This article uses the data from the World Value Survey to explore the question of why people support political Islam in Muslim societies. I apply multilevel modeling to test the hypotheses of social psychology, rational evaluation, and modernization theory. The empirical findings suggest: at the individual level, Islam as a religion is indeed a very powerful tool of political mobilization; modernist attitudes also have strong explanatory power; however, the rise of Islamic parties to a large extent reflects the popular dissatisfaction toward the incumbent government. Therefore, ascribing the support of political Islam to the conflict of civilizations without recognizing people's demand for political responsibility is an unfair argument. At the country level, deteriorating socioeconomic or political condition is the most powerful factor to explain the support of political Islam. The implication of the multilevel analysis is that the support of political Islam is not necessarily driven by a non- rational ideology and it may represent an alternative choice of political system; nonetheless, as long as the Western world can help the improvement of state governance, the conflict between the West and the Muslim societies can be resolved even if the latter are under the reign of Islamic parties.