Islam’s leading contemporary teachers have refuted the theological principles of extremist thinking. Radicalisation experiences are increasingly heard and explored. However, a gap in countering Islamic extremism exists, which this study seeks to identify and address. Requiring authority from the texts for their actions, radical ideologues alter classical ideas to contextualise violent interpretations. This is not an organic religious evolution or adaptation of meaning to address cultural crisis, but the selective goal-based reduction and revision of God’s message. This study identifies those changes in meaning, and asks whether these are changes to religious matters, or forms of social innovation unacceptable to Islam. It uses a range of methodologies to triangulate factors of innovation found in academic typologies with an assessment of innovation in changes to key concepts and an analysis of the perspectives of Muslims.
An investigation of radicalism includes an attempted chronology, and a distillation of the key concepts that are important to radical and extremist thinking. After an exploration of relevant theories of innovation and of religious innovation, consideration is given to the usage and dimensions of bidah. This produces a working definition by which to assess the acceptability of key concepts.
To add to these assessments, a survey of Muslim perspectives shows that respondents whose practice of Islam was more frequent preferred greater literalism, and the majority of those who preferred literalism indicated radical ideologies to be prohibited bidah. Participants’ wide range of views resulted in few significant correlations: this diversity reflects the typology mapping: radical ideologies are considered both as innovations and as not innovative at all. The study also reflected a range of understanding of bidah.
In concluding, I offer suggestions for practical application. These include emphasising the Qur’an over ahadith, re-examining Qur’anic abrogations and interpretations, and a potential way to assess new interpretations.