Fighting for the soul of Islam

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِِ
Fighting for the soul of Islam

It has been yet another tumultuous few weeks in the life of the Islamic Ummah. Added to the suffering we witness in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnia, we witnessed also the brutal and shameless murder of the wheelchair bound Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, by Israeli missiles. Reports are coming in of the killing of still more Muslims in Uzbekistan. We hear of reports of Muslims being arrested in the United Kingdom. In Palestine, there is further news that the Zionists have trapped Muslims in Al Aqsa mosque after Juma’ah prayers.

Now, the kuffar are seeking to manipulate Islam in their own image. This round was sparked off by the former Archbishop of Canterbury’s address, ‘Christianity and Islam: Collision or convergence?” delivered at the Gregorian University in Rome on the 25th of March, 2004.

Carey’s speech, thick with Christian orientalist overtones was a thinly veiled attack on Islam. A collection of condescending half-truths, he took no concrete stance on the rights and wrongs of the causes of the turmoil and anguish of the Islamic Ummah, relegating it to mere misperception. He even attacked the Aqeedah of Islam, questioning the authenticity of the Qur’an.

Fighting for the soul of Islam
Although Carey’s speech purports to ‘finding ways of living together in harmony and peace’ his true intention is revealed when he said, ‘We are presented therefore with a huge puzzle concerning Islam. Why is it associated with violence throughout the world? Is extremism so ineluctably bound up with its faith that we are at last seeing its true character? Or could it be that a fight for the soul of Islam is going on that requires another great faith, Christianity to support and encourage the vast majority of the Muslims who resist this identification of their faith with terrorism?’

He and the West are accusing Islam of being an extremist, violent Deen and Christianity might just save it’s soul.

There’s some great irony at work here and even more incredible moral gymnastics, it must have been a matter of considerable skill to deliver the address with a straight and sincere face.

Carey somehow fails to notice the fact that throughout the world, it is the Muslims who are on the receiving end of state terrorism, be it from the Russians in Chechnya, or the Indians in Kashmir, or the Zionists in Palestine, or the American-British coalition in Afghanistan and Iraq. He deliberately glosses over the fact that these so called ‘enlightened’ western nations and followers of the religion of compassion, have multi-billion dollar industries of death, manufacturing ever more barbaric and lethal weapons and systems with which to kill, maim and orphan Muslims and their children and destroy their lands and properties. Their so called ‘defence’ budget continues to grow ever larger despite the fact that there is NO Muslim army to speak of, let alone the complex state machinery and organisation even to match the former USSR’s red army.

Carey’s address contains four main attacks against Islam.

The first: he calls for the integration of ‘their faith and practice in democratic institutions’ he then goes on to point out the various dictatorships, kingdoms and generally authoritarian regimes – as evidence of Islam’s failure!

Incredible as it may seem, Carey appears to be suffering from colonialist amnesia forgetting that the current cabal of illegitimate puppets who rule over us, were imposed, forced upon us by the benevolent West. Their objective has been to serve the interests of the West, suppress Islam at whatever cost. Accountability of the rulers, was never part of their brief! The existence of these traitors, is not because of Islam, rather it is the direct result of Islam’s absence.

Secondly: The ‘disturbing social conditions that militate against stable civil society and undermine the values and ethics of great faith’ - he points to ‘demographic factors’ (Muslims are having too many children, too many wives perhaps), added to this without ‘universal education’ and ‘human rights’ (we have seen precious little of it from the US, UK and Israeli governments) would lead to ‘revolution or fan greater resentment of Western resources and excesses(!)’

Carey seems to be saying that the Muslims feeling of anger is misdirected against the West, and that it has nothing to do with the authoritarian regimes either (his earlier criticism) - instead it’s to do with the lack of education and human rights arising from too many Muslims!

Thirdly: He challenges theological Islam to be more open to ‘examination and criticism’. He attacks the Qur’an, the aqeedah of Islam thus, ‘In the case of Islam, Mohammad, acknowledged by all in spite of his religious greatness, to be illiterate man, is said to have received God’s word direct, word by word, from angels and scribes who recorded them later.

Thus, believers are told, because they have come direct from Allah they are not to be questioned or revised. …but during the past five hundred years critical scholarship has declined leading to strong resistance to modernity’. He goes on to encourage ‘theological dialogue between Christianity and Islam’ as well as the development of ‘rigorous scholarship’.

