First, a clarification -- what I mean by "Islamization" is the recent rise (as in, post 1975) of legally imposed Sharia Law in countries with Muslim majority populations across the world (eg Pakistan in the late 70's). As a non-Muslim (kufr) myself, and a non-expert by all means, I would like to know, for those who know more than me on this, if this is indeed a thing.

And if it is, that brings me to the main question -- what is the most recent PoD possible to prevent or seriously curb this recent development across the Islamic world? And, given this PoD, how would subsequent history, and the affected parts of the globe, be different today?
 
Prevent the following 3 things from happening:
1.)Avoid havving Saudi Arabia from developing oil wealth. ITs large oil wealth allowed it to finance the exporting of radical Wahabism
2.) Avoid the triump of the Islamists in the Iranian Revolution. This caused other nations to adopt sectarian/quasi-Islamist legislation in order to pander to emboldened Islamists (i.e. having a clause in the consitution that established "sharia as the basis of legislation")
3.)Have secular states actual succeed on their promises to engage in activities that facilitate liberty, anti-corruption programs, and prosperity for their residents. This will shore up support for the Shahist governmnet in Iran and socialist governments across the Mid-East.
 
Prevent the following 3 things from happening:
1.)Avoid havving Saudi Arabia from developing oil wealth. ITs large oil wealth allowed it to finance the exporting of radical Wahabism
2.) Avoid the triump of the Islamists in the Iranian Revolution. This caused other nations to adopt sectarian/quasi-Islamist legislation in order to pander to emboldened Islamists (i.e. having a clause in the consitution that established "sharia as the basis of legislation")
3.)Have secular states actual succeed on their promises to engage in activities that facilitate liberty, anti-corruption programs, and prosperity for their residents. This will shore up support for the Shahist governmnet in Iran and socialist governments across the Mid-East.

Agreed, with one addition:

4) Prevent the Soviet war in Afghanistan, particularly Western backing of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the mujahideen
 
3.)Have secular states actual succeed on their promises to engage in activities that facilitate liberty, anti-corruption programs, and prosperity for their residents. This will shore up support for the Shahist governmnet in Iran and socialist governments across the Mid-East.

Could this be done by preventing Moussadegh from being couped?
 
Avoid having Saudi Arabia from developing oil wealth.
Unfortunately that's probably not very likely, once oil and gas was discovered just across the border in Bahrain and Qatar it was only a matter of time before someone went looking in Saudi Arabia as well. Even if the first prospecting expedition was unsuccessful, as it almost was, it's going to be found eventually. One alternative might be to change the governing system so that even with all its oil wealth they won't be looking to export religious extremism. The two most likely candidates for points of divergence I can think of are the Free Princes Movement from the late-1950s/early-1960s whose members looked to Nasser for inspiration and wanted to introduce a proper constitution whilst forcing power to be shared more, at least within the royal family initially but later via a partially elected advisory committee, or in the late-1960s the coup planned by members of the a Royal Saudi Air Force which was discovered and headed off. They were explicitly Nasserite so any success by them likely sees secularism becoming the order of the day.


Could this be done by preventing Moussadegh from being couped?
Unlikely, a lot of his good reputation only developed retrospectively after the Revolution as a kind of long ago better time IIRC.
 
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Prevent the following 3 things from happening:
1.)Avoid havving Saudi Arabia from developing oil wealth. ITs large oil wealth allowed it to finance the exporting of radical Wahabism
2.) Avoid the triump of the Islamists in the Iranian Revolution. This caused other nations to adopt sectarian/quasi-Islamist legislation in order to pander to emboldened Islamists (i.e. having a clause in the consitution that established "sharia as the basis of legislation")
3.)Have secular states actual succeed on their promises to engage in activities that facilitate liberty, anti-corruption programs, and prosperity for their residents. This will shore up support for the Shahist governmnet in Iran and socialist governments across the Mid-East.

I think one way to stem the spread of Wahabbism is to keep the holy cities in the hands of the Sharif of Mecca. It's the combination of oil revenue and custody of the cities that made the movement that appealing. If the Sharif had signed an agreement with Britain (he refused IOTL) to become a protectorate, they might have stepped in to rein in on Abdulaziz Al-Saud's conquering spree. This leaves Saud with Najd and the eastern oil fields. Not enough to completely stem the funding, but it strips the Saudi Wahhabis of any veneer of divine legitimacy.

As for the Sharif, not too sure. Tourism (especially from the pilgrimage) is going to be the largest income draw, but no oil.
 
Have Nasserism succeed. Yeah, it would not really benefit the West, but Nasserism was based upon secular pan-Arab nationalism, not Islam. In fact, Nasser purged his country of Islamists and opposed the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, a lot of Islamism (and Ba'athism, for that matter) was a reaction to the failure of Nasserism. If the Arab world were united on secular lines, Islamism would never need to rise in the first place.

But then there's the next question. How does Nasserism succeed? One such solution could be to have the Franco-British alliance win the Suez Crisis. In such a scenario, Nasser would probably still be stable and in power. But from a lot of countries, there would be massive outrage against the west. Even IOTL, across the colonial world, massive protests against France and Britain occurred, and even within the Commonwealth, Nehru and St. Laurent staunchly opposed the Franco-British intervention. Such a defeat would result in western-aligned regimes being overthrown in Arab anger, which would ultimately mean that a collection of Arab states would be loosely connected and opposed to the West.
 
Have the Rashidis prevent the Saudi rise in the early twentieth century. That culls the Wahabbis and aborts Al-Queda. They may also support the Hashemites preserving their kingdoms, including moderates holding Mecca and Medina.

As for Pakistan, have the Muslim League not succeed in pushing for an independent Pakistan.

Iran is problematic. Prevent Ajax or keep the Shah from, well, being the Shah. Maybe prevent Watergate leading to a different, more hawkish president willing to intervene.

Afghanistan, as stated, simply needs to prevent the coup and Soviet decimation that followed.
 
- Keep Ottoman Empire unitied or at least give for Middle East more reasonable borders after WW1 and let Hashemites control Hejaz, Palestine, Transjordan, Syria and parts of Mesopotamia. And don't create Israel.
- Destroy Sauds and Wahhabites or at least try prevent them becoming strong.
- Keep Europeans out from ME so much as possible.
- If Mossadegh still rises to power in Iran, don't overthrown him and let him transfer the country as constitutional monarchy which not be Western puppet.
- Keep Afghanistan monarchy around.
 
Easiest way is to have Israel lose the 1948 War. It was the repeated failures of the secular Arab states to destroy the country and Egypt ultimately committing sacrilege in the eyes of the Arab world by making peace with them that discredited secular Arab nationalism in general and Nasserism in particular.
 
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