2010-08-27

Jabotinsky Distorted by Dr. Israel Eldad 1980



The Jerusalem Quarterly, Number Sixteen, Summer 1980
 
“The Jewish race is one of the primary races of mankind that has retained its integrity, in spite of the continual change of its climatic environment, and the Jewish type has conserved its purity through the centuries. The Jewish race, which was so pressed and almost destroyed by the many nations of antiquity, would have disappeared long ago in the sea of Indo-Germanic nations, had it not been endowed with the gift of retaining its peculiar type under all circumstances and reproducing it. Of the predominance of the Jewish type in cases of intermarriage with members of Indo-Germanic race, I can quote and example from my own experience for the Jewish type is indestructible. Nay, more, the type is undeniable, even in its most beautiful representatives ... My own race has played such an important role in the world history and is destined for a still greater one in the future.” [Moses Hess, Rome & Jerusalem]
Who is the chauvinist or “integral nationalist” writing these racist lines? The reader may be surprised to learn that these were but a few of many similar observations in Moses Hess’ Rome & Jerusalem. This is not the young Hess prior to his turning to Socialism, but the later one, who assures us, moreover, that ‘the world-view, here outlined, (will be found) to be the underlying basis of all my works. I have never held any other since I became a writer. It is the soul of my aspirations.’ [Moses Hess, Rome & Jerusalem ]

Another writer claims that:

“there are no superior nor inferior ones, for every race has its own qualities, features and its own combination of characteristics .. In my eyes, all people are equal. Of course, I love my people above all but it isn't 'superior' to my mind.” [V. Jabotinsky, "An Exchange of Complaints" 1911 in Nation and Society (Hebrew), p. 147, 158.]

This statement of belief was composed by Vladimir Jabotinsky.

Admittedly, quotations can be taken out of context and selectively presented to the reader. There is no doubt that quotations can be representative of a writer's central viewpoint. On the other hand, in the process of their extraction from the entire article they can be joined together with an essentially malicious intent of proving a certain thesis, a prejudice or worse, a willful bias.

Piece by piece [Shlomo] Avineri [in "The Political Thought of Vladimir Jabotinsky," The Jerusalem Quarterly, Number 16, Summer 1980] has assembled disparate quotations in order to prove his main theme: Jabotinsky was an ultra-fascist. This definition is never openly presented as such for Avineri prefers to compose an image rather than an essay. He relies on the "proof" that Jabotinsky upheld the theory of race - a more serious charge than fascism for in its original form fascism was not racist or anti-Semitic - that Jabotinsky supported "integral nationalism" (a "cleaner" word than totalitarianism) and militarism, considered the state as a supreme value, preferred the corporate economic system to socialism and even opposed liberalism in its relation to matters of leadership and discipline.

Objectivity and Subjectivity

After all these "charges" an explicit reference to fascism would be superfluous. This, too, following and enthusiastic reference to Jabotinsky's rare and multiple qualities as if to emphasize the author's objectivity. If Avineri's image of Jabotinsky had been based on the main elements of Jabotinsky's ideas, activities, and struggles and he had been related to the "shadows" as if they were fringe aspects (despite the distortions we will cite below), the description might have been acceptable; or in any case, within the bounds of the permissible for a political adversary. Avineri, however, commits the opposite by taking out of context what is agreeable to him and concealing or minimizing items disadvantageous to his approach.

Even a subjective historian, who was an admitted opponent of Jabotinsky but claimed to be intellectually honest, could not fail to see what were clearly Jabotinsky's main ideas and concerns:

1. the renewal of Herzlian state-Zionism;

2. the advancement of the security aspect within Zionism, firstly defensive in character, then its Jewish Legion phase (in World War One) and then the fighting underground development (all this a result of the military idea conceived as a state attribute, a political asset and an educational value);

3. agitation for the rescue of European Jewry through their large-scale evacuation, even utilizing the aid of interested, if anti-Semitic states (while Weizmann cooperated with the anti-Zionist British regime in a slow and selective immigration program); the establishment of Betar as an outstanding youth movement especially in Eastern Europe, wholly Zionist and striving for Eretz Israel to the extent of initiating illegal immigration;

5. opposition to the expanded Jewish Agency of 1929 as a selling out of Zionism's primacy to a Jewish non-political plutocracy; and

6. leaving the World Zionist Organization over its refusal to unreservedly define Zionist endzei as a Jewish state.

It is as if in passing that Avineri mentions Jabotinsky's political programs, leading today's reader, certainly a youngster or someone older who is not familiar with the annals of Zionism, to believe those policies could never have been in dispute. These policies included the Jewish state as the goal of Zionism, the idea if a Jewish army, sound the alarm in the face of the approaching catastrophe and the need for the immediate transfer of millions of Jews. Avineri’s response to the foregoing is ‘philosophical', i.e., a perspective of ‘raising a demand in its proper time'. Thus, in 1935, the time was not ripe to lay claim to a state and yet, in 1937 and subsequent to the Peel Commission, the time had come. The bringing of millions of Jews was a wild idea but at the Biltmore conference in 1942, when millions had already been destroyed, the correct moment had arrived after all.

The fundamentals of Jabotinsky’s ideology - a Zionism of rescuing millions, of statehood and an army - have become an inseparable part of the public domain. Consequently, they are of secondary importance for Avineri whose pivotal point alleged fascism, is achieved by the method of distorted, half-true quotation.

The Principle of Discipline

Let us now examine his proofs.

True enough, Jabotinsky deals at length with the topic of military education and instruction. For him it was not only a necessity for self-defense (a realistic view in light of Arab hostility) or a political asset (already during World War One, even Moshe Sharrett, an extreme moderate labored on behalf of a Jewish army during World War Two), but as pedagogic principle. We should not have to depend on gentile help out of a position of inferiority in terms of honor and political strength. He also considered training as an instrument to inculcate discipline. Again, it is true that Jabotinsky and the hero of his novel, Samson, are excited at the sight of a disciplined mass drawn up in order and answering to a single signal as one. “The fundamental of discipline changes individuals into a united force,” Avineri insinuates.

What, then, is wrong with all this? What is unacceptable here with regard to a people that lacked a sense of statehood and order? Why should a Jew in America or Poland become a disciplined soldier in those countries armies but not in a Jewish army? Why can everyone enjoy the sight of athletic displays performed by thousands in strict cadence, all moving as one, while we cannot? In our instance, anyone that demands such behavior as conforming to a "well known temperament" in Avineri's careful phrase. The athletic base is dominant in Jabotinsky's works but Avineri chooses to see it as suggesting Italian futurism.

Italy fulfills a decisive function in Avineri's analysis. To be sure, he can find abundant evidence in Jabotinsky's writings if the fact that he as actually enamored with this country, its people and its culture. But this was the Italy on the threshold of the Twentieth Century, the ultra-liberal nation of Girabaldi, Mazzini and Cavour. It was this Italy that had a strong influence upon him. The futurism that was one of the roots of fascism made its appearance in Italy some twenty years after Jabotinsky’s period of university study in Italy. It was foreign to him, as was anything that broke up forms of harmony. Jabotinsky’s poetry is all coordinated rhythm, set rhyme, cautious imagery - where is the futuristic connection in this instance? Even the quotation Avineri presents as an example of the Jabotinsky view of Italy bears out clearly his preference for liberalism over the futurism that would lead to the worship of discipline and fascism.

This Italian instance provides us with an excellent illustration of the author’s method of selective quotation. Jabotinsky, in the article, had put words in Garibaldi’s mouth. These words, for Avineri, are the proof of nationalism that Jabotinsky had learnt in Italy (a nationalism of the latter development, Avineri constantly reminds us and connects it with the theory of race). Garibaldi states, then, a la Jabotinsky, that I was the knight of mankind but I taught my people to believe that there is no higher value than the nation and homeland and that there is no god in the world on whose behalf it is worthy to sacrifice these to precious jewels.

This, undoubtedly, is contained in the article Rebel of Light but it is not all. There is additional material to be found there and which Avineri conceals form the reader or student who would no doubt the reliability of his teacher. For example:

While I did attempt to get Nice back to France, for it is ours, Prussian troops were then marching on France. I rallied all my veteran comrades to defend the freedom of French.... I devoted my life to Italy but on the plains of South America they remember me for there, too, I fought tyrants in the ranks of the Brazilian revolution as well as in Argentina and Peru. I dedicated my life to Italy but during the quiet years I dreamt of buying a boat, a free nest floating on the water that would sail from land to land so that I might aid all peoples rising up against tyranny. I was the night of mankind (and here follows the section Avineri quotes, and in continuation). It is my belief that in every corner of the world there is an oppressed people with a glorious past but a bitter-as wormwood present, and the struggle will rage on to achieve my ideal. [V. Jabotinsky, Rebel of Light, 1912, pp. 109-110.]

This, then is, the entire selection, Professor Avineri. It contains the love of freedom for every oppressed people as an ideal.

Homo Homini Lupus

Again, it is true that Jabotinsky dismisses “childish humanism” for it ignores the reality of “man is a wolf to man;” all the more so as we are dealing with such sheep as the Jews among the gentiles. It is most certainly correct that Jabotinsky rejects the imagery of the poet Bialik who wrote “let my end be with the sheep” but who today does not? What is the connection between acknowledging cruel realty, the need to become strong in the face pf the wolves of fascism or other later “Italian” influences?

The accusation that Jabotinsky rejected all conscience and worshipped power, reveals Avineri’s ignorance of the fact that Jabotinsky’s followers were actually split over this issue. Jabotinsky demanded an army, demanded a policy of retaliation instead of self-restraint (but with limitations: not to injure women or children, not to shoot in the back, etc. which were matters of dispute between him and the Irgun), but, all the while, he never stopped claiming that there is a conscious in the world, that this is a world of judges and not robbers. At the World Convention of Betar in 1938, Jabotinsky told non other than Menachem Begin, “And if you do not believe in this, you can go drown yourself in the Vistula”. [Eldad, Israel First Tithe , Hebrew p. 23; see also Schectman, J., The Jabotinsky Story Vol. Two. (Yoseloff, N.Y., 1961), p. 381.]

