Q2.Mustafa Kemal’s on the abolition of a caliphate and Hassan Al-Banna’s text “towards the light text” on political life.
Mustafa Kemal and Hassan Al-Banna are two important figures in the history of the Arab world in terms of their influence to nationalism and the current state of their nations. To begin with, Mustafa Kemal was an author with a liberal mind that made his works and line of thought free from the influences of the situation at the time where people had limited line of thought owing to the forms of leadership and religion. While he did not line his view on secularism as was the case with those advocating for civilization and westernization, Kemal anchored his work on the Islam religion but had a liberal mind such that he did not limit his ideas on the best forms of advancing people’s lives. He is today remembered by individuals as a reformist and nationalist for his influence especially during the transitional period. On the other hand, Hassan Al-Banna was an Imam and a prominent figure in the Muslim Brotherhood. He held Islamism close to him owing to his position as a religious leader and hoped for its supremacy in terms of governance and development of states (Esposito, 42).
Both Mustafa Kemal and Hassan Al-Banna advocated for the civilization of their people and improvement regarding the social and economic setting. This was at the time when the world was grappling with the issue of imperialism and advancement in terms of civilization. The great model of civilization was set by the Western nations which had embarked on aggressive campaigns on changing their populations for the better following the scientific revolution and the enlightenment age that followed. The major European countries beginning with Britain, Germany, France among others had succeeded and set an example concerning civilization such that other regions which sought to follow the same route looked up to them. Civilization covered a broad spectrum of life from governance to the social and economic status of the people. The two authors agreed on the issue of changes but presented their idea of the best forms of civilization.
Both authors believe that religion played a significant role in the advancement of people and the ruling class. Unlike the western nations who believed in secularism and liberty of mind, Al-Banna believed only in Islam as the vehicle to bring civilization to the Islamic world. He borrows a lot from the holy book of Quran for his explanations and line of thought. On the other hand, Kemal believes in religion but advocates for liberalism with his philosophy being anchored on liberty, fatherland, and progress. Although he agrees with the western nations on the issue of civilizations, he refrains from following their line of thought regarding secularism. The two writers agree in terms of the importance of religion in shaping political life as is evident in their works.
In Al-Banna’s toward the light text, he takes an in-depth look at how Islam can develop the political scene and bring out the best for a nation in terms of leadership and the improvement of life. He took into consideration all the issues associated with civilization and good governance to drum up support for Islamism as opposed to Westernization and secularism. In his part, Mustafa Kemal looked into civilized nations and particularly Britain to point out the model that countries should follow to achieve good political governance and advancement of the population’s lives. In his speech, he looked into the milestones that had been reached by the nation as well as other western countries in terms of good governance. He did more of pointing out and at this stage, he did not mention religion much although his philosophy was always that it played a significant role in shaping the culture and identity of the people which in turn led to good political governance and civilized people.
Al-Banna categorically stated the issues associated with healthy political life and an advanced population. It is important to note that the issue of civilization could not escape any person’s view including the author as it was a common idea that was being passed by Western countries especially when they were advancing their agenda of imperialism. His work was a model of governance anchored on the Islamic faith. He presented this to the royal king of Egypt and the Sudan as a way of ensuring that nations were guided by the principles and doctrines of the Islam religion and not fall into the hands of imperialist that were the Western countries in the pursuit of sound political systems or civilization in general.
Mustafa Kemal also looks into the same issue but with his mind set on the idea of abolition of the caliphates for improved life and governance. He focuses on the milestones reached by the British political institutions. In one part of his work, he states that if one wished to understand the principles of just rules at its level best, they should visit the parliament of the Great Britain which acted as the source of very many constitutions in the world. He states that the country’s political institutions are sound and contributes significantly to the success the country has enjoyed. His point is that if the Islamic countries want to achieve such milestones, they should take advantage of the institution that binds them and that is their religion Islam but at the same time encourage liberal minds among the people as it fosters growth. This is compared to the secularism adopted by the western nations.
