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Blind Egyptian religious scholar and fundamentalist leader, graduate of al-Azhar. Taught as a mosque preacher in a poor rural area but returned to studies in al-Azhar obtaining a Master’s degree in 1967 and a faculty appointment in 1968. Was connected to the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s. Completed a doctorate in 1972 and lectured at al-Azhar and later at the Azhari Institute in Asyut where he was sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood student organization, the Jama’a al-Islamiyya. Left Egypt in 1977 for four years in Saudi Arabia as Professor of Qur’anic Studies at Saud University. After his return he was arrested for his leadership role in the Jihad Organization involved in the assassination of President Sadat. However he was acquitted by the court and released in 1984. Abd al-Rahman emerged in the 1980s as a leading figure in the Islamist movement in Egypt. His book Mithaq ql-‘amil al-Islami (charter of Islamic Action) expressed his affiliation with the radical groups aiming at the overthrow of the secular state. He became linked also to the Jama'at al-Islamiyya as their chief Mufti and spiritual guide. In 1990 he emigrated to the United States and was arrested there in 1993 as linked to the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.

A Pakistani fundamentalist preacher, writer and leader of the hizb-i-Islami Pakistan. Dr Ahmad graduated in medicine from the King Edward Medical College in Lahore in 1954. Later he received his MA in Islamic studies from the University of Karachi in 1965. After practising medicine for 16 years, he devoted himself to the study and teaching of the Quran. He was a member of jama’at-i-Islami in Pakistan, but following some disagreements with Mawdudi over jama’at-i-Islami involvement in electoral politics he resigned in 1957. In 1974 he founded his own Islamic movement, called tanzeem-i-Islami. He excluded women from the public work force. He also recognized the need to utilize the modern media which he has skilfully used to project the image of a worldwide organization.

Renowned research scholar, educationalist, economist, and one of the main leaders of Jama’at-i Islami Pakistan. Ahmad was former Professor of Economics at the University of Karachi (1955-1968), Federal Minister of Planning and Development, Government of Pakistan (1978-79) and Member of Senate, Pakistan (1985-1997). was, and Khurshid Ahmad was born in Delhi, and holds a BA in Law and Jurisprudence, a Master’s degree in Economics and Islamic Studies, and an Honorary Ph.D. in Education. Professor Ahmad was a research scholar at the university of Leicester, UK, and has held academic positions in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, as well as serving on many associations, committees, and advisory councils across the world.

As an Islamic activist he joined the Jama’at I Islami student organization Islami Jamiat Talaba Pakistan in 1949 and became its President 1953-1955. He has served as Vice President of the Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan and was founder and Director-General of the Islamic Foundation, UK.

He has written, translated and edited over fifty books on Islam, economics, education and law, both in English and Urdu, and is the editor of Tarjuman al-Quran, tha Jama’at’s offical mouthpiece.

Dr. Jamal Badawi is the director of the Islamic Information Foundation, Halifax, Canada. Dr. Badawi is a professor of Management at Saint Mary University in Halifax. He has authored several books and articles on Islam and designed and participated in the production of nearly 350 half hour segments of a TV series on Islam. He has lectured extensively in North America and abroad, and is an excellent speaker on a variety of topics including Islam & Christianity. He is an expert in Christian-Muslim Dialogues. Dr. Badawi is also a member of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Fiqh Council.

Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (in 1928). Under his leadership it soon became the best organized and largest political group in Egypt and has branches in other Muslim countries. Al-Banna was a pragmatic, populist, and charismatic leader, as well as an exceptional public speaker and skillful organizer. He also had a genuine interest in and compassion for the average citizen.

Hasan al-Banna was born in the Egyptian Delta town of Mahmudiya. Received an elementary religious education as well as state primary school. Was associated for a while with the Hasafiya Sufi order. In 1923 started studying at a teacher’s training college, Dar al-‘Ulum, in Cairo, from which he graduated in 1927. He was then appointed as an Arabic language teacher at a primary school in Isma’iliya.

Al-Banna was disturbed by the fast Westernization and secularization of Egyptian society and preached a return to the sources of Islam and a rejection of foreign currents. He founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928 in order to purify Islam from all accretions, promote true Islam, and combat foreign domination. Muslim weakness he explained by their deviation from true Islam as defined by the original scriptures, Quran and Sunna. He sought to re-Islamize the masses as a step towards the establishment of an a comprehensive Muslim order in an Islamic state. Al-Banna stressed the importance of organization and activism in achieving the goals of his movement.

With the growth of the Brotherhood, Al-Banna became involved in national politics. In 1936 he sent a letter to King Farouk the prime minister, and other Arab leaders encouraging them to promote an Islamic order. After WWII the Brotherhood took part in the violent campaign against British occupation. Al-Banna was aasassinated in 1949 by the government after the military arm of the brotherhood was implicated in some political assassinations.

