The intellectual basis of jehad

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA (BAHRAIN), SEPT. 30. It is not clear whether the current drive of the U.S. against terrorism will stop with the interdiction of Osama bin Laden and his associates in Al Qaeda, with the destruction of the Taliban or continue beyond.

But jehadi terrorism is not as mindless as it seems nor is it something produced solely by the social and political conditions of the Muslim world. It has an intellectual underpinning that has to be addressed if the phenomenon is to be dealt with in whole.

If the Afghan war brought together thousands of youths from all over the Muslim world possessed of a love for their religion and those who professed it, it also brought them in contact with a particular interpretation of the faith that creates and sustains the jehadi mindset.

An Egyptian scholar, Mr. Sayyid Qutb, perhaps best articulated this interpretation in the 1960s. Qutb's formulations on jehad as a legitimate enterprise and how those who wished to engage in it should prepare themselves were only a part of his overall exegesis on the spiritual, moral, social and political imperatives of Islam.

But Qutb also believed that it was the duty and destiny of the true believers to obliterate ``false'' interpretations of Islam as well as all other socio-political and religious systems.

As explained by Mr. Albert Hourani in his book ``A History of the Arab Peoples'' Qutb's views ran on the following lines. According to Qutb, all other societies suffered from jahiliyya (ignorance of religious truth) whatever their principles; whether they were communist, capitalist, nationalist, based upon other religions or claimed to be Muslims but did not follow the Sharia. To further quote Mr. Hourani, ``The path to the creation of a truly Muslim society Sayyid Qutb had declared, began with individual conviction, transformed into a living image in the heart and embodied in a programme of action.

Those who accepted this programme would form a vanguard of dedicated fighters, using every means, including jehad''.

Qutb declared that jehad should not be undertaken until the fighters had achieved inner purity but should then be pursued, if necessary, not for defence only but to destroy all worship of false gods and remove all the obstacles which prevented men from accepting Islam. According to Qutb the ``Western age'' was finished and only Islam offered hope to the world.

In all the material currently flooding the media about Osama it is said that he was primarily influenced by a Palestinian scholar, Mr. Ahmed Azzem. No direct connection between Osama and Qutb is being mentioned. But chronologically-speaking, it is possible to infer that Mr. Azzem was influenced by Qutb. Even if it were not so, the correlation between the modes of Al Qaeda and the teachings of Qutb are evident in many respects.

Moreover, the members of the Egyptian Al Jehad, who are now with Al Qaeda after the setting up of the Islamic Front Against Crusaders and Jews, are believed to be adherents of Qutb's world- view.

Qutb's teachings might have remained obscure, even regarded as unimplementable, if the Afghan war had not brought together thousands who could reinforce their mutual belief in its validity. They lived by those teachings in the Mujahideen camps and during their armed forays against the Soviets. This belief in the validity of Qutb's teachings, or similar interpretations, became rock solid after what its exponents describe as the ``defeat of the superpower''.

The power of this idea could be felt throughout the 1990s. In Pakistan, for instance, this belief that the power of Islam could defeat all comers including the now sole superpower was articulated even by those who claimed that they were nothing other than moderates.

How regimes that were genuinely religiously moderate, or at least reasonable, dealt with teachings such as this is a different matter altogether. The then Egyptian Government of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, when faced by opposition by adherents of Qutb's philosophy, did not hesitate. Qutb was arrested, tried and executed in 1966 two years after the publication of his tract.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : China for friendly ties with India
Next     : Bangladesh goes to polls today