The Significance of the Muslim Brotherhood, Part II

Death in the Cause of Allah Its Most Sublime Belief

Egyptian Sayyid Qutb was converted out of nominal, cultural Islam to genuine belief in later life.  He then joined the Muslim Brotherhood, and was soon put in charge of its teaching or propaganda.  In his influential view, Islamic purity was found only in the time of the Prophet, Muhammad and in the four "rightly guided" caliphs that followed him.  

Since that early time, all Islamic life, experience, and manifestation has been impure--a mixture of truth and compromise with "barbaric ignorance", called jahiliya.  This state of compromise with Unbelief meant that the purity of the Prophet's teaching was lost.  It allowed Satan to regain control and influence.  The purity of the original umma (Islamic community) was compromised, and Islamic rulers and nations have acted more like pagans and barbarians, than true believers, ever since.

The mission of the Brotherhood was clear.  It was (and is) to purify Islam of all barbaric, infidel influences and restore the umma to the purity it achieved during the time of Muhammad and the four (rightly guided) caliphs who had been taught by him.  But how was this to be done?

In order to break jahiliya's yoke, Islamic societies must undergo a comprehensive conceptual and political transformation spearheaded by a small and dedicated vanguard of true believers who will substitute the umma for the perverted and corrupt regimes that have dominated Muslim societies for over a millennium.

This newly resurrected entity will then sustain the struggle until the eventual "conquest of world domination" and the establishment of Allah's sovereignty on earth.  "We are the umma of the believers, living within a jahili society," a defiant Qutb told the Egyptian court which was to decide on his execution.  "As a community of believers we should see ourselves in a state of war with the state and the society.  The territory we dwell in is the House of War."  [Efraim Karsh, Islamic Imperialism: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 216.]

Several things stand out from this account.  Firstly, the essence of Islamic Fundamentalism, as the West has come to name it, are clearly on display.  The drive is to return to the purity of belief and practice of Islam.  Secondly, the real problem, at least initially, lies in the Islamic nations that exist today.  They are mixtures of belief and barbarian doctrines.  Before the pagan nations can be subdued, the Islamic umma must first be purified.

Thirdly, this means that the Islamic nations are currently the location of the House of War--which explains why the Egyptian authorities executed Qutb as an enemy of the realm.  It also explains why what we now term Islamic Fundamentalism has resulted in the shedding of so much Muslim blood in the Middle East.  The Fundamentalists believe Islam must first be purified in those nations back to its pure truths, practices, and beliefs before progress can be made on subduing the infidel nations.

As an aside, why Western nations would allow themselves to get caught up picking sides and becoming involved in the war within the House of War is well beyond comprehension.  Stupid is as stupid does, they say.  But, on the other hand, if ever there were a call and strategic opportunity for intelligent humanitarian help for civilians it must be in the Middle East.  An immediate end to the internecine House of War cannot be foreseen.  What will bring an end to the unfolding fundamentalist versus jihali conflict is unknown.   Therefore, it is far better to minister humanitarian aid than a vain attempt to "pick a winner".  

It is the Muslim Brotherhood's commitment to actual, literal, physical warfare that cowardly, appeasing Western politicians have long denied.  As another proverb has it, "There is none so blind as those who will not see."  Qutb, one of the greatest ideologues and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, the womb of modern Islamic Fundamentalism, was very open about what was at stake and in play.

. . . Qutb knew full well that the creation of the universal umma could not be achieved by peaceful means, just as the original umma had only been created through the relentless military campaigns of the Prophet and the orthodox caliphs.  "The establishment of Allah's kingdom on earth, the elimination of the reign of man, the wresting of sovereignty from its usurpers and its restoration to Allah, and the abolition of human laws and implementation of the divine law [shari'a] cannot be only achieved through sermons and preaching," he argued.

"Those who have usurped Allah's authority on earth and have enslaved His creatures will not surrender their power merely through preaching  Had this been the case, Allah's messengers would have far more easily achieved the task of establishing His religion across the world.  . . . This is why Allah has established "only one cause for killing--where there is no other recourse--and that is striving for the sake of God (jihad)" and imposed this sacred duty upon all Muslims, not as a means to convert individuals or communities to Islam, but as the foremost tool "to establish Allah's sovereignty on earth."  [Ibid., p. 217.]

So, first the armed imperialist war upon others, then their surrender, and then the opportunity to convert to Islam, and, if not, either death or subjugation to the state of a literal or virtual slave.  War is the "foremost tool" to establish Allah's sovereignty.

Hamas, often daily in the news, is the Palestinian authority dedicated to war with Israel.  It is a branch or a manifestation of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The West, typically, fails to grasp the significance of this. It sees Hamas and its involvement in the West Bank as just another nationalist organisation seeking liberation from oppression and the achievement of a free Palestinian state.  This represents the world-view of post-colonial guilt.  It blinds the West to the truth.  The West refuses to see the wider, deeper, long term aspirations of Hamas.  It rather views Hamas as fighting the Palestinian equivalent of the American War of Independence.

Behind Hamas lies the Muslim Brotherhood.

. . . Hamas was established not merely to "liberate Palestine from Zionist occupation" but to pursue the far loftier goals of spreading Allah's holy message and defending the weak and oppressed throughout the world: "The Islamic Resistance Movement, while breaking its own path, will . . . spare no effort to implement the truth and abolish evil, in speech and in fact, both here and in any other location where it can reach out and exert influence.

As the movement's slogan puts it: "Allah is [Hamas's]  goal, the Prophet its model, the Qur'an its Constitution, Jihad its path and death for the cause of Allah its most sublime belief."  [Karsh, op cit., p. 219.]

Try having meaningful peace talks with such an entity.