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“When we wanted to open up to the new world and the university, we said to our children: They learned medicine and engineering, and a large group of youth servants came out who had nothing to do with thought at all. We are unable to understand economic and social mobility, because we have not studied sociology, education, politics, economics, or urbanism!
This speech was made by Abdel-Fattah Morou, vice president of the Tunisian Renaissance Movement, at a conference held by the movement for youth, expressing what he called the crimes that the Islamic movement reaped against its youth.
This turnout in the last century was not limited to practical colleges only to the movement movement of Islam, but also extended to the rest of the Islamic movement in the Arab world [a] like the Salafi currents, according to one of the researchers, "One of the things that accompanied the Islamic awakening in Egypt and some countries that are similar to the issue Its cadres appealed to colleges of applied scientific summit, such as medicine and engineering, and this was coupled with a popular discourse in this period that we want the Muslim doctor and the Muslim engineer. [1].
In Egypt, with the revival of the Islamic trend after the revolution, Amr Adib hosted three symbols from the Egyptian Salafi movement, namely, "Mohamed Abdel-Maksoud, Muhammad Yousry Ibrahim, and Abdel-Moneim El-Shahat", asking them to identify themselves; Their definition of their academic backgrounds raised eyebrows, which the broadcaster stopped. The first holds a PhD in agricultural engineering, the second has been combined with a PhD in chemical engineering other in Islamic law, and the third has a computer and information engineer.
As for the Muslim Brotherhood, which has become for decades the broadest segment of the movement's Islam groups, fifteen out of eighteen in the entire group, belong to medical, engineering and technical backgrounds according to their last official representation before the coup in Egypt. This means that over 85% of decision-makers within the largest Islamic movement belong to the fields of medicine, engineering and technology, alleviated from the fields of Sharia, law, sociology, economics, politics, and philosophy. [2]
The situation is not very different with regard to the Freedom and Justice Party, the political party of the group. Six out of seven of its leaders are graduates from the Faculties of Medicine and Engineering, and the paradox is that the seventh of the members of the Supreme Committee with literary specialization was the Egyptian Christian "Rafik Habib" who graduated from the Faculty of Arts and worked The position of vice president of the Freedom and Justice Party.
The 1970s generation and re-establishment
"Moral, social and psychological sciences are today more necessary than material science. Physical science is a danger in a society in which people still do not know or ignore the truth of themselves, for a person’s knowledge of civilization is much more difficult than making an engine or advanced technology!”
Malik bin Nabi
Since the 1970s, a group of Islamic students who have been overwhelmingly religious has reached the university's student unions, who in turn will become student leaders later. At the head of these young people was Abdel-Moneim Aboul Fotouh, President of the Cairo University Federation, and accompanied by Essam El-Erian and Helmy El-Gazzar, as they were all in the same university; Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University.
Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh arrived to head the Federation of Cairo University, and as soon as they arrived to lead the students; This represented a qualitative shift in Islamic work on the campus in all Egyptian countries, where the university turned into a field for Islamic and general revolutionary work, and it became the scene of an intellectual scramble between Islamists and the Communists who took the reins of student work since the era of Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Abdel-Moneim Aboul Fotouh says: “The victory of the Union Board of the Faculty of Medicine of Qasr Al-Aini in 1973 was a strong start that gave us a huge boost to work inside Cairo University and from there to other universities.” [3]
After the success of the Islamic students in penetrating the university’s union in Cairo, the other student unions were expanded, which resulted in the same year that Islamic students acquired student unions in all universities in Egypt, which led to an increase in Islamic activity among students in the university’s ranks.
Aboul Fotouh continues his testimony over this era, saying: "Our entry into the Students' Union was an opportunity to increase our activity in the university, as it was facilitated for us by the large budget of the University Union to publish the veil uniform among the students, and printed a series of booklets (Voice of Truth) from which messages were issued to Imam Al-Banna, and theories of Islam The political life of Abi Al-Ala Al-Mawdudi, and this religion and the future of this religion by Sayyid Qutb, and the path to God for Shaarawi and the veil of Muslim women to Nasser al-Din Al-Albani. ”[4]
This general atmosphere led to an increase in the number of people belonging to the general Islamic trend within the walls of the university, at the head of which are the scientific colleges, where the general student leaders were graduates of those colleges, such as medicine, engineering, science and agriculture, as according to Sharif Younis, "Islamists' concentration and activities are centered in Scientific colleges in particular, and, credibly, it was the scientific colleges that witnessed the greatest control of the Islamic trend. ”[5]
The spread of the Islamic trend in student circles has spread from Cairo and Alexandria to other regions, as "spaces of penetration in the center of the university have expanded outside Cairo and Alexandria by way of the students of the regions digesting the Islamic idea and transferring it to their country", in addition to that Sadat raised slogans that were in the interest of the movement Islamic image, he called the morals of the village and attacked the communist atheist.
