Born in 1920 into a pious family in Mahmudiya, Gamal was the youngest brother of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. His father mended watches for a living but spent much time collecting and classifying hadiths. As a child he was weak and sickly, so he spent his time reading with his father. After completing secondary school he refused to go to university but decided instead to start a writing career.
Thinking
Gamal al-Banna represented an interpretation of Islam which is rationalist, humanist, egalitarian, feminist, anti-authoritarian, liberal and secular. As a political thinker and social reformer he adopted an anti-capitalist position. In Al-barnamadj al-islami, he wrote the following in the preface, when the end of the Cold War became apparent in 1991 :
The collapse of Marxism doesn't mean that capitalism will succeed. Rather, this means that the mistakes of Marxism were bigger than the mistakes of capitalism. Most people forget that Islam occurred at a time when the world was divided into two huge states forcing upon it humiliating subjection, class rule, and the government of tyrants. Both deprived the masses of the most fundamental principles of justice and left them in poverty and ignorance, burdened with the back-breaking load of forced labor which leaves them neither time nor health, nor opportunities to think. Both enthroned Caesars and Chosroes as gods exerting authority over life and death. Then Islam came and destroyed these systems: it replaced the class system with its elitist barriers and dead ends by the general equality of the people, the highest ranks or the strata of notables by the declaration of absolute equality among the people, without any difference between black and white, male and female, rich and poor, base and noble. It was not the prayer or the fast that constituted the new gift, for the cultic commandments are represented in all religions. Rather, what was new was the spirit of freedom, the principles of justice and equality that Islam let shine. Today Islam is called upon to fulfill this role a second time.''"
Al-Banna was committed to the labor and trade-unionist movement for decades. He was a labor union official in the textile industry. In 1953, he founded The Egyptian Society for the Care of Prisoners and their Families. Al-Banna taught at the Cairo Institute of Trade-Union Studies for 30 years. In 1981, he founded the International Islamic Confederation of Labor in Geneva, Switzerland and became its first president. According to al-Banna, Islam is anti-capitalist. He was opposed to severe punishment, e.g. the death penalty for apostasy as well as in his opposition to the discrimination against women or religious minorities such as the CopticChristians in Egypt.
Egalitarianism and feminism
Gamal al-Banna was a strict egalitarian: Islam gives women and men the same rights and duties, and a good Muslim regards all human beings as equal, no matter what their religion is. As for the role of women in Islam, al-Banna claimed to see no reason why a Muslim woman could not take over the role of imam in the prayer salat.
Liberalism
For al-Banna, religious thinking may not be restricted in any way. Al-Banna's freedom of belief comprises a Muslim's conversion which does not permit anyone to harm him or her. Al-Banna wrote al-mar`a al-muslima baina tahrir al-qur'an wa taqjid al-fuqaha. dar al-fikr al-islami. Cairo, 2002.
Secularism
Al-Banna was a religious Muslim who opposed the notion of an "Islamic state", for it is abused by politicians for political ends whereby both the Muslims and Islam are harmed. He championed the separation of state and religion, to protect Muslims and Islam from the political establishment's misuse of Islam.
Media
Al-Banna frequently appeared on Egyptian and other Arab TV programs where he answers questions and took part in discussions, which sometimes proved awkward for the television networks. During Ramadan 2006, e.g., he said smoking was not forbidden and that Muslims were free to smoke in the daytime during Ramadan. He justified that by the fact that there were no cigarettes in the prophetic era and that neither the Quran nor Messenger Muhammad prohibited smoking explicitly.
Other books by Gamal al-Banna not referenced above
The author of "over fifty books", some of his publications include:
Al-Banna, Gamal: tathwir al-qur`an. dar al-fikr al-islami. Cairo, 2000.
Al-Banna, Gamal: tafnid da´wa hadd ar-ridda. dar ash-shuruq. Cairo, 2008.
Al-Banna, Gamal: al-hejab. dar al-fikr al-islami. Cairo, 2002.
