“…But if one man deserves the title of intellectual grandfather to Osama bin Laden and his fellow terrorists, it is probably the Egyptian writer and activist Sayyid Qutb.“
- Robert Worth, The New York Times
As a result of the wealth which the Bin Laden Corporation generated, Osama Bin Laden used his family’s money to live a carefree and luxurious lifestyle. Because of this, he never managed to exert himself to sit with any of the Muslim scholars, really seek knowledge, or ground himself in the fundamentals of Islamic beliefs. This state of ignorance continued even after he became religious and went to Afghanistan to fight against the Soviets. The fact that he failed to take advantage of studying under the guardianship of the elder scholars of Saudi Arabia led him to mix instead with the Qutbists, a newly arisen sect.
Eventually, he completely dismissed the methodology of the “Wahhabis” and expelled many of its people from the fold of Islam. Therefore, how could it be considered correct to say that Osama Bin Laden is a “Wahhabi”? In actuality, Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda movement are not “Wahhabis”, but rather, Qutbists.
Confirming this important link, the New York Times’ Robert Worth said, “…But if one man deserves the title of intellectual grandfather to Osama bin Laden and his fellow terrorists, it is probably the Egyptian writer and activist Sayyid Qutb.”
The Existence of Qutbism as an Ideology
In an article titled “Terror, Islam and Democracy,” Ladan and Roya Boroumand correctly state that “Most young Islamist cadres today are the direct intellectual and spiritual heirs of the Qutbist wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
They state that: “When the authoritarian regime of President Gamel Abdel Nasser suppressed the Muslim Brothers in 1954 (it would eventually get around to hanging Qutb in 1966), many went into exile in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Morocco. From there, they spread their revolutionary Islamist ideas – including the organizational and ideological tools borrowed from European totalitarianism.”
Expanding upon the link between European revolutionary ideologies and the dogma of Qutbism, The Independent’s John Gray argues in an article entitled “How Marx turned Muslim” that Qutbism is not rooted in the Islamic tradition, but rather, is very much a Western based ideology.
He explains that Sayyid Qutb “incorporated many elements derived from European ideology
into his thinking,” and as such, Qutbism should be seen as an “exotic hybrid, bred from the encounter of sections of the Islamic intelligentsia with radical western ideologies.”
Gray explains that Qutbism is a modern revolutionary movement and unrepresentative of the orthodoxy of true Islam:
“The inspiration for Qutb’s thought is not so much the Quran, but the current of western philosophy embodied in thinkers such as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Qutb’s thought — the blueprint for all subsequent radical Islamist political theology — is as much a response to 20th-century Europe’s experience of ‘the death of God’
as to anything in the Islamic tradition. Qutbism is in no way traditional. Like all fundamentalist
ideology, it is unmistakably modern.”
Speaking about the incontestable link that exists between Bin Laden and Qutbism, the Arab News’ Amir Taheri said: “In time, Maudoodo-Qutbism
provided the ideological topos in which Bin Ladenism could grow.”
Shaykh Rabee’ ibn Hadi al-Madkhali, the renowned Salafi scholar who has written several books refuting the mistakes of Sayyid Qutb, concludes the following about Qutbism: “The Qutbists are the followers of Sayyid Qutb… everything you see of the tribulations, the shedding of blood and the problems in the Islamic world today arise from the methodology (of this man).”
- abridged from the book: The ‘Wahhabi’ Myth
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The Qutbists are those who adhere to the ideology of Sayyid Qutb, a modern proponent of revolutionary thought. This particular ideology has been termed al-Qutbiyyah (Qutbism).
Robert Worth, The deep intellectual roots of Islamic terror, The New York Times, 13th October 2001.
Ladan and Roya Boroumand, Terror, Islam and Democracy, The Journal of Democracy, April 2002. Note: Since the Boroumands have correctly linked Qutbism with European totalitarianism, we can say that it is not correct for these people to be referred to as Islamists. Rather, it would be more accurate to refer to them as Muslim activists. Although they are Muslims, their revolutionary ideology cannot be attributed to Islam.
Robert Worth of the New York Times mentioned the following regarding the European influence of the Qutbists, “As Fathi Yakan, one of Qutb’s disciples, wrote in the 1960’s: ‘The groundwork for the French Revolution was laid by Rousseau, Voltaire and Montesquieu; the Communist Revolution realized plans set by Marx, Engels and Lenin… The same holds true for us as well.’” (Robert Worth, The Deep Intellectual Roots of Islamic Terror, The New York Times, 13th October 2001.)
Revolutionary thinkers such as Abu Alaa Maududi, Sayyid Qutb, Hasan Turabi of Sudan and the Iranian philosopher Ali Shariati became ideologically influenced by the West after having resided there. Although they rejected Western lifestyle and refuted it, they also became very influenced by it, formulating radical ideologies of reform. They were ignorant of Islam and its creed, and thus made their political thought and analysis the basis of their doctrine, and then sought to Islamicize it.
The concept of attributing death to the Creator, whether it be expressed literally or symbolically, is absurd in the extreme. Allah said in the Quran:
“And put your trust in the Ever-Living Who dies not, and glorify His Praises” (Quran 25:58)
It would have been more accurate for Gray to have said, “Like all extremist ideology, it is unmistakably modern,” instead of using the ambiguous term “fundamentalist.”
John Gray, How Marx turned Muslim, The Independent, 27 July, 2002.
Taheri is referring to the link between Abu Alaa Maududi, the South-Asian Muslim “thinker,” and Sayyid Qutb, who was heavily influenced by Maududi’s writings. Confirming this, the Telegraph stated the following regarding Qutb: “Egyptian writer and thinker. Took up the idea of Abu al-Alaa al-Maududi (1903-79) that much of the Muslim world had returned to ungodly ignorance (jahiliyah).” (A-Z of Islam, The Telegraph, November 15, 2001.)
Amir Taheri, Bin Laden no longer exists: Here is why. The Arab News, August 29, 2002.
Shaykh Rabee’ ibn Haadee on Imaam al-Albaanee and Irjaa’ (Source: 11th January, 2002 Tele-link from the UK, www.salafipublications.com – Article ID: MSC060014).
