and logistical support to those fighting the Soviets
in Afghanistan.
Making his way to the United States after the
Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988, Abd
al-Rahman continued preaching jihad against
non-Muslim powers. Following the Gulf War of
1991, he, like some other veterans of anti-Soviet
resistance in Afghanistan, turned his attention to
the United States. In 1996, he was found guilty of
orchestrating the 1993 attacks on the World Trade
Center from his mosqUe in New Jersey. He is serv-
ing life in prison for this crime.
See also Jihad movements.
Caleb Elfenbein
Further reading: Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Politi-
cal Islam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
2002); Omar Abd al-Rahman, “Umar Abdul Rahman:
A Self-Portrait.” Afkar Inquiry (3 November 1986):
56–57.
Abd al-Raziq, Ali (1888–1966) liberal
Egyptian jurist and political reformer
A reform-minded judge in Egypt’s sharia courts,
Ali Abd al-Raziq was the author of a controversial
book that advocated the separation of Islam from
politics. He came from a prominent landholding
family in the district of Minya in Upper egypt that
favored the creation of a constitutional monarchy
and other liberal secular reforms. After studying
at al-azhar and Oxford University, he began his
career as a judge in the Egyptian court system. In
his book Islam and the Principles of Government,
published in 1925, he argued that mUhammad’s
mission was a moral and spiritual one only, and
that neither the qUran nor the hadith had ever
authorized the establishment of a caliphate, or
Islamic state. Abd al-Raziq developed his thesis
after the new republican government in tUrkey
had formally abolished the caliphate in 1924, a
time when there were strong secular and national-
ist currents in the Middle East. Nevertheless, his
book outraged religious authorities and tradition-
ally minded Muslims who wanted to hold on to
the ideal of united Muslim polity, even though
the caliphate had long before ceased to be an
effective political institution in Muslim coun-
tries. They were even more offended that he was
contesting the role of religious law in public life
and traditional doctrines about Muhammad’s role
as a prophet-ruler. They accused Abd al-Raziq
of undermining Islam with European ideas, for
which he paid a high price: A council of al-Azhar
religious scholars condemned his book, stripped
him of his degree, and dismissed him from judi-
cial office. He continued to write but stayed out of
public affairs for the rest of his life.
See also abdUh, mUhammad; government,
islamic; secUlarism.Further reading: Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Politi-
cal Thought (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982);
Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age,
1798–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1983).Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad ibn See
ibn abd al-Wahhab, mUhammad.Abduh, Muhammad (1849–1905) modern
Islamic modernist thinker
Muhammad Abduh was an Egyptian religious
scholar, jurist, and leader of a major social reform
movement in the Muslim world who advocated
a modernist reinterpretation of islam. Known as
the “father of Islamic modernism,” he was born in
1849 to a modest family in the Egyptian delta. His
early education involved traditional qUran mem-
orization, although Abduh’s natural inclinations
tended toward sUFism. In 1877, he concluded
his studies in religion, logic, and philosophy at
al-azhar University and began teaching there as
a religious scholar. Simultaneously, he became
interested in politics, publishing articles on politi-
cal and social reform and joining the EgyptianAbduh, Muhammad 5 J