An Islamist's Negative Reaction to America: Sayyid Qutb's Journey, Experiences and Impressions of the United States (1948–1950)

Abstract

Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XL, No.3, Spring 2017 An Islamist’s Negative Reaction to America: Sayyid Qutb’s Journey, Experiences and Impressions of the United States (1948-1950) Adnan A. Musallam* I spent one year in that huge (workshop) they call (the New World). I moved from New York to Washington, to Denver to Greeley… During this long period of time and throughout this vast area of space I did not glimpse—except in rare occasions—a human face which expresses the meaning of man, or a human look from which the meanings of humanity are revealed… but I found the herd everywhere, the raging and wandering herd which knows no direction except pleasure and money… Sayyid Qutb (1949) In the 1950 issue of Cache La Poudre (Bear’s Claw), the Year Book of the Colorado College of Education (in Greeley), are to be found the photographs of the 45 members of the college’s international club... Among the four with Arabic names is the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb who, mustachioed and immaculately attired in jacket and tie, stares out from the page with a benign, self assured smile. Few of the students at the college would have been aware that their colleague was in fact an Egyptian nationalist thinker with strong Islamist leanings, who had recently completed a noteworthy treatise on the subject of social justice in Islam. Certainly none could have imagined that, seventeen years after the Year Book photo-shot, their colleague would be executed in his homeland… 1 *Adnan A. Musallam, Ph. D., is an active member of Al-Liqa’s Board of Trustees and an associate professor of history at Bethlehem University in the Holy Land – Bethlehem – PNA - Palestine. Introduction This is an inquiry into the intellectual career of Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966), an Egyptian poet, educator, journalist, literary critic and a leading ideologue of the contemporary Islamic movement, radical Islamism and global jihad. Qutb is noted for the revolutionary zeal with which he promoted what be considered the inevitable establishment of a true and just society “Islamic Society” in place of the “Jahili” (pagant) society which exists throughout the world. In 1966 Qutb was executed by President Nasser’s regime for allegedly leading an underground apparatus to overthrow the government. Qutb’s 1964 controversial book Ma‘alim (Milestones) was utilized by the Egyptian state prosecutor’s office in building its case against him, and in sending him to the gallows in August 1966. The focus of this research, therefore, is Qutb’s negative views of Western civilization as was seen in his journey, experiences and impressions of America, 1948–1950. The Nature of Qutb’s Journey to America Qutb’s campaigns against the socio-economic situation in the country and his demand for social justice on the pages of al-Fikr al-Jadid (New Thought) and other magazines in the years 1945–1948 caused a lot of uproar among groups having vested interests in the country including the royal palace. According to partisan sources, the palace became impatient with Qutb and ordered his arrest. However, Prime Minister Mahmoud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi was a former colleague of Qutb in politics and was able to save the situation. So he issued an order to Qutb’s superiors in the Ministry of Education to send him abroad in an educational scholarship. In autumn 1948, Qutb left Egypt for the United States to study the principles of education and curricula including American curricula.1 Adel Hammudah points out: “The matter with this visit arouses puzzlement and anxiety and raises many questions and exclamation marks. This visit came at a time when Qutb was attacking the royal regime and the establishment... Instead of the prison, he traveled to America...(and) shortly before the scholarship, he was transferred to a post in the Minister’s office which qualifies him for it…then…an important question is inevitable: why the United States 2 1 Salah ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Khalidi, Amrika min al-dakhil bi-mindhar Sayyid Qutb, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 1985, pp. 16–17; al-Khalidi’s work is basically an anthology of Qutb’s writings on America resulting from his stay, 1948-1950; and...