“The Imam of modern Egypt was a sceptic”: Mustafa Sabri's Radical Critique of Muhammad ʿAbduh and Modernist Theology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
ANDREW HAMMOND
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Sayyid Qutb ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Modern Egypt ◽  
Late Ottoman

Abstract This article re-examines the theology of Egyptian ʿalim Muhammad ʿAbduh (1849–1905) through the writing of Late Ottoman sheikh ül-Islam Mustafa Sabri (1869–1954) and his radical critique of the Muslim reform (tajdīd) movement. One of Mustafa Kemal's most implacable foes, Sabri was alarmed to find Egyptian ʿulamaʾ and intellectuals advancing the positivist-materialist agenda he had challenged in Istanbul before fleeing in 1922 from Ankara's victorious nationalist forces. Debating the leading lights of the modernist movement in Egypt of the 1930s and 1940s, Sabri came to see its reform theology as little more than a calque on Enlightenment notions of religion; his ideas became influential through his close relationship with Hasan al-Banna and other figures from the Muslim Brotherhood. Examining Sabri's work in Istanbul and Cairo, ʿAbduh's early and later writing, and texts such as ʿAbduh's famous debate with Farah Antun, the islāmiyyāt literature of Egypt's liberal age, and material by Sayyid Qutb, I argue that Sabri was instrumental in formulating the hostile discourse that came to dominate Muslim views of ʿAbduh in the later twentieth century once the ideologies of Salafism and Brotherhood Islamism had eclipsed that of the reformers.

scholarly journals The Normalization of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Religious Discourse in Egypt: A Comparative Perspective Before and After 2011

Islamology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Sara Tonsy
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Symbolic Power ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt has been known for being one of the most resilient Islamist organizations worldwide during most of the twentieth century, and until 2013. The Arab uprisings that swept over the Arab region resulted in the resurrection of the MB’s discourse changed drastically over the period of the organization’s existence and even further during the few years from 2011 until today. How did the discourse established by the MB develop and transform towards becoming a normalized version of Islam in Egypt? How could this be traced in the recent events the MB witnessed in Egypt, starting in 2011? Applying P. Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power and O. Roy’s idea about post-Islamism this article will address these questions using field work and relevant literature.

scholarly journals Naǧīb al-Kīlānī and the Islamic Storyteller

Arabica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 706-741
Author(s):  
Samira al-Khawaldeh
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Power Centers ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

Abstract Naǧīb al-Kīlānī is an Egyptian novelist and theorist whose work acquires more importance by virtue of its unique position as a literary manifestation of the thought and worldview of the Society of the Muslim Brotherhood. To embark on such a writing career in Egypt at mid-twentieth century meant first the antagonisation of certain power centers, leading to political jail, and ultimate diaspora; and second addressing the task of transforming the rudimentary conjecturing about an Islamic theory of art into a somewhat systematic form of theorization. The study thus aims to investigate al-Kīlānī’s contribution to the foundation of a theory of Islamic novel, focusing on his approach to the dilemmas and ambiguities surrounding the role of the modern Islamic novelist such as maintaining the intricate balance between the demands of religion and the freedom of art.

Millennial Politics in Modern Egypt: Islamism and Secular Nationalism in Context and Contest

Numen ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 427-455
Author(s):  
Jeffrey T. Kenney
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Ideal Society ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Modern Egypt ◽  
Modern Identity ◽  
Islamist Movement

AbstractAs a type often linked to societies in transition, millennialism provides a useful framework of analysis to understand the contestation between the two movements that shaped Egypt’s modern identity: Islamism and secular nationalism. Both movements blended political and religious form and content as they strove to unite people in a collectivist effort to create an ideal society that addressed the nation’s material and cultural needs. Indeed, millennial discourse provided a medium through which Egyptians worked out their nationalist aspirations in a religious key and envisioned their religious values and identity in nationalist form. The volatile, irrational character of millennial movements made Egypt’s postcolonial transition to modern politics fraught and uncertain. And the authoritarian trend among Egypt’s ruling secular nationalists exacerbated the situation. In the end, Egypt’s seminal Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, proved capable of reorienting itself, downplaying its millennial claims, and espousing a rational politics. Its evolution speaks to the capacity of millennial movements to transform themselves and the societies of which they are a part.

SAYYID QUTB AND THE CRISIS OF CULTURE IN LATE 1940S EGYPT

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giedre Sabaseviciute
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Sayyid Qutb ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Literary Networks ◽  
Muslim Brothers

AbstractThis article focuses on the writings and literary networks of the Egyptian intellectual and activist Sayyid Qutb during the late 1940s. Scholars have tended to explain Qutb's political radicalization and joining of the Muslim Brotherhood during the subsequent decade via aspects of his personality or personal life, such as his quick temper, conservatism, or frustration over unfulfilled aspirations to become a writer. Drawing on three periodicals published respectively by leftist, Islamist, and independent aspiring writers, I instead place Qutb's criticism of political, economic, and cultural elites in the context of an emerging generation of critical intellectuals. By shedding light on intellectual cooperation between Qutb, Muslim Brothers, Marxists, and independent writers, this article challenges established scholarly narratives that locate the Islamist project outside the Egyptian intellectual field.