This coincided with the state’s policy of economic openness supported by Sadat, which in turn led to an increase in the social prestige of doctors and engineers in particular, attracting a broader segment of the Egyptian people: “With the beginning of the seventies the rise of engineering education coincided with the rise of the capitalism of enterprises that were the most prepared sectors To respond to the authority’s attempts to stimulate the growth of private capitalism after the accumulation it achieved at the end of the sixties. The implementation of the policy of openness to it was adopted, and the 1970’s witnessed the rise of the role of the Engineers Syndicate, and it seemed as if the engineers and the Egyptian Planning Society had exercised and gave themselves a control right over the state and its authority by virtue of the fact that they were implementing its investment projects And developmental "[6], so the students of these colleges were called the students of the colleges of the summit, and the access to them became self-evident, which are the colleges that the Islamists have acquired and took the lead in.
The seventies generation and the new mix
"This generation was distinguished by a different religious and intellectual fabric, as it combined the Sufi, Salafi, jihadist, and the informant, the doctor and the engineer, and this unique fabric continued even when many of its members blended in the Brotherhood!"
Hussam Tamam on the seventies generation
The late Hussam Tammam is considered the generation of the seventies is the most important generation in modern Islamic work, according to Tammam, “the second generation of the Islamic movement after the first establishment made by Imam Hassan al-Banna!” [7], which will make this generation - according to Tammam - a major player in The Islamic case later on in a way that was not known among previous generations. His pioneers are graduates of higher colleges, distinguished diplomas, doctors, and engineers, which was strange to the body of the Islamic movement by the two generations of its founders by Hassan Al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, “While the first generation was (structuralist) pure, the generation of the sixties and perhaps the fifties also carried (polar) effects [ B] It made him different from his predecessor, while the seventies generation opened to more influences and schools of thought and Sharia schools.
Counselor Tariq Al-Bishri considered the generation of the seventies to have been dyed with a variety of tendencies that were not previously known in their intellectual, educational and religious stripes: “From Muhammad al-Ghazali, Sayyid Sibhi and al-Khawli, to Abd al-Halim Mahmoud and his Sufism, and to Salafism that Ansar al-Sunna carried by Sheikh Hamid al-Faqi, then friction He was influenced by a wide segment of non-Egyptian thinkers, east and west, such as Abu al-Ala al-Mawdudi, Malik bin Nabi, and others. "[8]
The people of the seventies carried names that still have their presence in Egyptian public life to this day, such as Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, Issam El-Erian, Helmy El-Gazzar, Ibrahim Al-Zaafarani, Mokhtar Noah, Mohamed Ismail El-Mokaddam, Yasser Barhami, Tariq Al-Zomor, Hamdeen Sabahi, Amin Iskandar, Abu El-Ela Madi, Issam Sultan, and others, which allowed this generation the ability to work together and bypass organizational and ideological trenches according to Hossam Tammam’s description.
The student movement from the university to the public space
After students of the Islamists managed the reins of student unions, the Brotherhood detainees who had remained in prison throughout the era of Abdel Nasser, or what is known as the "sixties generation" who had been educated from Sayyid Qutb’s school and met with Hassan al-Banna, were released.
These young people became involved in the Brotherhood [9], which led to the departure of student activity from university space into the public space, and these students transformed from leaders of the student movement to leaders of public political action. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh continues his testimony of the convergence that occurred between students and the leaders of historical Islamists at this time, saying: "There has been a great opportunity for us to spread the invitation among students because there are a number of adults and influencers eager to attend with us, such as Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali, Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi and others."
The student work mixed with the revolutionary, intellectual and political nature. When Sadat prevented Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali from leading the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As, Abdel Moneim Abu al-Futuh, in his capacity as president of the Students ’Union, attacked him on his visit to his rest in Qanater, and Abu al-Futuh accused him of bringing hypocritical scholars and restricting the voice of the opposition, This angered Sadat, and he shouted at Abu al-Futuh, saying: "Hold your limits, stop your place!"
Historical meeting between President Sadat and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh
This identification created a new shape for the backbone of Islamic groups, which pulled the joints of the Islamic movement from the rug of Al-Azhar, Dar al-Uloom and Law Faculties, as they were previously, to the Department of Applied and Technological, Medicine and Engineering Colleges.
Community-oriented in the service of advocacy
"Moral, social and psychological sciences are today more necessary than material science. Physical science is considered a danger in a society in which people still do not know or ignore the truth of themselves, for a person’s knowledge of civilization is much more difficult than making a motor or advanced technology!”
Malik bin Nabi
Another factor that has increased the Islamists ’appetite for technical colleges is the social aspect that these colleges give their followers, which increases the opportunity for advocacy to affect the general public. This social trend interfered with the trade union battles waged by the Brotherhood, where the active unions in most of them require technical qualifications such as pharmacists, doctors, engineers, and others, which increased the desire of the followers to obtain positions in these colleges, which in turn will enhance their presence in these unions. This was accompanied by an increase in murmurs around slogans such as "Muslim doctor" and "Muslim engineer", which led to a kind of identification between job selection and advocacy requirements, and the coloring of the labor market with identity identity or trade union battles.
