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The Taliban were mostly village ulema who rose to power in the chaos after the Soviet-Afghan War. The most famous was Mullah Omar, who went directly from ruling a small village to running the entire country of Afghanistan as a dictatorship.

The second half of the 20th century was marked by a considerable loss of authority and influence of the Ulema in most Islamic states except Saudi Arabia and Iran. Many secular ArabThere are three factors which may assist to varying degrees in determining whether someone is considered Arab or not: Political: whether they live in a country which is a member of the Arab League (or, more vaguely, the Arab World); this definition covers governments attempted to break the influence of the Ulema after their rise to power. Religious institutions were nationalized and the system of waqfA waqf is a religious endowment in Islam, typically devoting a building or plot of land for Muslim religious purposes. The practice of declaring property as waqf may also have its origins in the ancient Islamic estate law, whereby a man's property reverte, religious donations, which constituted the classical source of income for the ulema, was abolished. In 19611961 (As MAD Magazine pointed out on its first cover for the year) was the first "upside-down" year i. one that looked the same upside down since 1881, and the last until 6009. Events January January 1 The farthing coin, used since the 13th century, cease the EgyptJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 km² 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797ian Nasser regime put the Al-Azhar UniversityAl Azhar University is connected to the mosque in Cairo named to honor Fatima Az-Zahraa, the daughter of Muhammad, from whom the Fatimid Dynasty claimed descent. The mosque was built in two years from 971 CE. The school of theology madrassa connected with, the highest Islamic intellectual authority, under the direct control of the state. "The Azharis were even put in army uniforms and had to parade under the command of army officers" (G. Keppel, Jihad). In TurkeyTurkey (officially the Republic of Turkey Turkish Turkiye is a country located in Southwest Asia with a small part in southeastern Europe. Until 1922 the country was the center of the Ottoman Empire. The Anatolian peninsula, between the Black Sea and the the traditional derwish convents and Quran schools were dissolved and replaced by state controlled preacher schools in the 1950s and 1960s. After the independence of Algeria President Ahmed Ben Bella also deprived the Algerian organizations of ulema of their power.

The ulema in most nations consider themselves to represent the consensus (or ijma) of the community of Muslims (or ummah), or to represent at least the scholarly or learned consensus. Many efforts to modernize Islam focus on the re-introduction of ijtihad, and empowerment of the umma to form their own ijma.