Jabotinsky refused to travel to Nazi Germany for the purpose of engaging in negotiations, unlike labor leader Chaim Arlosoroff who went there, concluded a deal and extricated thousands together with their property. Arlosoroff was right; Jabotinsky was not. For reasons of morality and pathos he did not ant any form of relations with Nazi Germany. He did not visit with Mussolini (as did other Zionist leaders: Weizmann four times), even when Betar was operating a naval training school in Italy where, by the way, some of Israel’s future naval commanders received training.

Jabotinsky recoiled without reservation, theoretically and practically, from all dictators and from totalitarianism. This is the fundamental historical truth regarding his character and teaching. He was an extreme individualist, almost a committed anarchist. “Every person is a king” Jabotinsky formulated and this meant an inner freedom, the freedom of choice. Even the acceptance of the discipline that Jabotinsky desired to be the result of a free decision by man as man.

“In the beginning, G-d created the individual. Every individual is a king equal to his fellow. It is preferable that the individual sin against the society than the society sin against the individual. Society was created for the good for individuals, not the opposite. The messianic vision is one of a paradise for the individual, a glorious anarchic kingdom, a contest between personal abilities ‘society’ has no rule but to help those who have fallen...” [Jabotinsky, V. in "My Story," 1936 in Autobiography (Hebrew), p. 38]

And there is no contradiction between “In the beginning” and another similar aphorism of his, namely, “In the beginning, G-d created the nation.”

“This I phrased in opposition to those who consider that  “In the beginning there was mankind.” In the competition between the two, the nation comes first and yet the individual subjugates his entire life to the service of the nation - this, too is not a contradiction in my opinion. This is his wish, what he has been willed and not been forced to do.” [Jabotinsky, V. in "My Story," 1936 in Autobiography (Hebrew), p. 38]

And what is liberation in the mind of one whom Avineri refers to as worshipping the state as supreme, a disciple of  “integral nationalism”, etc.?

A revolution is what I call a liberating uprising but there is no liberation except in freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. There is no liberation without the right of every citizen to influence, to change the regime; no liberation without equality of rights for every citizen regardless of race, religion and class.

My outlook is in essence the negation of the totalistic state. The state system that is the most normal and healthy as well as the most pleasant is the“minimal state.” That state acts only in case of real necessity. There is no basis for limiting the right of self-expression in the area of ideas.

My “yes” does not prevent you from declaring “no.” Of course, there is a need for extra flexibility. In times of war and crisis (economic as well as political), there might arise the need to expand the scope of what is to be considered the minimum. The instinctive ideal of man is a serene anarchy. As long as this ideal cannot be realized, democracy must be recognized as the form closes to the ideal.

An individual  - this is the supreme concept, the highest value, that which was created “in the image of G-d”. The doctrine of communo-fascism states that man is part of state societal mechanism. Our tradition has it that in the beginning, G-d created the individual. Man is intended to be free. Democracy’s meaning is freedom and the goal of democracy is to insure the influence of the minority. [Jabotinsky, V., Introduction to the Theory of Economy - Part Two, 1934, in Nation and Society (Hebrew), p. 218-219]

The pivotal point around which Avineri seeks to prove Jabotinsky a fascist (that is without mentioning the word) is his relation to the class struggle and his suggestion to establish a “parliament of professions”. The term “corporatism”, frequently used in Italian fascist thought as well as in the Portuguese variety, is not mentioned once in the selections Avineri has collected. Avineri ignores two significant themes in Jabotinsky’s thought: his proposal of “national arbitration” in matters of labor disputes in Mandatory Palestine, or more exactly the Jewish community of Zionist endeavor. And there is no mention in Avineri’s presentation - surely raising doubts about his intellectual honesty - of Jabotinsky’s argumentation against strikes and lockouts. Jabotinsky held that at the time there did not yet exist a normal political economy, but one that was in the process of being built. The crucial function of that economy was to allow the maximum number of Jews to enter Mandatory Palestine in the shortest possible time. This demanded financial investment, most of it private capital.

Industrial action on the part of both employees and employers during this critical period had to be prohibited. And note: Jabotinsky’s intent in the prohibition of strikes was to limit it to the pre-state years when the yishuv was led by the World Zionist Organization, the Va’ad Leumi, etc. or in other words, when the structure was voluntary. It was in this framework that Jabotinsky called for national arbitration according to the needs of Zionism and the yishuv.

Jabotinsky did demand “Yes, To Break!”, meaning, obviously, not the breaking of the Hebrew worker but the monopoly of the Histadrut labor federation. His call came against the background of the withholding of immigration certificates from member of the Betar in the Diaspora as well as the interference in their employment situation in Mandatory Palestine. He wanted to permit the establishment of additional trade unions; (do not all parties, including the religious, maintain separate trade unions in democratic France and Italy today?). When Jabotinsky expresses his support for the middle class (as in “The Storekeeper”), he does so, according to Avineri, because he is desirous of transplanting the Diaspora economic order in Mandatory Palestine. This is another example of Avineri’s twisting of substance. This was the first theme Avineri ignored in his treatment of Jabotinsky’s struggle against the socialist labor movement in Mandatory Palestine. The second is in Avineri’s portrayal of Jabotinsky’s view of the social vision of the state. “Jabotinsky’s alternative”, writes Avineri, “is not a liberal economy but an elitist corporative arrangement in the accepted sense of the 1920s and 1930s”.

In direct contradiction to this we find at the source, in all simplicity:

I dare think, not only in 1923 but also in 1950, that here-quarters of the civilized world will yet cry out for the full realization of free bourgeoisie liberalism. [Jabotinsky, V., Dr. Herzl, 1905, in Early Zionist Writings (Hebrew), p. 86.]


And in 1932 he wrote that

Liberalism is bankrupt. Parliamentarianism’s exalted ideas have been shattered.  Is it so? We will yet see if Grandpa Liberalism has been buried along with the concepts of freedom, equality and the people’s will. The fashion of the “now” will disappear simply because it is evil and because liberalism’s prescriptions for society are better and more practical.

True these are not the remedies of a pharmacy or a hospital clinic. Occasionally, one falls sick and needs bitter medicine and maybe an operation, but one does not need to make hospital regimen into a way of life. Injections, bandages and diets make up the hospital routine, whereas life is eating what you want and going where you want. Today’s therapy and surgery may be successful. It is possible, too, that they will prove misguided. But this I do not comprehend: masses, hysterically saluting in a chloroformed state, a castor-oiled salute in deranged nightshirt dress, this crowd is a gathering of good-for-nothings. Grandpa Liberalism will yet dance at their funeral and the funeral of its ‘buriers’ today. [Jabotinsky, V., Grandpa LiberalismHeint(Warsaw), October 14, 1932, quoted in Bela, op cit., pp. 274-275.]

And yet this is not all, for Jabotinsky, in an attempt to coin an original Hebrew term for this idealized economic system, came up in the biblical Jubilee. In another concept, Pe’ah, Jabotinsky saw the forerunner of the income tax. Jabotinsky’s Jubilee principle was intended to be an attentiveness and a vigil over the individual, the family and the land that could never be sold for it belonged to the nation. This, he postulated, would be a permanent revolution and would prevent the formation of a landowning class. He further stipulated five elements as the foundations of the Jubilee state (today, we would label this the welfare state) as follows:

The ‘elementary needs’ of a normal man, which he must struggle for, must find employment to attain, and if unemployed must agitate for, are but five: food, housing, clothing, education and health (and) are the obligation of the state according to my ‘prescription’. From where will the state derive means to provide them? They will taken from the nation just as taxes are collected and military service is compulsory. [Jabotinsky, V., Social Redemption, Essays (Hebrew), pp. 297 298.]

It is a vain search among Avineri’s selected quotations for any reference to these ultra-liberal social ideas. Instead, Avineri’s quite mendacious conclusion is that Jabotinsky was a proponent of an elitist regime. Every historian mentions the significant influence that Popper-Lynkeus had on Jabotinsky as regards the utopian society. It cannot be possible that Avineri is unaware of this. However, there is no allusion by Avineri to this end and in its place we find references to “corporatism” and “elitism.”

Jabotinsky’s Alternative

We now proceed to yet another example of Avineri’s questionable intellectual honesty. It is an issue that is very much in today’s news. It should be obvious that the themes dealt with above, i.e., the social regime, the fate of European Jewry, the state, army (“every one of us must dedicate three years of his youth for army service on behalf of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel”) that Jabotinsky’s outlook was proven correct beyond any “ism” which could be tacked onto his philosophy. In every instance, Jabotinsky led while others belatedly followed. But now we shall move on to the subject of the Arabs.

“It would have been presumed,” writes Avineri, “that one such as Jabotinsky who considers nationalism, the uniqueness of the national element, the national will to separate from that which is foreign and national pride as the fulcrum of all historic and political development, would also be attentive to the yearnings of Arab nationalism. For one who was no stranger to Ukrainian nationalism, including its anti-Semitic expressions, it would have been though that in his analysis of the Middle East reality he would but try to take into consideration the appearance of Arab nationalism in Palestine and neighboring countries. But it is not so and anyone seeking in Jabotinsky a coming to terms with this topic will fail. This discussions regarding Arab nationalism are few and trifling. It would appear that anyone encountering this scanty material would be correct in his opinion that it reveals a certain amount of derision of the Arabs.” [Avineri, S., “The Political Thought of Vladimir Jabotinsky," The Jerusalem Quarterly. Number Sixteen, Summer 1980, p. 20.]

This may well be the most blatant example of Avineri’s distortion and concealment of Jabotinsky’s teachings and thought. While Jabotinsky may not have filled volumes on this aspect of Zionism like other utopians in the Zionist movement, what he did write is first and foremost the very opposite of disparagement.

The writer of these lines is considered an enemy of the Arabs, one who wishes to banish the Arabs from the Land of Israel. There is no truth to any of this. It is my opinion that it would be impossible to do so. There will always remain two peoples here.  Secondly, I am proud to be numbered among that group which formulated the Helsingfors Program. We formulated it, not only for Jews, but, for all peoples, and its basis is the equality of all nations. I am prepared to swear, for us and for our descendants, that we will never destroy this equality and we will never attempt to expel or oppress the Arabs. Our credo, as the reader can see, is completely peaceful. But it is absolutely another matter if it will be possible to achieve our peaceful aims through peaceful means.  This however, is not dependent on our attitude to the Arabs, but on the Arabs relationship to us and to Zionism. [Jabotinsky, V., “On the Iron Wall (We and the Arabs)”, in On the Way to Statehood (Hebrew), p. 253.]

