Some objective, truthful non-Muslim researchers (see CEP report: ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Linked by Roots in Muslim Brotherhood, Discuss Alliance) are slowly becoming aware that the ideology of so-called IS, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist insurgencies framed as services of “jihād” are not rooted in ‘Waḥabbī’/Salafī doctrine but much so in the contrary:
Modern-day terrorism directly stems from the so-called Muslim Brotherhood and its ideologues, most noticeably Sayyid Quṭb.
Phil Paine, a non-Muslim writer and self-described scholar observes, after reading Sayyid Quṭb’s ‘Milestones’ for the first time:
The first thing one notices about Quṭb’s ideological thought is how little it has to do with the traditions of al-Islām, or the needs of people in Islāmic countries. It is profoundly European in inspiration, and its chief models are Hitler, Marx and Lenin - Lenin is by far the strongest influence.
Whole passages look like they were simply copied out from his (i.e. Lenin’s) works and then a pseudo-Islāmic terminology inserted, “revolutionary vanguard” becoming “Islāmic vanguard,” and so on...
As Marxist mumbo-jumbo justified the telling of any lie, the betrayal of any value, the commitment of any atrocity, in the name of an implacable destiny, so too, does Milestones.
Quṭb was by no means alone. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Muslim Brotherhood and other precursors of today’s Jihādist movements were profoundly influenced by Marxism and Nazism. Before WWII, Hitler was the greater influence, but with his defeat, Communism became the principal inspiration. In fact. Quṭb himself was a delegate to the Communist International, its principle liaison with the Muslim Brotherhood. (R. R. Reily, ‘The Roots of Islamist Ideology.’)
Quṭb draws on the Ash’arite tradition, as well as on his Marxist and Nazi sources. But today’s totalitarian Islamism is not an attempt to restore the glories of Islām. Far from it; it draws its inspiration from the deviations from classical Islām that destroyed those glories.
Ustāḍ Abū Iyāḍ Amad Rafīq, Salafī Publications, comments on the observations made by Phil Paine (see: Abū Iyāḍ Amjad Rafīq, 2010, ‘The Rise of Jihādist Extremism in the West - An Analysis of Extremist Ideologies and the Most Notable Figureheads of Radicalisation,’ Salafī Publications.):
It is interesting to see how learned, well-read and well-versed individuals in political philosophies can immediately recognise, after reading just a single book, ‘Milestones,’ the true and real origins of Quṭb’s ideology. The writer also had knowledge and understanding to recognise Quṭb’s Ash’arite leanings. Quṭb, like Ḥaṣan al-Banna and Taqī ad-Dīn an-Nabaḥānī all come from the Ash’arite tradition. Sectarian motivations and agendas have led those of a Ṣūfī persuasion to ascribe, spuriously, these figures and their ideologies to Salafism.
In his commentary on the Qur’ān, ‘az-Ẓilāl,’ Quṭb promulgates a creed based entirely upon the core foundations of the Ash’arite creed. This includes his figurative interpretations of Allaah’s Attributes, and likewise of the Throne, claiming the Speech of Allaah, the Qur’ān, is a created entity, and the negation of the Actions of Allaah with the argument that they would necessitate newly created events in Allaah’s Essence and other such hallmarks of the Ash’arite creed.
It is also readily apparent from an-Nabaḥānī’s books that he was also nurtured upon the Ash’arite creed. The formulation of their political methodologies was based upon prior ideological cultivation upon Marxism, Leninism or Ba’thism, and they had little to do with what is referred to as ‘Waḥabbism’ or ‘Salafism.’
Uneducated journalists and inexperienced academics link Quṭb to Salafism - this link is in reality non-existent. As for Marxist sources, then Quṭb was formerly a communist and some of his communist ideology came through later in his writings such as advocating general revolutions and the confiscation and redistribution of wealth, with the argument that it is fundamentally the right of the society as a whole.
Representatives of so-called IS, namely Abū Bakr al-Bagḍādī, and al-Qaeda, namely Aymān az-Ẓawāḥirī, were former members of the so-called Muslim Brotherhood.
Almost every Salafī scholar under the Sun condemn and warn against the teachings of Sayyid Quṭb and other contemporary figureheads (incl. organisations) harbouring this destructive ideology ever since it reared its ugly head; these scholars of al-Islām, co-operating with the Govt. of Saudi Arabia, banned the writings of Sayyid Quṭb, Abū A’lā Mawdūdī, Yūsuf al-Qardāwī and other contemporary figureheads of the so-called Muslim Brotherhood from the Kingdom; PhD tier exams at Imām Sa’ūd University asks of its students to highlight the deviations of Sayyid Quṭb and takfīrism. In fact, websites IslamAgainstExtremism.com, ProphetMuhammad.name, Wahabbis.com, TheMadkhalis.com, Kharijites.com, Ikhwanis.com, Nabahani.com, SayyidQutb.com, Takfiris.com are all dedicated to shedding light on this matter to an English-reading audience.
This summons the question why we still find some Muslims defensive, fence-sitting and even being confrontational on issues related to ideologues of modern-day terrorism and their carriers, and the answer unfortunately returns to compound ignorance, hatred towards Salafīs, and political aspirations.
This rings even truer when we bring up the almost unspoken narrative regarding terrorist insurgency factions such as TTP (Teḥrīk-i-Tālibān) that operate within various provinces of Pakistan and Afghanistan which is indicative as to why these terrorists are so often confounded to be Sunnīs enacting violence upon minority sects. The Tālibān, like other factions, are not Sunnī - they ascribe themselves to Ahl as-Sunnati wal-Jamā’ah so as to capitalise on its legitimacy and the mass misnomer in the same manner so-called IS does with Salafism (note: Sunnī and Salafī are synonymous but only if the ascriptions hold true); in reality, they are a heretic militant, Khārijite faction that is inherently Deobanḍī (not Sunnī) in creed. So we find some that may condemn so-called IS, but are attached to other terrorist factions and extremist figureheads; they criticise one another merely on surface level differences because they share the same origins underneath.