Islamism, Political Islam, and the Need for Critique

This essay is about Islamism (or political Islam) as a challenge for contemporary liberal democracies. Paul Cliteur portrays Islamism as an ideology that favors one specific religion as supreme, which aspires to achieve hegemony over all other ways of life. At the present moment, Islamism is a threat to free speech because it is a source of inspiration for jihadist terrorism. The author makes a plea for distinguishing a. the religion of Islam, b. Muslims as a group, and c. the political ideology of Islamism. European nation-states should analyze the features of Islamism to combat it successfully. The author also discusses some recent case law by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which criminalizes the critics of Islamism instead of defending their free speech (and, frankly, moral obligation) in criticizing radical religion (E.S. v. Austria, 2018).