scholarly journals THE GREEK-PLAY BISHOP: POLEMIC, PROSOPOGRAPHY, AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY PRELATES

2011 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 1013-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARTHUR BURNS ◽  
CHRISTOPHER STRAY
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Victorian England ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
Classical Scholarship ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Print Cultures

ABSTRACTDiscussions of classical scholarship and of the Anglican church in Victorian England have both at times identified an ‘age of the Greek-play bishop’ during which there was a close relationship between classical distinction and episcopal promotion. Closer investigation reveals few prelates fitting the description. This article explains this paradox by tracing the idea of the ‘Greek-play bishop’ across a variety of nineteenth-century literatures, in the process suggesting the significance more generally of the migration of ideas between overlapping Victorian print cultures. The article demonstrates how the concept originated in the radical critique of Old Corruption around 1830, before in the 1840s and 1850s satirists (notably Sydney Smith) adopted it in ad personam assaults on two bishops, J. H. Monk and C. J. Blomfield. In the 1860s, the concept became a less polemical category in the context of more wide-ranging analyses of the composition of the episcopate, gradually acquiring an elegiac aspect as new intellectual challenges arose to Victorian Christianity. By 1900, the ‘Greek-play bishop’ had begun to find the place in the conceptual armoury of historians of the nineteenth-century church that it would hold for much of the twentieth century, its polemical origins long forgotten.

The Dynamics of Egypt’s “Semi-opposition,” 2004–11

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 83-103
Author(s):  
Mai Mogib Mosad
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political System ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

This paper maps the basic opposition groups that influenced the Egyptian political system in the last years of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. It approaches the nature of the relationship between the system and the opposition through use of the concept of “semi-opposition.” An examination and evaluation of the opposition groups shows the extent to which the regime—in order to appear that it was opening the public sphere to the opposition—had channels of communication with the Muslim Brotherhood. The paper also shows the system’s relations with other groups, such as “Kifaya” and “April 6”; it then explains the reasons behind the success of the Muslim Brotherhood at seizing power after the ousting of President Mubarak.

Grievances against the Morsi Government

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira D. Jumet
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Political Appointments ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Political Economic

This chapter outlines the individual grievances arising from political, economic, social, and religious conditions under the government of Mohamed Morsi that became the foundations of opposition to his rule. It focuses on democracy in Egypt, the 2012 presidential elections, and the expectations and promises put forth by Morsi. The chapter also covers popular perceptions of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom and Justice Party, grievances surrounding electricity and gas, security and sexual harassment, Morsi’s speeches and representation of Egypt on the international stage, and Morsi’s political appointments. The chapter relies on interview data and fieldwork conducted in Egypt during the year of Morsi’s presidency.

scholarly journals Islamist Women as Candidates in Elections: A Comparison of the Party of Justice and Development in Morocco and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 329-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarína Škrabáková
Keyword(s):  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Candidate Selection ◽  
Demand Model ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
External Interference ◽  
Female Candidates ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Supply And Demand Model ◽  
The Impact

This paper examines the legislative recruitment of women from conservative Islamist parties. It questions the common assumption that generally all Islamist parties are equally hostile to political participation and representation of women. For this purpose, two of the electorally most successful Islamist groups in the MENA region are compared, namely the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and its Moroccan offshoot, the Party of Justice and Development (PJD). The article seeks an explanation for diverging trends in female candidacy between these conservative religious movements, using the traditional supply and demand model of candidate selection. It argues that the less centralized and the more institutionalized parties (as is the case with the PJD) seem to be better equipped to facilitate women’s candidacy than the more oligarchic ones (the MB). In order to fully grasp the reasons behind the diverging trends in the nomination of female candidates from both Islamist parties, cultural factors are scrutinized as well. The article highlights the limits of the supply and demand model of candidate selection, which cannot explain instances of unexpected change in recruitment strategies based on external interference. Furthermore, it does not provide us the means to assess the impact of individual candidates’ ‘feminist credentials’ on overall female representation.


An Attempt to Prosecute: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Communication to the International Criminal Court Relating to the Alleged Crimes in Egypt

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-762
Author(s):  
Hossam ElDeeb
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Rome Statute ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

The article analyses a communication submitted by the Muslim Brotherhood group (mb) to the International Criminal Court (icc) relating to alleged crimes in Egypt. After the ousting of Morsi, hundreds of Morsi supporters were killed during the dispersal of two sit-in camps. The mb lawyers argued that the ousted, Morsi, is still the legitimate president of Egypt and hence can accept the Court’s jurisdiction pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute. It is argued that such controversial communications submitted to the Court have serious implications other than the intended purpose of communications. The article briefly reviews the situation of Egypt’s criminal justice system in relation to the alleged crimes and the legal position of the mb, then analyses the scope of Article 12(3) before it critically argues that the communication submitted to the icc was for political gain and the Court should restrain itself from entering into political debates.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document