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Mar 24, 2007 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). (Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
