Religion vs Religion: The ideas of Muslim-led movements

by Saman Habibi

Since the decline of the Islamic world began in the 17th-century, Muslims have sought to understand why they lost their former material and intellectual dominance. Numerous theories have been proposed, the purpose of this article is to summarize and inform the reader of the main ideas that have shaped modern Islamic movements, including those in Syria and Iran. Unfortunately, these ideas are largely ignored by mainstream media, even though they play an important part when it comes to the political discourse inside the islamicate world. I therefore hope by writing this article that the reader will get a better understanding of the internal debates within Muslim-led movements.    

A dualist world

Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab was an 18th-century scholar from the Arabian desert who believed the decline of the Islamic world stemmed from religious innovations, both in creed and in practice. He believed Muslims who sought intercession by calling upon saints or other created beings to get closer to God were polytheists and had misunderstood Islam. Together with the House of Saud, he formed an alliance in which his family controlled religious affairs, a role they continue to hold today, while the Saudis governed political matters. Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab granted religious legitimacy to Saudi expansion by declaring rival Muslim emirates as non-Muslims, thereby making it religiously permissible to fight them (Bligh, 1985, 37).

Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian thinker who is considered the intellectual father of Islamism. Like Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab, he believed the decline of the Islamic world stemmed from Muslims' shortcomings in religious practice. But unlike ibn Abdul’Wahhab, the issue wasn’t theological, but rather the practical matters of religion. According to Qutb, the majority of Muslims were in a state of Jahiliyyah, a term traditionally used to describe pre-Islamic ignorance. Because Muslims had abandoned Islamic law, they had regressed to a state of pre-Islamic ignorance. The only solution, according to Qutb, was to establish an Islamic state ruled by shariah (Shepard, n.d). 

Sayyid Qutb’s ideas were embraced by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose branches and offshoots crossed sectarian lines. Hamas in Gaza and the current Iranian regime are offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood and are heavily inspired by Qutb and his ideas (Khalaji, 2009). 

The Iranian context and synthesization of ideas

These two previous movements believed in a dualist world where they and their followers were the only ones in on the truth, everyone else was on the wrong path. This stands in stark contrast to the main ideologue of the Iranian revolution, the French-educated sociologist and religious scholar Dr. Ali Shariati. Shariati readily synthesized contemporary ideas from non-Muslim thinkers (Rahnema, 2014, xix-xxi), in fact, while the current supreme leader of Iran translated Sayyid Qutb into Farsi (Khalaji, 2009), Shariati was translating Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel, Jean-Paul Sartre and Frantz Fanon (Rahnema, 2014, 99, 65, 105). Ali Shariati developed the concept of “religion versus religion,” based on Marx’s statement that religion is the opium of the masses. He believed there were two types of religion: one, a revolutionary faith that fought for justice; the other, a religion of the ruling class, whether religious institutions, capitalists, or kings, used to pacify the masses. It was in their interest to control the masses, and they did that by issuing religious rulings that benefited themselves and preoccupied the people with ritual details instead of mobilizing them to fight against injustice (Shariati, 1988).

After the Iranian revolution (1979), the religious camp was split, on one side, it was the religious nationalists who had the support of the youth and the educated, inspired by Ali Shariati, who had died two years earlier in Southampton after escaping the secret services. On the other side were the traditionalists, led by Ruhollah Khomeini, who had returned from exile in France; his vision of an Islamic Iran was something completely different to Shariati's. 

According to Shiite theology, the rightful successor to Prophet Muhammad was his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. Twelver Shiism, which is the majority religion in Iran, believes that the role of leading the muslim community in both religious and political matters is restricted to Ali and his 11 descendants. The 11th, also known as the 12th imam, went into hiding, and it is believed that he will return close to the day of judgment.  According to Ruhollah Khomeini, since the 12th imam is in occultation, the religious jurists were second in line to rule. He called this wilayat-e Faqih, which translates to the guardianship of the jurists (Khomeini, 2008, 88). This was in stark contrast to the pragmatic and anti-clerical beliefs of Shariati and his followers, who refused to accept clerical rule, and soon after the revolution, the supporters of Shariati spoke up against the regime. 

