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Qutbism (also called Kotebism, Qutbiyya, or Qutbiyyah) is a strain of Sunni Islamist ideology and activism, based on the thought and writings of Sayyid Qutb, an Islamist and former leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed in 1966. It has been described as advancing the ideology of jihadism, i.e. propagating "offensive jihad," - waging jihad in conquest[1] - or "armed jihad in the advance of Islam" [2]
Qutbism has gained notoriety from what many believe is its strong influence on jihadi extremists such as Osama bin Laden. According to observers, jihadi extremists “cite Sayyid Qutb repeatedly and consider themselves his intellectual descendants.”[2]
Qutbists or Qutbiyyun, (singular Qutbee or Qutbi) are followers of these ideals but seldom if ever call themselves by these terms which originated from, and are mainly used by their opponents.
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The main tenet of Qutbist ideology is that the Muslim community (or the Muslim community outside of a vanguard fighting to reestablish it) "has been extinct for a few centuries"[3] having reverted to Godless ignorance (Jahiliyya), and must be reconquered for Islam.[4]
Qutb outlined his ideas in his book Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq (aka Milestones). Other important principles of Qutbism include:
Some, such as Dale C. Eikmeier, a strategic planner at the US Army War College, give a broader definition of Qutbism. Eikmeier calls it "a fusion of puritanical and intolerant Islamic orientations," that includes not only Qutb's ideas but those of Abul Ala Maududi, Hassan al Banna, and even Shia elements,
"to justify armed jihad in the advance of Islam, and other violent methods utilized by twentieth century militants. ... Qutbism advocates violence and justifies terrorism against non-Muslims and apostates in an effort to bring about the reign of God. Others, i.e., Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Abdullah Azzam, and Osama bin Laden built terrorist organizations based on the principles of Qutbism and turned the ideology of Islamic-Fascism into a global action plan."[7]
Qutb's message was spread through his writing, his followers and especially through his brother, Muhammad Qutb, who moved to Saudi Arabia following his release from prison in Egypt and became a professor of Islamic Studies and edited, published and promoted his brother Sayyid's work.[8][9]
Ayman Zawahiri, who went on to become a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad was one of Muhammad Qutb's students [10] and later a mentor of Osama bin Laden and a leading member of al-Qaeda.[11] and had been first introduced to Sayyad Qutb by his uncle, Mafouz Azzam, who had been very close to Sayyad Qutb throughout his life and impressed on al-Zawahiri "the purity of Qutb's character and the torment he had endured in prison."[12] Zawahiri paid homage to Qutb in his work Knights under the Prophet's Banner.[13]
Osama bin Laden is reported to have regularly attended weekly public lectures by Muhammad Qutb, at King Abdulaziz University, and to have read and been deeply influenced by Sayyid Qutb.[14]
Yemeni al-Qaeda leader, Anwar al-Awlaki has also spoken of Qutb's great influence and of being "so immersed with the author I would feel Sayyid was with me ... speaking to me directly.”[15]
AQIM and the emancipation of disenfranchised blacks: While in North-African Malikite interpretations of Islam, people of slave descent should refrain from emancipation [16], Qutbism simply argues that all Muslims are equal and hence, that treating Muslims as slaves is illegal. As a result, Qutbist ideology of Salfist groups in Somalia (Al Shabaab), and in Mali, Algeria and Mauritania (AQIM)resonates with large groups of disenfranchised blacks, who see Qutbist-based Salifsm as the only realistic way to end the slavery of themselves and their children. As a result, the continued failure of governments, religious institutions and development institutions to end discrimination in Islamic Africa creates a fertile breeding ground for extremism and it leaves a massive recruiting pool for Salafist movements. This partly explains the success of Al Shabaab in Somalia. It also creates fanatical opposition to Salafism from those Muslims who are attached to, and benefit from a rigid cast system. As a result, Qutbist based Salafism in combination with continued discrimination has the potential to destabilize African Islam and to create widespread fear for class-war. Because most Muslims dislike in-fighting between Muslims, there is a large potential for such violence, to be re-directed against perceived foreign enemies, also because for an (ex-)slave in Malikite Islam, fighting brave to defend Islam is currently almost the only accepted road towards emancipation out of slave status.Pieter Felix Smit (talk) 00:59, 27 December 2011 (UTC)
Following Qutb's death Qutbist ideas spread throughout Egypt and other parts of the Arab and Muslim world, prompting a backlash by more traditionalist and conservative Muslims, such as the book Du'ah, la Qudah (Preachers not Judges), (1969). The book, written by MB Supreme Guide Hassan al-Hudaybi, attacked the idea of Takfir of other Muslims (but was obstensively targeted not at Qutb but at Mawdudi, as al-Hudaybi had been a friend and supporter of Qutb).[17]
The word Qutbee is used in a similar way as the term Wahhabi in that it is used not by the individuals it describes themselves, but by their opponents.[18]
The most controversial aspect of Qutbism is Takfir, Qutb's idea that Islam is "extinct." According to Takfir, with the exception of Qutb’s Islamic vanguard, those who call themselves Muslims are not actually Muslim. Takfir was intended to shock Muslims into religious re-armament. When taken literally, Takfir also had the effect of causing non-Qutbists who claimed to be Muslim in violation of Sharia law, a law that Qutb very much supported. Violating this law could potentially be considered Apostasy in Islam: a crime punishable by death according to Qutbis.
