1-Political Islam is a term defined by the various movements, political parties, associations, and governments that believed to be operating based on Islamic beliefs, and all of these efforts were of course to gain societal control in a period of turmoil. These various movements are defined by some experts as progressive, conservative, militant, jihadist, and radical, and all of these beliefs were taken from the Quran, the Sunna, and the rulings of faqih. Due to the fact that these Islamist parties have such a broad agenda it has been difficult for outside nations to figure out a viable solution to move toward consensus. My question to you is: Do you think that we will see a period of peace and organization from these nations in our lifetime? If so, why/how?
2-Countries such as Iran were effected by Western powers who pressured the change in the monarchy as well supporting the government when Mossadegh took control of the government. Iran then became dependent on the export of oil as the Cold war intensified and Iran found itself on the same team as the west. But the dependence of oil was ironically Iran’s undoing as oil prices fell and the money earned from the oil market wasn’t being used at its full potential. The nation faced economic turmoil as a result of mass immigration of unskilled workers, and the reformation of old institutions such as guilds and the bazaars. This resulted in the anti-government revolutions among the conservative, oil workers, landlords and supporters of communism. Khomeini was able to take charge as he was able to captivate many of the revolutionaries since was able to keep the Iranian culture and values alive. It is through the success of the Iranian revolution that groups such as Hizbullah, Hamas and Al-Qaeda to for and organized. Each group using different methods to achieve their goal of establishing a expanding Islamic nation. Which leads to my question, If the Iranian Revolution was unsuccessful, would it had delayed the formation of Islamic groups or stop them from forming?

3-In this chapter the author talks about Hamas, and how they played a crucial role in driving out the Israelis. The Hamas became a political machine which was not only a burden for the Israelis but the Palestine Liberation Organization as well as had a critical role in derailing the Oslo Process.
My question for this reading is that how was the Hamas able to do this alone and how did it become in to such a strong political machine that it drove out the Israelis as well as derailed the Oslo process ?

4-In the reading, the author did mention about how Islam does not exist apart from social practice. As we can see, there is a lot of Muslim across the world but we can say most of them will have different ways of life either how they wear their hijab, how they have done marriage celebration or how they behave.
My question is do you think having social interactions in religion is a good thing? How about the culture? Should people follow the culture first or religion and what of the beliefs in culture and religion are not parallel to each other?

5-The Iranian Revolution has left an enriched political ancestry due to the variety of the governing experiences to the modern political forces of the region. A range of occupations had made the population to reevaluate its national values. One of them was the entrance of Hamas into the Palestinian sphere. Hamas used to an example of the formidable political machine (4 1). It could demonstrate a threatening political regime which could affect the positions of the Israeli occupation. The Palestine Liberation Organization had been under the risk of entering a severe conflict too. Egyptian and Syrian forces had to withstand the provocations of the Islamic groups and their villainous actions against the contemporary political movements. The reason of the political conflicts used to the absence of the desire to adjust to the liberal political values.
Political Islam is a phenomenon which has formed the modern Islamic political order. There is still a broadened amount of political conflicts which are difficult to solve due to the multiple interdependent relationships between these countries and their partners. Being against someone means being dependent on other counterparts of the enemy, especially for the countries with a slow level of the economic development. The dominants of the Taliban government may prevent other parties from gathering power. It means that it is against economic progress on the liberal basis. There are political activists with similar principles in Turkey either. All of them complicate the situation with the establishment of the stable political system which would defend human rights of the citizens.

Does the phenomenon of Political Islam imply a struggle for political dominance while there are still humanitarian issues?

6-In a book written by Al-Zawahiri, he mentions that there are two types of internal enemies within Islamist world which are those who did not take part in jihad and those who did a particular sin. For the first enemy, the author gives example of Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and Islamic Group where they use violence to bring down the secular government instead of using the correct way preferred by Islam to establish Islam state. Meanwhile, the author further explains about the second enemy who are al-Qaeda and Hamas who are geographically and philosophically representating Islam’s image yet being called with so many titles because they have done particular sins.
Personally, I have different view when the author points out these two types of internal enemies. I’m thinking of these enemies originally comes from ourselves. Our internal self. For me, we need to fight against what inside us that tell us to do bad things regardless to ourselves or people around us. We need to jihad in order to against our laziness, disappointment, fear, and challenges ahead in order to become a better person. What stops us from doing that is the real enemy which is ourselves. I think that is the biggest jihad to do because if not us do it, who else would? When you can fight the bad side of yourself, I believe it would be easier for you to jihad for nation, country and most important for your religion because you have developed a stable identity inside you.
My question would be, what is the largest jihad you had ever experienced in fighting your inner self? And if you are chosen to join the real jihad, in what ways you think the most effective and how confident are you?

7-Political islam is different translations and meanings of the Qur’an and the Sunna and how a certain group will translate those texts into a ruing class and society or political idea/ movement. With each new ruler there seems to be a need for a new type of Political islam with changing Islamic Principals. For example, the Taliban believed in very strict rules and little to no deviation from the grater plan sometimes causing tunnel vision to their goals(308).The Hizbullah Provided protection for their underrepresented class the Shi’is and was very militia based. Now to my question, what is Salafism? And how does Salafism effect Political islam today? Why may Salafism cause a “renewal”.

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