The date of these words should be carefully noted: 1923. And furthermore:

I understand as well as anybody that we have got to find a modus vivendi with the Arabs; they will always live in the country, and all around the country, and we cannot afford a perpetuation of strife. But I do not believe that their reconciliation to the prospect of a Jewish Palestine can be brought either by the bribe of economic uplift, or by watered and obviously falsified interpretation of Zionist aims a la (Lord) Samuel (the British High Commissioner). I do not despise the Arabs as do those who think that they will ever sell to us the future of their country, so long as there is the slightest hope of getting rid of us by book and crook. Only when the hope is lost will their moderates get the real upper hand and try to make the best of a bad bargain; and then I am prepared to let even Kalvarisky [A central leader of the Brit Shalom - I. Eldad] lead the orchestra. But until then, just because I want peace, the only task is to make them lose every vestige of hope: “neither by force, nor by constitutional methods, nor through G-d’s miracle can you prevent Palestine from gradually getting a Jewish majority” - that is what they must be made to realize, or else there will never be peace. [Letter to Col. F.H. Kisch, July 4, 1925, Central Zionist Archives, S25-2073 (in the original English).]

It is difficult to compromise between two truths, between two beliefs. Our faith is deep, so is theirs.

There is no precedent in history of a native population accepting colonization by foreigners. In opposition to the colonization by one nation coming from abroad, the local people will fight; always, everywhere and without exception. [Jabotinsky, V., “Parliament”,Ha’aretz, July 21, 1925, quoted in Bela, op. cit. p. 415]

Thus we conclude that we cannot promise anything to the Arabs of the Land of Israel or the Arab countries. Their voluntary agreement is out of the question. Hence those who hold that an agreement with the natives is an essential condition for Zionism can now say “no” and depart from Zionism. Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, continue and develop only under the protection of a force independent of the local population -- an iron wall that the native population cannot break through. This is, in toto, our policy towards the Arabs. To formulate it any other way would only be hypocrisy.

Not only must this be so, it is so whether we admit it or not. What does the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate mean for us? It is the fact that a disinterested power committed itself to create such security conditions that the local population would be deterred from interfering with our efforts.

All of us, without exception, are constantly demanding that this power strictly fulfill its obligations. In this sense, there are no meaningful differences between our “militarists” and our “vegetarians.” One prefers an iron wall of Jewish bayonets, the other proposes an iron wall of British bayonets, the third proposes an agreement with Baghdad, and appears to be satisfied with Baghdad's bayonets -- a strange and somewhat risky taste -- but we all applaud, day and night, the iron wall. We would destroy our cause if we proclaimed the necessity of an agreement, and fill the minds of the Mandatory with the belief that we do not need an iron wall, but rather endless talks. Such a proclamation can only harm us. Therefore it is our sacred duty to expose such talk and prove that it is a snare and a delusion.

All this does not mean that any kind of agreement is impossible, only a voluntary agreement is impossible. As long as there is a spark of hope that they can get rid of us, they will not sell these hopes, not for any kind of sweet words or tasty morsels, because they are not a rabble but a living people. [Jabotinsky, V., “On the Iron Wall (We and the Arabs)”, in On the Way to Statehood(Hebrew), pp. 258-259.]

A Problem of National Contraposition

Taking all things into consideration, it is not to Avineri that I turn, but rather to the conscientious reader, whatever his view: is the above an indication of derision or of disrespect of the Arabs of Eretz Yisrael, or is it perhaps the complete opposite? Whoever hopes to succeed in deceiving the Arabs that we do not desire a state here or even a majority buying them persistently with the advantages that would accrue to them the fields of employment, culture, technology, health, socialism - it is he who mocks them, wanting to purchase their nationalism, their national aspirations, and not Jabotinsky. In this case, it is clear who was the realist and who was the mystic.

In this connection, I wish to cite the judgment of a young leftist Israeli historian, certainly no friend of Jabotinsky:

In praise of Jabotinsky, it must be said that he was practically the only one in the Zionist camp who preferred a courageous and exact formulation of the Arab problem, defining it as a problem of national contraposition. “I respect the Arabs,” said Jabotinsky in 1926, “and while we have an ancient culture, etc., they too possess proper feelings for our homeland and between these emotions a clash must exist.” These words brought him a compliment from the Arab side: “he is the sole Zionist who does not deceive us and who understands that the Arab is a patriot and not a prostitute.”

There was an element of honest in Jabotinsky’s outlook, in his refusal to accept convoluted and nebulous Zionist terminology in connection with the Arab question. He preferred, rather, to represent matters in a straightforward fashion. Ben-Gurion reached this stage years later. [Elam, Y., An Introduction to Zionist History (Hebrew), pp. 60-61.]

I leave it to the reader with some principles to decide where is the honesty, the understanding and where was the unwillingness to understand. For it was the same Jabotinsky who Avineri claims never saw or involved himself in regional affairs but was fully wrapped up in his Anglophobia, who in 1929 wrote the following: Here in Palestine, either England gets along with us or get out. The future of the Arab countries is clear to us. Sooner or later, in negotiations or in blood and fire, they will liberate themselves, one after another, from European rule. This will be the destiny of Egypt and all her neighbors. England will be pushed out of Palestine as well. [Jabotinsky, V. A Duella Maana , Dora Hayom(Tel Aviv), October 23, 1929, quoted in Bela, op. cit. , pp. 55-56. ]

Like most Zionists, Jabotinsky surely considered Britain an ally because of shared interests. However, he did not hesitate (contrary to Avineri's proposition that until his final days, Jabotinsky clung to his stand regarding the essential partnerships of interests between Zionism and Britain) to speak in terms of a rift with Britain, as early as 1929, in the aftermath of that year's Arab riots against the yishuv. There is ample proof for this although it was certainly with a heavy heart that he arrived at this position. He believed that there were elements in England - as there are in the United States today -- who opposed the Arab orientation so inimical to Zionism (interestingly enough, Laborites like Wedgwood and Strabolgi). In addition, and here we face another example of Avineri's portrayal of Jabotinsky as a totalitarianist, it is in fact Britain's democratic and liberal tradition appealed to him tremendously. His very being was disgusted with the various suggestions of the extremists within his own party who proposed that contacts be made with totalitarian regimes. It should also be unnecessary to note that he agreed to the preparations for an anti-British revolt towards the end of his life, the seeds of which can be traced back to 1932. There were few other alternatives for Jabotinsky who addressed Britain  "... if you are tired - go in peace. There are other great democracies."

I have not covered all but if need be, I am willing to prove point by point that Avineri has committed an act of distortion against Jabotinsky's image and outlook. His article is an act of malice aforethought. While he does cement brick to brick, quotation to quotation, it is all out of context, out of connotation and in contradistinction to Jabotinsky's worldview. It is a true masterpiece of malevolence.

My concern in undertaking upon myself the task of replying to Avineri was to honor and respect the truth as well as Jabotinsky. Min is a plaint against a man of science, not a plaudit of Jabotinsky’s vindication on every topic. To the contrary and almost paradoxically, one of the reasons for my breaking with Jabotinsky together with the other "radicals," as Avineri phrases it, had nothing to do with anything he has "found." Few were those in Zionism who were so correct in their prognosis was Jabotinsky. Zionism followed the lead of the essential Jabotinsky but with a ten year delay. That delay proved most costly. Yes, Jabotinsky's attraction to England was a result of his admiration for Europe and its culture. He was fully opposed to those who called for an "integration" into the East we live in. Continuously, he reasoned that this "East" could not help us. We are Europeans only because of the fact that what is called European culture is largely an outgrowth of what we contributed to it. He did favor Nordau's views that we must proudly expand Europe's boundaries to the Middle East. This attitude, which approximates the truth, Avineri denigrates. I did not, however, in how bad a light Avineri viewed this principle. He himself, despite current fashion, seems to wish to liberate himself from this culture. But that is his prerogative.

   
       


2010-08-26

Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky - The Iron Wall (1923)

Introduction

In 1920 and 1921, shortly after the British had come to rule Palestine, Arab rioters attacked  Zionist and old established Jewish communities in Hebron, Jaffa and elsewhere. The Zionist leadership became aware of the need for a Jewish defense force. The Hagannah was formed in early 1921, but as it was not permitted to operate freely by the British and had little resources, it proved unable to defend the Jews in 1921. 

Jabotinsky had been arrested for leading the defense of the Jews in 1920, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was subsequently pardoned.   Ze'ev Jabotinsky and other Zionist leaders requested an independent Jewish Legion force, that would be sponsored by the mandatory government and empowered to defend against Arab rioters.

It soon became apparent that the mandate government would only agree to a mixed Jewish and Arab force under British supervision. Given the lack of zeal  that Arabs and British showed in defending Jews against rioters, Zionists felt that this force would be inadequate. Indeed, British protection proved to be inadequate against the subsequent riots of 1929.  However the mainstream Zionist leadership also understood that a Jewish Legion was not forthcoming from the British, and that they would have to be content with an small illegal Hagannah force, and whatever protection that the mandate police force would provide. Jabotinsky was adamant on this point and published a polemic defending the right to a mandate-sponsored self-defense force for Jews, which he described as an "Iron Wall"

   Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach. 

            That is our Arab policy; not what we should be, but what it actually is, whether we admit it or not.  What need, otherwise, of the Balfour Declaration? Or of the Mandate?  Their value to us is that outside Power has undertaken to create in the country such conditions of administration and security that if the native population should desire to hinder our work, they will find it impossible. 

            And we are all of us ,without any exception, demanding day after day that this outside Power, should carry out this task vigorously and with determination.  

            In this matter there is no difference between our "militarists" and our "vegetarians". Except  that the  first prefer that the iron wall should consist of Jewish soldiers, and the others are content that they should be British. 

