political currents that were widespread at the time as egyptian society fought to throw off the yoke of colonialist control and subjugation that had egypt and much of the muslim world in its grips. at the tender age of 17, he moved to cairo to continue his islamic studies at the darul ulum seminary, and it was whilst there that he learned the abolition of the ottoman caliphates, development that deeply moved him, combined. with the ever encroaching menas of british cultural colonialism, bana began to see a spiritual sickness in egyptian society and began to publicly preach and call to islam in the cafes and streets. then in 1928, along with disgruntled workers from the suis canal company, bana established the muslim brotherhood, a fraternity for muslims who were increasingly frustrated by the oppression they were facing at the time. over the coming decades, the brother... had grown

to having over 500 thousand members and its popularity had grown to other nations too, but the growing popularity and activism of bana brought him into conflict with the egyptian authorities who feared the brotherhood was planning a coup. the monarchy cracked down on the brotherhood and albana was assassinated on the 12th of february 1949 at the age of 42, but leaving behind legacy that has remained until this day. joining us today in the studio to talk about this historic figure is a regular contributor to the show batul sobaiti. sister batul is a political activist and commentator whose incisive analysis helps layman and professionals are like navigate political dynamics a global scale. we're also honored to be joined by dr. mohammed ganim, member of the egyptian muslim brotherhood uh, their political party, and he's also a specialist in islamic economics. thank you to you both. of

for joining us, i would like to begin with you first, dr. muhammad, who exactly was hassan albannah, tell us more about his family and his ideological background, please. bismillah rahmanirrahim, hassan was like anybody else in the world, he is a product of the society, we understand hassan albana by understand the society at the that time, that time was farok system, the king farok. system and the country was corrupted, was a dictatorship, although there is a different between dictatorship and today's dictatorship. hassanna from the background of qualified shariah scholar, he want or he felt obliged to sollt the situation in egypt, and you can't suit this any society problem.

overnight and he had the idea is to create a close group and those group will be qualified enough to reach the other member of the society in order to solve the problem of the egyptian society at that time. now sister batool, i'd like to uh come to you and of course uh and ask you a question about your views in particular with regards to... the uh influence of hassan when he established the muslim brotherhood, what were the conditions that muslims faced particularly at that point in history? right, so we're talking about the establishment of the brotherhood decade post world war one. now world war one was huge turning point in the region. you're talking of about the essential demise of the ottoman empire, of course that in no small part was precipitated due to the arabs carrying out the dirty work of the west, essentially um wts in the me. they were uh conspiring to

carve up the whole region, under the secret six pico agreement, so you know this was britain and france um that essentially carved up that whole region. um, so that was the situation that was prevailing at that time, egypt was slightly different though, because egypt was already under the british colonial rule from since uh 1882, i believe, so so it wasn't officially under the ottoman rule, um, and it had its independence in that sense, but then uh the british uh took over uh before that um, but ultimately the situation of the muslim ummah was that it was completely defeatest at that time, um, it a rejected the colonialism, um, it felt a sense of despair, it felt enslaved, uh, it felt like ultimately its dignity had been stripped away from it, right, it wanted to do something about it, it wanted to create change, um, and so it's it was an unfortunate state of affairs, but then this shows you the importance of... um the emergence of a man

like hassanna and the movement of the uh muslim brotherhood, because it's defined as essentially uh the first movement of its kind, it's defined - the mother of all of the islamist movements that emerged since then, so someone like shaheed hasan albannah, he felt the uh responsibility of islam on his shoulders, he believed that uh islam uh can really provide solution to all the problems and that actually uh the quran is the constitution that should be ruling in society, so that was kind of the ideology uh that he had, especially when we're talking about an occupation, we're talking about a british and french occupation that was unwanted, that was essentially rejected. by the people that was inherently violent, so someone like shasan sought to mobilize the ummah, now the muslim ummah, the seeds of islam was strong uh within the ummah, but it didn't per say have level of awareness, it didn't have level of insight, level of direction, so it really kind of needed that

