Would the world be a different place if Sayyid Qutb had been more comfortable with women?
Asked by
josie (
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January 30th, 2011
The appearance of the Muslim Brotherhood in the recent demonstrations in Egypt is a worrisome development for Westerners in the region, Christian Arabs, the safety of the Suez Canal, Israel and the state of the world in general.
Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian writer, poet and philosopher. He was the mind and voice of the Egytian Muslim Brotherhood in the 50s and 60s. He was executed in the mid sixties for plotting to kill Egyptian officials and politicians.
He is one of the inspirations for the Islamist movement.
Some scholars believe that without Qutb, there would be no Al Quaida, such was the influence of his ideas.
He spent time in America studying. One of his many observations while in the US was this description of American women;
“the American girl is well acquainted with her body’s seductive capacity. She knows it lies in the face, and in expressive eyes, and thirsty lips. She knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs — and she shows all this and does not hide it”
Clearly, this guy had what we might today call “issues” regarding women.
If he had liked women, do you think the world would have been a safer place?
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6 Answers
The quotation you give makes it sound that he did like women but perhaps he was tormented by the temptation they presented and turned to extreme Islam as an escape. He rejected Western values and favoured an Islamic government and Sharia law. He advocated violence to overthrow corrupt governments and he was imprisoned and it seems tortured and ultimately executed by hanging mostly on the evidence of what he had openly written.
This has made him into something of a martyr. If only he had met one of those lovely American ladies and settled down to raise a family his story, and perhaps that of the world, would be very different. But then he wouldn’t have been Sayyid Qutb.
This is not about women. This is about money and power dynamics on the global scale.
Well actually it is about Sayyid Qutb, and his disgust with the everything Western including, but not limited to, the women.
@josie These movements are never about one man, one thing – they have a history, they have a multitude of factors involved. Everything else is scapegoating.
You are indulging in crude reductionism….the Muslim brotherhood wouldn’t be my choice for absolute political leadership but they have legitimate concerns about the social effects of alcohol, sexual misconduct and so forth, like most patriarchal types.
They have a right to question the encroachment of Western consumerism and the mistreatment of Palestinians, for example. What we need is a vibrant democracy in Egypt that is fully inclusive and allows for common sense to triumph. What we don’t need is anymore US sponsored despots that actually frustrate the political aspirations of the Muslim brotherhood to the extent that they express themselves violently and become savagely misanthropic toward all things Western.
No. Because the root evil of Qutb’s world view is intolerance. Qutb is one of the most dangerous minds in human history. He became a radical during his time in the US.
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