Section A
Does the immediate future of the Islamic world lie with the fundamentalists or the modernists?
Modernists and fundamentalists in Islam have a long history of rivalry and disagreement
amongst themselves, which affects and molds the governments they were involved in since the
beginning. The specific case of these factions in Islam is quite a curious and unique one, because
whereas most religious westerners would strongly support the separation of Church and state
Muslims in Muslim countries generally end up supporting their integration. A strong example of
this case is in the most populous Muslim nation of Indonesia, where because the democracy the
country enjoys the people tend to vote in politicians that vouch for the ‘Islamisation’ of the
government and spread of Sharia Law.
On the other hand, Modernists take a more secular, western approach to the involvement
