Al-ʾIkḫwān al-Muslimūn or the Muslim Brotherhood is an organization that strives for an Islamic world. Since its beginnings, members have become involved in politics and in their communities, but their methods have been constantly questioned. Their influence has become worldwide with groups in several countries across the world ,and it is in Egypt where the organization began.
Beginnings in Egypt
The Muslim Brotherhood began in March 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, an egyptian teacher, after seven of his friends agreed that al-Bana should lead them in better serving Allah. After their request, he accepted, and he along with Hafiz Abdul Hamid, Ahmad Al Hasri, Fowad Ibrahim, Abdur Rehman, Hasabullah, Ismail Izz, and Zaki Al Maghribi swore their allegiance to Al Ikwanul Muslemoon(The Muslim Brotherhood) becoming the first members. Jihad would also become their means to spread Islam(Rinehart 2009: 966). The Brotherhood’s mission was to restore the Islamic Caliphate which was destroyed in 1924 by Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Their motto, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope,” is still in use today, and the group wants to spread Islam worldwide(Lebl 2013: 109).
Al-Bana wanted people to come back to the faith(da’wah) and urged they had an overall renewal(Frampton 2013: 832). Soon after, al-Bana gained a reputation as an iman which he later encouraged his followers to call him by. He told stories of when Allah saved him from his troubles and demanded that he be called a murshid(teacher of spirituality). Al-Bana was a very gifted speaker, so gaining members and their obedience was not problem. He had a story for each person that w...
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There were two men that wanted to be the first caliph (successor) of Muhammad. The first man, named Abu Bakr, many people believed he was a good candidate because he was an old friend and was one of the first ones to convert to Islam. Yet others believed that Ali Talib was the best choice because he was a cousin and a son in law to the prophet. The disputes between the two groups of people would lead to a split; the followers of Abu Bark became the Sunnis and the followers of Ali became the Shia. At the end, the majority of people decided to choose Abu Bark and he became Islam’s first caliph. Abu Bark was Muhammad’s caliph for only two years until he died; even though it was a short period of time, he accomplished big things. For example, the spread of Islam to Byzantines and the Persians. The other caliphs (Umar, Uthman and Ali) expanded the Islamic empire rapidly and grew faster than any other religion. The Muslims conquered a massive amount of land from Indus River, across North Africa and into Spain. There were many factors that help Islam succeed; for example, people would rather fight for God and their salvation instead of fighting for a king, the use of military force by the Muslims and how easy it was to convert to
...I had misunderstood, or rather ignored, the Muslim Brotherhood as it materialized in Egypt and later took root and inspired others elsewhere. If Wright analysis is correct, and I suspect he is in this abundantly researched and well-written book, it was born as an opposition to colonialism and its nationalist / socialist / modernist / capitalist alternatives. It appeared that to Sayyid Qutb and other shaping figures in the Brotherhood, Islam was an all-encompassing system to remake the post-colonial world. Qutb, who actually spent time in the United States studying, returned in the late 40’s outraged and radicalized. Qutb soaked up our supposed corruption and regarded the U.S. as propping up regimes that the majority in the Middle East didn’t like, as well as being a good friend of Israel and opposed to Islam, issues that still are a common complaint heard today.
Speckhard, A. (2013). The Boston Marathon Bombers: the Lethal Cocktail that Turned Troubled Youth to Terrorism. Perspectives On Terrorism, 7(3). Retrieved from http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/268/540
Ridel, B, 'The real losers in Egypt's uprising', The Daily Best Online, 13 February 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011< http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-13/al-qaeda-absent-in-hosni-mubaraks-fall-and-egyptian-revolution/>
Although the Nation of Islam is most widely known for their outspoken leaders and aggressive methods, the Nation of Islam is one of the most important black activist groups of the 1960’s. In a matter of just a few years the Nation of Islam’s members had increased from 400 to 400,000 (Taylor par.19). During the 1960’s, the emergence of the Nation of Islam constituted a change in the minds of many African-Americans. Therefore, caused a major influence in the Civil Rights Movement.
...ncil on American-Islamic Relation (CAIR) as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporter of terrorism” (CITATION NEEDED.
Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. It is currently the second largest religion in the world today. Its beliefs come from the Qur'an which literally means "the recitation" which is believed to be a literal transcription of the word of God. Its main prophet is named Muhammad who began Islam by speaking with the angel Gabriel in a cave during his meditation and then acting as an instrument of God to help write the Qur’an. Muhammad then spread Islam to the scattered tribes of Arabia by becoming the leader of Yathrib and using his wonderful leadership abilities to then grow his influence over virtually all of Arabia. Muhammad is known by Muslims to be the seal of the profits because no profits after Muhammad should be considered legitimate. Muhammad also left behind the Hadith or “tradition” which is a collection of writings compiled of reports of Muhammad’s actions as leader of Yathrib. These reports are used as a more specific code of ethics in day to day life and from these reports the 5 Pillars of Islam are derived (Smith 160). Although Islam shares many similarities to Judaism and Christianity it is often viewed in the US with hate derived from preconceived notions following the attack on September 11th 2001. This paper seeks to provide an overview of Islam’s history as well as its two major sects and 5 main pillars to remove preconceived notions and provide a glance into the minds of the Islamic people.
Many contemporary and former Islamic parties, religious movements, and radical groups across the world assume that the Quran requires establishing an Islamic state based on the instructions of the Quran and the hadiths. Therefore, they are so active and vibrant in the political sphere to realize this idea. They also commonly consider Islam as an unchangeable and essentialist political framework to carry out this command. Hence, many Islamic movements by and large have emerged through the
The Nation of Islam, during the 60’s, was one of the forerunners for African American unity. They strove for a separate black community. They wanted to be completely separated from the white community only because, according to their beliefs, white people were all devils. Elijah Muhammad being influenced by many people and factors in his life led the Nation of Islam to the point where many blacks started to look toward Islam as a way out. The Nation provided an escape from the harsh racial treatment and discrimination that was going on during the time.
Over the last century, the Middle East has been the location of ethnic rivalry, political and economic instability, religious conflict, territorial dispute and war. Much of this tension in the Middle East comes from the various interpretations of Islam and how the religion should be applied to politics and society. Over the last ten years, the United States and their allies have pushed to promote democracy in the Middle East. However, they too have many obstacles they must overcome. They face problems such as the compatibility of Islamic law and democracy, the issue of women’s rights, and there is always the problem of how to go about implementing a democratic reform in these countries. Many initially would assume that it is only the culture of the Middle East that repels them away from a democratic transition. Diamond on the other hand does not believe it is the culture or the religion that stops a democratic reform instead it is the regimes themselves and the region’s distinctive geopolitics. Although democracy may have reached the Middle East, it may be too difficult to completely change that area from authoritarian to democratic.
This paper will first give a background on The Islamic State, the attacks in Paris and Brussels, and then it will analyze how it is beneficial to look at the Islamic States motives using
Toney, Michael S. Organizational Behavior Profile Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AQIM. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Platform, 2013. Print.
Zakaria, F. (2007). The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition). New York: W. W. Norton.
“Are political Islam and democracy compatible?” This question has been troubling both Muslims and non-Muslims living in East and West for a long time now. Contemporary Islamic political thought has become deeply influenced by attempts at reconciling Islam and democracy. Muslim thinkers who deal with political debates cannot disregard the significance of the democratic system, as it is the prevailing theme of modern western political thought. Hence, it is necessary for any alternative political system, whether it is religious or secular, to explore its position with regards to democratic government. In fact, a large literature and media publications have developed over the last century on this heated discourse of democracy versus Islam. While many argue that Islam has all the ingredients of modern state and democratic society, many other reject the phenomena “modernism” and “democracy” as a whole because of their “foreign nature”—alien to “Islamic values”. For Islamists and modernists, the motivation for such effort to either embrace or reject democracy often is to remove suspicion about the nature and goals of Islamic movements and Islamic revivalism or resurgence. But before diving into this discourse, one needs to understand the definition and origins of “democracy.” Although purely a Western ideology in its origin, there is no consensus on the definition of “democracy” as a political system. The Oxford English Dictionary describes democracy as: “A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives” (“democracy, n.”). In my paper, I will examine whether or not democracy and Sunni political Islam are compatible through the eyes of three revolutionary Sun...