Egypt's Islamic activism in the 1980s

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 1988, Pages 632-657

  Ibrahim, Saad Eddin ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84963333679     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436598808420075     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. These distinctions are elaborated in Saad Eddin Ibrahim, ‘Contemporary Islamic militancy’, in Idem Vnserar Zeit, Zurich: Rugger Verlag, 1987, pp 109-27.
2. Hanafi, Hassan, ‘Islam and politics in Egypt: 1952-1977’ in S. E. Ibrahim, Egypt in a Quarter of a Century (in Arabic). Beirut: Arab Development Institute, 1980, pp 265-340; and Barbara, Rosewiez, ‘Prestigious Al-Azhar is a force of moderation’, Wall Street Journal, 10 August 1987, p 18.
3. The reference here is to Ali Abdel Razek's book Islam and Fundamentals of Rule (in Arabic, al-Islam wa Usul al-Hukm) in which he advocated the separation between Islam and governments; and to Taha Hussein's book, The Jahiliyya Literature (in Arabic, al-Adab al-Jahili), both appeared in the early 1930s and were considered by Al-Azhar as ‘heretical’.
4. See an elaborate account of the changing relationship between the religious establishment and the state in Fahmy Howaidi, The Quran and the Sultan (in Arabic), Cairo: Dar al Shuruk, 1982.
5. These descriptions were used by young Islamic militants interviewed in prison by the author between 1977 and 1979. See details on this point in S. E. Ibrahim ‘Anatomy of Egypt's militant Islamic groups’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 12, December 1980, pp 423-53.
6. These figures are obtained from a mimeographed report prepared by Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMS), titled Imams and Preachers in the Arab Republic of Egypt, Cairo, June 1984. See also, Rosewiez ‘Prestigious Al-Azhar’.
7. For a detailed account on Egypt's sufi orders, see Morroe Berger, Islam in Egypt Today: Social and Political Aspects of Popular Religion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970 especially pp 62-89.
8. The best and most detailed account of the foundation and evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood is found in Richard Mitchell, The Society of the Moslem Brothers, London: Oxford University Press, 1969. See also, Ishaq Musa Husayni, The Muslim Brethren: The Greatest of Modern Islamic Movements (translated from Arabic), Beirut: Khayat College Book Cooperation, 1956; Rifat al-Said, Hassan al-Banna (in Arabic), Cairo: Madbouly Bookshop, 1978.
9. See an account of the Brotherhood's acts of violence in Fahmy Howaidi, ‘The new Commander [of the Faithful] in Upper Egypt’ (in Arabic), Al-Ahram, 17 November 1987. Among these assassinations before 1952 was a judge A al-Khazendar and a prime-minister M. F. al-Noukrashi in 1947 and 1948-49, respectively.
10. Having escaped Egypt to the oil-rich Arab countries during Nasser's crack-down on the Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s, many members of the Brotherhood accumulated substantial savings abroad; returned to Egypt in the early 1970s, took advantage of Sadat's new open-door economic policy, and set-up various types of industrial enterprise. The Al-Sherif brothers are perhaps a good example of Brotherhood entrepreneurship. In one decade their small plastic enterprise had grown into an agglomeration of multi-industries, agribusiness, and investment companies. The total value of its assets are estimated to be in excess of one billion dollars at home and abroad. See, al-Ahram al-Iktisadi (in Arabic-Al-Ahram Economist), 8 December 1986.
11. ibid., see also an interview with Dr Atef Sidky Egypt's Prime Minister, Al-Ahram, 14 August, 1987. The higher estimates of L.E. 48 billion (about $25 billion) of the 180 Islamic investment companies was given by the Cairo weekly Sawl al-Arab, 9 August 1987.
12. See details of this campaign in the state-controlled Cairo weeklies al-Mosawwar, 14, 21, and 28, November 1986, and Al-Ahram al-Iktisadi, 1, 8 December 1986.
13. In 1980, the number of mosques in Egypt was about 28,000 of which slightly more than 7,000 were government controlled and the remainder (more than 20,000) were independently controlled. The former are maintained, their preachers and employees are paid, and their activities (including the text of the Friday Ceremony, (Khutba) are directly supervised by the government's MRE and Al-Azhar. The latter remained completely outside government control till 1981, when they too were placed under partial governmental supervision. See CAPMAS report, Imams and Preachers, op. ci
14. See, for example, al-Rayyan's and al-Hoda's advertising for such services in Egypt's major daily At-Ahram 6, 13 November 1987.
15. See, for example, issue of Al-Ahram al-lktisadi, 2 Nov 1987 in which the editorial and three articles (pp 8-21) were directed against these companies. Meanwhile the Al-Ahram daily (the same publishing house) on the same day carried promotion advertising for three of these companies (al-Rayyan, al-Huda, and al-Saad). This practice is not confined to the state-controlled media. The leftist weekly Al-Ahali issue of 25 November 1987 published an article against Islamic investment companies (p 3) and an advertisement for one of them (al-Rayyan) on the back page.
16. For an account of the relationship between the Brotherhood and Sadat, see Ibrahim, ‘An Islamic alternative in Egypt: the Muslim Brotherhood and Sadat’, Arab Studies Quarterly, 4 (2) Spring 1982.
