disproof can be no more than one example, I suggest that such evidence lies in the rejection of some of the more extreme forms of the lesser jihad, such as Qutbism, or the substitution of lesser jihad for the Haj in al-Turabi's version of Mahdist thought.
by Howard C Berkowitz on December 3, 2006 at 2:41 PM