Saudi multi-millionaire dissident and anti-American activist born in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Studied management and economics in King Abdul Aziz University Jedda. Joined Islamic groups in 1973. Joined the Afghan mujahideen in their fight against the Soviets in 1979. Played a significant role in financing, recruiting, transporting and training Arab volunteers to fight in Afghanistan. During the war he founded al-Qa’ida - the Base – to serve as an operational hub for like-minded radicals. In the beginning of the 1980s also fought against leftists in Yemen. With Abdullah Azzam he established the office for Mujahhideen Services in Peshawar, Pakistan, to help the Afghan Mujahideen. Established Mujahideen bases in Afghanistan, and participated in battles against the Soviets there.

The Saudi government withdrew his citizenship in 1994 and froze his assets, his own family disowned him. He had moved to Sudan in 1991 but international pressure forced him to move back to Afghanistan.

His organization sent trainers to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen and has trained fighters from many other countries as well. Maintains close ties with leaders of other Islamist terrorist groups, providing them with training, safe havens, financial support. Bin-Laden is a principal source of funding and direction for al-Qa’ida, a multi-national jihad movement whose leaders are also senior leaders in other extremist organizations such as the Egyptian al-Jama’at al-Islamiyya and al-Jihad. Al-Qaida seeks a global radicalization of existing Islamic groups and the creation of radical Islamic groups where none exist. It recruits, supports, and trains fighters in Afghanistan Bosnia, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Somalia, Yemen, Kosovo, and other lands. It has been implicated in terrorist activities such as the bombing of US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-as-Salam.

In 1996 Bin Laden issued a public statement which he termed "A Declaration of War" outlining his organization’s goals to drive the US forces from the Arabian Peninsula, overthrow the government of Saudi Arabia, liberate Muslim Holy Sites in Palestine, and support Islamic revolutionary forces around the world. The declaration was a call to Muslims worldwide to declare jihad against the Judaeo-Christian Alliance occupying the "holy land of the two holy places" (Saudi Arabia) and Palestine. According to bin-Laden, da‘wa and armed struggle are the way to repel the greater kufr and unite the Muslim world.

In 1998 he organized the creation of a new alliance of radical movements, the "International Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders", which included the Egyptian al-Jama’at al-Islamiyya and Islamic Jihad, the Harakat al-Ansar, and others. The Front declared its intention to attack Americans and their allies (including civilians) anywhere in the world.

A principle sposkesman for the Lebanese Shi’a Hezbollah, born to a Lebanese family in Najaf, Iraq, where he received a shi’ite education. In 1966 left Iraq for Lebanon where he became involvved wit the shi’a poor in the Beirut suburbs and slums. Denounced Western imperialistic economic and cultural policies and saw an Islamic government as the best solution to Lebanon’s troubles. Wrote Islam and the Logic of Force in which he calls for the Lebanese shi’ites to arm themselves, defend their community in the sectarian civil wars, and participate in the fight against Israel. Tried first to radicalize the moderate AMAL group, then joined the Iranian backed Hezbollah. Justified terrorist actions against foreign forces in Lebanon as a jihad when recognized by legitimate Muslim authorities. Opposed attacks on civilians. With the end of the Lebanese civl war in 1989 Fadlallah’s realism helped move Hezbollah to participate in the democratic political process as Muslims must use the ballot box to spread Islam and revive it. Adaptable and pragmatic, he hast combined religious principles with compromise and tactical realism.

Founder and main ideologue of the radical Egyptian Tanzim al-Jihad movement which assassinated President Sadat in 1981. Faraj was an electrical engineer who worked at Cairo University. Born into a devout Muslim family, his father was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded al-Jihad in 1980. Faraj was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who became disillusioned by its passivity and gradualism, and so joined activist radical groups, finally founding al-Jihad in 1979 as a radical movement with a complex organizational structure and a coherent ideology. Faraj recruited for his organization mainli in ahli (independent) mosques in the poor quarters of Cairo where he delivered Friday sermons. He also succeeded in recruiting members of the presidential guard, military intelligence, civil bureaucracy, as well as university students.

Faraj wrote a book Al-Farida al-Gha’iba (The Neglected Duty) in which he expounded his ideology. The book had an immense impact on all radical Islamic movements. Following Sadat’s assassination, Faraj was arrested, condemned to death, and executed in 1982.

Tunisia’s leading fundamentalist reformer, thinker, activist, and political leader. Head of the Hizb al-Nahda (Renaissance Party). Ghannouchi grew up in a religious peasant family, and received his early education in the traditional Zaytunah schools. Later he studied philosophy at Damascus University (graduated 1968) and then did post-graduate studies for a year at the Sorbonne in Paris. On returning to Tunisia, he became a secondary school philosophy teacher. In 1979 Ghannouchi formed the MTI-Islamic Tendency Movement which focused on the social political and economic plight of Tunisians and called for Islamic solutions. Sought a humanitarian restructuring of society and the economy based on Islamic principles, and sought to participate in the democratic political process rejecting violence as a means of change.

