Talk:Hassan al-Banna

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[edit] that hyphen

I moved Hassan al Banna to Hassan al-Banna, as this is the proper transliteration, cf Lunar letters. Pls leave it that way. --tickle me 04:15, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disputed

This sentence was in the original article: Each carried an amulet that would allegedly protect them against "lead and steel." Is there an authentic reference to it? It is very doubtful that a puritan movement would tolerate, let alone condone, the use of such superstition. -- KB 03:19, 2004 Aug 18 (UTC)

[edit] POV

This article still has "Hassan al Banna does not need me to defend him....". This needs editing and NPOV'ing.iFaqeer (Talk to me!) 00:40, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] POV again

Portraying al-Banna as benevolent reformer, while not mentioning the term Islamism even once, is entirely POV, as he was, together with Maududi, its intellectual father. --tickle me 03:39, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Copyvio

This article was lifted straight from here. Graft 17:33, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Grossly Incorrect

This article contains gross inaccuracies. I have added the POV template. See the discussion under Muslim_Brotherhood#Research_in_Progress. According to Brynjar Lia's book which I've cited there, neither Banna nor his father studied at Al-Azhar. According to Lia, Banna was not an admirer of Hitler and strenuously denounced racism as well as the aggressive militarism characteristic of fascism. According to both Mitchell and Lia, the Brotherhood maintained a policy of avoiding any involvement in World War II. I've removed these sentences for now, but I will correct this article more thoroughly within the next few weeks. --Beroul 14:08, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Do not delete large portions of the article.
Please follow the Wikipedia:Accuracy dispute policy. If you come across content that seems or is inaccurate use the dubios tags. For entire sections which may be innacurate use disputed tag.--AI 00:02, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I am restoring the following content which was deleted.--AI 00:02, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Education

  • Banna, who had a sizable Islamic library at home, was a graduate of al-Azhar Theological Seminary, a top Muslim seminary. Shaikh noticed Hassan's intelligence and sent him to memorize the Qur'an early in childhood. Hassan memorized the entire Qur'an. He was known for being very articulate as he gave sermons in Mosques at a young age.
  • Four years earlier than his peers, Hassan attended Mosque of Al-Azhar at the age of 16 where he graduated as the first in his class. He refused a scholarship opportunity from The Ministry of Education in Europe.

[edit] ODESSA

This was removed by an anonymous editor with the claim that it is unproven non-sense.--AI 30 June 2005 02:29 (UTC)

Al-Banna supported the Nazis 100% [1] Is a scholarly work proving this and the evidence against him is legion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.179.34.209 (talk) 09:57, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Coffee Houses Comment

Can anyone verify the comment that Coffee houses were "morally suspect"? I find that difficult to believe. Eqypt had a fairly freewheeling society at the time- something Hassan Al-Banna was against- and one could do much worse than coffee houses.


According to Brynjar Lia Coffee-shops were still a novel thing and it was considered a "shame" ('ayb) for young people to spend time in them. ("The Society of Muslim Brothers in Egypt" p 32. Ithaca Press 1998)
Preaching outside the mosques at all was a bold step, witch emphasizes his disappointment with the Islamic establishment. Although they DID preach in mosques as well, and the majority of the mebmers of the brotherhood where recriuted in the mosques.
130.225.120.102 13:54, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite Using Scholarly Sources

I have posted an entirely new text for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hassan al Banna articles, as well as several new articles:

This amounts to over 12,000 words of text, and is the result of months of research, discussed in Talk:Muslim_Brotherhood, using reputable scholarly texts found at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Every paragraph in the main articles is marked with page-number references to the work it is based on.

I am not an expert on this subject, and nothing in these articles is original; I have simply summarised the material in the sources listed. Some of the sources are more favourable to the Muslim Brotherhood; others are more critical. By attempting to represent accurately the accounts given in these sources, I hope to have produced a set of articles that members of the Brotherhood, as well as well-informed critics of the organisation, could see as fair and balanced. However, these articles may well contain errors; if you believe that anything in the text is inaccurate, please correct it, referencing your sources, and leave a note here about the change.

If you are new to this subject, as I was when I began this process, please be aware that a great deal of misinformation can be found on the Internet, and in the press, about the Muslim Brotherhood. In order to keep these articles reliable and neutral, I suggest that, as far as possible, like my humble contributions, all contributions should be based on reputable academic texts by specialists in the field; journalistic sources should only be used for current events, and only if they appear in major national or international news outlets, preferably when the same information is reported by several sources. It is my hope that this policy will enable Wikipedia to be a more reliable source of information about the Muslim Brotherhood than much of what can be found on the Internet.

