ABSTRACT
Sayyid Qut.b (1906-66) has been one of the leading figures in the Islamist movements that have been so prominent in the Muslim world in recent decades. These involve a reaction against the dominant secularist ideologies that have adopted and adapted Western models of government and law, treating Islam largely as a matter of personal piety and communal heritage or, where Islamic sources are recognized, interpreting them to be consistent with the secularists’ goals. By contrast, Islamists insist that Islam has laws and norms for all areas of life, in particular government and law, and these must be seriously and faithfully applied. They usually present a strongly anti-Western stance, although they happily make use of Western technology and, perhaps less consciously, accept other Western ideas and institutions, not least the modern state. They commonly call for an “Islamic Order” or an “Islamic State.” They also continue the reform tendency that seeks to purge traditional practices of un-Islamic “innovations.” Islamist movements vary considerably, from pragmatic to purist and from gradualist to violent or revolutionary, as well as in other ways.
