the crisis of modernisation and islamicisation 323sixties onward further subjects were added under the government of
the 1952 revolution such as medicine, science, law, economics and
business studies. Turning his attention to the Sharì"ah, Muœammad
Abdou, like al-Afghànì, emphasised that the Sharì"ah would have to
keep pace with the fast advances in society and be ready to derive
legal concepts and provide rules, particularly concerning social leg-
islation, that while still in conformity with Islam would not hinder
modernisation.
Muœammad Abdou paved the way for many others who came
after him such as Muhammad Rashìd Rida (1865–1935) who was
also the first to have advocated the establishment of an Islamic state
that is fully modernized and but also fully based on the Sharì"ah.
Œassan al-Banna and Muslim Brothers Society
The Muslim Brothers Society was founded in Egypt in 1928 by the
school teacher Œassan al-Banna (1906–49). Al-Banna believed that
Western societal elements of modernisation were alien to Islamic
societies, corrupting and weakening these societies and were per se
bringing decline and decay (Bari, 1995). In 1928, al-Banna founded
the Muslim Brothers Society (Jamaat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimùn) that aimed
at awakening the religious feeling and Islamic ideals at the grass
roots of the Egyptian masses. The Society had other aims in mind
namely to revitalize Islamic beliefs, provide social caring and char-
itable services to those in need through the institution of Zakàh and
charitable donation, and, as a long term strategic aim, to establish
a government based on Islamic principles (ibid.). To him, these objec-
tives would not be feasible without first purifying the masses and
bringing them back to the values of Islam.
The Society gained an initial support as a mass movement aim-
ing at improving the educational and religious status of its members
and, in addition, by resisting the British occupation of the Egyptian
soil it gained the nationalists’ support. The Muslim Brothers Society,
however, fell out of favour with the ruling government of the 1952
revolution and when a charge of an assassination attempt on the
country’s leader was brought against one of its members, the Society
was banned and legally dissolved in 1954. Yet in the recent general
election of Egypt in 2005, while the ban on the Muslim Brothers
Society was still in effect, there were as many as twenty per cent of
total seats, won by Islamists contesting the election as Independents
(of political parties). They fought the election under the slogan: Islam
is the Answer.