THREE VOICES OF EGYPTIAN ISLAM

1. THREE VOICES OF EGYPTIAN ISLAM • Shaykh `Abd al-Halim Mahmud, author of Fatawa `an al-shuyu`iyya (Fatwas on Communism), written in early 1970s • Khalid Muhyi al-Din, author of al-Din wa al-ishtirakiyya (Religion and Socialism), written roughly at the same time • Sayyid Qutb, author of Ma`alim fi al-tariq (Signposts on the Road), released from prison in 1964

2. FATWAS ON COMMUNISM • Compilation of legal opinions • Shallow in quality, but part of “hegemonic discourse” of the Ulema • Fatwas regarded as binding religious opinions, behind them is the authority of dominant tradition and the state • Religious interpretation in the service of political power. Al-Azhar=Islam

3. 1-RELIGION AND SOCIALISM • A collection of essays: Muhyi al-Din is a Marxist and a Muslim • Islam is socialist and collectivist; the earth common heritage of all; early Muslims social rebels • Islam a revolutionary enterprise: preaches a doctrine of social justice and gives people right to challenge inequality and injustice

4. 2 -RELIGION AND SOCIALISM • Islam is not a political but a religious order • Invoking divine sanction or claiming infallibility for political power is alien to Islam • The state to stand on its own without the cover of religion, authority is civil • Ali: “The Qur`an is but words between two covers. It does not speak; men do.”

5. THE MUSLIM BROTHERS (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin) • Founder: Hasan al-Banna (d. 1949) in 1928 • Social, cultural and political factors that led to the Society’s founding: • (1) post-war (1919) orientations to apostasy and nihilism; • (2) attacks on tradition and orthodoxy; and • (3) secularist and libertarian trends

6. ISLAMIC CHARACTER OF THE SOCIETY • At first moral and didactic youth club • Moved towards militancy and political action as it struggled against British imperialism • The impact of Palestinian Crisis and Arab-Israeli hostilities • Political radicalism thrives on the threat of an external enemy

7. ISLAM AS A TOTAL IDEOLOGY • ISLAM = comprehensive system, self evolving (mutakamil bi-dhatihi) • ISLAM emanates from two fundamental sources: The Qur’an and Sunna (Tradition) • ISLAM applicable at all times and places • The movement follows Salafiyya program: a Sunni way, a Sufi truth, a political organization, an athletic group, a social idea, a cultural link, an economic enterprise

8. THE PROGRAM OF THE SOCIETY • TWO ITEMS: • “internationalization” of the movement, liberation of “the Islamic homeland” • “to institute in this homeland a free Islamic government, practicing the principles of Islam

9. SAYYID QUTB’S “SIGNPOSTS ON THE ROAD” • Most sustained and inspiring book of the Muslim Brotherhood • Divides social system into two: al-nizam al-jahili (a decadent or ignorant order) and al-nizam al-islami (Islamic rule) • “Ignorant Order” betrays the essence of Islam • Worth taking the risk to change it to Islamic Rule

10. “A COMMUNITY OF BELIEVERS IN A JAHILI SOCIETY” • Has an obligation to obliterate a nizam jahili • To die while trying to change this Ignorant system is not sedition and terrorism but martyrdom • In Sayyid Qutb’s trial: Encounter between the Islam of the state and the Islam of revolution • Rebellion = a sense of violation and injury, a vision of struggle

11. JAMA`AT-I-ISLAMI OF PAKISTAN • ISLAM = justification for the creation of the state • SHOWS a greater political maturity, influenced constitutional development • PARTICIPATED with the state in the structure of Islamic Republic of Pakistan • Like Palestinian Crisis, Indian nationalism instrumental in nourishing fundamentalism

12. ABUL A`LA MAUDUDI, founder of JI (d.1979) • Not an `alim by training, but in close association with Ulema • Self-taught, semi-Westernized • Believed in ijtihad within the norms of Shari`a and taqlid of old schools of law • Opposed to women’s right to occupy high political offices