            We all demand that there should be an iron wall. Yet we keep spoiling our own case, by talking about "agreement" which means telling the Mandatory Government that the important thing is not the iron wall, but discussions. Empty rhetoric of this kind is dangerous. And that is why it is not only a pleasure but a duty to discredit it and to demonstrate that it is both fantastic and dishonest. 

Jabotinsky was a reactionary even in the context of early 20th century Europe. His writing is replete with unabashed colonialism and racist cliches of the kind that were common enough in an era when paleontology texts speculated that Africans and Australian aborigines were of a different, inferior species, and Jews, Africans and other minorities were ridiculed in popular novels and cinema. He wrote of the Arabs:

Culturally they are five hundred years behind us, they have neither our endurance nor our determination"

He conceived of Zionism as a colonial enterprise, in the same vein as colonization of the United States or Australia:

"My readers have a general idea of the history of colonisation in other countries.  I suggest that they consider all the precedents with which they are acquainted, and see whether there is one solitary instance of any colonisation being carried on with the consent of the native population. There is no such precedent."

However, his intentions were to show that the Arabs were not fools, and that like any other people, would not give up their status as a majority without a fight:

To imagine, as our Arabophiles do, that they will voluntarily consent to the realisation of Zionism, in return for the moral and material conveniences which the Jewish colonist brings with him, is a childish notion, which has at bottom a kind of contempt for the Arab people; it means that they despise the Arab race, which they regard as a corrupt mob that can be bought and sold, and are willing to give up their fatherland for a good railway system.

....

In the second place, this does not mean that there cannot be any agreement with the Palestine Arabs. What is impossible is a voluntary agreement. As long as the Arabs feel that there is the least hope of getting rid of us, they will refuse to give up this hope in return for either kind words or for bread and butter, because they are not a rabble, but a living people. And when a living people yields in matters of such a vital character it is only when there is no longer any hope of getting rid of us, because they can make no breach in the iron wall.  (emphasis added in editing).

Jabotinsky's views reflected the mentality of a significant minority of the Zionist movement. The racism, prevalent also in Palestinian national movements of the time, is certainly embarrassing. However, the doctrine of independent Jewish self-defense, under mandate supervision or otherwise, was sound enough from the Zionist point of view and was adopted and put to good use. The notion that no accommodation could be reached with the Palestinians through peaceful proposals alone became increasingly obvious as the struggle deepened, but it was probably not majority doctrine prior to the Arab revolt of 1936.

The "Iron Wall" has been interpreted as a doctrine of Zionism that sought to expel the Arabs of Palestine by force. However as is clear from the above, it referred originally to a very modest defensive concept - autonomous Jewish self defense within the British Mandate. Jabotinsky himself seems to have expanded it, to say that in general, the Arabs of Palestine would never accept rule by a Jewish majority unless forced to do so. However, in the article he emphasizes that the long term intent is to create a multi-ethnic state, in the spirit of the Helsingfors (Helsinki) Program of 1906.

The "Iron Wall" concept formed the basis of two articles published a week apart in 1923 in the Russian journal Rassvyet, that appeared in Paris. The first one, which is usually cited, developed "Iron Wall" as a narrow concept applied to the question of the "Jewish Legion" that Jabotinsky wanted to form under the mandate. The second article, thought it is entitled "The Ethics of the Iron Wall," discusses in fact the ethics of Jewish settlement in Palestine rather than use of force in defense of settlement, and it gets away entirely from the original context of the Jewish Legion.

The "Iron Wall" has been recently been recast as a governing doctrine of mainstream activist Zionism by Professor Avi Shlaim in his book, The Iron Wall. However, the doctrine of Zionist "activism" is a bit different from the defensive posture of the Iron Wall, and was conceived in the context of creation of the State of Israel, not during the mandate. Jabotinsky himself had left the Zionist movement just before the Iron Wall article was published. His essays, the original Iron Wall, and a second one on the Ethics of the Iron wall were published in Russian and were not official documents of the Zionist organization. Labor Zionist leaders such as Ben Gurion and Itzhak Rabin, whom Avi Shlaim claims were disciples of the Iron Wall doctrine, had nothing but contempt for Jabotinsky and revisionism, and it is highly unlikely that Rabin even read anything by Jabotinsky.

Ami Isseroff


Notice - Copyright

This introduction is Copyright 2002 by MidEastWeb http://www.mideastweb.org and the author. Please tell your friends about MidEastWeb and link to this page. Please do not copy this page to your Web site. You may print this page out for classroom use provided that this notice is appended, and you may cite this material in the usual way. Other uses by permission only.  The source material below is placed in the public domain  and is free of copy restrictions to our knowledge.


Origininally published in Russian under the title O Zheleznoi Stene in Rassvyet, 4 November 1923

Friday, 26th November, 1937                                                                      "The Jewish Herald" (South Africa

The Iron Wall

Colonisation of Palestine

Agreement with Arabs Impossible at present

Zionism Must Go Forward

By Vladimir Jabotinsky

 It is an excellent rule to begin an article with the most important point,  but this time, I find it necessary to begin with an introduction , and, moreover , with a personal introduction.

             I am reputed to be an enemy of the Arabs, who wants to have them ejected from Palestine, and so forth. It is not true.

            Emotionally, my attitude to the Arabs is the same as to all other nations – polite indifference. Politically, my attitude is determined by two principles.  First of all, I consider it utterly impossible to eject the Arabs from Palestine. There will always be two nations in Palestine – which is good enough for me, provided the Jews become the majority. And secondly, I belong to the group that once drew up the Helsingfors Programme , the programme of national rights for all nationalities living in the same State.  In drawing up that programme, we had in mind not only the Jews, but all nations everywhere, and its basis is equality of rights.

             I am prepared to take an oath binding ourselves  and our descendants that we shall never do anything contrary to the principle of equal rights, and that we shall never try to eject anyone.This seems to me a fairly peaceful credo.

             But it is quite another question whether it is always possible to realise a peaceful aim by peaceful means. For the answer to this question does not depend on our attitude to the Arabs, but entirely on the attitude of the Arabs  to us and to Zionism.

            Now, after this introduction, we may proceed to the subject. 

Voluntary Agreement Not Possible.

            There can be no voluntary agreement between ourselves and the Palestine Arabs.  Not now, nor in the prospective future.  I say this with such conviction, not because I want to hurt the moderate Zionists.  I do not believe that they will be hurt. Except for those who were born blind, they realised long ago that it is utterly impossible to obtain the voluntary consent of the Palestine Arabs for converting "Palestine" from an Arab country into a country with a Jewish majority.

My readers have a general idea of the history of colonisation in other countries.  I suggest that they consider all the precedents with which they are acquainted, and see whether there is one solitary instance of any colonisation being carried on with the consent of the native population. There is no such precedent.

 The native populations, civilised or uncivilised, have always stubbornly resisted the colonists, irrespective of whether they were civilised or savage.

 And it made no difference whatever whether the colonists behaved decently or not. The companions  of  Cortez and Pizzaro or ( as some people will remind us ) our own ancestors under Joshua Ben Nun, behaved like brigands; but the Pilgrim Fathers, the first real pioneers of North America, were people of the highest morality, who did not want to do harm to anyone, least of all to the Red Indians, and they honestly believed that there was room enough in the prairies both for the Paleface and the Redskin. Yet the native population fought with the same ferocity against the good colonists as against the bad.

 Every native population, civilised or not, regards its lands as its national home, of which it is the sole master, and it wants to retain that mastery always; it will refuse to admit not only new masters but, even new partners or collaborators. 

Arabs Not Fools 

This is equally true of the Arabs. Our Peace-mongers are trying to persuade us that the Arabs are either fools, whom we can deceive by masking our real aims, or that they are corrupt and can be bribed to abandon to us their claim to priority in Palestine , in return for cultural and economic advantages.  I repudiate this conception of the Palestinian Arabs. Culturally they are five hundred years behind us, they have neither our endurance nor our determination; but they are just as good psychologists as we are, and their minds have been sharpened like ours by centuries of fine-spun logomachy. We may tell them whatever we like about the innocence of our aims, watering them down and sweetening them with honeyed words to make them palatable, but they know what we want, as well as we know what they do not want.  They feel at least the same instinctive jealous love of Palestine, as the old Aztecs felt for ancient Mexico, and the Sioux for their rolling Prairies.

 To imagine, as our Arabophiles do, that they will voluntarily consent to the realisation of Zionism, in return for the moral and material conveniences which the Jewish colonist brings with him, is a childish notion, which has at bottom a kind of contempt for the Arab people; it means that they despise the Arab race, which they regard as a corrupt mob that can be bought and sold, and are willing to give up their fatherland for a good railway system. 

All Natives Resist Colonists

 There is no justification for such a belief. It may be that some individual Arabs take bribes. But that does not mean that the Arab people of Palestine as a whole will sell that fervent patriotism that they guard so jealously, and which even the Papuans will never sell. Every native population in the world resists colonists as long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonised.

 That is what the Arabs in Palestine are doing, and what they will persist in doing as long as there remains a solitary spark of hope that they will be able to prevent the transformation of "Palestine" into the "Land of Israel." 

Arab Comprehension

             Some of us have induced ourselves to believe that all the trouble is due to misunderstanding – the Arabs have not understood us, and that is the only reason why they resist us; if we can only make it clear to them how moderate our intentions really are, they will immediately extend to us their hand in friendship.

            This belief is utterly unfounded and it has been exploded again and again. I shall recall only one instance of many. A few years ago, when the late Mr. Sokolow was on one of his periodic visits toPalestine, he addressed a meeting on this very question of the "misunderstanding." He demonstrated lucidly and convincingly that the Arabs are terribly mistaken if they think that we have any desire to deprive them of their possessions or to drive them our of the country, or that we want to oppress them. We do not even ask for a Jewish Government to hold the Mandate of the League of Nations. 

            One of the Arab papers, " El Carmel," replied at the time, in an editorial  article, the purport of which was this : 

   The Zionists are making a fuss about nothing. There is no misunderstanding. All that Mr. Sokolow says about the Zionist intentions is true, but the Arabs know that without him. Of course, the Zionists cannot now be thinking of driving the Arabs out of the country, or oppressing them, not do they contemplate a Jewish Government. Quite obviously, they are now concerned with one thing only- that the Arabs should not hinder their immigration. The Zionists assure us that even immigration will be regulated strictly according to the economic needs of Palestine. The Arabs have never doubted that: it is a truism, for otherwise there can be no immigration.

