Sayyid Qutb's Anti-Christian Polemic and Role in Fueling Religious Violence in Egypt
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2014
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Haverford College. Department of Religion
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Thesis
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eng
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Abstract
In this thesis, I examine Sayyid Qutb's role in fueling and legitimizing anti-Christian attitudes in Egypt through analysis of two of his most influential texts—In the Shade of the Qur'an and Milestones. Since the 1970s, Egypt has witnessed a rise in violence against the Coptic Christian community, the Middle East's largest Christian minority, accounting for roughly ten percent of the population. Episodes of religious violence in Egypt are often treated as isolated incidents. This was visibly seen during the violence that occurred in the summer of 2013, where dozens of churches, homes, monasteries, orphanages, schools, and businesses belonging to the Coptic community were targeted throughout the country in the aftermath of the military coup. I argue that incidents of religious violence in Egypt are not isolated episodes and situate the violence in a recent history of anti-Christian attitudes and polemics that have inspired and justified violence. Through a close reading of Qutb's two texts, I also argue that an important term he articulates—jahiliyyah--constructs Christianity as the religious "other" and justifies violence against Christians. This thesis is divided into four key sections; I first discuss the emergence of Islamic revivalist traditions in Egypt and the shift towards radicalism in the 1950s and 1960s. Next, I discuss Qutb's experiences in the United States that contributed to the formation of his anti-Christian and anti-West attitudes that inspired the production of In the Shade of the Qur'an and Milestones. In the last section, I examine the crucial role these texts played in inspiring individuals to carry out violence against the Coptic Christian community.
Description
Sangita Kanumalla was a Bryn Mawr College student.