assalamualaikum, peace be upon you and welcome to eye on islam, the show where we look at current affairs through an islamic lens. each week we evaluate a trending new story and we break it down from an islamic perspective. in february, the islamic world marks the 75th anniversary of the assassination of the islamic scholar, thinker and activist hassan albannah, the founder of the muslim brotherhood. this week's episode

will explore the contributions albenna made to islamic revivalism, his legacy in terms of both the brotherhood and wider islamic movements. we look at the factors that led to his assassination. first let's take a closer look at the life of the man himself, sheikh hassan albannah. hassan albannah, one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, a man whose ideas continue to outlive him of until the... day, but who was he exactly? bana was born on the 14th of october 1906 in mahmudiyah a rural nile delta town about an hour's drive from alexandrian in egypt. his father, ahmed abd al rahman albana alsathi was a sheik and mosk teacher and had a massive influence on shaping the spiritual beliefs of his young son who took great interest in studying islam from his youth. bana also began. to be drawn into the growing

nationalist political currents that were widespread at the time as egyptian society fough 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 califat, 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 brotherhood had grown to having over 500,00 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 sabati. 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. mohamed 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 for a joining us. i would like to begin with you first, dr. muhammad, who exactly was hasan albanna tell us more about his family and his ideological background please. hassan was like anybody else in the world, he is a product of the society. we understand hassanna by understand the society at the that time. that time was faruk. system, the king farouk system, and the country was corrupted, was a dictatorship, although there is a different between dictatorship and of today's dictatorship. hassan from the background of qualified shariah scholar, he want or he felt obliged to suit the situation in egypt, and you can't suit the... is 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 face particularly at that point in history? right? so we're talking about the establishment of the brotherhood uh decade post world war one. now world war 1 was huge turning point in the region. you're talking 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, what's in the meantime they were uh conspiring to carve up the whole region, under the secret cyco agreement, so you now 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 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, the first movement of its kind, it's defined as the mother of all of the islamist movements that emerged since then, so someone like shahid hasanna, 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 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 uh inherently uh violent, so uh someone like shit hasan 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 shaheed hasannah and the party that he uh created uh came on board and it began to develop uh political social and cultural institutions 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 hasanna took was he got involved national action from day one you know so he muss mobilized protests you know on the streets uh against the uh colonial rule uh demonstrations, he set up the 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, and in 1933, i believe you had the uh muslim uh sisters version of the brotherhood. organization and also a 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 yes it was the court a daw 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 uh daily ikhwan newspaper, so they had their own newspaper that they would publish in every single day, and that was the last works of shaheed hassanna, 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 monarchy,

and one year before uh, shaheid hasanb himself was assassinated, sure, and uh, of course, he has been a hugely inspiring figure. to other people, dr. muhammad, but how about the man himself, hassanna? 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 influenced 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 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 clos circle we convey the shariah rules and this close member to convey 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 a reaction to the fall 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 british occupiers. hassan albana, islamic scholar and school teacher spread the ideas of a pan islamic, faith-based social movement. at its core, it looked after the vulnerable in society by providing much needed social services like educational programs that taught the illiterate, setting up hospitals and businesses, and aimed to end british colonial reign and in its place, establish a state run by shariah 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. hassan albannah 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 noted. as result of 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 short-lived. with the coup of 2013, leading members of the brotherhood were imprisoned, villified, suppressed, and supporters even sentenced to. later that year, the muslim brotherhood was officially designated a terrorist organization in egypt.

despite the crackdowns, the muslim brotherhood cannot be erased from the history the region and remain relevant in their most active off shoot group haraked in palestine, most commonly known as hamas. now dr. mohammed, if we can pick it up with yourself, what sort of opposition? 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 dictator to use the sources or resources of the country 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 uh betul, i'd like to return back to yourself and see the influence that hassan albana 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, uh, it's got a large population. egypt was one of those

entities that actually wasn't carved up under sx pico, so it wasn't inherently under ottoman rule at that period. period of time, um, if you look at the country, it also has like the real components of the country, we're talking about legacy, we're talking about civilization, we're talking about history, you know, 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 you know 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 that came out of the ottoman empire and into uh british uh colonial and 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 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 would expect uh egypt to have

that influence on the surrounding region and the way i would characterize egypt it was like almost like that center of gravity uh in the region so so that was 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 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 islam to that directly, so the way that i would characterize movement like ikhwan muslim, 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 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 this 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 komeini 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 it's direction and its trajectory versus uh on the ground what it 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 pivotal moment said was the end of world war i, the demise of the ottoman empire, british colonial and french colonial rule um 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 buying 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 uh

malik faruk who was deposed and you had someone like jamal abdul nasar rising at 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 organization. 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 time on the show, but discuss what muslims can maybe learn from hassanna 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 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. this idea that don't think of palestine as nationalist. cause as the borders as per constructed 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. you now, 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 stressed upon is that we need to boycot those entities that are responsible essentially uh for sponsoring um the israeli occupation entity.

now it's very important that we mention that um shied hasan bend established this party in the 20s, so we're talking about prior 1948, we're talking about when the bowful declaration was the kind of baseline so to speak, and he emphasized that this zianist project is a project that's just not limited to palestine, by their own admission, it's from the nile to the... frates, every single one of the arabs has to see it as an existential threaten 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 hassanna'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 movements 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 at to this call. sister batool 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.

iran, the country that has been sanctioned and affected by sabotage because of its nuclear potential. but why, and why does iran insist on continuing its nuclear project? join us on hidden files to find out right here on press tv. this is for palestine, in this week's show we'll be explaining how professor david miller created a legal precedent by making opposition to zianism a protected characteristic. this means that employers can no longer use opposition to zianism as a pretext to discriminate, dismiss or destroy people's careers, and now it's

established that actually the... are not statements which are out there in any way racist, not anti-semitic, and these are views which is perfectly legitimate for anti-racist to hold as as we had always maintained, it's a very comprehensive um robust judgement, a judgment that's been made by the most senior judge in that particular uh region um and so yes it is a very interesting judgment absolutely. so one year watching news from tehan, i'm your host.

the headlines this hour israely attacks on palestinians in the gaza strip resist as the u.s. israely genocidal war enters this 137th day despite global appeals for a cease fire. israeli occupation force conduct raids on different areas of the west bank, resulting in injuries and the abductions of palestinians in the occupied territories, and the international court for justice to hold the second day of hearings on israeli atrocities in the occupied palestinian territories since 1967.