Arrested by the government in 1981, he was sentenced to eleven years in prison, but was released in 1984. Rearrested in 1987, he was released following Ben Ali’s takeover of power from Bourgiba. Ghannouchi changed the organization’s name to al-Nahda (Renaissance) Movement. The government did not allow al-Nahda to participate in the1989 elections, so members ran as independents and won 15% of the vote. Ghannouchi’s movement emerged as the strongest opposition in Tunisia. The government then initiated a massive crackdown on al-Nahda, and Ghannouchi escaped and finally settled in London, where he continues to lead the movement, lecture and write. Ghannouchi is a moderate fundamentalist activist, a prolific writer, a consistent opposer of violence and an advocate of democratic Islamic participation.

Ghannouchi was influenced by the salafi thought, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Algeriam thinker Malik Bennabi. He understands both Islamic and Western philosophies and attempts a genuine reconciliation of the essentials of Islam with modernity, and espouses coexistence and dialog in the relationship between Islam and the West. While proclaiming the fundamentalist basics of God’s sovereignty and man’s position as God’s vice-regent on earth, as well as the primacy of shari‘a, Ghannouchi accepts democracy and pluralism as compatible with Islam and advocates a gradualist position for political and social change.

Former President of Iran and Khomeini’s successor to the post of Chief Guardian of the Islamic Republic since 1989. Born in Mashad to a scholarly family, he received a religious education in Mashad. He also studied in Najaf (Iraq) for two years. In 1958 he moved to Qum where he studied for another six years. Returned to Mashad in 1964, where he taught and studied. Received license for Ijtihad from Ayatullah Hairi in 1974.

Responding to the call of Imam Khomeini in 1962, he joined other religious leaders in Qum in disseminating Khomein’s revolutionary ideas. Helped establish the Mujahidin ‘Ulama League as a prelude to the Islamic Republican Party after the Revolution of 1979. It organized marches and demonstrations 1977-1978.

After the triumph of the revolution, Khamenei served in various high positions: he was a member of the Islamic Revolutuionary Council, Khomeini’s representative at the Supreme Council of Defence, and Tehran’s Leader of Friday prayers. He was elected president of Iran in 1981 and served in this position until 1989. After Khomein’s death in 1989 he was appointed Spreme Guardian of ther Islamic Republic.

Reformist fifth President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Khatami was born in Ardakhan as son of a respected Ayatullah, Ruhollah Khatami. He attended Qom theology School in 1961, later received a BA in philosophy from Isfahan Unjiversity. Received his MA from Tehran University in 1970 and then returned for furher philosophical and religious studies to Qom.

Khatami began his political involvement in the Association of Muslim Students at Isfahan University and was involved in the anti-Shah campaigns of the late 1970s. He worked closely with Khomeini’s son Hojjjatolislam Ahmad Khomeini and Ayatollah Montazri in organizing religious and pollitical debates. After the Revolution he served as Head of the Hamburg Islamic Cener in Germany, then became a Member of Parliament in the first Majlis in 1980 and was also head of the kayhan newspaper institte.

Khatami was appointed Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance in 1982. During the Iraq-Iran war he also served as head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces and Chairman of the war Propaganda Headquarters. In 1989 he was again appointed Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance by President Rafsanjani, a position he resigned in 1992 when he became cultural advisor to the President and head of Iran’s National Library. In 1996 he was appointed a member of the High Counil for the Cukltural revolution. In May 1997 he was elected by an overwhelming majority as fifth President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Khomeini was born into a religious family, and studied in Arak and Qom, becoming an authority on theological and canon law. Began teaching philosophy in Qom at the age of 27, also taught ethics and moral law. In 1963 he emerged as a bitter critic of the Shah, was arrested and exiled in 1964. Lived 15 years in Najaf, Iraq where he taught and wrote books. In 1978 Iraq gave in to Iranian pressure and forced Khomeini to move to France.

Ayatollah Khomeini taught that the only legitimate government is that which accepts the rule of God, meaning the implementation of shari‘a. The only ones authorized to rule for God are the just juriconsults who rule in the name of the Hidden Imam (wilayat-I-faqih). Khomeini became a symbol and leader of the Iranian opposition and managed to build and maintain a powerful religiously–oriented revolutionary alliance. In 1979 he returned to Iran where he received a tumultous welcome by millions, and established the Islamic Republic in accordance with his doctrine of wilayat-i-faqih – the rule of the just jurisprudent as the representative of the hidden Imam. Ruled Iran until his death in 1989. In 1989 he provoked international controversy by issuing a fatwa ordering the killing of Salman Rushdie for publishing the book The Satanic Verses.

