more on Islamism as 'new social movement'

[Ulhas Joglekar]

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