Review of the second edition of Who Needs an Islamic State? by Abdelwahab El-Affendi, with a foreword by Ziauddin Sardar. Published by Malaysia Think Tank London 2008.

Abdelwahab El-Affendi published the first edition of his book Who Needs An Islamic State? in 1991. This was a brave move by the Muslim scholar since the thrust of the work was to criticise mainstream Islamic movements such as Hamas, the Iranian Revolution or the Talibans in Afghanistan for being authoritarian.

More profound was the general question why Islamic activism associates itself so strongly to political suppression.The problem, as Abdelwahab sees it, can be studied through a critique of the notion of the Islamic state itself - and through studying the philosophical preference among activists.