direction, so someone like shid hasanna and the party that he created came on board and it began to develop political, social and cultural institution. within the society that could really focus on removing those elements of uh hopelessness uh and infusing the islamic spirit uh bringing about action and getting rid of that defeatous mentality so some of the practical actions that someone like uh shaheed hassanna took was he got involved national action from day one you know so he must mobilized protests on the streets uh against the uh colonial rule uh demonstrations he set up the uh muslim youth association in 1927, which by their own admission is basically looking to promote morality in society, to enjoying good and forbid evil, which is a very important uh tenant within the islamic faith, and actually that was uh the seed that led to the formation of the brotherhood uh the year

later in in 1928 um and in 1933 i believe you had the uh muslim uh sisters version of uh the brotherhood organization and also uh key feature of the brotherhood was also to to bring about this kind of ideological revolution in society, so um they had their own newspapers, the first uh the first article that they published was called a salt of daw um you know the call to daw um sorry dallah yes it was the quarter that's that was the name of the first article that they published in al fath newspaper and in fact the last article that they published uh i believe was in 1947 in the daily ahwan newspaper so they had their own newspaper they would publish in every single day and that was the last works of shaheed hasanna um and the article was titled between um resistance between resilience and tribulations um and that was a month actually before the party itself was dissolved by the uh british backed uh monarchy and one year

before uh you know shahit hassanna himself was uh assassinated sure and uh of course uh he has been a hugely inspiring figure to other people dr. muhammad but how about the man himself, hassan? who were the influences that inspired him in his life and works? well, i've heard some in that time was aziz masri, but he wasn't really influent, influenced by him, he was rather influenced by the shariah, he was very clever person, he was qualified in shariah and he was memorizing. the quran and his life was completely surrounded by shariah and he find the the way, the only way to change the situation in egypt to the better is by try to follow shariah, but again to follow shariah

you need some close circle, from those close circle we convey the shariah rules and this close member to... very to the rest of the society, and once the society understand the shariah rule and try to practice it, all the problem was solved. this is what his opinion and this is what he started from. fascinating to hear that perspective there, doctor. now of course, as we've been discussing hassan's greatest legacy was the founding of the muslim brotherhood. we look deeper now into the history of the movement, its achievements and the mark it's left on the world. "the muslim brotherhood was established in 1928 as reaction to the fall of the ottoman empire. british colonial rule of ottoman territory and the looming occupation of palestine considered the second holiest land in the world to muslims. sensitivities towards

british colonial rule crystallized in the form of an islamic political movement. concerned with the well-being of his nation, who has been left, neglected and exploited by the..." vulnerable in society by providing much needed social services like educational programs that taught the illiterate setting up hospitals and businesses and aim to end british colonial reign and in its place establish a state run by sharia law. although he did not have the resources to make this a reality, it was an idea that enveloped him. through grassroots activism, he organized local groups and began. rallying support for new movement, the muslim brotherhood. the radical ideals of making the quran the

country's constitution spread like wildfire across egypt. this was made possible by the pre-existing, deeply rooted islamic faith and practices of the egyptian people. as the brotherhood spread rapidly throughout sudan, syria, palestine, lebanon, and north africa in egypt. the movement launched. protests against the ruling waft party, an armed element of the group took to more violent acts, including bombing and political assassination to achieve their aims, which by this stage had deviated from its founders well. hasan albana was assassinated 20 years after the formation of the party in 1949, and soon after the brotherhood retreated underground due to governmental crackdowns. six of its leaders were tried and executed for treason, and many others were imprisoned.

in the 1960s and 70s, the brotherhood's activities remained largely clandestine. however, the organization officially renounced violence. in the 1980s, the muslim brotherhood experienced a renewal as part of the general upsurge of religious activity in islamic countries, most notably as a result the islamic revolution. in iran with hosne mubarak forced to step down as president in 2011, the way was cleared for the muslim brotherhood's open participation in egyptian politics and they were finally elected as egypt's government. sadly, this was shortlived. with the coup of 2013, leading members of the brotherhood were imprisoned, vilified, suppressed, and supporters even sentenced to death. later that year, the... brotherhood was officially designated a terrorist organization in egypt. despite the

