WHAT IS THE PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS AND AIMS OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD? WHAT DO TWO WESTERN SCHOLARS SAY? I recently read and reviewed two papers by Western scholars on the philosophy and world view of Hasan al Banna - the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1930s and 1940s. Since this is a topic being actively debated these days in Western countries, and there is much misinformation spread about it, I thought I would share my review with my Friends on Facebook : 2 Oct 2014 Paul Ballard Having read carefully both Gudrun Kramers biography of Hasan al Banna and Prof. Spoerls paper, I am rather surprised at the considerable inconsistencies between them. Kramer rightly portrays al Banna as a transitional figure, who lived in a period of colonial rule in Egypt and was taken up with the need for Egyptians to struggle politically - and if need be militarily - to free themselves from it. In her well documented account, al Banna is a man who advocated the creation of a new modern Egyptian society - that drew upon the best of Western science and technology, that created a new and more egalitarian form of government. But he did not advocate either capitalism or communism, but rather a third way. He did not advocate agrarian reform - having come from a land-owning family, but he did advocate the need for education and a spirit of community help as well as self-help. In all this, al Banna was both a moderate and a modernizer. Meanwhile, in matters or religion and society, he was more of a conservative. He was not in favor of a modern role for women, for example. But he was in favor of patience, peace and empathy with the less fortunate. Nowhere is he in favor of leading Islam to world domination - except perhaps aspirationally and spiritually. In this he saw - as many strong religious believers of other religions also do - his faith as the guiding light for all humanity. We know many Christian thinkers who thought this way at that time, of course. By contrast with Kramers well-researched and nuanced account of al Banna, I am rather shocked at the blatant bias in Prof. Spoerls presentation. By picking only upon the four aspects he does, he seems to portray al Banna not as a modernizer but the opposite. He sees al Banna as an Islamic supremacist and imperialist, which he clearly was not. As for anti-Semitism, Prof. Spoerl equates al Bannas opposition to the Zionist forces at work to create the state of Israel by expelling Palestinian Arabs by force of arms, with being somehow racist in his antagonism to Jews generally. But, from Kramers account, there is no evidence whatever of this. To the contrary, al Banna could envisage a world in which the three people of the book lived in peace together. It was the political and military context of the 1930s and 1940s that pitted Zionists in Palestine against Palestinians and Arab nationalists. It is most important not to see this as racism, but as part of a political struggle. Prof. Spoerl devotes most of his note - a long section on sharia law - to advancing the claim that al Banna was in effect an arch-traditionalist bent on imposing strict conservative - Wahhabi style - shaaria as practiced in Saudi Arabia. From Kramers book, by contrast, it is clear that al Banna was a modernist. He believed strongly in a peaceful, harmonious, egalitarian society where all had a voice and helped each other. As the beliefs and practices of the Muslim Brotherhood have shown in many decades since al Bannas assassination in 1949, the organization is committed to peaceful modernizing change and pluralism. By neglecting any mention of these important aspects, Prof. Spoerls note appears fundamentally biased and misinformed. By giving the incorrect impression that Westerners have to fear a draconian and brutal imposition of an Islam that is repressive and harsh and retrogressive, he is both wrongly arousing anxieties about the Muslim Brotherhood government that took power in Egypt in 2011, and giving ammunition to those who would maintain the Western and Arab autocrats suppression of their party. As has been pointed out by others, it is in fact the erroneous suppression of moderate Islamist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood that has permitted the continuation of brutally repressive dictatorships in many Middle Eastern countries - as Egypt today. It has also left the field of political opposition narrowed to include only the truly extremist Salafist groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda and Islamic Jihad. As such, Prof. Spoerls mis-characterization is both misinforming as well as thereby potentially harmful. Hopefully, he will be persuaded to revisit and reconsider his views. 2 Oct 2014 Paul Ballard Further to my earlier comments, clarifications are called for on Prof. Spoerl’s subsequent remarks about Hamas : ~ Hamas is indeed associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, But it is a Sunni Islam organization. Hezbollah and iran, by contrast, are Sh’ia Islamic. Especially in the current climate of mutual suspicion and heightened sectarian conflict between Sunni and Sh’ia in the Middle East, it seems hardly likely that close cooperation exists between Hamas and iran. Indeed, while some limited support has been provided historically, it has been very limited. By contrast, Iran has been a strong backer of Hezbollah. ~ It is most important not to misinform the public by insinuating links that are not there. This has often come from Israeli and pro-Israeli propaganda aimed at discrediting any and all opposition to themselves in the region. ~ It is of course the case that a state of conflict - and at times even war - have persisted sadly between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors for over sixty years. But this has nothing to do with religion or philosophy. It is a matter of a political conflict between two national groups over competing claims for land in the Levant. It serves no good purpose to elevate this into some kind of religious fight, when it is not that. FURTHER INFO : - the two papers are : - Gudrun Krämer : Hasan al Banna (in Makers of the Muslim World series), One World Press, 2014. Joseph Spoerl : The World View of Hasan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood, New English Review, Nov. 2012 [published by St. Anselms College - Weblink :newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/45121
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 18:08:42 +0000
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