Al-Banna looked into the issues of education, economics, and science, public health among others that had been developed and perfected by the civilized western nations. While he agrees on the importance of the significant changes they experienced, he pointed out an important aspect regarding the sustainability of the achieved milestones. He stated that all that the nations had achieved was crumbling down mainly because their guiding principles were weak as they were formed and were based on secularism. His point was that development anchored off the Islamic religion would stand because the Ummah enjoys a strong bond that determines how members associate with each other in the context of the social as well as the political scene.
As opposed to Al-Banna’s strictly religious point of view, Kemal channels his argument towards people-centered institutions and goes ahead to point out how civilization in London has impacted on the people’s lives. He discussed the education sector, transport, and infrastructure, the justice system among other things. His approach is to point out the results as a way of depicting how a sound political and social system can benefit people. This is in the line with supporting his principle philosophy that religion which was a binding factor for residents in the Ottoman era and could take advantage of it to develop sound institutions and improve the political life for the betterment of the people being governed.
Mustafa Kemal and Hassan Al-Banna presented a similar issue with the same argument on the influence of religion in shaping the political life. They, however, take different viewpoints with Kemal choosing the case study of London where he looked at the milestones reached by the people in the city. This was in a bid to portray what could be achieved if the good political scene was developed. Although he chose this approach, his ideology and philosophy were anchored on religion, and he believed that religion played a vital role in politics in terms of maintaining a bond that is crucial to governance and development. Al-Banna’s approach included incorporating all issues associated with good governance and relating them to Islam. He looked into the issue of civilization and the western nations in the context of development leadership and explained what the Quran says about the particular issue and how the incorporation of Islam could improve it into the political life.
Westernization, which involved the adoption of the Europeans' social, political and economical way of life presented by capitalism, had eroded the original values and morals of the colonized Islamic states as a way of remodeling the society. This step could, however, be made possible by using Sharia law as the constitution. Following Sharia law means redesigning the social and political system in accordance to what is taught in the Islamic religion. Thus, one of the primary reasons for the rise of political Islam also known as Islamism is the need to re-establish a society with morals and equality as provided by the Quran.
Anti-westernism by the Muslim world was fueled by the over controlling characteristics of the western countries regarding political, social and cultural ideologies through colonization and subsequent imperialism even after most countries gained independence. Also, the aftermaths of the First World War that made key European nations France and Britain to dominate the Middle East after the fall of Ottoman Empire fueled anger on most Islamists after they started losing faith in the need of modernization. The subsequent impact on the attempt of the colonialists to dominate the political and economic powers in the Islamic world fueled resentment as this was an attempt by the western countries to dominate them (Euben, 34). As a result, most Islamic revolutionists saw the need to reawaken the Islamic world through teaching the real meaning of Islam.
Early Islamists saw the need to reform the society after the westernized political administration corrupted the religious morals and values. Coupled with the erosion Islamic culture that had shaped the political, social and economic values in the society, Islamists sought to revive the moral values by changing the social and political system in such a way that Sharia would be the source of law. The drastic movement was the major step of eradicating the westernization that had eroded the culture and way of life of the Muslim community. Thus speaking, the impacts that had been brought by the western colonization of the Islamic country and the introduction of the western political and social ideologies that contradicted the teachings of the Islam religion spurred an out roar of anti-western movement. Its primary aim was to restore morality and re-implement the values of Islam in the political system.
One of the impacts of that has been associated with anti-western ideologies is the rise of reformation movements in the Islamic countries. One of the influential movements; the Muslim Brotherhood was formed to fight for against Western secularism and ideologies that had eroded the social and political system of Islamic countries. The movements had implemented its founder Hassan al-Banna‘s ideology of return to ‘Islam’ and succeeded in revolutionizing the government of Egypt in addition to transforming the Islamic states in North Africa and the Middle East to eradicate secularism during the 2011 Arab Spring. This attempt had brought unity by all the Muslim states towards reviving Islamic teachings in the political system as compared to the liberalists’ governments that had used their powers for selfish gains in collaboration with the Western countries.