crackdowns, the muslim brotherhood cannot be erased from the history of the region and remain relevant in their most active offshoot group, harakat al islamiah in palestine, most commonly known as hamas. now dr. mohammed, if we can pick it up with yourself, what sort of opposition did albenna face, particularly from author? in his native egypt, well to cut the story short is always dictatorship, doesn't like people to influence the political situation, dictatorship built a situation which he the only person can conduct the policies and make the most beneficial of the social and economic system and that... he was influenced by that and that itself, the dictatorship never benefit

any society, the elite society in order with the dictator to use the sources or resources the country, so to make the rest of the country sleep deep in ignorance, and by that time egypt was completely or not completely, "huge percentage was ignorance, in particular in religious, although there was azhar and where is lot of people memorizing the quran, but the spirit inside them was very weak to follow the shariah rules and the hassanna had that energy on him to renew what is being left. in egyptian society to follow shariah rules and that was considered by the

dictatorship movement against him, that was the struggle between anybody at that time looking to solve any problem of the egyptian society and the dictatorship, and that was was the struggle between the system at that time and hassanna and his movement and his follower. now i'd like to... to return back to yourself and see the influence that hassanna had on other movements across the islamic world in particular, we can look for example at the islamic revolution in iran and many of the senior... figures within that revolution, crediting benner for some of the ideological or philosophical inspirations uh with regards to their own successes, right? so if we're talking in terms of influence, um, the first notable point to make is first egypt as a country, right? so egypt is a large country, it's got a large population, egypt was one of those entities that actually wasn't carved up under six pico, so it wasn't

inherently under uh ottoman rule at that period of time, um, if you look at the... country also has like the real components of a country, you know, we're talking about legacy, we're talking about civilization, we're talking about history. when someone thinks of egypt, they think of a center of education, they think of al-azhar, they think of uh literature, they think of humanities, you think of those great arab and muslim intellectuals, lot of them come from egypt, so if you were to compare that with some of the other countries in the region, especially those uh that came out of the ottoman empire and then into uh british colonial. french rule um they didn't necessarily carry that same weight and that same influence and so nor would you expect um kind of party of this kind or kind of movement of that kind to emerge from that you know for example if you consider a country like lebanon you know it was like baby it was newly formed it was literally carved out of syria for example so naturally you'd expect uh egypt to have that influence on the surrounding region and the way i would characterize egypt it was like

almost like that that center of gravity uh in the region so so that was expected but ultimately and the... reality as it transpired was that um they weren't able to bring about this substantial change of shifting the status quo and getting rid of the british backed monarchy because it's not just a wish that you have in mind right um when we look at political action and bringing about kind of revolutionary substantial change that requires understanding in depth the conditions of society that recognizes it's it's almost like a political science of its kind you're not going to get that through reading islamic uh literature for example. um, that is science of its own, and so you have to understand the conditions of society and how you can apply uh islam to that directly, so the way that i would characterize movement like ikhwan muslimin, like the muslim brotherhood, is they took the reformist approach rather than the transformist approach, so they focused on the partial issues, they focused on let's correcting uh behaviors in society, let's

focus on correcting uh norms or rules or ideas for example, so um we should um you know open up charities, for example, we should support those who are impoverished, or we should um, shut down centers or pubs where they sell alcohol for example, or nightclubs for instance, um, this was the kind of trajectory that they were going in, whereas if you look at an entity like the islamic republic of iran, it's an example of one that took about um, a transformative approach, it's this idea that we have to completely shift the unjust status quo on the ground, this constitution, this this western-backed monarchy that was put in the... position of power and it's a secular constitution needs to be removed, we need to be governed and we need to live under uh the rules of shariah of course and and this was something that was only achieved through the people, it was like the masses called for that change and and and the people were the vehicle through which imam khumin managed to establish the islamic revolution which is a crucial point, so here we we want to make a distinction between what like the ideological thinking of the muslim

brotherhood was and its direction and its trajectory versus uh on the ground what was able to achieve. now when we go to about 1948, um, this was very sensitive and pivotal moment in history as well. so you the first pipetal moment we said was the end of world war 1, the demise of the ottoman empire, british colonial and french colonial rule ascending, and then the second most pivotal point is uh basically at the end of world war ii, where you have the british colonial yoke that is essentially resinding and you have america rising onto the helm of leadership, and america actually supporting uh the liberation. movements on the ground because you had this struggle and this conflict for that next decade um between uh britain and primarily britain and america vying for power in that region and that transfer of power, so for example in a country like iraq you saw how you know malik faisal was deposed and you had the revolution of abdul karim qasim likewise in egypt um you had malik faruk who

