THE 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS - CESD

ideological divisionsIIIb. islamic modernismIslamic modernism is a reform movement started by politically-mindedurbanites with scant knowledge of traditional Islam. These people hadwitnessed and studied Western technology and socio-political ideas, andrealized that the Islamic world was being left behind technologically by theWest and had become too weak to stand up to it. They blamed this weaknesson what they saw as ‘traditional Islam,’ which they thought held them back andwas not ‘progressive’ enough. They thus called for a complete overhaul of Islam,including—or rather in particular—Islamic law (sharia) and doctrine (aqida).Islamic modernism remains popularly an object of derision and ridicule, and isscorned by traditional Muslims and fundamentalists alike.IIIc. islamic fundamentalismSUNNIMuslim BrotherhoodThe Muslim Brotherhood, or Al Ikhwan Al Muslimeen is a transnational Sunnimovement, with no particular ideological agenda. It is the largest politicalopposition organization in many Arab states, particularly in Egypt where it wasfounded in opposition to colonial rule by Hassan al Banna in 1928.Al Banna originally sought to revive Muslim culture from its position ofexploitation under colonial rule, through charitable and educational work: togive Islam a central role in people’s life. Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966 CE) was also aleading member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s.Wahhabism/SalafismWahhabism/Salafism are terms used interchangeably to refer to a particularbrand of Islam. Salaf, meaning predecessors in Arabic, refers to the very earlypractice of Islam by Muhammad and his immediate successors. Salafismproposes to revive the practice of Islam as it was at the time of the Prophet and iscritical of emphasis being placed on thinkers from after this period. Muhammadibn ‘Abd al Wahhab (1703-1792 CE) was the central figure in the formulation ofthis ideology therefore Salafism is often simply known as Wahhabism.21