17. See the Brotherhood's monthly al-Dawa, issues of December 1977 to April 1981.
18. Out of the 448 seats, the NDP had 391 in 1984, which dropped to 353 in 1987 (a net loss of thirty-eight seats). The WP (with the Brotherhood combined) had fifty-seven seats in 1984, which dropped to thirty-five in 1987. Since the Brotherhood was not with WP in the latter election its net loss is actually twelve seats (i.e. from forty-seven to thirty-five).
19. Al-Shaab, 17 March, 1987.
20. The reference is to Mr Gammal Asad Abdel-Malak. The NDP (the majority party) did not put any Copt on the top of any of its districts’ lists. Dr Botrous Ghali, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs since 1977, is a Christian (but not a Copt) and was on one of the NDP'S lists for the number two District of Central Cairo and was the only other Christian elected in 1987. It is noteworthy that there are ten seats in the Assembly whose occupants are appointed by the President; most of which go to Egyptian Copts. For other accommodating statements by the Brotherhood vis-a-vis the Copts, see Sheikh Mustafa Mashhour, ‘The correct Islamic understanding of national unity’, al Shaab, 3 November 1987, p 5.
21. The reference is to former President Numeiri of Sudan when he hurriedly implemented the Islamic Penal Code in September 1983. As this coincided with the severe drought in the Sudan (1983-85), not to mention the chronic economic problems of the country, the result was that hundreds of poor Sudanese had their hands chopped for thieving. Wide-spread protest inside and outside the Sudan broke out. Ultimately Numeiri was toppled, for this and other reasons, in April 1985.
22. See Mashhour, ‘Islamic understanding’, op. dt. p 5.
23. From an interview with the author in February 1984.
24. Upon Telmessani's death in 1986, Mr Hamed Abn-Alnasr, the oldest member of SPG was automatically chosen as the fourth Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood. Other more able but few other younger members, e.g. Sheikh Mustafa Mashhour (cited above) were bypassed.
25. The TMA plan to topple the regime was fairly simple. Some 100 TMAS were to storm the Technical Military Academy (in cooperation with some of their own members inside who were cadets), seize enough arms and vehicles; march on to the Arab Socialist Union building where Sadat and other top leaders were attending an official event, arrest or kill them; and storm the nearby radio and television building to announce the birth of the ‘Islamic Republic of Egypt’. The first two stages of the plot on 18 April, 1974, were carried out. Before the TAMS could leave the Academy on their way to the Arab Socialist Union, the State Security Forces counter-attacked. Eleven people were killed and twenty-seven were wounded. For more details, see Ibrahim, ‘Anatomy of Egypt's Militant Islamic Groups’, op. cit., p 450.
26. For a full analytical account of the Jihad group and the events of 1981, see Nemat Guenena, ‘The Jihad an “Islamic Alternative” in Egypt, Cairo Papers in Social Science (9) Monograph 2, Summer 1986.
27. For details of these shoot-outs. See Al-Ahram, 30 August 1987.
28. For details and analysis of these acts, see Al-Shaab, 27 October 1987, p 3; and F Howaidi, ‘The New Commanders of the Faithful in Upper Egypt’, Al-Ahram, 17 November, 1987, p 7.
29. Howaidi, ibid. p 7.
30. See a full account by both Ibn Taymiyya and Abdel Salam Farag in Mohamed Emera, The Absent Commandment: Presentation, Dialogue, and Evaluation (Arabic) Cairo: Dar Thabet, 1982
31. MA Farag, The Absent Commandment (Arabic with no publisher or date) pp 7-8, as cited in Ibid pp 10-11.
32. Al-Taba, Chapter of the Holy Koran, verses 38-39.
33. For details on the Militants Social Profile, see Ibrahim “The Anatomy of Egypt's militant Islamic groups’ op. cit. pp 437-40.
34. Shukry Mustafa was a young agricultural engineer, who in the mid 1960s after the Second crack-down on the Brotherhood was heavily influenced by Sayed Qutb, a Brotherhood hard-liner while in prison. Released by Sadat in the early 1970s, Shukry Mustafa organised what came to be known as the Takfir Wal-al-Hijra group (Repentance and Holy Flight, RHF); which in July 1977 engaged the Sadat regime in a bloody confrontation, leaving six people dead and fifty-seven wounded. Shukry Mustafa, along was four others, were sentenced to death and executed in 1978 at the age of thirty-seven.
35. For more details on this confrontation, see Ibrahim, ‘Anatomy of Egypt's militant Islamic Groups’, op. cit., pp 442-3; and p 450.
36. ibid., p 450.
37. See Al-Ahram, Issues of 30, 31, August and 1 September, 1987.
38. Sayed, Qutb, Landmarks in the Road (Arabic. Maalem fi al-Tarik), Cairo: Dar al-Shuruk, 1983 edition, p 191.
39. For details and critical analysis of these intellectual roots, see M. A. Khalafallah, ‘Islamic awakening in Egypt’, op. cit. (footnote 10 above) pp 62-3 and pp 66-7.