Extremely popular and well known Egyptian charismatic preacher, whose books and sermons on cassette are widely distributed all over Egypt and the Arab world. Lost his sight when he was a teenager. His charismatic personality and emotional preaching made him enormously popular.

Kishk was born in a village near Damanhur. Went to primary school in Alexandria and became blind at the age of twelve. After graduating from al-Azhar in 1962, he worked for some time for the awqaf ministry as a mosque preacher and imam. From 1964-1981 he was an independent preacher in the ‘Ayn al-Hayah Mosque known as the Masjid al-Malik in Cairo, from where his fame and popularity spread. Under Nasser, Kishk was in conflict with the authorities for refusing to issue a fatwa approving the execution of Sayyid Qutb in 1966. He also avoided answering the question of the compatibility of Arab socialism with Islam, and was imprisoned as a dissident for three years. Under Sadat he became immensely popular, and in the 1970s cassettes of his sermons were widely distributed all over Egypt and to the wider Arabic World. Was imprisoned again in 1981 in Sadat’s crackdown on all opposition, but was soon released after Sadat’s assassination, though he was banned from preaching. He turned to writing Islamic books.

Kishk emphasized personal piety, but he also attacked the social and moral ills of Egyptian society as well as anything that deviated from the norms of Islam. He also preached on eschatology, miracles, metaphysics of the soul and death.

The founder of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria. Received an early traditional religious education. Became involved in the rebellion against French colonial rule, joining the FLN in 1954, and spending most of the war in French jails. After independence, left to study in England where he gained a PhD in comparative education. On return to Algeria, taught at the University of Algiers Faculty of Humanities. Became involved in Islamically oriented reform causes, including the demand for Arabization of education, segregation of education, and the banning of alcohol. In the 1970s helped found Islamic welfare organizations in the slums to meet the growing needs of the impoverished. Re-Islamization he saw as connected to a strong sense of social and economic justice and the promotion of a self-help ethic. Became politically active and organized protests against the government for which he was jailed for two years in 1982. In 1989 he assumed the leadership of the islamic Sdalvation Front, an umbrella group of a half-dozen organizations seeking Islamic social, political and economic reform. The Front won in local elctions and was on the verhe of winning the national elections in 1992 when the military took power and aborted the process. The FIS was banned and Madani was arrested with other islamic leaders. The civil war erupted as a result with radicalized Islamic groups, especially the GIA resorting to violence .

Madani is a leader of the moderate wing of the FIS. Like all Islamists he seeks an Islamic state and the implementation of shari’a but prefers non-violent democratic means to achieve it. He is still in prison.

Saudi physics professor (holds a PhD from Berkeley) and dissident who founded the Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights (CDLR) in Saudi Arabia in 1993, demanding more Islamization in domestic and international affairs. The government cracked down on the movement and Mas’ari set up office in London in 1994 from where he leads the Committee in Defence of Legitimate Rights (CDLR) that organizes Islamic opposition to the Saudi regime and royal family. Masari condemned the corruption of the royal family, espouses sharia law and an Islamic state as well as democracy. By exploiting modern communications technology he rapidly emerged as a major political force. His office faxed some 800 copies per week of a newsletter to Saudi Arabia where it was widely distributed. An e-mail service and Internet homepage widened his audience.

By 1995/6 Mas’ari’s influence had become so great that his presence in London threatened Saudi/UK relations. The UK failed in its attemptd to deport him, but by 1997 a combination of internal rivalries, financial problems, intense Saudi and British government pressure meant that CDLR lost momentum.

One of the greatest thinkers, architects, and political leaders of the contemporary Islamic revival, a systematic teacher of the Quran, considered by many to be the most outstanding Islamic thinker and writer of our time. Mawdudi has influenced many of the main contemporary Islamic thinkers and leaders.

Mawdudi was born in Aurangabad in south India and grew up in a traditionally religious family. He studied traditional Islam as a young man, then acquired a Western modern education on his own. He was involved in the Khilafat movement between 1921-1924 hoping to preserve the Ottoman Caliphate. Later he embarked on his campaign to revive Islam as the sole answer to the Muslim communal problem in India. Mawdudi began his public career as a journalist, a career he was involved in for many years. He left journalism in 1927 for literary and historical pursuits. In 1933 he assumed editorship of Tarjuman al-Quran which became a vehicle for the propagation of his thought.

Mawdudi was opposed to the secularist-nationalist Muslim League led by Jinnah, but on the formation of independent Pakistan he emigrated there, hoping to influence a change from being merely a state for Muslims to making it an Islamic State. His political involvement and criticism of government policies, as well as his anti-Ahmadiya agitation, led to his imprisonment in 1953, butb the death sentence passed was never carried out.

