19 December 2011

Arab Spring stretches "Islamist" tag to its limits

The open politics spawned by the Arab Spring have stretched the term "Islamist" to its limits, covering everyone from hip moderate young Muslims to long-bearded hardliners bent on imposing a divine dictatorship.

The rainbow of varieties of political Islam has forced world media to start using unfamiliar terms such as Salafi -- an ultraconservative champion of an Islamic state -- to bring out some of the diversity in the emerging Muslim democracies. [Reuters] Read more