Hasan al-Banna (1906 – 1949) was an Egyptian political reformer, best known for establishing the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organisation which today has millions of members and spans the Arab world. Through his ardent struggle to revitalise Islamic values amid increasing Westernisation, al-Banna promoted Islamic charity and personal piety throughout Egypt, becoming a powerful political force until his mysterious assassination. In this well written and impartial biography, Krämer gives a detailed account of al-Banna’s life and work.
The most authoritative anthology of Islamist texts This anthology of key primary texts provides an unmatched introduction to Islamist political thought from the early twentieth century to the present, and serves as an invaluable guide through the storm of polemic, fear, and confusion that swirls around Islamism today. Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman gather a broad selection of texts from influential Islamist thinkers and place these figures and their writings in their multifaceted political and historical contexts. The selections presented here in English translation include writings of Ayatollah Khomeini, Usama bin Laden, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, and Moroccan Islamist leader Nadia Yassine, as well as the Hamas charter, an interview with a Taliban commander, and the final testament of 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Ata. Illuminating the content and political appeal of Islamist thought, this anthology brings into sharp relief the commonalities in Islamist arguments about gender, democracy, and violence, but it also reveals significant political and theological disagreements among thinkers too often grouped together and dismissed as extremists or terrorists. No other anthology better illustrates the diversity of Islamist thought, the complexity of its intellectual and political contexts, or the variety of ways in which it relates to other intellectual and religious trends in the contemporary Muslim world.
The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the most influential Islamist organisations today. Based in Egypt, its network includes branches in many countries of the Near and Middle East. Although the organisation has been linked to political violence in the past, it now proposes a politically moderate ideology. The book provides an in-depth analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood during the years of al-Hudaybi’s leadership, and how he sought to steer the organization away from the radical wing, inspired by Sayyid Qutb, into the more moderate Islamist organization it is today. It is his legacy which eventually fostered the development of non-violent political ideas. During the years of persecution, 1954 to 1971, radical and moderate Islamist ideas emerged within the Brotherhood’s midst. Inspired by Sayyid Qutb’s ideas, a radical wing evolved which subsequently fed into radical Islamist networks as we know them today. Yet, it was during the same period that al-Hudaybi and his followers proposed a moderate political interpretation, which was adopted by the Brotherhood and which forms its ideological basis today.
Orignally published in 1969, this monograph has become known as a standard source for the history of the revivalist Egyptian movement, the Muslim Brethren, up to the time of Nasser. The work has been reissued for those scholars and students interested in the Muslim revival.
This volume provides an overview on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ways its heritage is appropriated by its European members today. They define themselves as the “community of the middle way”, in the centre of Islamic orthodoxy, proposing an ethos and an ideology. However their heritage is composed of many different intellectual strata and these inputs are in tension. The current movement is both powerful and fragile as certain fundamental principles remain respected while many other themes are currently being cautiously questioned. By analysing private interviews and public discourse, this book fills in an important gap in scholarly research. No other in-depth study exists about this little known and reserved but important reference for European Muslims.