Mawdudi was influenced by Hasan al-Banna and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. He founded the Jama’at-i-Islami movement in 1941 in the Indian sub-continent, an extremely well-organized association committed to the establishment of an Islamic world-order which has had an important role in the history and politics of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and other South-East Asian countries. Rather than a grassroots movement like the Muslim Brotherhood, for Mawdudi the Jama’at was an elite vanguard of the Islamic revival and revolution, working for a gradual appropriation of power in the state.

Mawdudi saw Islam as threatened by a wave of Westernization, and he rallied to its defense endeavoring to mobilize piety and faith for political action. He criticized the West and the Westernized Muslim elites as degenerate, and he called for a renewal and purification of Islam, a return to the essentials of the faith. He conceived of true Islam as a total comprehensive system and ideology, incorporating society, politics and the state. Mawdudi differentiated sharply between jahiliyya, which included most contemporary Mulsim societies, and true Islam. His goal was an ideological Islamic state based on God’s sovereignty (hakimiyya) and on sharia. However he did not advocate a violent revolution, but a principle of gradualism which involved entering the party and electoral politics of Pakistan.

Mawdudi wrote many books, including a six-volume Tafhimul Qur’an (Understanding the Quran), published in 1972, which impacted Muslims all over the world, as well as Towards Understanding Islam, Let Us be Muslims, Way to the Qur’an, The Islamic Movement, The Islamic Way of Life, and many booklets and tracts.

Fundamentalist leader and writer living in London. Self-appointed judge of the shari’a court for the UK, lecturer at the London School of Shariah and founding leader of the al-Muhajiroun movement.

Omar Bakri Muhammad was born in Aleppo, Syria and brought up in an orthodox Muslim home. He studied Islamic sciences since childhood. Received his BA in shari‘a and fiqh from the Shari‘ah University in Damascus, his MA in fiqh from the University of al-Imam al-U’zaie in Beirut. Originally a member of the Muslim Brothers, he later joined Hizb al-Tahrir and was the founder of their UK branch. Muhammad left Hizb al-Tahrir and founded al-Muhajiroun in 1983.

Omar Bakri Muhammad has written many booklets and articles. He has organized many conferences.

A highly respected scholar, teacher and writer from Pakistan, one of the main architects of current Islamic resurgence, who lived many years in the West where he was involved in Islamic da‘wa and inter-faith dialogue.

Murad was born in Bhopal, India, and migrated to Pakistan in 1948. He graduated as a civil engineer from Karachi University in 1952, then left for America where he received a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1958. He then returned to Pakistan and worked as a leading consulting engineer in Karachi and Dhaka, as well as in Tehran and Riyadh. He was involved in the extension project of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca 1975-1976.

Murad was active in the Islamic movement since his student days, joining Jama’at-I Islami’s student movement Jamat-e-Talaba in 1948 becoming its president 1951-2. Murad was a member of the Central Executive of Jama’at-i Islami Pakistan (1963-77), Amir of its Dhaka Branch (1963-71), and Deputy Amir (vice-President) of Jama’at-i-Islami Pakistan 1987-1996. In 1992 he was appointed as editor of the monthly Tarjuman al-Quran founded in 1932 by Mawdudi. Murad was also a Trustee and formerly Director General of the Islamic Foundation, Leicester.

Murad translated and edited several of Mawdudi’s books into English, and is considered a major interpreter of Mawdudi’s works. He also wrote over thirty books himself, in Urdu and English, including Way to the Qur’an, Islamic Movement in the West, Key to al-Baqarah, Sharia’ah: The way to Justice, and Shari’ah: the Way to God. Murad also edited Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi’s book Muslims in the West: Message and Mission, and wrote books for children. As well as contributing scholarly articles to various journals.

Murad was detained in prison without trial in Dhaka for three months in 1964 for his Islamic activities. After the fall of Dhaka in 1971 he was a prisoner of war in India for almost three years.

Founder and leader of the radical Takfir wal-Hijra movement in Egypt, a mahdist movement with an eschatological worldview. He was born in a village near Asyut, of which his father was mayor (umda). He studied agronomy at Asyut University, where he was active in the Muslim Brotherhood and as a result was imprisoned in 1965 by the Nasserist regime. While in prison he joined the radical group of disciples of Sayyid Qutb. On his release in 1971 he finished his University studies and simultaneously founded the Society of Muslims, commonly known as Takfir wal-Hijra. Mustafa recruited members mainly in Upper Egypt among students and graduates. Following the kidnapping and murder of an ex-government minister, al-Dhahabi, he was arrested and executed in 1978.

Mustafa was an autocratic leader who expected total obedience from his followeers. He was a charismatic personality, described as having piercing eyes and always dressed in black. His followers accepted him as the promised Mahdi. He ran Takfir as a highly disciplined organization, centrally controlled by himself, constructed of basic cells and of missionary and catering units.