was deposed and you had someone like jamal abdul rising to power so the establishment of this kind of secular... uh republic um and if we analyze movement like the brotherhood, it was uh spreading throughout the region, you had uh similar organizations that were being formed that had the same weights essentially as the muslim brotherhood in countries like iraq, in jordan for example, in syria, its branches essentially, um, although the leadership of the muslim brotherhood was such that it was more decentralized than centralized, so in countries like iraq they had more of kind of independence as as opposed to directly having to answer the egyptian leadership. and and i think what something that's interesting here as well is, you've mentioned for example uh the iranians imam khumeini and one thing he's always focused on has been unity between muslims and if we can just very quickly we don't have lot of... of time on the show, but discuss uh what muslims can maybe learn from hassannah and his approach about how muslims should unite against a common enemy, in particular when you see what's happening to our brothers

and sisters in palestine at the moment. absolutely. so there were three key themes that uh shahid hasanna focused on, specifically when it comes to the palestinian struggle for liberation. the first was that he centralized the palestinian cause as ultimately the cause of the umah, you this idea that um, don't think of palestine as nationalistic cause as the borders as per construction. by the superpowers themselves and the colonialists. this is an islamic duty, it's an islamic responsibility for every single muslim to consider the burden on their own shoulders, and he made this very clear. the second uh point was the unconditional support for the palestinian liberation cause, and he did not distinguish on the basis of anything. this was very, very clear that every single one of those palestinians fighting for their land, and that constitutes muslims of all denominations, christians and jews, right, the indigenous people of the land. we need to give them our unconditional support, and the third point that he's stressed upon is that we need to boycott those entities that are responsible essentially uh for sponsoring um the israeli occupation entity. now it's very important that we mention that um shit

established this party in the 20's so we're talking about prior 1948 you're talking about when the bowful declaration was the kind of baseline so to speak and he emphasized that you know this zianist project is a project that's just not limited to palestine you now by their own admission it's from the niile to the euprates every single one of the arabs has to see it. an existential that issue because the idea is that they want to expand this beyond and it's inherently expansionist, so if i can just quote one of shaheid hasanna's quotes regarding palestine, um, he says in 1939, the blood that stained the land of palestine, the thousands of marters who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the highest islamic ideal, and the al-aqsa mosk, the sanctity of which was violated, all of these call upon you, oh muslim brother and sister, sacrifice for the sake of god, the soul and... money he gave you so that you may be worthy of the name of islam essentially, so this is no difference calling today, what the islamic republic is calling for, what other moments are calling for, and how

relevant it is today in 2024 that we see the exact same or even worse oppression happening and muslims should be responding to this call. sister batul, thank you again so much as always for joining us and dr. mohammed as well uh and thank you to you at home for watching, we hope that you will join us again next. week for another edition of eye on islam. this week on expose, mainstream media highlights the unprecedented scale of

destruction and impact of the war on gaza as per reports by the united nations trade body. western broadcast media white washes zionist israeli crimes of destruction in gaza as excuse to hunt down what it called hamas terrorists. while print and digital media surprisingly argue that on unless the israeli regime changes course, it could be legally culpable of for mass starvation in gaza, and social media users express astonishment at how world leaders cannot see how unfair the calamity of the palestinian people is. expose, the truth is just a revelation away.

i think that the um drop economic activity, the the costs of the conflict, both military

and... uh economic uh on the israeli regime are fairly severe buse that the workers in the technology sector mainly are reserveds in israeli army.

first of the headlines: the us is really genocide in gaza is in its 134th day with the death though nearing 29, mostly women and children. hamas relates that no prisoner swap deal with israel is possible without ending to aggression and siege as well as the withdraw of occupation of forces from gaza. indivan vails two domestically manufactured air defense systems achieving another milestone in the country's relentless pursuit to fortify its defense capabilities.