He thus represented "the heavy turnout by Islamists on colleges such as medicine and engineering that allowed the formation of symbolic capital in society, and gives the doctor and engineer strength in social interaction and addressing public affairs." [10] A kind of identification has occurred between professional disciplines such as engineering and between intelligence and scientific and intellectual excellence, until it has become "one of the things that necessitated the Islamic awakening in Egypt and some countries that are similar to the issue of its cadres appealing to colleges of applied scientific colleges such as medicine and engineering, and this is associated with a popular speech in this period that we want The Muslim physician and the Muslim engineer. "The more technocrats follow, the more the Islamic movement will see this as a social gain for them in its societal, union, and even political career.
The impact of the withdrawal of Islamists from non-applied disciplines
“The Islamists fell into a crisis of imagination and imagination, manifested in their neglect of the duty of conceptual renewal on the one hand, and an interest in building and arranging ideas on the other hand.”
Raouf Ezzat gift
This withdrawal from the rest of the fields, and the reliance on "top colleges" led to the consideration of pushing the followers to work in the subjects of thought, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and other human sciences as a "theory in emptiness", a waste of time, and leaving the fields of practical jihad represented by political struggles in the People's Assembly rounds, roles Unionism, and advocacy.
Not only that, but all Islamists ’theories became merely a servant of the movement, and a justification for its existence and its premises. This was accompanied by a general tendency for academic lightness in theorizing, all with what the“ summit ”colleges offer from that social perspective to its owner, to accumulate the above leading to the general prosperity of the Islamists. Towards the humanities universities, but "it has become noticeable that many Islamists market that its name is preceded by the letter D, although the sign that symbolizes being a doctor makes no sense to conjure in the context of advocacy and religion except from the will of psychological influence."
The researcher Ahmed Salem tracked the impact that Islamists have had on their discontinuation from social sciences and human knowledge, which is represented in: “Knowledge poverty that Islamic symbols suffer from in different aspects of culture, whether legitimate as well as humanity, and this does not depend on followers. Current leaders need to have a very high achievement in the scope of science Islamic and Social. ”[11]
Salem continues that creativity in applied sciences was not able by the general Islamists to achieve it either, as they were distracted by the advocacy concern of specialized creativity, because "most of the specialists in medicine and engineering from the Islamists did not excel qualitatively, or they attain a scientific race with only a few with self-motivated motives away from their groups, Rather, their superiority was service and technical like any other doctor and engineer. " Religion that leads to the issuance of doctors, engineers, or services to the tasks of religious preaching or historical and intellectual issues as well as politics within these kinematic currents.
Only individuals who were on the margins of these organizations in terms of active integration or were removed from them after a period, in addition to the fact that their academic backgrounds are not applied, such as Muhammad Emara, Tariq Al Bishri, Fahmi Howeidi, and Fahmi Howeidi, Muhammad Salim al-Awa, and others!
Cognitive void
Since the revolution, the Islamists discovered the abyss gap in which they fell, which prompted their followers to specialize in political, strategic and social sciences, but the political performance, which they mobilized to the full energies of the followers before was titled "catastrophic failure", and at that time complete knowledge poverty appeared clearly in Dealing with the current situation with its fluctuations, sciences and knowledge. [C]
The damage did not depend only on the poverty limit of the knowledge tools of the Islamists in these chapters, but also on the poverty of the discourse directed to the disciples, as the discourse was limited to the disciples in an emotional form without a knowledge base that supports it.
Heba Raouf observed in her book, “The Political Imagination of Islamists,” and she says: “This poverty led some to say that dynamic Islamic thought came out of politics from a specialized science space in which its people and experts should write in order to become a public affair that each writer can, so the result was an abundant ideology. And the poor of the type, and the production of an overstated text in politics, failed to achieve the renaissance. ”[12] With the acceleration of political battles, this led to“ a crisis in Islamic imagination, manifested in his neglect of the duty of conceptual renewal on the one hand, and a lack of interest in building and arranging ideas on the other hand ".
This produced, according to Raouf, a distorted mentality in its dealings with human societies based mainly on psychological variables, and it began to measure the pulse of the community in mathematical language, so the damage was greater than benefit, "because the scientific and technical mentality, if it moved to consider the human society, must be eliminated Of matters in the logic of thinking of technical knowledge, and if you do not get rid of it and separate the scope of technical knowledge and human knowledge, it will fall into many major problems and errors, and many of these Islamic cadres do not possess neither the logic of scientific knowledge nor humanity, the owner of technical knowledge cannot separate them from the field Human society and its nature is different from technical knowledge. ”[13]
And questions and debates continue about the Islamists ’ability to develop effective solutions capable of breaking the deadlock, and about their ability to develop projects and plans for their peoples without possessing the real tools of power? And about being able to understand reality and deal with it well without having the keys to influence.
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Margins
A - The Islamic movement in the Gulf can be excluded, and it has remained in the habitat of the subordinate, not the one followed for a long time after all.
B- Relative to Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb.
C- The similarities in attitudes in other countries, which is exactly what Dr. criticized. Farid Ansari in his book "The Six Mistakes of the Islamic Movement in Morocco".