A few words about my own motivations for doing this: I am not a Muslim, but I respect Islam and I am opposed to imperialism. Although I am certainly not very knowledgeable about Islam, it seems to me that Western misunderstandings about Islam and the Muslim world are contributing to tragic conflicts, and that people need knowledge and understanding of one another in order to live in harmony. I hope that Wikipedia can be a small contribution to that goal, and that people who know more about this subject than I do will improve on this work.

--Beroul 21:06, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

I've removed the "Statements" section that was recently added:

“In [Muslim] Tradition, there is a clear indication of the obligation to fight the People of the Book [that is, Jews and Christians], and of the fact that God doubles the reward of those who fight them. Jihad is not against polytheists alone, but against all who do not embrace Islam.”
“Know then that death is inevitable, and that it can only happen once. If you suffer it in the way of God, it will be your profit in this world, and your reward in the next.”
Fourteen years before Israel was founded Al-Banna wrote: “It is a duty incumbent on every Muslim to struggle towards the aim of making every people Muslim and the whole world Islamic, so that the banner of Islam can flutter over the earth and the call of the Muezzin can resound in all the corners of the world: God is greatest [Allahu akbar]!”
Al Banna, Hassan. “On Jihad,” in Five Tracts of Hasan al-Banna, translated by Charles Wendell, Berkeley, 1978.

I don't think quotes taken out of context belong in an encyclopedia article. These seem to have been added with the intent of giving a representative sample of Banna's views, but the articles under Muslim Brotherhood indicate that Banna's views on jihad were far more complex than what the casual reader might infer from reading these isolated quotes. I'm leaving these quotes here in case anyone wants to do the work of situating them in the historical context in which they were written, and in relation to Banna's other writings. --Beroul 13:00, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Death

Shouldn't this article mention that he was assasignated? --Schwael 20:54, 10 November 2005 (UTC)


[edit] CIA, Osama etc

I deleted this paragraph-

He was a devout admirer of Adolf Hitler and used the Muslim Brotherhood as a wing of Nazi intelligence during the war. Incidentally after the war the Muslim Brotherhood was co-opted by British intelligence which based them in Egypt. After they were expelled by Nasser they were transferred to saudi Arabia by the CIA. Here they came into contact with the Islamic sect known as Wahhabism from which they borrowed much. To occupy their time many of them were given careers as teachers in the Madrasas and their was a young pupil who paid close attention by the name of Osama bin-Laden.

since so far as I can ascertain there are "rumours" of CIA involvement etc but nothing verifiable, and the bit about Osama isn't really relevant to this biographical page, even if true, etc. This seems to be POV to me and not really appropriate.82.71.30.178 00:19, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

What ever connections to Hitler, which I doubt, is not important. The man, Al-Banna is the most admired Muslim in the 20th Century because he fought Western Imperialism and Jewish Imperialism. He inspired hundreds of millions of Muslims in Africa, Asia,Middle East, and Europe. All Islamic movements in Africa whether Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya were directly inspired by Mr. Al-Banna. If the allegation that he had connections to Hitler is true which I doubt,then there is a reason for it, which is Jewish Imperialism which arrived in the Middle East in 1930-1940's was supported by the U.S-Britain-France the Allies, therefore it is possible Al-Banna reasoned, "your enemies,enemy is your friend", and, therefore assisted the sympathized with the Germans. Remember, many in the Third World who hated the colonialist British-French and their ally America saw the Nazi Germans diffrently, and as allies at times. The Turks, Somalis, and many anti-colonial movements in Middle East were supported by the Nazis.

Why would his connections or admiration of Hitler, if true, be unimportant?

Zionism is not imperialism, in fact it is a counter to Arab/Islamic imperialism which colonized the Jewish homeland. And why would the fact that Al-Banna was Hitler's stooge not be important? Al-Banna like the vast majority of Muslims loved Hitler —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.179.34.209 (talk) 12:21, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citation style

I recently changed all citations from Harvard referencing to footnote, because those seem to be the most commonly used now. If anyone objects feel free to revert my edits. Joshdboz 14:53, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hassan al-Banna's Hanbali background

Rather than elaborating on this at length, I have added a short reference indicating that his family were followers of the Hanbali madhhab. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.54.218.179 (talk) 01:47, 20 May 2008 (UTC)