2001年9月11日紐約與華府的恐怖攻擊事件,隨後美國發起的「全球反恐戰爭」,彰顯出「武裝伊斯蘭主義」的重要性。作爲政治思想與政治運動,當代伊斯蘭主義繼承著伊斯蘭的部分傳統與遺產,在1960年代勃興,1970年代快速發展,並在1980年代走向武裝鬥爭的高峰,但至1990年代便已明顯走向下坡。九一一事件暴露的是伊斯蘭主義武鬥派的弱而非其強。然而,儘管伊斯蘭主義武鬥派的影響力正在急速弱化,但這並不表示伊斯蘭主義已經走向末路。作爲政治思想與運動的當代伊斯蘭主義,主要是對伊斯蘭諸國世俗化民族國家實驗失敗的反彈。只要伊斯蘭世界仍充斥著專制、腐敗、大眾貧窮,以及道德與經濟的雙重破產,那麼,有別於恐怖主義型態的其他伊斯蘭主義,尤其是訴諸民主論理的伊斯蘭主義,仍將在伊斯蘭世界獲得一定的滋長空間。
The terror attacks on 11 September 2001 and the ensuing Global War on Terrorism launched by the United States have been highlighting the significance of the militant Islamism. Inheriting some legacies of traditional Islam, contemporary Islamism functioned as a kind of political thoughts and a special type of political movements that attained its force in the 1960s, developed in the 1970s, and slipped into the complicated military struggle in the international arena. From the early stage of 1990s, militant Islamism has been losing its momentum and influence in the Islamic world and found itself facing a political impasse. As a result, raw terrorism in its most spectacular and destructive form became its main option for reviving armed struggle in the new millennium. Terrorism exposes not the strength but the weakness of the militant Islamism. Nevertheless, the rapidly waning influence of the militant Islamism does not imply that road of Islamism in the future is closed. Essentially, contemporary Islamism is a kind of reactions to the failure of nation-state experiments in the Islamic world. As long as the tendencies of despotism, corruption, mass poverty, the dual bankruptcy of morality and economic systems, and thereby deep frustration of social psychology prevail in the Islamic world, some alternative type of Islamism which would be disattached themselves from the militant Islamism and emphasizes democratic principle would hold its breathing space in the Islamic world.