Mustafā as-Sibāʿī

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Mustafā as-Sibāʿī ( Arabic مصطفى السباعي, DMG Muṣṭafā as-Sibāʿī ; * 1915 in Homs ; † 1964 ) was a leading activist of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood . He led the Islamic Socialist Front (al-Ǧabha al-ištirākīya al-islāmīya) in the Syrian parliament after the 1949 election.

Life

As-Sibāʿī was born in 1915 into a family with a hundred years of Islamic clerical tradition. He graduated from high school at a very early age, his eloquence was a good basis for political - also nationally shaped family activities - which subsequently earned him five, sometimes longer and health-sapping prison and camp stays by the mandate powers. In 1933 he began studying Islamic law at the Azhar University in Cairo , which enabled him to accept a corresponding professorship at the University of Damascus with his doctorate in 1949 . In his teaching he tried more consciously than his friend Hassan al-Banna to present the economic effects of the Islamic message. The script for his lecture “Socialism of Islam” (ištirākiyat al-islām) became his most important work. Constructive competition, cooperation instead of class struggle, social reform and conviction instead of coercion are features of the “moral socialism” sought by as-Sibāʿī. For nationalizations, which he wanted to be handled very restrictively, he referred to medieval Sufi theologians such as Hamid al-Ghazali .

In 1940 as-Sibāʿī founded a paramilitary youth organization called Muhammad's Youth ( Shabab Muhammad ), which was based on the organization of the Muslim Brotherhood . Politically, he leaned against the National Bloc led by Hashim Chalid al-Atassi , which wanted to achieve an end to the French mandate and the independence of Syria through diplomatic channels. In 1946, with the help of Al-Banna, the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood was formally founded.

Under his leadership, the Muslim Brotherhood ran for national elections in 1947 and won three seats in parliament. One of the key demands was to establish Islam as the state religion. As-Sibāʿī, however, moved away and as a member of the Constituent Assembly gave his approval of the country's secular constitution, which was passed in 1949. Mustafa as Sibāʿī suffered a stroke in 1957, which severely restricted him physically. He handed over the leadership of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood to Issam al-Attar .

As-Sibāʿī spoke out publicly against the United Arab Republic because he feared for political freedom in Syria. The wave of repression he feared against the Muslim Brotherhood also occurred after unification. After the fall of the Union government in 1961, as-Sibāʿī allied with the new regime under Nazim al-Qudsi . After the Ba'ath Party came to power in 1963, large parts of as-Sibāʿī's works were banned and he himself was prohibited from further political agitation.

The as-Sibāʿī family provided not only the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood , but also that of the communists, with both groups fiercely fighting each other.

Works

  • Le socialisme de l'Islam (Ishtirâkiyyat al-islâm) (Damascus 1959). In: À propos du socialisme de l'Islam (= Orient . Vol. 20). 1961, pp. 175-178.
    • in German: Islamic Socialism - universal principle. In: Andreas Meier (Ed.): The political mission of Islam. Programs and Criticism between Fundamentalism and Reforms. Original voices from the Islamic world. Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 1994, ISBN 3-87294-616-1 , pp. 209-216 (with introduction by the editor).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John O. Voll : Fundamentalism in the Sunni Arab World: Egypt and the Sudan . In: Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (eds.): Fundamentalisms Observed (= The Fundamentalism project. Vol. 1). University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 1991, pp. 345–402, here p. 367 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ^ Kemal H. Karpat: Political and social thought in the contemporary Middle East. New York 1982, p. 107.
  3. ↑ a b c Sami Moubayed: Steel an Silk. Men an Women who shaped Syria 1900-2000. Seattle 2006, p. 340 f.
  4. ^ Alison Pargeter: The Muslim Brotherhood. From opposition to power. 2nd Edition. London 2013, p. 69 f.
  5. ↑ Johannes Reissner: Ideology and Politics of the Muslim Brotherhood. From the elections in 1947 to the ban under Adīb aš-Šīšaklī in 1952 (= Islamic studies. Volume 55). Freiburg 1980, p. 26.
personal data
SURNAME Sibāʿī, Mustafā as-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES مصطفى السباعي (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian Muslim Brother
DATE OF BIRTH 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Homs
DATE OF DEATH 1964