Although Islamic states based on Shari'a law have existed since the earliest days of Islam, Islamism refers to modern movements that developed during the twentieth century in reaction to a series of major political changes. Following World War I, the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and the subsequent dissolution of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (founder of Turkey), some Muslims perceived that Islam was in retreat, and felt that Western influence was unchecked. After WWI and the breaking up of the Ottoman empire, Western nations (notably Britain and France) controlled many territories, including what are now the countries of Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

Political developments were accompanied by social change. The influx of Western thought and practice around the turn of the 20th century had inspired a generation of intellectuals to reshape state institutions, modernize rural societies, and reinterpret cultural norms. Traditional institutions - religion, family structures, and local leadership - were challenged with foreign ideas and criticisms. Ideologies such as secularism, socialism, and liberalism were widely assimilated, becoming partially accepted by some groups and wholly rejected by others. However, both traditional and modern groups grew increasingly supportive of nationalist movements aimed at removing Western powers from the region.

By the 1960s, the predominant ideology within the Arab world was pan-Arabism which deemphasized religion and focused on the creation of a socialist, secular state ideologicall founded on Arab nationalism, not Islam. This was affirmed by revolutions across the Middle East, and was perhaps best represented in the figure of Abdul Nasser, whose brand of Arab Socialism, dubbed Nasserism, influenced a generation of political leaders. Political reforms across the Middle East,