Mahmoud Taleghani who was a respected scholar, family friend of Shariati and leader of the Friday prayers in Teheran warned in his last sermon that Iran is heading towards despotism and that the people should not fall for Khomeinis beautiful slogans and use of religion (Saharkhiz, 2009), he died couple of days later under mysterious circumstances. His death shook the Iranian people, and in revenge, the scholars of the new regime were targeted for assassinations. 

However, it wasn’t until 1981 when the president of Iran and childhood friend of Shariati fled the country together with the leader of Mujaheeden-e Khalq (MEK) (Randal, 1981) that the fighting started. They led a campaign of terror, targeting officials and supporters of the regime, and eventually a failed invasion of Iran from their base in Iraq in 1988 (Abrahamian, 1989, 218-223). In response to MEK’s actions, the regime executed tens of thousands of members without trial, and subjected female members to rape prior to execution (al-Musawi, 1995, 225-227), amongst the judges sentencing them to death was Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s former president that died in a helicopter crash last year (2024) (Gritten, 2024).

Ali Shariati's students are still active in different political movements. Whether it be the green movement of 2009, the biggest mass protests against the regime since the revolution, the movement was led by Mir-Hossein Mousavi, an admirer and attendant of Shariati’s lectures (BBC News Persian, 2009), Narges Mohammadi who won the Nobel peace prize in 2023 and her husband (Mahdavi, 2011, 106) or MEK (Abrahamian, 1989, 81-126) which has been described as “our guys” by former mayor of New York and advisor to Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani (Merat & Borger, 2018). MEK had originally been a muslim-marxist group, but as a way of appeasing America and getting removed from the terrorist list, they have promised to turn Iran into a free market economy (Richardson, 2019). 

Sunni world

Groups like ISIS and al-Qaida are hybrids between the ideas of Sayyid Qutb and Muhammed ibn Abdul’Wahhab. They believe in ideas of religious puritanism and at the same time the importance of establishing an Islamic state ruled by their interpretation of Islamic law. This is why, when these groups conquer a new area, their priority is often to establish religious courts (VICE news, 2014) and spread the works of Muhammed ibn Abdul’Wahhab.

After the liberation of Damascus, former al-Qaida fighter Ahmed al-Sharaa stated that he and his group had made many mistakes in the past and had learned from them (CNN, 2024). And even though it doesn’t seem to be a complete split from the past hybrid ideology, as they are now distributing the works of Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab in areas where they were once banned. It does seem that they are taking the approach of Ali Shariati, synthesising modern ideas of liberal economics and religious nationalism. In other words, religion will play an important role in society, but it will not dominate every aspect of life. This contrasts with Iran, where even engineers are required to take introductory courses in the principles of Islamic law. 

Leaders such as Erdoğan, al-Sharaa, and Mursi chose a more pragmatic approach and usually face hostility from the more puritan groups or their supporters, whether it be Qutbi or Wahhabi. For example, in 2009, a cleric in Gaza excommunicated Hamas and its members, while declaring his independent state. The reason for this was  Hamas's participation in democratic elections. To him, they were not strict enough with their application of the Islamic law and their cooperation with secular groups. This led to deadly clashes and the destruction of a mosque (Anzalone, 2023). Criticism like this isn’t unique to Hamas, but something al-Qaida, the Taliban, and other Sunni groups face from puritans, whether they be militant or not (Kadivar, 2020, 10). 

The trajectories of modern Islamic movements reflect the tension between purity and pragmatism, orthodoxy and revolution. Whether through Wahhabist rigor, Qutbist revivalism, or Shariati’s synthesis of religion and justice, these thinkers continue to shape the political and spiritual futures of the Muslim world.

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Saman Habibi holds a degree in Business Administration and is currently pursuing studies in both Economics and Religious Studies. He comes from an Iranian background and a family rooted in both religious and secular traditions. As a result, family gatherings often became intellectual forums for the discussion of diverse ideas

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