 No "Misunderstanding" 

            This Arab editor was actually willing to agree that Palestine has a very large potential absorptive capacity, meaning that there is room for a great many Jews in the country without displacing a single Arab. There is only one thing the Zionists want, and it is that one thing that the Arabs do not want, for that is the way by which the Jews would gradually become the majority, and then a Jewish Government would follow automatically, and the future of the Arab minority would depend on the goodwill of the Jews; and a minority status is not a good thing, as the Jews themselves are never tired of pointing out. So there is no "misunderstanding".

The Zionists want only one thing, Jewish immigration; and this Jewish immigration is what the Arabs do not want. 

            This statement of the position by the Arab editor is so logical, so obvious, so indisputable, that everyone ought to know it by heart, and it should be made the basis of all our future discussions on the Arab question. It does not matter at all which phraseology we employ in explaining our colonising aims, Herzl's or Sir Herbert Samuel's. 

            Colonisation carries its own explanation, the only possible explanation, unalterable and as clear as daylight to every ordinary Jew and every ordinary Arab. 

Colonisation can have only one aim, and Palestine Arabs cannot accept this aim. It lies in the very nature of things, and in this particular regard nature cannot be changed. 

The Iron Wall 

            We cannot offer any adequate compensation to the Palestinian Arabs in return for Palestine. And therefore, there is no likelihood of any voluntary agreement being reached. So that all those who regard such an agreement as a condition sine qua non for Zionism may as well say "non" and withdraw from Zionism. 

            Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach. 

            That is our Arab policy; not what we should be, but what it actually is, whether we admit it or not.  What need, otherwise, of the Balfour Declaration? Or of the Mandate?  Their value to us is that outside Power has undertaken to create in the country such conditions of administration and security that if the native population should desire to hinder our work, they will find it impossible. 

            And we are all of us ,without any exception, demanding day after day that this outside Power, should carry out this task vigorously and with determination.  

            In this matter there is no difference between our "militarists" and our "vegetarians". Except  that the  first prefer that the iron wall should consist of Jewish soldiers, and the others are content that they should be British. 

            We all demand that there should be an iron wall. Yet we keep spoiling our own case, by talking about "agreement" which means telling the Mandatory Government that the important thing is not the iron wall, but discussions. Empty rhetoric of this kind is dangerous. And that is why it is not only a pleasure but a duty to discredit it and to demonstrate that it is both fantastic and dishonest.  

Zionism Moral and Just

             Two brief remarks:

             In the first place, if anyone objects that this point of view is immoral, I answer:  It is not true: either Zionism is moral and just ,or it is immoral and unjust. But that is a question that we should have settled before we became Zionists.  Actually we have settled that question, and in the affirmative.  

            We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmet agree with it or not. 

            There is no other morality.

Eventual Agreement 

            In the second place, this does not mean that there cannot be any agreement with the Palestine Arabs. What is impossible is a voluntary agreement. As long as the Arabs feel that there is the least hope of getting rid of us, they will refuse to give up this hope in return for either kind words or for bread and butter, because they are not a rabble, but a living people. And when a living people yields in matters of such a vital character it is only when there is no longer any hope of getting rid of us, because they can make no breach in the iron wall. Not till then will they drop their extremist leaders, whose watchword is "Never!" And the leadership will pass to the moderate groups, who will approach us with a proposal that we should both agree to mutual concessions. Then we may expect them to discuss honestly practical questions, such as a guarantee against Arab displacement, or equal rights for Arab citizen, or Arab national integrity. 

            And when that happens, I am convinced that we Jews will be found ready to give them satisfactory guarantees, so that both peoples can live together in peace, like good neighbours.

But the only way to obtain such an agreement, is the iron wall, which is to say a strong power in Palestine that is not amenable to any Arab pressure.  In other words, the only way to reach an agreement in the future is to abandon all idea of seeking an agreement at present.      

From the text at http://www.jabotinsky.org/Jaboworld/docs/Iron%20Wall.doc (with some corrections of typography and grammar - emphasis is in the original).

A similar text is at http://www.marxists.de/middleast/ironwall/ironwall.htm 


THE ETHICS OF THE IRON WALL

By Vladimir Jabotinsky

 

'The Jewish Standard', 5/9/1941 (London).

 Originally Published in  Rassviet (Paris) 11/11/1923 as a continuation of the previous article.

             Let us go back to the Helsingfors Programme. Since I am one of those who helped to draft it, I am naturally not disposed to question the justice of the principles advocated there.  The programme guarantees citizenship equality, and national self-determination.  I am firmly convinced that any impartial judge will accept this programme as the ideal basis for peaceful and neighbourly collaboration between two nations.

            But it is absurd to expect the Arabs to have the mentality of an impartial judge; for in this conflict they are not the judges; but one of the contending parties. And after all, our chief question is whether the Arabs, even if they believed in peaceful collaboration they would agree to have any "neighbours", even good neighbours, in the country which they regard as their own. Not even those who try to move us with high-sounding phrases will dare to deny that national homogeneity is more convenient than natural diversity.   So why should a nation that is perfectly content with its isolation admit to its country even good neighbours in any considerable number?  I want neither your honey nor your sting", is a reasonable answer.

But apart from this fundamental difficulty, why must it be the Arabs who should accept the Helsingfors Programme, or, in that matter any programme for a State which has a mixed national population?  To make such a demand is to ask for the impossible.  The Springer theory is not more than 30 years old. And no nation, not even the most civilised, has yet agreed to apply this theory honestly in practice.  Even the Czechs, under the leadership of Masaryk, the teacher of all autonomists, could not would not do it.

Among the Arabs, even their intellectuals have never heard of this theory. But these same intellectuals would know that a minority always suffers everywhere: the Christians in Turkey, the Moslems in India, the Irish under the British, the Poles and Czechs under the Germans, now the Germans under the Poles and Czechs, and so forth, without end.  So that one must be intoxicated with rhetoric to expect the Arabs to believe that the Jews, of all the people in the world, will alone prove able, or wi

Posted via email from bobmartin's posterous

2010-08-11

Mitzvoth regarding Wars

In light of the attacks on Rav Shapira and other genuine Jewish leaders, here's RaMBaM's list of the Mitzvoth on wars - courtesy of 

Wars

  1. That those engaged in warfare shall not fear their enemies nor be panic-stricken by them during battle (Deut. 3:22, 7:21, 20:3) (negative).
  2. To anoint a special kohein (to speak to the soldiers) in a war (Deut. 20:2) (affirmative). See Kohein.
  3. In a permissive war (as distinguished from obligatory ones), to observe the procedure prescribed in the Torah (Deut. 20:10) (affirmative).
  4. Not to keep alive any individual of the seven Canaanite nations (Deut. 20:16) (negative).
  5. To exterminate the seven Canaanite nations from the land of Israel (Deut. 20:17) (affirmative).
  6. Not to destroy fruit trees (wantonly or in warfare) (Deut. 20:19-20) (CCN191).
  7. To deal with a beautiful woman taken captive in war in the manner prescribed in the Torah (Deut. 21:10-14) (affirmative).
  8. Not to sell a beautiful woman, (taken captive in war) (Deut. 21:14) (negative).
  9. Not to degrade a beautiful woman (taken captive in war) to the condition of a bondwoman (Deut. 21:14) (negative).
  10. Not to offer peace to the Ammonites and the Moabites before waging war on them, as should be done to other nations (Deut. 23:7) (negative).
  11. That anyone who is unclean shall not enter the Camp of the Levites (Deut. 23:11) (according to the Talmud, in the present day this means the Temple mount) (CCN193).
  12. To have a place outside the camp for sanitary purposes (Deut. 23:13) (affirmative).
  13. To keep that place sanitary (Deut. 23:14-15) (affirmative).
  14. Always to remember what Amalek did (Deut. 25:17) (CCA76).
  15. That the evil done to us by Amalek shall not be forgotten (Deut. 25:19) (CCN194).
  16. To destroy the seed of Amalek (Deut. 25:19) (CCA77).

Posted via email from bobmartin's posterous

2010-02-22

Wisdom: Marxian Political Observations

http://mises.org/Community/blogs/montypelerin/archive/2010/02/21/wisdom-marxian-political-observations.aspx
Groucho Marx, circa 1931
Image 

As an economist, I am frequently asked about the economics of Marx. I generally nod approvingly, which usually pleases or perplexes the inquirer. It is only after some discussion does it become apparent that I am talking about 

Groucho Marx
 and notKarl Marx.

Groucho Marx was an American original. Regarding economics, Irving Berlin once quipped: “If Marx had been Groucho instead of Karl, the world would be in less of a snarl.”

In reality, Groucho’s political leaning was rather pronounced to the left. But his observations and quips about the world and political scene were spot on.  There are probably few quotes better than the following to describe out current political scene, especially its practitioners:

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made

There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, “Yes,” you know he is a crook.

Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.

Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?

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2010-02-16

LTC Stuart A. Green: Cognitive Warfare

Sayyid Qutb's Milestones

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sayyid Qutb's Milestones, But Couldn't Be Bothered to Find Out

Elmer Swenson
Last Updated: 6-27-2005
http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/milestones_qutb.html

  1. Introduction
  2. Qutb and the Muslim Community
  3. Qutb and Shari'ah Law, the Islamic Vanguard and Slavery
  4. Qutb on Sex, Women and the Family
  5. Qutb on Politics: Progressive Islam, Nationalism, Democracy, Socialism
  6. Qutb on Politics: Racial Equality and Freedom
  7. Qutb and non-Muslims: The West
  8. Qutb and non-Muslims: Christians, Jews and Freedom of Religion
  9. Qutb and Peaceful Co-Existance with non-Muslims
  10. Qutb and the Future
  11. Addendum

INTRO

Who is Sayyid Qutb, and what's so special about his book Milestones, aka Signposts?

