The disappearance of the British and French colonial empires from Asia and Africa is not the beginning, nor even the turning point, of ferment and crisis in modern Islam. The gradual renunciation of political control and economic exploitation by Britain and France has enabled the subject peoples of both continents to gain political freedom and sovereign independence within national boundaries. The principle of self-determination enunciated at the end of the First World War led to the emergence of some Turkish provinces into modern Arab nation-states, while the Near and Middle East remained under the influence of European imperialism until the Second World War finally broke its hold. However, the struggle for political freedom had to precede the movement for inner regeneration and liberation, which could only properly come into its own after the attainment of national independence. Statehood, bringing complete mastery over national and international affairs, has now created the conditions necessary for the battle of minds that is to determine the character of the new Muslim society.

The political struggle was won by a nationalism which aimed at liberating the fatherland (waṭan) from foreign rule and which had perforce to concentrate all its energies on the achievement of this primary goal. Inevitably, political nationalism diverted and diluted the consciousness of belonging to the umma, the universal Islamic community of believers.