Sayyid Qutb

[[File:Qutb.jpg|upright|thumb|165px|Sayyid Qutb in 1965.]]
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{{cquote|<center>''Verily, this Quran does not reveal its secrets save to those<br> who rush into battles with the Quran at their side.''</center>|20px|20px|Sayyid Qutb<ref>Doctrines for Jihadi Terrorist Training, Brynjar Lia, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Kjeller, Norway, 2008, [http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/32254549/p1-libre.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ56TQJRTWSMTNPEA&Expires=1423332999&Signature=0CcdrMaclEpCzcN0LWjxVNKXdSk%3D p.13 pdf].</ref>}}
'''Sayyid Qutb''' (pron. koo-tuhb; 1906-1966) was an [[Egypt]]ian poet, educator and writer and revivalist of the concept of a Sunni Islamic state governed by [[Shariah]] law.  He was from a remote village in central Egypt and was educated in schools based upon the Western model. He chose a career in education and got a job in Egypt's Ministry of Education. 

Qutb  went through a period of "wastage" and [[apostasy]] for 15 years studying the works of [[Karl Marx]]<ref>http://www.islamagainstextremism.com/articles/areil-sayyid-qutb-brought-leninism-to-contemporary-takfiri-and-jihadi-groups.cfm </ref> and others. Qutb "gulped down" Western ideals such as individualism and [[Freethought|independent thinking]], abandoning the guidance of traditional Islamic scholarship.<ref>http://www.themadkhalis.com/md/articles/edera-salaah-al-khaalidee-qutb-drank-heavily-from-the-western-materialist-philosophies-which-led-him-to-doubt-islam.cfm </ref>  After a two-year stint in the United States to study its educational system Qutb converted to radical Islam. Upon his return to Egypt he published several radical texts including the seminal [[Islamist]] tract, ''Milestones on the Road''<ref>{{wpa|Ma'alim fi al-Tariq}}.</ref>. 

Qutb hijacked Marxist anti-capitalist sentiment to attack Western materialistic culture. Qutb replaced the godless Marxist {{wpl|Vanguardism#Other_uses|revolutionary vanguard}} with [[jihad]]ism to overthrow regimes installed by Western [[imperialist]]s.<ref>http://www.sayyidqutb.com/ </ref> He was arrested and charged with plotting a Marxist coup, a charge which media and public opinion deemed entirely plausible, but today appears ludicrous.<ref>http://arabicpaper.tripod.com/qutb.html </ref>  It was in fact Nassar's Soviet allies, and not the NATO Western powers, who urged Nassar to deal harshly with resistance movements.

[[Ayman al-Zawahiri]], the founder of the [[Al-Qaeda]] movement of [[Osama bin Laden]] fame, was a protege of Qutb.  

Sayyid was hanged in Egypt in 1966, which only strengthened the radical Islamists he was leading.  His death is seen by extremists as the first shahid (or martyr) in the global jihad and his writings (mostly from jail) are now the central texts (guides) outside the Qur'an  in Islamism.  "A Child From the Village" is a great read on the early life and times of Sayyid, while also covering his conversion to extremism.  

He is the author of a 15 volume Commentary on the Qur'an often quoted by [[Salafi]]s, ''In the Shade of the Qur'an''.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/InTheShadeOfTheQuranSayyidQutb In the Shade of the Qur'an], Sayyid Qutb. Internet Archive.</ref>

A staunch anti-Semite, Qutb published a book titled ''Our Struggle against the Jews''.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR2010080904866.html</ref>

==Qutbism==

Following the brief presidency (2012-2013) of Mohammed Morsi of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] in [[Egypt]] and their relationship with [[Hamas]], it was actually worthwhile to understand what Qutb was in the pantheon of Islamic thought.  [[Sam Harris]] insists that Islam is inherently violent, but the reality is that Qutb informs more modern Muslim radical ethos than the Prophet. His idea is that Arabs will unite and collapse the despot regimes that embraced secular ethos of the revisionist [[Baath Party]] or Nasser-ism.  Nobody remembers that Qutb was killed for opposing the [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser regime]], not because he was a Muslim, and understanding this power-relationship is important in understanding the new relationship the West will have with Egypt (For those of you who weren't keeping track, Egyptian relations with Israel are pretty important). Qutb was nice enough to leave behind a concise yet phantasmagorical vision of the future where everyone mass-converts (kinda like Moonies), titled Ma'alim fi al-Tariq' ("Signposts" or "Millstones on the Road") that is just utopian enough to allow any ''alleged'' Qutbist party to bring about either a certain kind of economic re-construction not seen since the end of the Roman Empire in regards to the Middle East and the Arabic Peninsula, or, on the contrast, wreak all sorts of fucking untold misery, stupidity, despotism, and paranoia.

Quintan Wiktorowitcz claims modern Salafists "focus on several Qur’anic verses related to God’s right to rule, including Qur’an 5:44,86 and build on Sayyid Qutb’s understanding of ''tawhid hakamiyya'' (the right of God alone to rule). Terms related to ''hakamiyya'' in the Qur’an are used to mean wisdom, judgment, and reconciliation, rather than authority, but Qutb expanded their meaning to incorporate governance and rule."<ref>[http://www.cerium.ca/IMG/pdf/WIKTOROWICZ_2006_Anatomy_of_the_Salafi_Movement.pdf Anatomy of the Salafi Movement], Quintan Wiktorowitcz, Talylor Francis Group, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 29:207–239, 2006. PDF pp. 26-27.</ref> These ideas have been used to condemn democratic elections, parliamentary democracy, and Islamic rulers who embrace such or make peace accords with Infidel powers.

==External links==
*[http://majalla.org/books/2005/qutb-nilestone.pdf Milestones], Studies in Islam and the Middle East Journal translation.
*[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/presence-feb06.html A Lesson In Hate], David Von Drehle, ''Smithsonian Magazine''
*[http://atheism.about.com/od/islamicextremismpeople/a/qutb_2.htm Sayyid Qutb: Father of Modern Islamic Extremism]. Jahiliyya in Extremist Ideology, By Austin Cline. atheism.about.com 
==References==
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[[Category:Muslims]]
[[Category:Islamic extremism]]
[[Category:Anti-Christian bigots]]
[[Category:Antisemites]]

Categories: Muslims, Islamic extremism, Anti-Christian bigots, Antisemites