Qutb (1906-1966) was an Egyptian government bureaucrat, author, literary critic and finally an Islamic political leader, but is most famous as an Islamist theoretician. He grew up in British-occupied Egypt and was imprisoned and executed in Nasser's independent Egypt. Though he came from a pious rural background, he studied Western literature extensively and wrote literary criticism as well as poetry, short stories and articles. Qutb spent two years in America (which he loathed) and came back a determined fundamentalist. He became one of the leading members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the first and largest mass Islamist group. After the Brotherhood fell out with the ruling Arab nationalists in Egypt and an attempt was made on the life of president Gamal Abdul Nasser, the nationalists' leader, Qutb was imprisoned. 10 years later, accused of another plot against the government, he was hanged. [1]

Qutb wrote many books, but his most famous and widely read by far is Milestones, generally considered one of, if not the most influential Islamist tract ever written. Milestones (Ma'alim 'ala Al-Tariq), was an immediate best seller and is said to have been published in close to 2,000 editions [2]

At the time of writing it was also available in full text on at least two websites:
http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/books/milestones/index_2.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27alim_fi-l-Tariq

Some accolades for Milestones and Qutb's influence:

... regarded as the father of modern fundamentalism and described by his (Arab) biographer as "the most famous personality of the Muslim world in the second half of the 20th century,".... Qutb was the most influential advocate in modern times of jihad, or Islamic holy war, and the chief developer of doctrines that legitimise violent Muslim resistance to regimes that claim to be Muslim, but whose implementation of Islamic precepts is judged to be imperfect....
"Is This the Man Who Inspired Bin Laden?" Robert Irwin, Guardian, November 1, 2001

The essential charter of the jihad movement -- its Mein Kampf -- is Sayyid Qutb's Milestones...
"Truly, madly, deeply devout," Jonathan Raban, Guardian, March 2, 2002

And lest anyone think such testimonials come only from non-Islamists, here's an Islamist British convert to Islam, Hamid Algar, writing before 9/11:

Sayyid Qutb ... some 28 years after his death is still the most influential ideologue of the Islamic movement in the contemporary Arab world ...Ma'alim fi 'l-Tariq [Milestones] must definitely count among the historic documents of the contemporary Islamic movement. [3]


What's this book like?

One of the most common English language editions of Milestones (and the one from which quotes and page numbers on this FAQ come from) was published by The Mother Mosque Foundation in 1981. It looks like an oversized pamphlet. It's full of typos and has no index, no notes, no introduction to tell you who the author is, or even when the book was first published. As for the content, non-Islamists (and in fact most everyone) will find Milestones badly in need of an editor, alternately repeating some points over and over while skipping over others that beg to be explained further. Marxist author Tariq Ali assessed it "repetitive, banal, uninspiring." No doubt this is in part because Milestones was written in prison and smuggled out, and also because it was written for the "vanguard" of the revival of Islam rather than average Muslims (never mind non-Muslims). Be that as it may, although only 160 pages, non-Islamist readers may find it the lonnnggggest 160 pages they've ever read.


Why was this FAQ created?

Influential and compact as it is, Milestones is in some ways the ideal place to begin learning about radical Islam. And if in fact it is "the Mein Kampf" of the al Qaeda, it may not only be interesting but rather important to understand. Just as Radical Islamists were able to plan and carry out terror attacks because of their familiarity with the West, so too the West may be able to turn the tables and defend itself better by understanding how their would-be murderers and destroyers think. On the other hand, if the portrayal above of Qutb (or more generally the Islamist revival) is slander, as some allege (see below), that also would be important to clear up. The problem is, Qutb's writing is so bad many non-Muslims and non-Islamists won't have the patience to make their way through the whole thing, or through the whole thing carefully. This FAQ, then is an attempt to make Milestones easier to understand by breaking it down point-by-point and clarifying it. Such points include the questions:

  • Was Qutb an anti-Western fanatic as some of the quotes in the first Answer indicate? Or has the West "chosen to dub" Qutb and the Islamic religious revival in general "as fundamentalist, as fanatic, as anti-Western, as anachronistic, as what not, when nothing could be farther from the truth"? [4] Are followers of Qutb in reality merely pious and proud Muslims who demand respect and sensitivity for their religion and people, but are willing to give the same to others in return?

  • When does Qutb think violence is necessary? Is he "careful to emphasize that [jihad] does not necessarily mean the use of violence..."? ("A Fresh look at Sayyid Qutb's Milestones" by Muqtedar Khan) Did he refrain from "invit[ing] people to any clandestine movement" or "instigat[ing] them to violence and destructive activities"? [5]

  • When Qutb talks about "complete freedom," "freedom of man from servitude to other men," and "a practical religion" (phrases he uses repeatedly), what does he really mean?

  • Can the enemies of Qutb's enemies (e.g. the foes of imperialism and global capitalism) make common cause with followers of Qutb?


    QUTB and THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY

    What does Qutb think of the contemporary Muslim community?

    That it doesn't exist. "The Muslim community has long ago vanished from existence." It's "been extinct for a few centuries." How can this be? Well, without the "laws of God," i.e. Shari'ah law, Islam does not exist, so today's Muslims, or people who call themselves Muslim, live in not in an Islamic world, but inJahiliyyah, pre-Islamic ignorance.

    ... the Muslim community has long ago vanished from existence ... we can say that the Muslim community has been extinct for a few centuries, for this Muslim community does not denote the name of a land in which Islam resides, nor is it a people whose forefathers lived under the Islamic system at some earlier time. It is the name of a group of people whose manners, ideas and concepts, rules and regulations, values and criteria, are all derived from the Islamic source. The Muslim community with these characteristics vanished at the moment the laws of God became suspended on earth. [p.9]

    Our whole environment, people's beliefs and ideas, habits and art, rules and laws -- is Jahiliyyah, even to the extent that what we consider to be Islamic culture, Islamic sources, Islamic philosophy and Islamic thought are also constructs of Jahiliyyah! [p.20]


    What exactly is wrong with "Jahiliyyah" society?

    Everything.

    Jahiliyyah is everywhere:

    The whole world is steeped in Jahiliyyah... [p.10-11]

    Jahiliyyah is evil and corrupt, whether it be of the ancient or modern variety. [p.132]

    We must ... free ourselves from the clutches of jahili society, jahili concepts, jahili traditions and jahilileadership.. [p.21]

    No compromise with it is tolerable:
    We will not change our own values and concepts either more or less to make a bargain with this jahili society. Never! [p.21]
    A live-and-let-live co-existence with it is unthinkable:
    Islam cannot accept or agree to a situation which is half-Islam and half-Jahiliyyah ... The mixing and co-existence of the truth and falsehood is impossible. [p.130]

    But if Muslims pray, fast, give alms, go on Hajj, proclaim that there is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet, how can they be ignorant pagans (i.e. Jahili)?

    Anyone who does not obey traditional Shari'ah, or "God's rule on earth," is by (Qutb's) definition not a Muslim. The problem with these "jahili" Muslims is

    not that they believe in other deities besides God or because they worship anyone other than God, but [that] their way of life is not based on submission to God alone. Although they believe in the Unity of God, still they have relegated the legislative attribute of God to others and submit to this authority. [p.82]

    And "accepting the sovereignty of others besides God," (the others in question being human beings), is shirk, (polytheism). [p.45] You may not think you are worshiping priests or presidents when you obey the regulations or laws legislated by their governance, but you are.

    The Prophet - peace be on him - clearly stated that, according to the Shari'ah, 'to obey' is 'to worship'. ... Anyone who serves someone other than God in this sense is outside God's religion, although he may claim to profess this religion. [p.60]
    "Obedience to the Shari'ah, of God, is" not just as important as the five pillars; it is "even more necessary than the establishment of the Islamic belief" (p.89) in making a Muslim a Muslim. Thus (as noted above),
    ... the Muslim community ... vanished ... the moment the laws of God became suspended on earth... [p.9]

    Where does Qutb think the Umma (Muslim community) went wrong?

    In deviating from the model for Muslims -- the original "Companions of the Prophet."

    If Islam is again to play the role of the leader of mankind, then it is necessary that the Muslim community be restored to its original form. [p.9]

    Unlike Muslims of today, the companions isolated themselves from the Jahiliyyah learning and culture of non-Muslims and looked to the Qur'an for orders to obey, not as information or solutions to problems. Specifically, the Companions ...

  • Avoided any contamination from non-Islamic culture or learning -- Greek, Roman, Persian, Christian or Jewish logic, art, poetry, etc., -- i.e. anything other than the Qur'an. "The spring from which the Companions of the Prophet (p) drank was the Quran, only the Quran... (p.16)
  • Read the Qur'an as orders to be followed ("what the Almighty Creator had prescribed for him"), as a source of "instruction for obedience and action" (p.21), and not "for the sake of discussion, learning and information" or "to solve some scientific or legal problem." (p.17-18)
  • "Cut [themselves] off from Jahiliyyah," i.e. the rest of the world, and "separating [them]selves completely from [their] past life," a life of "ignorance of the Divine Law." They renounced "the Jahili environment, its customs and traditions, its ideas and concepts." (p.19-20)

    Qutb later contradicts this first prescription, declaring it OK to study some Western knowledge ...

    chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy, medicine, industry, agriculture, administration (limited to its technical aspects), technology, military arts... [p.109]

    although not others:

    principles of economics and political affairs and interpretation of historical processes ... origin of the universe, the origin of the life of man ... philosophy, comparative religion ... sociology (excluding statistics and observations) ... Darwinist biology ([which] goes beyond the scope of its observations, without any rhyme or reason and only for the sake of expressing an opinion ...). [p.108-110]

    QUTB AND SHARI'AH LAW, THE ISLAMIC VANGUARD, SLAVERY

    What is so special about the Shari'ah, or "God's rule on earth," that it is indispensable to Islam?

    Because the Shari'ah is God's law, it brings "total harmony between human life and the law of the universe." It "is the only guarantee against any kind of discord in life" -- whether mental or physical. It brings both "peace of mind" and "peace and cooperation among individuals". (p.90)

    Shari'ah is also a part of that universal law which governs the entire universe, including the physical and biological aspects of man. Each word of God, whether it is an injunction or a prohibition, a promise or an admonition, a rule or guidance, is a part of the universal law and is as accurate and true as any of the laws known as the `laws of nature`... [p.88]
    and thus can no more be denied than the laws of gravity or nuclear physics.

