THE STRUGGLE OF MUSLIM IDEOLOGUES AGAINST OPPRESSIVE REGIMES: RETHINKING THE CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE ON RELIGION

Abstract

Sociologists have developed several theories to understand the role of religion in the society and the ways in which religion interacts with other social institutions and cultural norms. The conflict perspective on religion, as viewed by Karl Marx, posits that religion functions to maintain social inequality and reinforce the power of the ruling class by promoting false consciousness and distracting the oppressed from their true economic and political conditions. Marx famously described religion as the opium of the masses because he thought that it offered a false sense of comfort to the exploited people, preventing them from recognizing the true source of their suffering and mobilizing to overthrow their oppressors. This article examines the revolutionary ideas of Muslim ideologues—namely, Maulana Mawdudi, Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutub—and attempts to prove that contrary to what conflict theorists argue and believe, revolutionary Muslim ideologues have used religion to mobilize their exploited population to rise up and overthrow oppressive regimes. Keywords: Oppression, Conflict, Jihad, Colonization, Karl Marx, Emancipation, Social Justice, Jahiliya, Muslim Brotherhood.