BOOK
REVIEW The intellect behind Islamic
radicalism The Power of
Sovereignty by Sayed Khatab
Reviewed by Dmitry Shlapentokh
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.
The key to this appeal is
that Qutb's teaching discards the notion that
Islam is just a religion, reduced to a few rituals and
obligations in daily life. In Qutb's view, Islam
permeates all aspects of human life; society
should be Islamic from top to bottom.
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.
But Marxism had an early, non-state form
that not only was soaked in eschatological dreams
of the end of "prehistory" - the era of
exploitation, misery, and general injustice - but
also rejected any form of nationalism, which, in
Karl Marx's view, was just an ideology that
separated workers of different nations, ethnic
groups and races from one another.
Nationalism was a bourgeois,
anti-proletariat ideology that prevented workers
of all countries from surging to a final,
worldwide revolution. These eschatological and
internationalist elements of Marxism could be
found in Lenin and Mao, especially at the
beginning of their political careers when they
were revolutionary leaders, not powerful helmsmen
of ossified totalitarian states.
The same
ideological trend can be found in Qutb's early
philosophy. He proclaimed that nationalism was one
of the greatest evils dividing Muslims. The Arabic
language is extremely important as the language of
the Koran, but as an ethnic category it provided
no advantages to the individual.
Dedication to Islam and striving to create
a truly Islamic society interpreted as a society
of universal justice for all Muslims, actually all
people regardless of ethnicity and race, were what
counted. The appeal became especially strong when,
on one hand, centuries-old problems continued to
pester humanity, and, on the other, secular
socialism declined in popularity after the demise
of the Soviet Union.
Thus Qutb's work
explains the way radical Islamism has become a
sort of replacement for various forms of radical
Marxism, such as Leninism, Stalinism and Maoism,
and plays such an important role in this century.
And these points make Khatab's book worth reading
regardless of the rather heavy style and other
problems.
The Power of Sovereignty: The
Political and Ideological Philosophy of Sayyid
Qutb by Sayed Khatab. Routledge, 2006.
ISBN-10: 041537250X. Price US$105, 298 pages.
Dmitry Shlapentokh, PhD, is
associate professor of history, College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences, Indiana University South Bend.
He is author of East Against West: The First
Encounter - The Life of Themistocles
(2005).
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rituals and
obligations in daily life. In Qutb's view, Islam
permeates all aspects of human life; society
should be Islamic from top to bottom. 