    Shari'ah is so wonderful it achieves the "results" of heaven (though not absolutely perfectly) right here on earth.

    ... when harmony between human life and the universe ensues, its results are not postponed for the next life but are operative even in this world. However, they will reach their perfection in the Hereafter. [p.91]

    The Shari'ah is not just a legal code but everything legislated by God, from "belief" to "administration and justice" to "principles of art and science." (p.107)


    So if lack of Shari'ah is the cause of the demise of true Islam and the Muslim community, how does Qutb propose to reestablish Shari'ah?

    Well, of course, through preaching to persuade people of the Shari'ah's necessity, but

    the abolition of man-made laws cannot be achieved only through preaching. Those who have usurped the authority of God and are oppressing God's creatures are not going to give up their power merely through preaching. [p.59]
    So in addition "the movement" is needed.
    If through `preaching` beliefs and ideas are confronted, through `the movement` material obstacles are tackled. Foremost among these [material obstacles] is that political power which rests on a complex yet interrelated ideological, racial, class, social and economic support ... For the achievement of the freedom of man on earth -- of all mankind throughout the earth -- it is necessary that these two methods should work side by side. This is a very important point and cannot be overemphasized. [p.59]

    Material obstacles is also described as "the political system of the state, the socio-economic system based on races and classes, and behind all these, the military power of the government." (p.63) Later on he expands the list of the "many practical obstacles in establishing God's rule on earth" to include not just "the power of the state, the social system and traditions" but "in general, the whole human environment." (p.72)


    So how will these "material obstacles" in the way of Shari'ah be removed?

    Through force.

    This movement uses ... physical power and Jihaad for abolishing the organizations and authorities of the jahilisystem which prevents people from reforming their ideas and beliefs but forces them to obey their erroneous ways [i.e. what they want to do] and make them serve human lords instead of the Almighty Lord. [p.55]

    `There is no compulsion in religion;` but when the above mentioned obstacles and practical difficulties

    i.e. the political system of the state, the socio-economic system and behind all these, the military power of the government (not to mention "the whole human environment")
    are put in [Islam's] way, it has no recourse but to remove them by force so that when it is addressed to peoples' hearts and minds they are free to accept or reject it with an open mind. [p.63, 72]

    Who will do this forceful removing of the "organizations and authorities of the Jahili system ... the whole human environment"?

    The Islamic vanguard for whom Milestones is written.

    How is it possible to start the task of reviving Islam? It is necessary that there should be a vanguard which sets out ... and keeps walking on the path, marching through the vast ocean of Jahiliyyah which has encompassed the entire world. [p.12]
    The Islamic society is born out of a [vanguard] movement ... the origin of this movement [is the faith of] a single individual ... As soon as this single individual believes in this faith, the Islamic community comes into existence (potentially). When the number of Believers reaches three, then this faith tells them, `Now you are a community, a distinct Islamic community, distinct from that Jahili society ... 
    These three individuals increase to ten, the ten to a hundred, the hundred to a thousand, and the thousand increase to twelve thousand[p.101-3]

    Because

    Jahiliyyah is all around him, and its residual influences in his mind and in the minds of those around him, ... every individual of this society must move!

    To separate themselves from insidious Jahiliyyah against which

    ... the struggle goes on and the Jihaad continues until the Day of Resurrection. [p.101-3]

    Will the vanguard force others to accept the Shari'ah?

    Qutb is ambiguous on this point. On the one hand Qutb calls for waiting and delaying the legislation of the Shari'ah until people are "ready" and have accepted Islam.

    The course prescribed by God for this religion is ... first, belief ought to be imprinted on hearts and rule over consciences -- that belief which demands that people should not bow before anyone except God or derive laws from any other source. Then, when such a group of people is ready and also gains practical control of society, various laws will be legislated according to the practical needs of that society. [p.35]

    On the other hand Qutb also indicates that some things can't wait for belief to be imprinted. Islam gives people

    complete freedom to accept or not to accept its beliefs ... However this freedom does not mean that they can make their desires their gods, or that they can choose to remain in the servitude of other human beings, making some men lords over others. [p.61]
    ("Making some men lords over others," he explains, is the practice of Jews and Christians of "obeying laws which were made by ... priests and rabbis" and is "not permitted by God." (p.82))

    How, specifically, does divine law or Shari'ah differ from current man-made law? Aren't the punishments of the Shari'ahrather severe - thieves hands cut off, drinkers lashed, and adulterers stoned?

    Curiously for someone describing Shari'ah as the solution to all problems of humanity, social or individual, Qutb never gives any examples of how particular pieces of "divine" legislation are superior to equivalent kinds of "man-made" law. Laws against fornication and drinking liquor, the wrongness of charging interest on loans and "free mixing of the sexes" are mentioned only in passing. Presumably he thought his other works explained it well enough or that his audience already knew enough about it.

    Qutb does make it clear Shari'ah does not give a lot of leeway in what people can do...

    Its system extends into all aspects of life; it discusses all minor or major affairs of mankind; it orders man's life ... people should devote their entire lives in submission to God, should not decide any affair on their own, but must refer to God's injunctions concerning it and follow them. [p.32, 47]

    As for the severity of Shari'ah, Qutb claims that (almost all) people will just naturally want to obey God's laws, so there will be very little "occasion" to punish wrongdoers. Qutb's goal is to restore the "Muslim community ... to its original form." (p.9) Back then ...

    ... justice was God's justice ... Morals were elevated, hearts and souls were purified, and with the exception of a very few cases, there was no occasion even to enforce the limits and punishments which God has prescribed; for now conscience was the law-enforcer, and the pleasure of God, the hope of Divine reward, and the fear of God's anger took the place of police and punishments. [p.9, 30]

    But isn't it true that Qutb emphasized the "practical" nature of Islam and the importance of the Shari'ah serving the needs of the Muslim community?

    According to one of Qutb's defenders...

    ... The most remarkable aspect of Qutb's book is his insistence on an approach in 'stages' and the repeated assertion that the need for implementing Islamic law would not arise until every member of the community had completely submitted to the sovereignty of Allah and by that agreed to live under Allah's laws. Laws would then be framed merely to serve the needs of this 'living community of Islam'. A far cry from the perception that a handful of Islamists are out to impose an essentialized Shari'ah on all Muslims and non-Muslims living in Muslim lands...) "A Fresh look at Sayyid Qutb's Milestones" by Muqtedar Khan

    Qutb describe the Shari'ah in what seems like two contradictory ways:

    1) As a "practical religion" with "general laws" or "a method for legislation," patiently waiting to find a "viable society" of true Muslims, whose social needs, theShari'ah then pliantly "satisf[ies]" by shaping itself "according to the practical needs" and "actual conditions" of the society. (p.34-35) 
    2) "Uniform law" of utter perfection beyond human comprehension. "As accurate and true as any of the laws known as the `laws of nature,`" and from which a human being "cannot deviate by a hair's breath," let alone mold or shape. (p.89)

    Here's the first: Islam

    first looks at the prevailing conditions, and if it finds a viable society which, according to its form, conditions or temperament, is a Muslim society, which has submitted itself to the law of God and is weary of laws emanating from other sources, then indeed this religion provides a method for the legislation of laws according to the needs of such a society.[p.34]

    After everyone has become a good Muslim

    then, when such a group of people is ready and also gains practical control of society, various laws will be legislated according to the practical needs of that society. [p.35]
    Here's the second:
    Man cannot understand all the laws of the universe, nor can he comprehend the unity of this system; he cannot even understand the laws which govern his own person, from which he cannot deviate by a hair's breath. Thus he is incapable of making laws for a system of life which can be in complete harmony with the universe or which can even harmonize his physical need with his external behavior. This capability belongs solely to the Creator of the universe and of men, Who not only controls the universe but also human affairs, and Who implements a uniform law according to His will [p.89]
    ... that uniform law being the Shari'ah.

    How can people legislate "according" to their "needs" and at the same time be "incapable of making laws for a [harmonious] system of life"?

    The confusion may stem from what "practical" means. Most Westerners will assume it means pragmatic as opposed to doctrinaire -- using what works and throwing out what doesn't. But when Qutb says: "This is a practical religion; it has come to order the practical affairs of life," (p.33) he's contrasting it not with inflexible doctrine, but with "abstractions and theories" (p.34) that aren't enforced in real life. Since God's laws are harmonious, perfect, quasi-heavenly, questioning whether or not they will serve "the practical needs" of society isn't being practical it's being blasphemous. How could they not? God would never allow it!

    So while saying that "various laws will be legislated according to the practical needs of that society" sounds to Westerners as though people will be legislating the laws, writing (and rewriting) them to get it right, it may be Qutb's use of the future tense is misleading. Islamic Legislation has already been done -- by God. As he says elsewhere, "Legislation is a Divine attribute; any person who concedes this right to such a claimant [like a national parliament, state legislature, city council], whether he considers [the claimant] Divine or not, has accepted [the claimant] as Divine." (p.75)


    If Qutb didn't make clear the specifics of divine law or Shari'ah, what have his followers said or done about institutingShari'ah?

    In the last few decades following Qutb's death, the "vanguard" Islamic societies that he talked about have sprouted up in his home country Egypt and provided a number of examples of their own Shari'ah `rule.` At Cairo University, for example an Islamist Jama'at Islamiyya group created a Shari'ah Muslim community and shut down theater, poetry readings, cinema, and music programs on the grounds that they brought men and women together and distracted people from religious activities...

    ... couples were physically attacked for violations of upright Islamic morals; films could not be shown; concerts and evening dance could not be held ... All artistic and cinematic exhibitions were considered `provocations against the jama'at`
    ... which were shut down by Islamists wielding iron bars. [6]

    So when Islamists in Cairo had to chose between Qutb's contradictory admonishments -- "remove" the "obstacles" of jahili society "by force," or wait until "society" was "ready" for true Islam -- they chose the former.


