While Islam remained an important element to appeal to the masses and sustain legitimacy, it was secondary to so-called Arabness. By the 1950s, Arabism was both distinctly anticolonial and characterised by a broadly socialist agenda that emphasised state control, the redistribution of wealth, and social justice and reform in pursuit of national strength. It was a nationalist ideology driven by a belief that the Arab peoples were bound together by a common history and a shared language – and so should form an independent political bloc.
This form of nationalism was not religious but neither was it staunchly secular.
First, the Arab nationalism that emerged and came to dominate the era of postcolonial independence and efforts for self-determination. Once the history of the past century, at the least, is acknowledged and understood, then we can see how the Middle East and the Arab-Muslim world became hostages to two competing – and limiting – political ideologies from the 20th century onwards: This paper therefore traces the significant sociopolitical events, debates and turning points that put the contemporary challenges still facing Muslim and Middle Eastern leaders, and thus their Western allies, into context. Only then can it become clear how 9/11 was a culmination of the political misuse of Islam, why Muslims around the world today still wrestle with Islamists to reclaim their faith, and what forces and ideas should be backed now if progressive voices are to succeed. Fortunately, efforts are growing to redraw the lines and define a modern interpretation of Islam, but if the West is to support this then it must understand the journey so far. Instead, 20 years on from 9/11, the West should recognise the following: the political, religious and cultural developments that gave rise to the attacks in 2001 stretch back many years the struggle is ongoing but the mistakes of previous policies, and ways in which to change them, are today easier to discern and the hope of a new and better Middle East and Muslim world can, even amid conflict and inevitable challenge, be identified with some optimism – if we truly understand the history and therefore frame the future correctly.Īfter decades of its instrumentalisation for a range of political projects, consensus over what is authentic Islam and what is a misuse of it has largely been lost. 
While this has led many in the West – from the political left and right – to call for an end to the “endless wars”, complete withdrawal from Afghanistan and further disengagement from the Middle East will not end a struggle that has endured for generations. Indeed, in places, the threat has been seen to proliferate. Despite a sustained and coordinated military resistance, both the appeal of the ideology and the threat posed by violent and political Islamists have survived. The attacks of 9/11 propelled Islamist terrorism to the top of the international security agenda, where it has remained for the past 20 years.
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