UNDERSTANDING THE MIDDLE EAST:
History, Religion, and the Clash of Cultures
400 pages
Copyright © 2007 by Beechmont Crest Publishing
First edition, 2007
0-9748330-6-1
C H A P T E R 11:
Islamic Fundamentalism and Global Terror
Hassan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood
In the early twentieth century, an Egyptian named Hassan al-Banna observed that his country was changing, especially in the cities.
Much of this change was economic. Consumer goods were cheaper and more plentiful than they had ever been before, but many of these goods came from abroad. As mass production and global trade found their way into Egypt, home-based craft industries were being displaced. The people were becoming more materialistic.
Islam no longer dominated public life. Secular values had seeped into Egyptian society. Women were shunning the veil for Western-style fashions. Men were also abandoning Islamic dress. Sexuality was more open than it had been in previous years.
The old ways were vanishing; and al-Banna interpreted this change as a tragedy. He believed that Egypt had been corrupted by Western secularism, a force that was incompatible with Islamic traditions. Something had to be done, al-Banna feared, or Egypt would forever lose its Islamic identity.
In 1928, al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood’s goal was the establishment an Islamic government in Egypt. It was the first durable, well-organized group of its kind. The Muslim Brotherhood openly challenged the universalism of Western-style freedoms, and the separation of mosque and state. The group also appealed to the Muslim concept of jihad---the idea that all devout Muslims should be willing to wage war for Islam. The Brotherhood did not hesitate to employ violence.
For our purposes, al-Banna’s Muslim Brotherhood is significant not for what it was, but for what it set in motion. The Muslim Brotherhood launched the twentieth-century Islamist movement as we know it today. Al-Banna’s organization joined Islamic fundamentalism with twentieth century methods of activism---both violent and nonviolent. The Brotherhood became a model for subsequent Islamist terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda.
Copyright 2005 Beechmont Crest Publishing
