The intellect behind Islamic radicalism

Not really I/P, but relevant, a cross post from Editorials. If one is actually interested in "islamism" as a political movement, one needs to know about this fellow (Qutb}.

Egyptian intellectual and author Sayyid Qutb (1906-66) occupies an important place among Islamic thinkers. He was one of the most quoted thinkers who provided guidance for Islamic radicals. He is associated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and is best known for his theoretical work on redefining the role of Islamic fundamentalism in social and political change.

It is not surprising that books about Qutb proliferate. The Power of Sovereignty is written for a scholarly audience, with not much attention to style or even to the organization of the text. Still, it provides insight into Qutb's philosophy and explains the reason it has become such a powerful force.

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The ideal of the total Islamization of society is an important element of Qutb's philosophy, but does not fully explain its appeal. It has a strong internationalist underpinning and resolutely discards nationalism. In this aspect it strongly resembles Marxism, even though Qutb himself - as author Sayed Khatab states - emphasized that his teaching, based on the Koran and divine revelation, had nothing to do with secular Marxism, which reduces everything to socioeconomic issues. Still, as can be deduced from the text, Qutb's outlook is very different from Marxism, at least in its eschatological form.

Indeed, Marxism as a doctrine had various implications and forms. In countries where parties that professed Marxism took over, it was usually "staticized" as an ideology of sociopolitical conformity and mobilization for the aggrandizement of the state. It usually blended with nationalism and produced what some Russian intellectuals called "National Bolshevism", found in Stalinist Russia, Mao Zedong's China, and especially post-Mao China.

Asia Times

He's on one of my lists of books to read. But to understand him, I think, requires more background than I have--so reading him now would predispose me to misunderstanding him more than I already do.

But what little I think I understand makes bin Laden's diatribes against the West merely short-term traditional, and the things that many want to deny he says crucial.