"Islam" is one of the world's three major monotheistic religions, which of course has meant, and means different things at different times to different people. It comes in different flavors: Sunni, Shia, Sufi, etc.
"Islamism", aka Militant Islam, is a movement that combines totalitarian politics with an intolerant fundamentalist style of Islam - Shia for Khomenei's Iran, Wahabbi for Qutb, Bin Laden, Zawahari, Mullah Omar, etc. Its program is anti-modern and anti-Western and includes imposing a fundamentalist version of Sharia as the law of the land. Islamist regimes: Iran (for now), Afghanistan under the Taliban, Sudan, and northern Nigeria. Saudi Arabia is has made its own devils bargain with Islamism; the House of Saud imposes on the people but exempts itself from the rules. |