Because of these serious consequences, Muslims have traditionally been reluctant to practice takfir, that is, to pronounce professed Muslims as unbelievers (even Muslims in violation of Islamic law).[19] This prospect of fitna, or internal strife, between Qutbists and "takfir-ed" mainstream Muslims, was put to Qutb by prosecutors in the trial that led to his execution,[20] and is still made by his Muslim detractors.[21][22]
Qutb died before he could clear up the issue of whether jahiliyya referred to the whole "Muslim world," to only Muslim governments, or only in an allegorical sense,[23] but a serious campaign of terror—or "physical power and jihad" against "the organizations and authorities" of "jahili" Egypt—by insurgents observers believed were influenced by Qutb, followed in the 1980s and 1990s.[24] Victims included Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, head of the counter-terrorism police Major General Raouf Khayrat, parliamentary speaker Rifaat el-Mahgoub, dozens of European tourists and Egyptian bystanders, and over one hundred Egyptian police.[25] Other factors, (such as economic dislocation/stagnation and rage over President Sadat's policy of reconciliation with Israel) played a part in instigating the violence,[26] but Qutb's takfir against Jahiliyyah (or jahili) society, and his passionate belief that Jahiliyya government was irredeemably evil and must be destroyed played a key role.[27]
While Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq [Arabic: معالم في الطريق](Milestones) was Qutb's manifesto, other elements of Qutbism are found in his works Al-'adala al-Ijtima'iyya fi-l-Islam[Arabic: العدالة الاجتماعية في الاسلام] (Social Justice in Islam), and his Quranic commentary Fi Zilal al-Qur'an [Arabic: في ظلال القرآن] (In the shade of the Qur'an). Ideas in (or alleged to be in) those works also have come under attack from traditionalist/conservative/Wahhabi Muslims. They include
Accusations against Qutbism include some that may be very questionable, such as one alleging that Qutb believed "Christians should be left as Christians--Jews as Jews," (see Surah 109:6) since he believed in hurriyatul-i'tiqaad (freedom of belief) [34]
To some extent these attacks may represent Qutbism's success or its logical conclusion as much as its failure to persuade some critics. Qutb sought Islamically-justified alternatives to European ideas like Marxism and socialism and proposed Islamic means to achieve the ends of social justice and equality, redistribution of private property, political revolution.
Many of his critics want to replace not just Western means but ends as well. "Neofundamentalist refuse to express their views in modern terms borrowed from the West.
They consider that indulging in politics, even for a good cause, will by definition lead to bid'a and shirk (the giving of priority to worldly considerations over religious values.)" [35]
There are, however, some commentators who display an ambivalence towards him, noting that "his books are found everywhere and mentioned on most neo-fundamentalist websites, and arguing his "mystical approach" and "pessimistic views on the modern world" have resonated with some Muslims.[36]
On the importance of science and learning, the key to the power of his bête noire, western civilization, Qutb was ambivalent. He wrote that
Muslims have drifted away from their religion and their way of life, and have forgotten that Islam appointed them as representatives of God and made them responsible for learning all the sciences and developing various capabilities to fulfill this high position which God has granted them.
... and encouraged Muslims to seek knowledge.
A Muslim can go to a Muslim or to a non-Muslim to learn abstract sciences such as chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy, medicine, industry, agriculture, administration (limited to its technical aspects), technology, military arts and similar sciences and arts; although the fundamental principle is that when the Muslim community comes into existence it should provide experts in all these fields in abundance, as all these sciences and arts are a sufficient obligation (Fard al-Kifayah) on Muslims (that is to say, there ought to be a sufficient number of people who specialize in these various sciences and arts to satisfy the needs of the community). (Qutb, Milestones p.109)
On the other hand, Qutb believed some learning was forbidden to Muslims and should not be studied, including:
principles of economics and political affairs and interpretation of historical processes ... origin of the universe, the origin of the life of man ... philosophy, comparative religion ... sociology (excluding statistics and observations) ... Darwinist biology ([which] goes beyond the scope of its observations, without any rhyme or reason and only for the sake of expressing an opinion ...). (Qutb, Milestones p.108-110)
and that the era of scientific discovery (that non-Muslim Westerners were so famous for) was now over:
The period of resurgence of science has also come to an end. This period, which began with the Renaissance in the sixteenth century after Christ and reached its zenith in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, does not possess a reviving spirit. [Qutb, Milestones p.8]
However important scientific discovery was or is, an important tool to achieve it (and to do everything else) is to follow Sharia law under which
blessings fall on all mankind, [and] leads in an easy manner to the knowledge of the secrets of nature, its hidden forces and the treasures concealed in the expanses of the universe. [Qutb, Milestones p.90]
Other elements of Qutbism deal with non-Muslims, particularly Westerners, and have drawn attention and controversy from their subjects, particularly following 9/11. Though their terminology, issues and arguments are different from those of the Islamic traditionalists, Westerners also have criticism to make.
