Encyclopedia of Islam

Jahiliyya

  

387  J

---

played a leading role in Egypt’s m

Uslim

 b

rother

-

hood

, adapted Ibn Taymiyya’s ideas and viewed 

all modern secular governments (among other 

non-Muslim entities) as part of jahili culture 

and as legitimate targets for militant attacks. The 

Jihad Group of Egypt, under the leadership of 

Muhammad Abd al-Salam Faraj (d. ca. 1981), 

drew explicitly on Ibn Taymiyya’s writings to jus-

tify the assassination of President a

nWar

 

al

-s

adat

(d. 1981), whom they accused of not being a true 

Muslim, like the Mongols of the past.

See also a

rabian

 

religion

, 

pre

-i

slamic

; 

idola

-

try

; 

Jihad

.

Jon Armajani

Further reading: G. R. Hawting, The Idea of Idolatry 

and the Emergence of Islam: From Polemic to History

(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Sayyid 

Qutb,  Milestones (Chicago: Kazi Publications, 2003); 

Emmanuel Sivan, Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and 

Modern Politics (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University 

Press, 1990).