19. Through the Looking Glass
Transcript of 19. Through the Looking Glass
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Jihad in a postmodern eraInventing a traditional way to get back to the real Islam
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Main Points Rereading Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966) on the
current state of Islam
looking at Abd al-Salam Faraj (d. 1982)
and Bin Ladens rationales for jihad
an original Islam: considering Waldmansargument for tradition being a modality of
change
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Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966)
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The historical context Hasan al-Banna founded the brotherhood in 1928,
assassinated in 1949; Qutb joins the Brotherhood in 1951,
same year that Hasan al-Hudaybi is appointed to head the
Brotherhood
Free officers revolt in 1952, Nasser becomes president in
1956 and rules until 1970
1954, attempted assassination of Nasser; Brotherhood
outlawed, Qutb jailed
1965, Qutb released, publishes Milestones; 2nd crackdown on
Brotherhood after alleged plot of government, Qutb
imprisoned and then hanged in 1966; 1969 Hudaybi publishes
refutation of Qutbs ideas
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Qutb on the absence of
true Islam:That Islamic society today is not Islamic in any
sense of the word. We have already quoted a
verse from the Quran that cannot in any way behonestly applied today: Whoever does not judge
by what Allah has revealed is an unbeliever.
(5:48) . . . So long as Muslim society adhered to
Islam it manifested no weakness and notendency to abdicate its control of life. It was
when it fell away from Islam that these things
took place. (262)
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Reasons for the decline:
isolating real Islam those tribal Umayyads (except for
Umar II)
the Abbasids and those foreign
converts
the awful Mongols; the disasters of theCrusades and the end of al-Andalus
Worst of all: European colonialism;
international Zionism
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The future solution: Islam both European materialism/capitalism and
communism destined to fail
Christianity a wholly ascetic inward-lookingreligion
Islam the only holistic way of life that is
rooted in spirituality, not materialism
True Islam must be put into practice in the
Muslim world first, as an example for the rest
of the world
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Jihad in the 20th and 21st
centuryThe Quran definesjihadas exerting oneself inthe path of God (jihd f sabl Allh) . . . The lasttwo decades of the twentieth century saw anincrease in radical Muslim responses tooppression and aggression by Muslim and non-Muslim forces . . .these . . . have providedoccasions when radical Muslim (or Islamist)
groups have formed and called for jihad in tones,and often in terms, that have articulated rationalesfor greater violence against enemies than thelanguage of the classical sources and modern
juristic definitions would seem to sanction.
(Martin, Discourses, 156)
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The Absent Duty: jihad against
internal enemies Abd al-Salam Faraj (d. 1982), one-time
member of the Muslim Brotherhood argues for
the central importance ofjihadto Muslimidentity: fard ayn, not fard kifaya
current leaders of the Muslim world apostates,
similar to the Mongols of the 13th century:
outwardly believers, inwardly not
the necessary jihad is the one which involves
fighting, not just calling to God
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Reacting to Desert Storm and
Bosnia
Battle of fatwas on whether attacking Muslims with
non-Muslim support is licit; Tantawi vs Bin Laden
Bin Laden: jihad an individual duty, all tactics
permissible as long as the aggression of the non-
Muslims continues
Not just Palestine, but also Bosnia (think ofSrebrenica) and Chechnya examples of the ethical
failure of Western modernity
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Situating the post-modern Jihad
Nonetheless, there is an aspect to the writings of Abdal-Salam Faraj, Osama bin Laden, and other moreradical theorists of jihad that must not be lost sight of.
The deeply classical manner of these fatwas andwritings, despite their radical tone and departure fromthe quietism of traditional Sunni theories of jihad,reminds us that scholars must read and interpret thesetexts as part of a very traditional theological genre . . .
What seems to be relentlessly modern or postmodernabout this literature is that is has become globalized inprint and on the internet, attracting attention andcommentary by non-jurist Muslims and non-Muslimsacross the world. (Martin, Discourses, 168)
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So what happened to traditional
Islam? questioning the tradition of tradition: if youre
traditional would you know it?
Although the tradition of talking about traditionhas grown, it has not yet adequatelyappreciated a dimension of tradition that it hasimplicitly recognized: tradition as processas a
modality of change, as a way, but not the way,in which any society can cope with universalproblems of human existence, such aslegitimacy, authority, and change itself.
(Waldman, Tradition, 326)
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Tradition as a Modality of Change
Marilyn R. Waldman, 1986
Shariadress (Egypt)
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Tradition as a Modality of Change
Marilyn R. Waldman, 1986
Balto (Sanaa, Yemen)
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Tradition as a Modality of Change
Marilyn R. Waldman, 1986
Abayya (Saudi Arabia)
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Tradition as a Modality of Change
Marilyn R. Waldman, 1986
Burqa (Sohar, Oman)
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Tradition as a Modality of Change
Marilyn R. Waldman, 1986
Chador (Iran)
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Thinking about Shari dress, balto,
abaa, burqa and chador . . .Although it would be easy for an outsider to lump allof these phenomena together as examples ofreversion or fundamentalism, none is truly
fundamental and each differs in important ways fromthe others. The appearance of a new form of properIslamic dress for women in Egypt, Shari dress, isimplicitly a rejection of the traditional clothingEgyptian women used to wear earlier in this century
(as well as before) to symbolize their piety andmodesty. Its nontraditional and non-Western formexpresses the Egyptian womans ability to be true toan important inherited religious value and also to thedemands and opportunities of modernity. (Waldman,
Tradition, 335).
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Coming back to Jihad through Waldman, we can see the Salafi(ancestral)
movement as utterly modern
again, a religious tradition cannot be reified, falls
apart into a succession of practices which demand
contextualization, which are contingent upon social
and political events
what then are the relevant contexts with regard to
Bin Laden, Abd al-Salam Faraj and other activist
Muslims who stress the individual duty of jihad?