Islamization: A Sociological Approach

Abstract

Islamization is meant to utilize the maximum potential of Islamic texts toward collective Muslim empowerment. This will, in turn, change and guide the system and the personnel. Islamization of Muslim-majority societies starts with two categories of policies: policies of persuasion and motivation and policies of realization. This is meant to change social psychology, and the basic building blocks of social psychology are two main categories: the internal and the external. To change the Muslim majority societies toward Islam, we must change its members' social acts and behavior, and we need to change the behavior through social programs and institutions. To achieve this, Islamisation must aim at controlling and modeling the social and cognitive schema by various psychological means. Islamization should create social interaction to instill a sense of community based on Islamic values, disregard negative emotions, and promote positive ones. We need to create group norms in political and social groups, which must earn admiration by piety, morality, and ability to govern. We must create norms in the political institutions, academic institutions, public institutions, and legal institutions. The jurists and theologians should scan through Islamic texts, biographies, and history to extract relevant values to be applied in these institutions, thereby achieving group norms. Psychologists and sociologists must guide how media and entertainment impart their content. To create group norms, we need to develop models of persuasion, achieve conformity, create social support for Islamic values, suppress contradictory values, cease social distractions, and form close.