WATANI International
3 April 2011
Hassan al-Banna al-lathi la Yaarifahu Ahad (The Hassan al-Banna Nobody Knows); Madbouli; Cairo; 2011
The timing of prominent writer Helmi Namnam’s latest book, Hassan al-Banna al-lathi la Yaarifahu Ahad (The Hassan al-Banna Nobody Knows), could hardly be more timely. The book, published by Madbouli, has appeared just as the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is gaining legitimacy and operating freely and actively on the Egyptian scene.
Namnam, a Muslim, sheds a somewhat critical spotlight on the MB’s founder Hassan al-Banna (1906 – 1949), who has become sanctified by those who believe in him and follow his ideas. Namnam says: “In the literature of the group, the character of Hassan al-Banna, the ‘martyred imam’, is almost holy, but in fact it was not so when he was alive. Some members disagreed with him and left the group. Others attacked him, accusing him of tyranny and dictatorship. They said that he talked about shura [counselling in Islamic thought], but never applied it.” When the group became active again in the 1970s, however, it went to a lot of effort to idealise the image of its guide.
Who’s an apostate?
Namnam’s purpose, it is obvious, is to expose the thought of the MB through the documented disclosure of facts about the founder and foundation of the movement. Many of these facts have been deliberately twisted, beautified, and polished by the modern members of the MB, in an effort to delude the public. The darker side of the MB has been intentionally diluted and concealed. In that sense, Namnam asks some harsh questions. His effort to expose the truth about the movement is to be commended.
Namnam says that if the first statement issued by the group is considered an official document, then the group was not established until 1930, and furthermore affirms that this statement totally excluded political affairs. A second statement issued in 1935, however, transferred the MB’s structure from that of an association to a group listing politics at the top of its agenda, and citing specific laws and regulations that set the group apart from the community.
In the chapter “Declaring someone an apostate, according to the teachings of the Guide”, Namnam makes the claim that all fanatic and extremist groups which used violence against communities came out of the cloak of the MB. In the teachings of conservative Islam, once someone is declared an apostate he or she must be fought and killed.
Taxing non-Muslims
In the chapter, “The priest and the State of Amm [literally uncle, in this case used as form of scepticism] Hassan”, Namnam refers to Father Sergius, the preacher whose famous speeches during the 1919 revolution earned him the nickname “the speaker of the revolution”, and who took a stand against Banna’s teachings which were then arousing great concern among Copts and Jews. This concern turned to fear when acts of violence took place against Jews, and churches in Zagazig and Suez were burnt down. Banna called for the return of an Islamic caliphate, where there would be no nations and accordingly no homelands, but a nation of Islam and a land of Muslims. He said that Copts must pay the jizya, a tax imposed on non-Muslims under Muslim rule, which he described as an advantage in the form of a tax. The philosophy behind the tax is that it exempts its payer from military service, since it was believed that the loyalty of non-Muslims who fought side by side with Muslims could not be trusted, especially if the enemy was non-Muslim. It was thus perceived that exempting non-Muslims from military service secured the unalloyed loyalty of the combat forces.
Never live to see the day
Banna’s ideas were fiercely attacked by the enlightened intellectual Salama Moussa, who called for the separation of religion and State. Moussa stressed the patriotism of the Copts, pointing out their role in the 1919 revolution. Fr Sergius, meanwhile, published several articles attacking the MB; he later compiled them in his book Death, But Not A State Ruled According to the principles of Amm Hassan. He wrote that he never expected or even imagined that in the 20th century, in the era of constitution, democracy and the atomic bomb, Banna would emerge and gain such a huge following, even as he called for a rule that would humiliate Egypt and its people. Fr Sergius hoped he would never live to see that day. There may be many now who hold the same hope.