The Islamic Movement in Egypt

The author of this book is a member of the Egyptian diplomatic servicewith a Ph.D. from the University of Geneva. This study employs carefullydefined concepts, the most important one being Islamism as the politicizationof Islamic symbols. In addition, however, he defines the boundarybetween the internal world of perceptions and the external world that isbeing perceived as the ummah. In so doing, the author logically raises thequestion of the universalism of Islam and the particularism of Egyptiannationalist foreign policy perceptions. It is this carefulness that allows theauthor to tell the story of Islamic ideological perceptions objectively andwithout raising controversies of theological interpretation.The book begins with a historical treatment of the Islamic perceptionof international relations from the foreign policy of the Prophet Muhammadto the formulations of al-Afghani, 'Abduh, and Ri<;ia. He includes inthis survey the organizational development and points of view of the allkhwanal-Muslimm, the al-Jama'at al-Isla.m1yah, and the clandestineorganizations, (e.g., Shabab Mul:tammad, al-Takfir wa al-Hijrah, and alJihad).He then goes on to identify the positions of these organizations onthe internal issues of the Muslim world, e.g., the Iranian revolution, theMuslim world in general, and the attitude toward particular Muslim countries.On the question of the Iranian revolution, the Ikhwan initially supportedit but, as the Iranians attacked it and its leader, al-Tilmasiin1, thissupport cooled. The Ikhwan had less concern with the Shi'ism of theIranian revolution than did the remaining more extreme groups in Egypt.These supported the revolution but had doubts about its Shi'ism.The "external" issue of the Israeli Zionist threat also provides evidenceof relative moderation by the lkhwan. It initially opposed the Egyptian­Israeli peace but then tacitly came to accept it. It also was totally opposedto the normalization of relations with Israel. As the author notes, this positionwas very much in conformity with Egyptian public sentiment. Theother groups, on the other hand, remained adamantly opposed.In general, the Egyptian Muslim organizational point of view offoreign policy naturally responded to international forces. Thus, theywere uniformly opposed to communism and especially the Soviet invasion ...