[1][2] Muhammad Qutb was the second oldest of five children born in the Upper Egyptian village of Musha near Asyut, 13 years younger than his elder brother, Sayyid.
[4] He was arrested a few days before Sayyid (on July 29, 1965) for his alleged co-leadership along with his brother in a plot[5] to kill leading political and cultural figures in Egypt and overthrow the government.
Although some of his works referred to military conflicts, Qutb regarded Western cultural imperialism as the main means by which Jews seek to destroy Islam and Muslims.
He gave the example of Maronite Christians working in journalism in Egypt to support his argument that newspapers were part of a religiously-motivated conspiracy to corrupt the Islamic values of their readers.
[15] A key aspect in Qutb’s argument is his opposition to the education of girls and the changing social status of women in Islamic societies.
[16] He regarded the mother as central to the religious upbringing of the children and argued that feminism was the most effective means of corrupting Muslim society.
[18] Qutb’s argument regarding western cultural influence over Muslim society draws heavily on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , and he referred to these texts in his writings.
It may come from the French scientist and author Alexis Carrel, who also raised concerns about the effect of feminism on social structures and whose writings were well-known to both Muhammad and Sayyid Qutb.
[21] Qutb defended sexual slavery in Islam in the form of concubinage, comparing it favorably to what he termed as adultery, prostitution, and casual sex of Europe, which he termed as "that most odious form of animalism", with what he described as "that clean and spiritual bond that ties a maid [i.e. slave girl] to her master in Islam".
Jahiliyya in the Twentieth Century is perhaps his best-known work,[1] and gained notoriety as an alleged terrorist handbook (along with his brother's Milestones) when the government claimed to find the two in police searches of plotters' homes and environs.