Global Islamic Movement

The idea of an ‘Islamic Movement’ was never seriously felt and conceived until the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924. Obviously, it was born out of a context in which Muslims lost their political sovereignty and had their lands occupied by colonial powers and colonialism was dominant in most Muslim territories. Not only did the Muslim Ummah, as a whole, lose its rule but it also lost its grip on its own people and their affairs. It was against this background that reform activism in the name of ‘Islamic movement’ emerged. Whatever the reasons may have been for the downfall of Muslim rule, its effects and consequences echoed far and wide in the Muslim lands that were already under the control of colonial powers. As a result, Muslim reformists and activists throughout the Muslim world envisaged a way out. In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Hasan al-Banna in Egypt in 1928, and the Jama[at-i-Islami, founded by Abul A[la Mawdudi in 1941 in British India, were two major Islamic movements that had this goal and aim in mind.