Page "Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal" Paragraph 1

The MMA is a conglomeration of distinct Islamist parties that ran under a single banner during Pakistan ’ s 2002 provincial elections.

Islamist movements are defined as those which derive inspiration from the Islamic scriptures, the Qur ' an and Hadith, and vie to capture the state.

Historically, literature concerning Islamism and Muslim political institutions has been propagated via the Orientalist discourse, where the rejection of certain post-Enlightenment, national, and secular values has been translated into such movements ’ retrogressive nature.

In fact, much of Islamism and its ideology are critiqued as a launching pad for fundamentalism and radicalism, as political movements such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the ‘ Islamic ’ revolution of Iran are highlighted.

However, social science and ethnographic work has proven that Islamism emerges out of middle-class lay intellectuals concentrated in urban centers.

In the case of Pakistan and the MMA, Islamists united in 1993 under the Islamic Front and in 2000 under the Pakistan-Afghanistan Defense Council, yet the formation of the MMA in 2001 was the first time such a coalition entered the electoral process.

It currently comprises the following groups: