The Islamic revival is a direct response to modernist identity crisis, not pure tradition

Evidence

Like other manifestations of the global religious revival, the Islamic Resurgence is both a product of and an effort to come to grips with modernization. Its underlying causes are those generally responsible for indigenization trends in non-Western societies: urbanization, social mobilization, higher levels of literacy and education, intensified communication and media consumption, and expanded interaction with Western and other cultures. These developments undermine traditional village and clan ties and create alienation and an identity crisis. Islamist symbols, commitments, and beliefs meet these psychological needs, and Islamist welfare organizations, the social, cultural, and economic needs of Muslims caught in the process of modernization. Muslims feel the need to return to Islamic ideas, practices, and institutions to provide the compass and the motor of modernization. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 317 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

What does one do about it? The anger, the resentment, the frustration are clear all over the region and no one can dispute that they are well grounded. For the time being, two different solutions are being offered. One is Islam. If all the different imported methods that Muslims have used or copied or imitated have failed, there is obviously considerable persuasive force in the argument that these are the ways of foreigners and unbelievers. They have brought nothing but harm, so the only sensible thing for Muslims is to return to the tired and trusted ways of their ancestors, to be authentically themselves. It is a plausible, indeed a persuasive argument, except of course that one can never re-create the past; one can only imagine a past and try to create it, which is not at all the same thing. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1633 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islamic resurgence accepts modernity while rejecting Western culture; Islamist revivalism mistakes an imagined past for a re-creatable one — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1633; Islamic radicalism is a product of flawed modernization, not a return to tradition. (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Modernization itself drives religious resurgence by creating identity crises. #corroborates (0.96) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 317
• Islamic radicalism is a product of flawed modernization, not a return to tradition. #corroborates (0.95)
• Islamist revivalism mistakes an imagined past for a re-creatable one #complicates (0.82) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1633
• What looks like Islamic resurgence is actually an internal contest over defining Islam #complicates (0.74) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 839