Talking about this subject is bringing us back to religious wars, which is really important today. Anyway we can say that this movement is very dangerous, to the extend it is leading back to a movement of conquering Islam that has always existed but is more agressive nowadays.
The events of September 11 gave a light to what was very important : the need of religions in societies. Already in Russia the end of USSR gave a light to the return to old Orthodox values. Religions have always had an important role in societies. That is the reason why we can say the return of Islamism will not stop tomorrow.
The development of science that led to the modern societies we live in did not stop that. Kant for instance already tried to give a role to metaphysics facing the growi of sciences. Science is often considered to be at the fronteer of human knowledge. Anyway Islamism (not Islam) is giving an approach that does not encourage scientific progress. It is probably the reason why westerners will be during a long time in advance compared to its islamist ennemies. At the time of the golden age of islamic civilization, the Muslim World was a lot in advance in scientific progress. But the approach of today’s islamism shows more a search for identity that a real realistic approach of progress. We are not at the stage of China, which puts a priority on investment in sciences and technologies.
Another sad truth shows that our period puts more stress on religion than on spirituality. Theologians like Rumi, for instance, who founded Soufism, shows that an approach of transcendance can be linked to creativity. This state is detrimental for scientifical progress. But it is not followed. To the same extend approaches like those of Tariq Ramadan look more relevant, as the controversial intellectual calls for « scientific progress » in the Muslim world. Those realities show that the expansion of Islamism is not really dangerous for the Western world and values, at least in the short and middle run ; in fact the possibility of progress, especially scientific progress, is a condition for power.
At last, the world of today looks a lot like the world of the beginning of the XXth century. The Middle East plays the role of the Balkans of this time. An instable region, where there is a lot of terrorism. That is the reason why it is possible to say that Islamism represents a parenthesis in history. This has hidden the (far more dangerous) rise of China. As China looks a lot like the imperial Germany of the First World War, the phenomenon of Islamism looks more like an approach that has always existed : the expansion of religion. As Judaïsm looks to prepare the return of God at the end of the times (and the Chosen people has to prepare it), Christianism fosters proselitism (« go preach to all the nations »). That is the reason why the probable victory of the Talibans in Afghanistan looks to be a phenomenon that shows an expansion, dangerous but only in the long run for Western values.
The observer 