The 19^th and the early twentieth centuries saw the second major catastrophe to befall the Muslim world since the Mongol invasion of 1258. This time around the catastrophe was not only a military one but it also affected the political, cultural, economic and religious domains resulting in the complete collapse of Islamic Civilisation.

Coinciding with the European revival and the Industrial Revolution, the power and prosperity of the Muslim world took a sharp downturn. Following the fall of Safavid Empire in 1736, the Mughal Empire was abolished in 1857, when Britain declared India as a colony. The Ottoman Empire came to an abrupt end in 1923 after heavy losses in World War I. The Islamic civilisation was finally conquered.

Reasons for the decline of the Muslim world can be categorised into three main spheres.

1. Social and Political Fragmentation: After losing their vision of representing and peacefully spreading Islam, no new vision was developed that could hold the Muslim world together. The political ambitions of individuals and clans came to the fore and caused political disintegration and loss of unity and political stability preventing the ruling administration from dealing with real problems. Political fragmentation brought with it nepotism in administrative appointments.

2. Economy: With the discovery of the American continent, millennium-old trade routes took a dramatic shift. The Muslim world was no longer on the direct trade route. Muslims could not change fast enough to be able to compete with the rising European competition and the advent of new manufacturing technology and the associated consumerism.

3. Education: Perhaps the most serious mistake, knowledge was split between religious knowledge and material knowledge. Scientific education was neglected while religious sciences were the only subject matters taught in madrasas, (schools). Once the champions of knowledge and science, Muslims lost their original scientific advantage to European developments in science and associated applied technology.

In summary, Muslims were strong when they had a strong vision beyond the self, an emphasis on trade and economy and took knowledge as a whole. The decline started when these were reversed.

There was a greater calamity that attacked the very core of religion itself. Materialistic philosophy and its challenging assertions about faith were now threatening Islam after delivering a devastating blow to Christianity. In the West, all of a sudden, everything was thought to be explained by science. Charles Darwin with his Evolution Theory explained the origin of biological life on earth. Durkheim extended the evolutionary concepts of natural selection to social life and society while Freud tied complete human behaviour to sexual impulses. Finally, the ironic proclamation of Nietzsche, "God is dead", was taken literally and accepted by intellectuals.

Although the damage of materialistic philosophy to Islam was much less than that done to Christianity, nevertheless, a minority population, who either became atheists or distant to religion, spawned in the Muslim world. It is important to note this fact because Muslim societies in the twentieth century are characterised by an intellectual, religious and political struggle between the religious majority population and a minority elite, who were either dazed by the glamour of Western Civilisation or influenced by materialistic philosophy which made them drift a long way from religion. This polarisation of perspective on life in Muslim societies deepened the problem of fragmentation. These minority elites talked about Westernisation, but in order to perpetuate their power they resorted to oppression and under the auspice of secularism attacked religion. This has caused the majority conservative Muslim populations reject 'The West' and secularism in response.

The forces of colonialism and Western domination in the 19^th century resulted in the destruction of the last Muslim enclave, the Ottoman Empire in1923. Turkey was the only free Muslim nation. After World War II, Muslims started to gain their freedom and small states with borders drawn by Western powers emerged on the scene. No development or preparation took place during almost fifty years of Western rule over almost the whole Muslim world. The new leadership in these countries turned out to be either oppressive secular regimes, dictatorships, kingdoms or accidental theocratic states. Power lay in the hands of elites, military generals or religious or secular extremists who did not represent the majority. Their rule was characterised by the suppression of dissent, the elimination of critics and the annihilation of independent social and administrative institutions. More often then not, these elites were sustained and reinforced by Western imperialistic forces. The predicament of this political cycle continues to date.

What circumstances gave rise to these regimes and how do they seem to persevere regardless of their obvious failure. The reasons are many.

Suffice to say that the euphoria of Independence; the aura surrounding the 'founding fathers' of the nation; the intoxicating appeal of nationalism; the relative weakness of countervailing social and political forces at the time of Independence; certain deeply ingrained cultural attitudes about authority; and the centralising tendencies of the ideology of development and the development itself have all conspired to reinforce the power of the ruling class. To this we should add the role of imperialism in perpetuating authoritarianism within the nation state.^[36]

Under this hot political climate, the majority Muslim population was not given a chance to govern themselves resulting in dissension not only towards the ruling elite but also towards the Western Powers giving rise to an 'Islamic Resurgence'.

In the religious sphere, the struggle has been no different. After a short period of shock and being caught unprepared for the new challenges, Muslims very quickly realised that Islam was in danger as it had never been before in history. Many Muslims felt a sense of responsibility to do something about it. Almost simultaneously and spontaneously, religiously sensitive Muslims all around the Muslim world embarked on the task of reviving Islam within Muslim society. Spiritual leaders such as Hassan al-Banna in Egypt, Muhammad Iqbal in Pakistan, Said Nursi in Turkey and many others in almost every Muslim country naturally emerged to lead this revival.

The revival movements aimed to strengthen faith and emphasise Muslim identity through the reflection of Islamic practice in personal and social life. Mosque attendance and the number of people who fasted in Ramadan greatly increased. With the aid of mass transportation, people performing the Pilgrimage numbered millions every year — a development, which was unprecedented in Muslim history. Islamic resources, schools and associations grew exponentially. As a result, Islam proliferated among the masses once again.

Corrupt and despotic regimes and the failure of existing governments to solve deep social, economic and political problems despite decades of opportunity, coupled with a revival in Muslim identity, led Muslim activists and masses to take their chance at gaining power trusting in the popular support of the people. People started to call for the creation of an 'Islamic state'. The tendency gained momentum with the apparent successful overthrow of the monarchy in Iran by the Iranian revolution (1978-79).

The response of the ruling class was hard and oppressive. Although the great majority of the Muslim population responded to this patiently and with peace, it caused certain minority Muslim groups out of desperation and deep disappointment to resort to violence. There is also a lot of evidence that Muslims were set up and dragged into violence by the same forces that opposed them in the first place, with the hope that Muslims would be discredited. The events in Algeria in 1900's could be given as an example. Some Muslims and individuals such as Osama bin Laden took the response to the level of terrorism.

[36] Muzaffar, Chandra, "Civil Society in the Muslim World", Islamic Education Vol 7, Issue 10