Author Bio: Hassan Al-Banna was a school teacher and Islamic Leader. When he was young at the time, he participated in demonstrations in the city of Damanhur, and he grew a passion for his religion. He studied in Cairo for four years, and published fifteen articles through an Islamic journal known as Majallat al-Fath. Hassan Al-Banna was a leader and founder of the Muslim Brothers, and ten years after the creation of this group there were over 500,000 members. Al-Banna's life was ended short when he and his brother were shot by two men while waiting for a taxi. He did not like the European influence, and tried to counter the influence in many ways.
Date/Context: The Tyranny of Materialism over the Lands of Islam was written in around the 1940's, and is most likely being written to gain followers for the Muslim Brothers. At the end of the article it explains how to counter the European influence by staying loyal to Allah. During the 1940's, Egypt was greatly influenced by then, and the influence led to the declaration of the the Muslim Brothers being an illegal group. Now Al-Banna had to find a way to gain followers without getting into trouble.
Summary: European influence brought many issues to islamic countries. They brought power and germs to these states. Many Muslim leaders were persuaded by Europeans by loans and financial deals, and therefore they flooded islamic countries with capital, their banks and companies. Once the Europeans gained control, they took over the government, education, political, and cultural systems. This pretty much gave all control to the Europeans, and Islam began to fade out. There were three different levels of how affected Islamic countries were from European influence. There were countries that had influenced the majority of the country, and the peoples' feelings and beliefs had been altered. Some countries where this occurred are Turkey and Egypt. There were countries were the European influence had changed some of the culture, but the majority of the people were still true to their sensibilities, such as Iran and North African countries. Finally, there were countries that were not really influenced at all, such as Syria, and Iraq. These countries only had certain classes that were affected by the European influence. The influence can be countered though, through the continued belief in Islam and the following of its system of social organization and principles.
Key Quotation: "This being insufficient for them, they founded schools and scientific and cultural institutes in the very heart of the Islamic domain, which cast doubt and heresy into the souls of its sons and taught them how to demean themselves, disparage their religion and their fatherland, divest themselves of their tradition and beliefs, and to regard as sacred anything Western, in the belief that only that which had a European source could serve as a model to be emulated in this life."
Identifying Characteristics:
ReplyDeleteSince this source provides information on the European influence in the Middle East, it shows that it was written in the 20th century. The Europeans did not begin to influence Middle Eastern countries at the levels described in the text until the early to mid 20th century. Also, you can tell that it is written before many countries gained independence from European powers because it talks a significant amount about the influences they have in the country which was at the time still increasing until they gained independence in the late 20th century.
Constructive Feedback:
Your summary was very well written and I believe that you addressed all of the major points made in the text. The Author bio was also very good because it does not stray from the topic of the text and it provided only the important information about Hassan Al-Bana that readers would need to know when reading this. The date and context section could of had more information about what was going on during that time such as what was going on in the Middle East around that time and how much the Europeans influenced the area. The key quotation, however, was also very suitable because it shows the main idea of the text. I noticed some grammatical errors and some mistakes that could have been fixed if you proof read your writing before posting it such as in the first sentence of the date and context section when you said "The Tyranny of Materialism over the Lands of Islam was written in around the 1940's" where it said "in around the 1940's". Overall, your post was very focused and well written.