Marxism–Leninism and its idea of revolution had declined, but it had left its revolutionary mark on its archetypical rival — Islamism. Since the 1970s, the revolutionary ideas of Sayyid Qutb dominated the various strands of political Islam. Informed by the political theology of the Indian Abul-ala’ Maududi (who had learnt the organizational strategy of the Indian Communist Party), Qutbs ideas formed the ideological foundation for Muslim militants to forcefully seize and refurbish the Jahili state to establish an Islamic order. Indeed, Qutbs Ma‘alim fi al-Tariq (Signposts) (1964) held the same value for militant Islamists (such as Gama‘a Islamiyya, Hizbul-Tahrir or various Jihadi groups) as Lenins What is to Be Done (1902) did for Marxist–Leninists. In Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader, had translated the Signposts into Persian, while Ali Shariati, a student of French leftist George Gorwitch, had advocated revolution in Marxist–Islamic idioms to realize the idea of the ‘divine classless society’. Thus, unlike the Muslim Brotherhood which favoured a gradualist strategy of Islamization, militant Islamism stayed passionate about revolution. آصف بیات
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 21:25:49 +0000
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