Islam and Islamism One of the main characteristics of the Islamist approach to Islam is to focus on the time of revelation and on the teachings and practice of the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs as the only source of guidance for the modern world. Leaders such as Sayed Qutb and Taqi al-Din al Nabhani from Palestine (founder of the Hizb ut-Tahrir) consistently rejected democratic processes since they held that democracy does not recognise the sovereignty of God. These thinkers wanted the Muslim world to become “One Nation” (ummah) rather than existing as separate nation-states and they promoted jihad to restore the…