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Throughout the Muslim world, Islamically oriented intellectuals have transformed Muslim political discourse in ways that are highly visible in both domestic politics and in international relations. Islamic activist intellectuals are prominent in determining policies and the ways they are expressed and conceptualised in the Muslim world at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Anwar Ibrahim, the former Islamic student activist, became deputy prime minister of Malaysia, and although he is now in jail, he continues to be a vital political and intellectual force in the country. The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, is a scholar-politician whose policies reflect the re-articulation of the ideals and goals of the Islamic Revolution in Iran that he and other intellectuals like Abdel Karim Soroush have undertaken in recent years. Abdurrahman Wahid, the intellectual leader of one of the largest Islamic organisations in the world, is president of Indonesia. The thought and political careers of these three Islamic activist intellectuals illustrate the transformations in Islamic visions of international politics.Activist religious intellectuals throughout the world have helped to transform the dynamics of international relations as well as the nature of politics within their own societies. As intellectuals, they are creating the new concepts and vocabulary in which policies and programs are articulated.This paper argues that Muslim activist intellectuals like Anwar, Khatami, and Wahid were especially significant in the final decades of the twentieth century in creating new perceptions of global interactions. In particular, reacting against the Jihadists view of the world, they have been especially important in defining the terms of inter-civilisational dialogue from an Islamic perspective. In differing ways, their ideas and careers reflect the major dynamics of both the clash of civilisations and inter-civilisational dialogue.Like other ideologically committed intellectuals throughout the world, thinkers in explicitly Islamic organisations and movements do not present a monolithic vision of the world. There is much disagreement and debate and the lines of argument parallel the lines of intellectual conflict elsewhere. However, even in their disagreements, they provide an emerging Islamic discourse (not a single This article is based on our longer study,

The major Sufi brotherhoods have a significance in the development of political Islam in the modern era that is often underestimated. The traditional brotherhoods provided the basis for much of the militant opposition to European imperial expansion in the nineteenth century and, through these efforts, created symbols for Islamic authenticity that have remained important throughout the twentieth century. These brotherhoods also were major conservative forces, preserving a sense of an Islamic identity in times of rule by non-Muslims or secularizing and westernizing Muslim elites after independence. The long-term impact of this conservative force is to provide a foundation for popular support for political Islam at the end of the twentieth century. This popular support is a major factor in transforming political Islam from a radical force on the periphery of the political arena into the basic foundation of mainstream politics in many Islamic societies.

The relationship between Islam and democracy is a hotly debated topic. Usually the disagreements are expressed in a standard form. In this form, the debaters' definitions of "Islam" and "democracy" determine the conclusions arrived at. It is possible, depending upon the definitions used, to "prove" both positions: Islam and democracy are compatible and that they are not. To escape from the predefined conclusions, it is necessary to recognize that "Islam" and "democracy" are concepts with many definitions. In the twenty-first century, important interpretations of Islam open the way for political visions in which Islam and democracy are mutually supportive.