Encyclopedia of Islam

pan-Islamism

  

545  J

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Russia in World War I, but, by so doing, it fueled 

efforts by France and Britain to break up its empire 

after the war. They wanted to prevent pan-Islamism 

from taking hold in Sunni Muslim lands and 

threatening their own imperialist designs. Even the 

caliphate was officially abolished by the new Turk-

ish republican government in 1924.

Despite the failure of Abd al-Hamid’s brand 

of pan-Islamism, the ideal of Muslim political 

unity continued to arise periodically in the 20th 

century. It is evident in the Indian k

hilaFat

 m

ove

-

ment

 of 1919–24 and international Islamic bodies 

such as the m

Uslim

 W

orld

  l

eagUe

 (founded in 

1962) and the o

rganization

 

oF

 

the

 i

slamic

 c

on

-

Ference

 (founded in 1969). Iraq’s s

addam

 h

Usayn

attempted to invoke pan-Islamist sympathies to 

rally support against the international coalition of 

powers that opposed his occupation of Kuwait in 

1990–91. It has also been an aspect in the ideol-

ogy of some Islamist movements such as the early 

J

amaat

-

i

 i

slami

 and h

izb

 

Ut

-t

ahrir

. The assertion 

that radical Islamist organizations are pan-Islamist 

in orientation is an exaggerated one, however, 

since most operate in relation to the political 

landscapes of specific nation-states (for example, 

Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.)

See also 

colonialism

;  h

ashimite

 

dynasty

; 

i

slamism

; o

ttoman

 

dynasty

.