Mustafa viewed all of contemporary society as infidel (jahili) and under takfir, and advocated total separation from it. However as Takfir was still in its phase of weakness open jihad is to be postponed until such a time as it reached a state of strength. Meantime, he set up a separated alternative community who worked, lived and prayed together. Members lived as a community in caves in Upper Egypt or in rented flats in Cairo. Full members devoted themselves totally to the community, leaving their jobs and family. Errant members were excommunicated and punished. In the final phase of strength jihad will be waged under the rightful khalifa until sharia is imposed on the whole world.

Founder of Hizb al-Tahrir as an offshoot of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine in 1953. Al-Nabhani was born in the village of Ighzim, Palestine (near Haifa) into a family with a tradition of Islamic scholarship. He graduated from al-Azhar, Cairo, in 1932, then returned to Palestine as a teacher of religion, later he was appointed qadi in the Islamic court of law in Ramleh. During this time he became a leading figure in the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Nabhani fled to Syria in 1948, then returned to the West Bank under Jordanian control, where he was an official of the Shari‘ah Appeal Court in Jerusalm.

An-Nabhani was an Islamist influenced by the Syrian revolutionary Ba‘thist ideology, and he attempted to create a modern revolutionary political party with Islam as its ideology whose final goal is the reestablishment of the Islamic Caliphate in a single revived Islamic state. He saw the establishment of an Islamic political party aiming at assuming power, and involvement in politics, as well as the ultimate establishment of the Islamic state (khilafa) as an absolute religious imperative. The fundamental cause of Muslim decline was Muslim’s faulty understanding of Islam, and the West was the perennial enemy of Islam. His overall strategy for the revival of the Islamic umma was modeled closely and literally on his interpretation of the different stages in the Prophet’s sira which are reapplied to contemporary politics as the party’s political program.

Al-Nabhani wrote a number of books, including Saving Palestine (Inqadh Filastin), The Islamic State, The System of Islam (Nizam al-Islam),

One of the greatest fundamentalist Muslim scholars of our time, a prolific writer. He was Rector of the prestigious seminary Nadwatul ‘Ulama’, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Founding Member of the Muslim World league. Nadwi has pioneered da‘wah, educational and academic activities throughout the Muslim world, and has authored more than fifty books.

A prominent Egyptian Muslim scholar and poet. Born into a devout poor peasant family in Gharbiyya province, he had memorized the Quran by the age of ten. Studied at the institute of Religious Studies in Tanta, then moved to al-Azhar University, Cairo where he studied Usul al-Din and from which he graduated in 1953. He was linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, which organization he joined at a young age during his education in Tanta’s. Arrested and imprisoned several times under Nasser for his activities in the Brotherhood.. Continued his studies at al-Azhar until 1960. In 1962 he was sent by al-Azhar to Qatar as chairman of the Qatari Institute of Religious Studies. Where in 1977 he laid the foundations of the Faculty of Islamic Shari’a and became its Dean. Author of some twenty books. Dean of the Shari’a College in Doha, Qatar. Wrote over forty books.

One of the greatest Islamic scholars, reformers, and radical Islamic thinkers of the twentieth century, the main ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Qutb is one of the most widely read Islamic writers whose works have been translated from Arabic into many other languages.

Qutb was born in the village of Musha near Asyut in Upper Egypt, into a family of rural notables. His father was a delegate of Mustafa Kamil’s National Party. Qutb went to the state school in the village and had memorized the Quran on his own by the time he was ten years old. In 1921 Qutb moved to Cairo. In 1933 he graduated from Dar al-Ulum teacher training college with a B.A. in Arts of Education. Qutb was then employed as a teacher by the Ministry of Public Instruction, starting his career in the provinces, and was later transferred to Helwan, a suburb of Cairo. From 1940 to 1948 he served as an inspector for the Ministry.

During that time Qutb had a liberal worldview influenced by Abbas Mahmud al-Aqqad and Taha Hussein, and wrote literary criticism as well as poetry, short stories and articles for newspapers and journals. Following a visit to the USA from 1948 to 1951 he turned to fundamentalist Islam, joined the Muslim Brethren, was soon elected to their leadership council and became their chief spokesman in the 1950s and 1960s. During the short honeymoon between the Free Officers and the Muslim Brotherhood, Qutb served for a short time as the only civilian on the Revolutionary Council.

With the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood following the 1954 assassination attempt on Nasser, Qutb was arrested and spent ten years in prison. He was freed in 1964, but re-arrested in 1965, tortured, and executed in 1966. While in prison he wrote his greatest work, an eight-volume tafsir of the Quran, Fi Zilal al-Quran. Towards the end of his imprisonment he wrote Milestones (Ma’alim fil-Tariq) which became the manifesto of the radical Islamic groups.