Despite being used as a way to return the Islamic States to the tradition teaching of the Islamic law, anti-westernism can be blamed for the increased radicalization in the modern world. This is despite the fact that most theorists such as al-Banna outlining the meaning of revolution as changing of political ideologies, ideas of other theorists such as Qutb’s idea of jihadist influenced the modern day radicalization (Euben, 143). This has however been criticized by most Islamic states saying that Islam teachings condone extremism as it contradicts the teachings of Quran.
The modern Islamism was shaped by ideas of many people who shared similar or different ideas. Earlier Islamic modernization lobbied by Islamic reformers such as Namik Kemal and Jamal al-Afghani. Their idea revolved around modernizing Islamic states by adopting some western ideologies such as a political structure that encouraged democracy. In contrast, the emergence of Islamic theorists such as Hasan Al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb condemned the modernization as the source of the society erosion whereby the impacts of westernization has diminished the value of religious teaching in the community. As such, in contrast to the modernists who believed that strong Islamic world would be achieved through modernizing Islam, Islamic states theorists believed that reestablishing the traditional Islamic teachings and use of Sharia law was the only way of achieving a morally upright world guided by the teachings of Quran.
One notable difference between the ideologies of Islamic modernists and Islamic states theorist is their idea of political structure. Modernistic such as Kemal argued that it was necessary for the Islamic countries to move from the traditional and backward social and political views that hindered measures in achieving a stronger Islamic world. In his views, Kemal argued that adopting modernization measures that included scrapping off the monarchical ruling system by the Ottoman and adoption of a capitalist form of ruling that encouraged democracy was a way towards achieving political strength. As a result, the theories of Islamic modernists influenced the formation of a political system that was separate to religion in addition to the establishment of modern infrastructure such as schools,
In contrast, Islamic states theorists condemned the adoption of the western socio-political system as the source of erosion of morality in the Islamic countries. The impacts of secularism were the erosion of conserved Islamic teachings and according to theorists such as Mawdudi believed that an Islamic state should be governed by Sharia, which is the law of God as everything found in this world is Muslim since it is bound to obey God. The practice of secularists’ ideologies such as forms of government characterized by corrupt democratic views was thus, ungodly and this was unacceptable in an Islamic state (Strindberg, 123). The subsequent result of modernization and secularism was the rise of middle-class people who assumed power in government and implemented their secular-minded thoughts. This, as anti-secularists such as Al-Banna and Qutb argued, was the core cause of erosion of Islamic values and teachings. In their argument, the theorist claimed that eradicating secularism in the Islamic states was the only way that the people will enjoy their rights as well as ensure equality in their countries (Shepard, 23). One of the major arguments presented by Islamists was that despite gaining independence, the western ideologies still controlled the governance of Islamic states through imperialism. For instance, the formation of Muslim Brotherhood was one of the steps of reforming the governance of Egypt that had been worsened by the collaboration of the corrupt government and the imperialists west.
Though their views on modernization and political reformation differed, the theorists in both eras had shared one thing in common; strengthening the Islamic states. The core aim of Islamic modernists was to adopt modern political, social and economic means to modernize Islamic countries and thus gain a competing power over the western states. To achieve this, modernists such as Kemal argued that Islamic countries needed to adopt the use of science and technology as well as give democratic rights to the people rather than clinging to the monarchical form of ruling that was oppressive.
In a similar way, Islamic states theorists had a core purpose of strengthening Islamic countries but through reestablishing the Sharia law. According to their views, secularism and the existence of imperialism had made the Islamic leaders lose their focus of uniting Islamic world through Sharia and instead, leaders were more focused on achieving political and economic power at the expense of the citizens. As such, unity and equality in the Muslim community could be attained if the secularist leaders and imperialists were defeated through the transformed Islam States that followed Sharia and sovereign law and Quran as the only constitution.
Works Cited
Esposito, John L. Islam: The straight path. Vol. 4. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Euben, R. Princeton readings in Islamists thoughts: Texts and Contexts from Al-Banna to Bin Laden. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Print
Shepard, W. E. Sayyid Qutb, and Islamic Activism: A Translation and Critical Analysis of Social Justice in Islam. Leiden, New York: E.J. Brill., 1996. Print.
Strindberg, A &. Wärn, M. Islamism. Cambridge, Malden MA: Polity Press, 2011. Print.
