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Sunni Radicalism in the Middle East and the Iranian Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Emmanuel Sivan
Emmanuel Sivan
Affiliation:
Department of History Herew University, Jerusalem
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Extract

Sunni radicalism surfaced before the Iranian Revolution of 1978. It arose out of conditions specific to Arab countries and the manner in which those faithful to the Suuna reacted to these conditions. In the quater century between the appeareance of the ideas of Sayyis Qutb, the father of Sunni radicalism, and the end of the 1970s, not only were the Sunni radical movements devoid of Iranian-Shi⊂i influence, but almost no reference was made in these movements to the fact that Iranian Islam was simultaneously undergoing a process of radicalization. A mixture of ignorance and apathy predominanted. The most one can find are several references to the organizational lessons of the Fidaciyan al-Islam, an Iranian phenomenon of the early 1950s; it seems that whatever inspiration the radical Sunni movements in Arab lands sought from the outside came from Sunni circles in India andPakistan.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 1989 , pp. 1 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

NOTES

Author's note: This article was written while I was a fellow at the Center for International Studies, Princeton University, 1987–1988.

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38 Chrara, Transformation, pp. 94–100.

39 Text of his speeches in al-Nahar, February 3, 1974; January 23, 1975.

40 Cf. al-Anwar, December 22, 1977; al-Amal (organ of the movement), October 29, 1983; al-Nahar and al-Anwar, October 5, 1984; Libération (Paris), September 26, 1985.

41 Al-Nahar, August 26, 1974.

42 Al-Nahar, December 11, 1978; November 30, 1979.

43 Al-Hakim's speech was published in Tehran in a booklet form, Thawrat at-Husayn (1982). Cf. Iraq, Munazamat al-Amal al-Islami fi, Iraq al-yawm wa-l-bahth 'ani-l-Husayn (Tehran, 1982).Google Scholar

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54 A. S. Ali, al-Ijtihad fi-l-Islam, ibid., 38–39; Hezbollah' s program, al-Risalat al-Maftuha … ila-l-mustad'ifin (Beirut, 1985).

55 Al-Shahid (April 9, 1980), 54.

56 Publisher's introduction to Nahdar al-Mahdi, p. 3.

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62 Quoted by Hanafi, H. in al- Watan (Kuwait), 11 29, 1982.Google Scholar

63 Interview with the movement's leaders in al-Usbu' al-'arabi, January 14, 1985; al-Liwa' (Beirut), March 16, 1984; al-Bilad (Beirut), September 23; al-'Alim (London), January 26, 1985; and their publication al-'Hajj:bay'a wa-jihad (Beirut, 1983). On ulama and revolution, see Siddiqi's, K. two articles in al-'lrfan, (September, 1984; October, 1984).Google Scholar

64 Al- Wahdat al-islamiyya, 1 (1983), 32–34; 5 (1984) (Qutb), 16–22; (Mutahhari), 3(1983), 31–34; article on Sadr by Fadlallah, 4(1983), 16–18 (synthesis by Dr. Nafisi, a Kuwaiti Sunni).

65 E.g., cf. Hammud, M., “al-Wahdat al-islamiyya,” at-Muntalaq, 21 (05 1983), 16–27. Note the overlapping of participants in the two organs (notably Hammud and Fadlallah).Google Scholar

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67 A. Dan, ibid., 23 (1984), 30–34. Cf. Fadlallah in al-'Ahd (Beirut), (June 26, 1985), 5–7.

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71 For a forceful argument to that effect see the recent book of the Syrian radical leader Sa'd Hawwa, al-Kumayniyya (Cairo, 1987). Hawwa at first admired the Revolution, but later became disenchanted.