Qutb’s books provided Islamic fundamentalism with its most important intellectual base. His most important contributions were his reinterpretation of traditional concepts such as hakimiyya, jahiliyya, and takfir, turning them into contemporary revolutionary concepts in his Islamic ideological system. His writings and martyrdom have had a major influence on Islamic revivalism and have motivated many of those involved in the Islamic resurgence of the last part of the Twentieth century, including the more militant groups such as Al-Jihad that assassinated President Sadat.

Some of his other books include Artistic Imagery in the Quran, On History: and Idea and a Method, The Characteristics and Components of the Islamic Concept, This Religion, and Social Justice in Islam.

Founder of the Iraqi Shia party, Hizb al-Dawla al-Islamiyya, also called Hizb-Allah, an activist revivalist Shia scholar, writer. religious leader and activist, opposed to the ruling Ba‘ath system. Executed by the Ba‘ath in 1980 together with his sister, Bint al-Huda.

Al-Sadr was born in Kazimain into an old and well-known religious family that had produced a number of Shia scholars. Received a traditional Shia religious education in Najaf, the Shia center in Iraq, where he then taught usul al-fiqh. He was declared a mujtahid at the age of thirty.

Al-Sadr was one of the first serious Islamists to wrete on Islamic economics. He also wrote against materialistic dialectics popular in Socialist Ba‘thist Iraq. Al-Sadr advocated an organized Islamic movement, a centralized party that could work for desirable social change. He was convinced that politics was a part of Islam. He called on Muslims to detach themselves from unauthentic foreign influences, especially capitalism and Marxism, and return to the rich legacy of Islam.

His political convictions led him to condemn the Ba‘ath regime. This brought about his first arrest. He was released, but then rearrested in 1979. His sister Bint al-Huda, herself a scholar of Islamic theology organized a protest against his arrest and he was released again, but kept under house arrest. Al-Sadr issued a fatwa that it was unlawful (haram) for a Muslim to join the Ba‘ath party, which led to his final arrest in 1980 and his execution together with his sister on April 8, 1980.

Made many contributions to papers and journals and wrote a number of books, mainly on economics, sociology, theology and philosophy, including The Clear Fatwa, The Path of the Righteous, Our Economy, The Ultimate Thought in Usul, Sources of Power in the Islamic State, Our Philosophy.

Very popular Egyptian charismatic preacher, who has has held several important positions, including President of al-Azhar, Head of Graduate Studies at King ‘Abd al-Aziz University, Mecca, and Minister of Awqaf (religious endowments) in Egypt (1976-1978).

Sha‘rawi was born in the Nile Delta village of Dakadous to a devout family. Went first to the village Kuttab, then for his secondary education to the Zaqaziq Institute of Religious Education. In 1936 he enrolled at al-Azhar in the faculty of Arabic Language. He graduated from al-Azhar in 1941. He obtained the specialization (takhassus) degree from al-Azhar in 1943. He started teaching at the Institute for Religiious Studies in Tanta, and later in Zaqaziq and in Alexandria.

In 1950 he went to Saudi Arabia to teach at the King Abd al-Aziz University in Mecca. He returned to Egypt in the early sixties and became director of the office of the Rector of al-Azhar. In 1966 he was sent by al-Azhar as head of a delegation to Algeria with the aim of helping in the re-Arabization program of that country and stayed there for six years. He then returned to teach at King Abd al-Aziz University in Mecca, and finally returned to Egypt in 1975, from which time his popular preaching style, which is aimed at the masses and utilizes colloqial Egyptian, attracted large audiences. In 1973 he started participating in the weekly television program Nur ‘ala Nur. In 1980 started his famous Friday lessons on Egyptian television in which he interpreted the Quran to a live audience.

His radio and TV broadcasts were extremely popular and his messages were widely distributed by books, cassettes and videos. He wrote several books, including: Interpretation of the Holy Quran, The Great Fatawas, How Allah Provides, The Miracles of the Quran, Fate and Predestination.

Important Iranian Islamic social and political activist and thinker, and the main ideologue of the Iranian Islamic Revolution. Shariati was born in the village of Mazinan near Mashad into a family of religious scholars. His father was a reform minded scholar dedicated to Islamic revival as well as to social reform. Shariati went to government elementary and high schools and in 1949 started studies at the Teacher’s Training College in Mashad.

Shariati taught in a village school 1951-1952 and was also involved politically in supporting the National Front and the National Resistance Movement. He was jailed for several months for these activities. He graduated from Mashad University with a B.A. in French and Persian literature and then left for France where he studied in Paris at the Sorbonne earning a doctorate in sociology in 1964. While in France he was active in the anti-Shah student movement and for a while was the editor of its newspaper Iran–i Azad (Free Iran).

On his return to Iran in 1964 he was arrested and jailed for six months for political activism abroad. Released in 1965 he began teaching at Mashad University, seeking to examine the problems of Muslim society in the light of Islamic principles. He became very popular with his students, his lectures attracting some from outside the university. The government engineered his dismissal and he moved to Teheran where he lectured at the Husayniyah-i Irshad for six years, again drawing large crowds of young people eager to learn new interpretations of Islam and its role in society.

