Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

5 8Islam i n World Cult u r e sparade file past the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a monument commemoratingEgypt’s military power. The tomb was built in the mid-1970s in theshape of a pyramid, the symbol of Egypt’s ancient pagan kings. Drawing potentlyon this j a h i l i y y a symbolism, Sadat’s assassin shouted, as the echoes ofgunfire died, that he had killed Pharaoh.Other Arab countries have experienced the growth of modern Islamic activistgroups as well. In Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Palestine, and Ye m e n ,the symbolic vocabulary of Islam has replaced that of Marxism as the idiomin which the largest and most successful political opposition groups voicetheir ideologies. Some of these groups encourage direct confrontationagainst corrupt governing structures while others, like the reconstitutedMuslim Brotherhood in contemporary Egypt and Jordan, work for reformboth within the political system and in open activities in society at large, continuingthe tradition of Hasan al-Banna in providing educational programs,clinics, and recreational facilities in poor neighborhoods. Such services benefitthe poorest segments of society and attract supporters both amongclients and among professionals who volunteer their time, money, and energyto improve their societies.Other groups, such as the Palestinian Hamas (literally, “Zeal,” but also anArabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement”), are active on both politicaland military fronts. With a dual structure, Hamas has a military wing thatcarries out attacks against Israelis and a civil wing that provides public serv i c e sto populations under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and theGaza Strip. Hamas’s social programs are so efficient and respected by the populationof the territories that at various times, international humanitarianagencies have funneled relief supplies through them rather than through theofficial but corrupt secular governing structures. Hamas was founded in 1987,during the first Palestinian i n t i f a d a , or revolt against Israel. Its leaders weremembers of the Muslim Brotherhood of Gaza, which had run an Islamic centerin Gaza City since 1973. As is the case with most important Islamic groupsin the contemporary Middle East, the founders and most important membersof the Muslim Brotherhood of Gaza do not fit the standard stereotypes of Muslimfundamentalists as poor, uneducated, and backward. Present at its smallfounding meeting were a pharmacist and a physician, a teacher and a schoolma s t e r, an engineer and a university staff member. The group’s leader, AhmadYasin, was a former schoolteacher who had studied English in Cairo in the1960s (Abu-Amr 1994).Similar profiles of movement leaders and members—teachers, civil servants,and professionals—can be found in the ranks of Islamist movementsthroughout the region. In Morocco and Algeria, Islamist movements havebeen particularly popular among students and recent graduates both at theuniversity and high school levels. As an Algerian student said in 1990,