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Mamun al-Hudeibi (1921-2004) (photo: al-Majalla) |
Muhammad al-Mahmun al-Hudeibi (1921-2004) was General Director of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from the death of Mustafa Mashur in 2002 until his own death in January 2004. He followed in the footsteps of his father, Hasan al-Hudeibi, who led the Brotherhood following the assassination of the movement's founder, Hasan al-Banna in 1949. Al-Hudeibi supported the practice of shura (meaning, "consultation") instead of democracy. "Democracy," he argued, is un-Islamic because it advocates rule by people rather than rule by God. Shura, on the other hand, is a concept that comes directly from the Qur'an, the word of God, and thus reflects the will of God on matters of governance. Individual members of the Shura councils were to be elected, but, they were bound in their deliberations to conform to the principles of the Islamic Sharia (Islamic law).
"'The great majority of people have not thought of democracy as an eternal concept protected under the principles of philosophy or morality, as it is represented in the West, for example. The West values individual freedom without limits except when others are harmed. This is the sine qua non basis of democracy...
For our part, we like to use the term, "Shura," because it is a term which is mentioned in the Qur'an and because Shura is part of the Islamic system, the Islamic order. It is not possible to depart from the principles of Islam and its fundamentals. This differs from the understanding of democracy as it is practiced in the West where religious faith does not impose restrictions upon it...
In my opinion, those who support democracy in the sense that the West does, that is, free from any restrictions imposed by religion (as they say, no religion in politics, and no religion in governing), I regard as outside the regulations of the Sharia (the Islamic law code based on Quranic principles) held by the Brotherhood. We belong to the ranks of Muslims and cannot depart from Islamic principles and Islamic doctrine. We cannot think of doing anything which is not permitted by the Islamic Sharia. We demand to be governed according to the Islamic Sharia. Thus, it is logical and a priori self evident that we do not accept for ourselves anything which diverges from the Islamic Sharia under the name of 'Democracy.'"
"Al-Majalla," August 18-24, 1996, p. 7, translated from the Arabic by Ted Thornton.