Shariati was innovative, seeking to apply Islam to the contemporary context and make it relevant to modern times. He aimed at transforming Islam from a private moral and religious system to a revolutionary movement. The Shah’s regime saw him as a dangerous radical, and in 1973 he was again arrested by the Shah’s police and detained for eighteen months under hard conditions. Popular pressure and international protests achieved his release in 1975, but he remained under close security and observation. He was allowed to leave Iran for Britain in 1977 where he died, presumably of a heart attack shortly after his arrival. Many allege that SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police, had assassinated him.

Shariati had many innovative and fresh insights into Islam, opposing both the Westernizing secularism of the Shah and the traditional Shi’ism of the clergy. His thought was a complex mix of Shia-Islam, mystical Sufi thought, Western existentialism, and dialectical Marxism. He sought to restore an imagined pristine revolutionary Shia Islam as an ideology uncorrupted by medieval accretions and compatible with modern contexts that would emancipate the masses from all oppression and institute a system of real justice. In light of the severe opprassion afflicting all Muslim societies, revolution was the only alternative left for effecting change. He wrote many books, compiled mainly from his lectures, including Man and Islam, On the Sociology of Islam, What is to Be Done: The Enlightened Thinkers and an Islamic Renaissance, Haj, Martyrdom: Arise and Bear Witness,

Lived in the UK since 1954. Founding Director of the London-based Muslim Institute in 1973. Established the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain in 1990-1992 as a response to the Rushdie affair and as a minority political system – a non territorial Muslim State. The Manifesto of the Muslim Parliament, published under the name of ex-Guardian journalist Kalim Siddiqi in 1990, declares: 'The option of integration and assimilation that is on offer as official policy in Britain must be firmly resisted and rejected.'

The Manifesto calls for 'a no-go area where the exercise of freedom of speech against Islam will not be tolerated.' Sussex University student union, among others, has already revoked its free speech rule - it must be assumed that religious extremism has had something to do with it - and British history dons examining the origins of Islam have received death threats.

Siddiqi is a firm supporter of the Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Concerned for the Muslim minorities in the West

One of the leading theorists of the contemporary Islamic revival, Dr Turabi is the long-time leader of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood, he was the leader of the Sudanese National Islamic Front party and is general secretary of its successor ruling party, the National Congress. Turabi is also leader of the Popular Arab and Islamic Congress. He is Speaker of the Parliament in Sudan since 1996.

Turabi was born into a religious conservative family in Kassala, Eastern Sudan. His grandfather was head of a Sufi movement, his father an expert in Islamic law, and Turabi received a traditional Islamic schooling. He studied law in Khartoum University graduating in 1955, and later received a Masters degree in law from London University in 1957, and a Ph.D. from the Sorbonne in 1964. Turabi was lecturer in the Faculty of Law of Khartoum University eventually becoming its dean.

Turabi was involved in Islamic activities since the early 1950s. He was appointed as secretary of the Charter Front (Jabhat al-Mithak), the Muslim Brotherhood front in Sudan, and served as a member of parliament. Turabi reorganized the Brotherhood as a political party in 1969 while pressuring the government to adopt an Islamic constitution. He was arrested three times in the 1970s by the Numeiri regime, but was released and became reconciled with Numeiri serving as attorney-general under Numeiri from 1979 to 1982 and was the presidential adviser on legal and foreign affairs until 1985. Turabi approved of Numeiri’s decision to impose sharia in 1983. After Numeiri’s downfall he formed the National Islamic Front in 1986 and ran unsuccessfully in presidential elections. He was a member of various coalition governm,ents and served as Attorney General, Minister of Justice, Minister of Foreign affairs, and Deputy Prime Minister.

Turabi supported Omar al-Bashir’s overthrow of the democratically elected government of Sadiq al-Mahdi in 1989, and is thought to be the grey eminence and ideological mentor behind the present Sudanese government. He was elected Speaker of Parliament in 1996 and again in 1998. Of late there has been some rivalry between the two, Bashir trying to sideline Turabi.

Turabi’s goal is an Islamic state based on sharia. Like all fundamentalists, he tends to sweep away the traditions accrued over centuries in order to go back directly to the textual sources of Islam and find there the essentials of the faith. However, his interpretation of the sources tends to be more liberal than that of most other fundamentalist leaders, especially on matters relating to the role of women in Islam and to Islam and democracy.

Turabi has written numerous works on contemporary Islam including Prayer (al-Salah), Belief (al-Iman), Renewal of Source Methodology in Jurisprudence( Tajdid Usul al-Fiqh, The Mission of Woman (Risalat al-Marah), The Muslim Between Conscience and Authority (al-Muslim Bayn al-Wijdan was al-Sultan).