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After Qutb had identified the sources of threat, he had to come up with solution in coordination with other people sharing his same concerns. Paralleling Qutb, the Muslim Brotherhood movement was founded in 1928 by Hassan Al-Banna, as a reaction against the termination of the Islamic Caliphate in 1924. Qutb found it to be the most powerful social reformist movement in Egypt calling for the re-establishment of a Pan-Islamic social, political, and economic unity. Hence, he decided to join the Muslim Brothers, and later became one of their prominent thinkers.
In 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood trained and sent volunteers to Palestine to fight against the newborn Jewish state. The King Farouk of Egypt began to express his concerns regarding the growing numbers of armed and trained Muslim Brothers coming back from the front lines after all military operations would end. Therefore, Farouk withdrew the Muslim Brotherhood troops from the battlefronts in Palestine, alleged them of planning for an armed coup-d’état, and sent them to military prisons. Later in 1948, Hassan Al-Banna, the General Murshid and the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood was assassinated by the King’s secret police, and the war in Palestine ended with a shameful Arab defeat against the state of Israel. Qutb was carefully following these news while taking part in a scholarship student program at Colorado State College of Education, in the town of Greeley, between 1948 and 1950.
Added to the enemy that Qutb saw in the King Farouk and other pro-western governments in the Middle East, the new Israeli enemy created in the heart of the Muslim world ascertained his views about the menacing threats that would await the Muslim world if its inhabitants were not willing to react on the same level of the danger. Furthermore, Qutb’s writings during his sojourn in Colorado reflected to a deep extent his concerns about the lack of morality, spirituality, and social integrity –in his point of view- that characterized western society, as he illustrated in his book “The America I Have Seen”. Qutb was struck by the materialistic mainstream views in the west that were embraced by the educated elite. He criticized severely the philosophy of Heidegger, Marx, Freud, and others, and considered them to be the cause behind the social corruption in the west.
However, Qutb mentioned his admiration of the level at which westerners are serious and punctual in doing their jobs, compared to Egyptians, and he even explicitly expressed his desire to establish a scientific and technological progress in the Middle East, following the western model. Qutb always touched upon his allegiance to Islamic fundamentalism which he considered to be his own utopian model, as seen in his book “Islam and Social Justice”. In fact, it is interesting to draw the word “social justice” form the latter book title, and put it in the context of Platonic justice.
At this particular stage, Qutb’s role ideal model, or end, had been formulated: A pan-Islamic unity that functioned on all domains in conformity with his own perception of Islam, aided by scientific and technological advance, even if the latter came to be originally from the west. At this point, nothing seemed really radical in Qutb’s analogy. His radical views, however, appeared at the moment he began to think of suitable means to reach his end. Consequently, and in a superposed harmony with Plato, the means adopted by Qutb to strive for his utopia were of very critical nature, and of very influential outcome. He introduced the principle of legitimizing the armed struggle against global jahiliyya that is represented by the corrupt government, and the corrupt west.
In 1952, the Free Officers seized power in Egypt, after a successful coup d’état against the King Farouk, backed from the back lines by the organized structure of the Muslim Brotherhood. Between 1952 and 1954, high-tone negotiations took place between the Muslim Brothers and the Free Officers over the implementation of Islamic Shari’ah in Egypt, and the consequences were grave. In 1954, influenced by Qutb’s ideas, a young member of the Muslim Brotherhood fired three bullets towards President Gamal Abdel-Nasser in a public speech in Alexandria. This incident led Nasser to carry out mass-arrests against the Brotherhood, including Qutb, who was given a special doze of brutal torture and humiliation in Al-Marj detention camp. The period that Qutb spent in jail, and the quality of treatment he was subjected to, were of a great impact on his writings. A remarkable difference in Qutb’s dialectical tone could be seen by comparing his pre-prison writings to other works he formulated during and after his detention in Nasser’s camps. Qutb’s writings were believed by many analysts to have been put into direct influence of his horrific experience in Al-Marj detention camp, to the point that some prefer these writings to be classified as mere prison-literature driven and motivated by a feeling of frustration and a vigorous desire to revenge from, not only Nasser’s regime, but also the whole society whose response to his tragedy was unsatisfactory in his point of view. In prison, Qutb composed many works describing the suffering of political detainees in Nasser’s secret prisons, such as “The Holders of Burned Coal”, and the masterpiece ideological reference to all modern Islamized militant groups: “Signposts on the Road”.
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Writer Profile
Saladin
My name is Ayman el-Hakea, I am a Construction Engineering graduate from the American University in Cairo. My origins date to an interesting mixture of Yemeni, Moroccan, Albanian, and Egyptian ancestors. I always try to be a moderate Muslim, I like animation, geopolitics, comparative religion, and football. I like to be with "people"...and I hope my writing isn't boring for anyone.
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Comments
Keep on the good work Naglaa Muhammad | Jan 14th, 2007
MASHALLAH,i did really enjoy reading it ,it's quite very informative too
Inspiration by plato Nathan Vogel | Feb 6th, 2007
I don't really think that all the theorists since Plato were inspired by the Republic because they were all responding to contemporary crises. That is just what theorists do. And probably Plato was not the first. If I eat because I'm hungry, I'm not being inspired by the first person who used eating to alleviate hunger. I could totally be wrong though, so I'd love to hear what you think.
Reply from the author Ayman El Hakea | Feb 26th, 2007
I totally agree about your well-said points, however, we should not neglect the cumulative influence of ancient thinkers on present-day politics. I invite you to have a look on Plato's influence on modern Neo-Conservative thinkers in the US, such as Leo Strauss, as an example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss#Philosophy
Politics Patricia Sudi | Mar 8th, 2007
What is your view of Plato,s theory on current day political and democratic institutions especially in developing countries?
Neo-Platonism Ayman El Hakea | Mar 20th, 2007
Well Patricia, I think that idealistic models , whether hyper-radical Islam or Neo-Conservatism, are extremely inspired by Paltonism.
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