POLITICAL ISLAM & IT'S PROPONENTS

Initially, these movements focused on expulsion of Western forces from the Muslim world. More appropriately it was an initiative to gain political freedom. Thus in the times of Afghani, this movement was more political than religious, with its slogan being, “The East for Easterners”. The next phase of this revolutionary movement was given an ideological form. What had been described in communal terms (with reference to the global Muslim community), now took an Islamic hue. An attempt was made to Islamize their communal thinking by developing a complete ideology based on the political interpretation of Islam. If earlier the thinking had been that the Western nations were usurpers and that a restitution of Muslims’ political rights must be demanded from them, the next phase developed the theory that the Islamic system covered all aspects of human life including politics. The Muslims were therefore, duty-bound to capture political power by force, so that Islam might be implemented as a total system. The promoters of this movement held that so long as Islam was not adopted by believers as a complete system, their faith would not be acceptable to God. It followed that bringing about a political revolution became a binding obligation, like prayers and fasting. In this second phase, two Muslim leaders figured prominently, the Egyptian intellectual Sayyid Qutb (died 1966) and Syed Abul ala Maududi (died 1979), a Muslim ideologue from the Indian subcontinent. Both leaders found themselves in a very favourable environment—an environment that made it possible for their books to be translated into many languages and thus for their ideas to spread across the Muslim world. Muslims across the globe were directly influenced by this political ideology. Some became actively involved while the others’ thinking was shaped by this ideology. All dreamed of the political glory of Islam. This movement, designed to establish political Islam, gave rise to various other movements. Two of these movements grew into prominence. Al Ikhwan al-Muslimun, or the Muslim Brotherhood, established in 1928 in the Arab world and the Jamat-e-Islami established in 1941 in the subcontinent. Both were highly organised movements and subsequently launched campaigns to establish Islamic rule in Muslim countries such as Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Algeria, Tunisia and Malaysia. Giving a political interpretation to Islam is a despicable act and in no way serves the higher aims of the religion.