perceives instantly that Islamic radicals aspire to establish a "contemporary state" ( hukuma 'asriyya ), one in tune with the twentieth century with regard to means and modalities, though not in values. The writings do hold as a sort of mythical reference to the seventh-century state of Muhammad and the early caliphs (all four orthodox caliphs, for the Sunnis, or 'Ali only for the Shiites). But this applies to broad moral principles and does not imply a return to a medieval form and method of government. Unlike the seventh-century state (or, for that matter, almost all premodern Muslim states), this is to be a strong and actively interventionist state, not one confined to foreign affairs, defense policy, and certain areas of commerce. The medieval Muslim watchdog statewhich left civil society largely to its own devicesis gone forever. Technological changes, especially in transportation and communication, enabled the modern state in the Middle East to intervene in areas hitherto left to voluntary forms of association (and greatly influenced by men of religion). The upshot of it all, say the radicals, is that Islam was pushed to the sidelines in education, family mores, leisure, economic initiative, and so on. To counter this trend of de-Islamization, the radicals propose to take the modern state and use its own tools to Islamize society; there is no sense in dismantling this state or outlawing the technology it utilizes. Technology cannot be written off by juristic flat; it can only be regulated. A case in point is television, which is subject to tight state control in order to shape hearts and minds. Likewise, whatever their economic predilections, the radicals are agreed on one point: there is no going back to the hands-off policy of the pre-nineteenth-century Middle Eastern states (or, for that matter, of the Prophet's state). This much is clear even from the debates between pragmatists and ideologues within the present Iranian political elite. The former wish to extend the private sector, but they remain dedicated to state control of key sectors (oil, military industry, heavy industry, etc.) and to a measure of state intervention in order to achieve redistribution of income and wealth.
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The adaptation of past molds to present realities is to be made through the use of ijtihad (innovation in matters of jurisprudence) which all radicals endorse, provided it is kept in the hands of the "virtuous" (i.e., the radicals themselves) and not conferred upon just
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