Qutbism postulates that sharia-based society will have an almost supernatural perfection, providing justice, prosperity, peace and harmony both individually and societally.[37]
Its wonders are such that the use of offensive jihad to spread of sharia-Islam throughout the non-Muslim world will not be aggression but "a movement ... to introduce true freedom to mankind." It frees humanity from servitude to man because its divine nature requires no human authorities to judge or enforce its law.[38]
Qutbism emphasizes the (alleged) evil designs of Westerners and Jews against Islam, and the importance of Muslims not trusting or imitating them.
In Qutb's view, for example, Western Imperialism is not, as Westerners would have Muslims believe, only an economic exploitation of weak peoples by the strong and greedy.[39] Nor were the medieval Crusades, as some historians claim, merely an attempt by Christians to reconquer the formerly Christian-ruled, Christian holy land.[39]
Both were different expressions of the West's "pronounced ... enmity" towards Islam, including plans to "demolish the structure of Muslim society." [40] Imperialism is "a mask for the crusading spirit." [41]
Examples of Western malevolence Qutb personally experienced and related to his readers include an attempt by a "drunken, semi-naked ... American agent" to seduce him on his voyage to America, and the (alleged) celebration of American hospital employees upon hearing of the assassination of Egyptian Ikhwan Supreme Guide Hasan al-Banna.
Qutb's Western critics have questioned whether Qutb was likely to arouse interest of American intelligence agents (as he was not a member of the Egyptian government or any political organization at that time), or whether many Americans, let alone hospital employees, knew who Hasan al-Banna or the Muslim Brotherhood were in 1948.
The other anti-Islamic conspirator group, according to Qutb, is "World Jewry," which he believes is engaged in tricks to eliminate "faith and religion", and trying to divert "the wealth of mankind" into "Jewish financial institutions" by charging interest on loans.[42] Jewish designs are so pernicious, according to Qutb's logic, that "anyone who leads this [Islamic] community away from its religion and its Quran can only be [a] Jewish agent", causing one critic to claim that the statement apparently means that "any source of division, anyone who undermines the relationship between Muslims and their faith is by definition a Jew".[43]
Qutbism emphasizes a claimed Islamic moral superiority over the West, according to Islamist values. One example of "the filth" and "rubbish heap of the West." (Qutb, Milestones, p. 139) was the "animal-like" "mixing of the sexes." Qutb states that while he was in America a young woman told him
The issue of sexual relations is purely a biological matter. You ... complicate this matter by imposing the ethical element on it. The horse and mare, the bull and the cow ... do not think about this ethical matter ... and, therefore live a comfortable, simple, and easy life.[44]
Critics complain that this opinion was wildly unrepresentative and the incident highly improbable. Even at the height of the sexual revolution in America 30 years later, most Americans would disagree with his statement, but at the time of his visit to America, sex out of wedlock, let alone "animal-like" promiscuity, was rare, with the overwhelming number of Americans married as virgins or only had premarital sex with their future spouse.[45]
Controversy over Qutbism is in part an expression of the disagreement of two of the main tendencies of the Islamic revival: the more traditional Salafi Muslims, and the more radically active Muslim groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood,[46] the group Qutb was a member of for about the last decade and a half of his life.
Although Sayyid Qutb was never head (or "Supreme Guide") of the Muslim Brotherhood,[47] he was the Brotherhood's "leading intellectual," [48] editor of its weekly periodical, and a member of the highest branch in the Brotherhood, the Working Committee and of the Guidance Council.[49]
After the publication of Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq, (Milestones), opinion in the Brotherhood split over his ideas, though many in Egypt (including radicals outside the Brotherhood) and most Brethren in other countries are said to have shared his analysis "to one degree or another."[50] In recent years his ideas have been embraced by radical Islamists groups[51] while the Muslim Brotherhood has tended to serve as the official voice of Islamist moderation.