[3][4] In the preface to Al-Barnamadj al-Islami ("The Islamic Program"), when the end of the Cold War became apparent in 1991, he wrote the following ("A Disrupted World", pp.
[...] 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.
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.
[3] He was opposed to severe punishment, e.g. the death penalty for apostasy,[7] as well as in his opposition to the discrimination against women[6] or religious minorities such as the Coptic Christians in Egypt.
In his view, 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.
[4] Al-Banna frequently appeared on Egyptian and other Arab TV programs where he answered questions and took part in discussions (see "Videos" below), which sometimes proved awkward for the television networks.
He justified this by the fact that there was no tobacco in the prophetic era (7th century AD) and that neither the Quran nor Messenger Muhammad prohibited smoking explicitly.