    Slavery existed in the early Muslim society Qutb so admired, though it was more humanely regulated than in other societies. Qutb didn't plan to bring that back, did he?

    Ironically, at the same time Qutb attacks Jahiliyyah as perpetuating "the slavery of one man over another," he enthuses about the use of African slaves in the early Islamic world as a sort of benevolent raising up of the poor Africans.

    When Islam entered the central part of Africa, it clothed naked human beings, socialized them, brought them out of the deep recesses of isolation, and taught them the joy of work for exploring (sic) material resources. [p.105]

    He doesn't use the word slaves, but the Africans who explored for "material resources" were zanj slaves working in mines.

    What's worse is the form of slavery Qutb picks out for praise was not in any way benevolent or enlightened like domestic or military slavery in Islamic lands. For example, reports of conditions in the Saharan salt mines are that no slave survived working in the mines for more than five years.

    Zanj slaves used to drain the salt flats of southern Iraq, and the blacks employed in the salt mines of the Sahara and the gold mines of Nubia. These were herded in large settlements and worked in gangs. Large landowners, or crown lands, often employed thousands of such slaves. While domestic and commercial slaves were relatively well-off, these lived and died in wretchedness. Of the Saharan salt mines it is said that no slave lived there for more than five years ... [7]

    Nor were plantation slaves in the Tigris and Euphrates river valley treated tenderly. Zanj there were discontented enough to revolt in 868-69 AD (255 Hijra) The revolt lasted over 10 years. 300,000 died when the rebels sacked and burnt Basra. [8]

    It's fair to say most Muslims think slavery was acceptable at that time, but no longer. For Qutb, though, the education of Africans in "the joy of work" by early Muslim slave masters is an example of why the Muslim community should be "restored to its original form"! (p.9)


    I'm starting to have doubts! Qutb talks about the "total harmony" and "peace and cooperation among individuals" and how there were almost no lawbreakers to punish when the Muslim community was in its "original form," but do we really know what it was like back then 1400 years ago? One thing we do know is that three of the four original caliphs - the "rightfully guided caliphs" -- died by assassination! And even if the original Shari'ah was wonderful, a lot has changed in the millennium or so since God's law was applied on earth. Perhaps there isn't just one system of Shari'ah bestowed by God on humanity. Wouldn't it be better to use a broader approach and consider adding other principles -- like the good of humanity -- as the basis of law? Surely God wouldn't disapprove of that!

    Qutb has already given your question some thought!

    The question may be asked, `Is not the good of mankind the criterion for solving actual problems?` But again we will raise the question which Islam raises itself, and which it answers: that is, `Do you know better, or God?` and, `God knows and you do not know.`
    The good of mankind is inherent in the Divine Laws sent down by God to the Prophet ... If at any time men think that their good is in going against what God has legislated, then first of all, they are deluded in their thinking ... Second, they are unbelievers. It is not possible for a person to declare that in his opinion good lies in going against that which God has legislated, and simultaneously be a follower of this religion ... [p.86]
    The punishment levied by the traditional Shari'ah against murtad (an apostate) like you is death. Better watch your mouth!

    QUTB ON SEX, WOMEN, AND THE FAMILY

    What does Qutb think of extramarital sex and gay rights?

    He considers tolerance towards homosexuality as gross example of the lack of morality in Jahili society.

    In all modern jahili societies, the meaning of `morality` is limited to such an extent that all those aspects which distinguish man from animal are considered beyond its sphere. In these societies, illegitimate sexual relationships, even homosexuality, are not considered immoral. [p.98]

    Qutb mentions the sex and spy scandals in Great Britain of the 1960s (involving Christine Keeler, et. al.), exclaiming that "these affairs are not considered immoral because of sexual deviations, but because of the danger to state secrets!" (p.98)


    What does Qutb think of Women's Liberation?

    Qutb vehemently opposes the idea of a woman being "freed from her basic responsibility of bringing up children" to take a job as "a hostess or a stewardess in a hotel or ship or air company" (common jobs for women back then). This violates the "division of work" between the sexes "based on family responsibility and natural gifts." (p.98)

    If ... free sexual relationships and illegitimate children become the basis of a society, and if the relationship between man and woman is based on lust, passion and impulse, and the division of work is not based on family responsibility and natural gifts; if woman's role is merely to be attractive, sexy and flirtatious, and if woman is freed from her basic responsibility of bringing up children; and if, on her own or under social demand, she prefers to become a hostess or a stewardess in a hotel or ship or air company, thus spending her ability for material productivity rather than in the training of human beings, because material production is considered to be more important, more valuable and more honorable than the development of human character, then such a civilization is `backward` from the human point of view, or `Jahili` in the Islamic terminology. [p.98]

    Does Qutb Espouses "Family Values"?

    At first it might appear so. He certainly thinks childrearing duties and traditional sex roles leave no room for sexual equality or women's individual fulfillment in careers or sex.

    If the family is the basis of the society, and the basis of the family is the division of labor between husband and wife, and the upbringing of children is the most important function of the family, then such a society is indeed civilized .... [p.98]

    But pre-eminent over the family (like everything else in society) is Islam. Family preservation cannot interfere with the God-given right of divorce, as it does in the West where ...

    unfair and cumbersome laws of marriage and divorce ... are contrary to the demands of practical life. [p.139]

    Islam even replaces the family unit, blood relations.

    Islam freed all humanity ... from the chains of blood relationships -- the biological chains -- so that they might rise above the angels. [p.124]

    ... a Muslim has no relatives except those who share the belief in God ... 
    A Muslim has no relationship with his mother, father, brother, wife and other family members except through their relationship with the Creator, and then they are also joined through blood. [p.118-119]

    Qutb relates as exemplary the story of Abdullah bin Abdullah bin Ubayy, who offered to behead his (anti-Islamic) father, saying
    `if it is the pleasure of God and His Prophet that I cut off his head, then I shall do so.` (p.119)

    Qutb's contradiction: If "the family is the basis of the society" then "society is indeed civilized." But "blood relationships" are "chains" from which "Islam freed all humanity."


    QUTB ON POLITICS: 
    PROGRESSIVE ISLAM, NATIONALISM, DEMOCRACY, SOCIALISM

    What does Qutb think of progressive Islam?

    Not much. Those who subscribe to what they call "progressive Islam" are not real Muslims.

    Islamic society is not one in which people call themselves `Muslims` but in which law has no status; even though prayer, fasting and Hajj are regularly observed; and the Islamic society is not one in which people invent their own version of Islam, other than what God and His Messenger -- peace be on him -- have prescribed and explained, and call it, for example `progressive Islam.` [p.93]

    What does Qutb think of nationalism, e.g. Arab nationalism?

    He thinks it an error and a failure.

    All nationalistic and chauvinistic ideologies which have appeared in modern times, all the movements and theories derived from them have also lost their vitality. In short, all man-made individual or collective theories have proved to be failures. [p.8]

    Qutb offers as proof of the falsity of nationalism the fact that it would have been much easier for the Prophet Muhammad to unite Arabs under a message of Arab nationalism ...

    instead of bearing tortures for thirteen years due to the opposition of the people in authority in the peninsula ... But the All-Knowing and All-Wise God did not lead His Prophet -- peace be on him -- on this course .... 
    The way is not to free the earth from Roman and Persian tyranny in order to replace it with Arab tyranny. All tyranny is wicked! The earth belongs to God and should be purified for God and it cannot be purified for Him unless the banner, `No deity except God,` is unfurled across the earth... [p.26]

    What does Qutb think of Democracy?

    Very little.

    Democracy in the West has become infertile to such an extent that it is borrowing from the systems of the Eastern bloc, especially in the economic system, under the name of socialism. [p.7]

    An opinion that has not withstood the test of time! [9]

    He also presents as evidence that Christian and Jewish societies are lost to Jahiliyyah pagan ignorance the fact that they "have established assemblies of men which have absolute power to legislate laws." (p.82) As Qutb, his Muslim Brethren and their kindred publications all suffered from suppression at the hands of Nasser's dictatorship, you might logically expect Qutb to put in a good word for freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, or self-determination if not free elections. But he makes not mention of any of the principles commonly held to be necessary for some kind of democracy. Qutb does say that

    any system, in which the final decisions are referred to human beings, and in which the source of all authority are human,

    is doomed to failure because it

    deifies human beings by designating others than God as lords over men. This declaration means that the usurped authority of God be returned to Him and the usurpers be thrown out -- those who by themselves devise laws for other to follow, thus elevating themselves to the status of lords and reducing others to the status of slaves. [p.58]

    The possibility that regular, open and honest elections might keep human lawmakers servants, rather than lords, of the voters is never mentioned, let alone explored.


    How about Capitalism?

    Hates it.

    the exploitation of individuals and nations due to greed for wealth and imperialism under the capitalist systems are but a corollary of rebellion against God's authority ... [p.11]
    Look at this capitalism with its monopolies, its usury and whatever else is unjust in it; at this individual freedom, devoid of human sympathy and responsibility for relatives except under the force of law... [p.139]

    ... Socialism then?

    Organizing the poor to rise up against the rich and redistribute wealth equitably is also an error, as is the Marxist way of looking at the world. "Declaring war against the class of nobles" who "monopolized all wealth and commerce" and "distributing it among the poor" would have been an effective way for Muhammad to gain authority.

    But the All-knowing, the All-Wise God ... knew that this was not the way. He knew that true social justice can come to a society only after all affairs have been submitted to the laws of God... [p.26-7]
    Human values and human morals are not something mysterious and undefinable, nor are they `progressive` and changeable, having no roots and stability, as is claimed by the exponent of the materialistic interpretation of history of `scientific socialism.` They are the values and the morals which develop those characteristics in a human being which distinguish him from the animals and which emphasize those aspects of his personality which raise him above the animals... [p.96]

    OK, Qutb is disdainful of Western-style socialism or pluralist liberal democracy, but how about some kind of non-Western Islamic Democracy or Islamic Socialism?

    `Islamic Socialism` and `Islamic Democracy` are to Qutb examples of unnecessary (and wrong) attempts by Muslims to meet non-Muslims halfway. Islamic socialism in particular is an intolerable deviation followed only by the "enemies of mankind." Muslims should not "propose s

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