more on Islamism as 'new social movement'

Ulhas Joglekar uvj at vsnl.com
Fri Nov 15 06:19:02 PST 2002


James Heartfield wrote:
> The inspiration for Qutb's thought is not so much the Koran, but
> the current of western philosophy embodied in thinkers such as
> Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Qutb's thought -- the blueprint
> for all subsequent radical Islamist political theology -- is as much a
> response to 20th-century Europe's experience of "the death of God" as to
> anything in the Islamic tradition. Qutbism is in no way traditional.
> Like all fundamentalist ideology, it is unmistakeably modern."

There are about 400 million muslims in South Asia. While my acquaintance with South Asian Islam is superficial, I haven't come accross any suggestion by anyone that South Asian Islam, whether radical or traditional, has been influenced by Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Heidegger. I have in mind Marxist/leftwing writers and historians like Tariq Ali, Aijaz Ahmad, Mushirul Hasan, Bipan Chandra etc. But I may be mistaken.

I would agree that fundamentalism/communalism are a modern phenomena, in so far as they are preoccupied with the "origins". They remind me of Freud (rather Nietzsche etc.), with his interpretation of "Who am I?" "Where do I come from?" etc.

Ulhas



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