This is the first of the most insidious points Carey makes – although it is evident that he does not appreciate the strength of the Aqeedah of Islam. He equates the Islamic Ummah’s adherence to the eternal and unchanging Al Qur’an with backwardness or un-modernity. The implicit message to the Muslims – ‘if you want to progress, you have got to allow the Qur’an (and therefore the Shari’ah) to be challenged and thus changed or corrupted even, as the Christian Bible has been. Unfortunately for Carey, there are two unassailable points marshalled against his lies:

a. Al Qur’an is a mukjizat – it is an intellectual miracle, tangible and available to all to meet the challenge of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala the One who revealed the book. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala challenges all those who doubt the book, to produce an equal,
‘Say if you doubt…. Then produce one like it’

b. There has never been a conflict between reality and the noble Qur’an. For example, Islam and the Muslims, unlike Christianity have never burnt people alive for stating the fact that the earth goes around the sun. Therefore, unlike Christianity, where the West abandoned the religion in favour of secularism in order to progress, there is no such parallel ‘required’ in Islam. In fact, it was Islam that brought about progress and modernity.

The acquisition of modernity (madaniyyah) has nothing whatsoever to do with corrupting the Qur’an, as the noble history of the Muslims in Al Andalus (Spain) testifies. His other insult that ‘it is sad to relate that no great invention has come for many hundreds of years from Muslim countries’ corresponds precisely to the Western colonialist aggressions and dismemberment of the Islamic Ummah and lands and not at all to the adherence of the unchanging Qur’an.

The ‘bloody’ branding of Islam - from Huntington to Carey, from Carey to Blair
The other of his most insidious comments relate to the main attack – the branding of Islam and Muslims with ‘terrorism’.

Carey states, ‘A fourth challenge facing moderate Muslims is to resist strongly the taking over of Islam by radical activist and to express strongly, on behalf of the many millions of their co-religionists (note the subtle dishonest point that the Muslims are not actually united, hence ‘co-religionist’), their abhorrence of violence done in the name of Allah.

We look to them to condemn suicide bombers and terrorists who use Islam as a weapon to destabilise innocent lives. … We need to hear outright condemnation of theologies that state that suicide bombers are ‘martyrs’ and enter a martyrs reward.

There are a two important points that need to be noted here. First of all, the West are seeking to remove the Islamic basis for jihad in the legitimate defence and resistance against attackers, colonialist and occupiers. They wish to remove the only weapon left to the Believers – their Iman and their lives. Whether it is convenient for the West or not, the ahkam from the Shari’ah on repelling the invaders and those who attack us and our lands are clear. The ahkam on jihad are similarly unambiguous.

The other, is that they are forcing the divide of the Islamic Ummah into 2 camps – either you are a moderate who will play the compliant victim, the subjugated slaves (therefore the kuffar label you ‘good’), or you are terrorists who clings to Islam and will not compromise the Deen, and will defend the Ummah and Muslim lands (and therefore the enemies of Allah, label you ‘evildoers’).

The taunting and brow beating tone was set early on in his speech. Carey said, ‘However, wherever we look, Islam seems to be embroiled in conflict with other faiths and other cultures. It is in opposition to practically every other world religion – to Judaism in the Middle East; to Christianity in the West, in Nigeria, and in the Middle East; to Hinduism in India; to Buddhism, especially since the destruction of the Temples in Afghanistan.’

He then quotes Samuel Huntington’s ‘The Clash of Civilisations’,
“Islam’s borders are bloody and so are its innards. The fundamental problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilisation whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power”

Carey then dramatically adds, ‘Penetrating and disturbing – even shocking – words’ and without exploring the true causes the realities behind these realities proceeds to conclude that Islam is indeed violent, unless we change it in accordance with his (the West’s) recommendations.

The fact that Islam and the Believers, against all suffering and pain, are a lone voice in opposing the kuffar in their invasion and designs is not an argument against it. Most noble Prophets alaihi sallam were lone voices against their contemporary societies.

No, in fact it testifies to the sincerity, clarity and truth of the message. Furthermore it shocks the kuffar, that despite their best attempts for over 300 years the Muslims all over the world, still hold unshakeably to their aqeedah and still act as one body against kufr.

Furthermore, this man of religion, is disappointingly dishonest by deliberately ignoring the root causes of those conflicts he quotes.

Unholy alliance, between Church and State
Blair when challenged during a news conference by the Channel 4 (UK) news presenter on why was it that the West wasn’t as vociferous on the killings and deaths of Muslims at the hands of state sponsored acts of terror for example those carried out by Russia (Chechnya) and Israel (Palestine) – waffled out a strangled reply before concluding that ‘wherever these things happened, it (terrorism) was there’. Again, the implicit association of Islam (jihad) with ‘terrorism’.

The echo of Carey was too loud to miss. Carey’s echo of Huntington in turn, was just as audible.

All this in the week, when the British government launched it’s ‘fight for the soul of Islam. After a series of 9 arrests of British Muslims, the Blair governments propaganda machinery pushed the so called Muslim Council of Britain into prominence. They were Blair approved ‘moderates’ who wrote to Imams to speak out against terrorism and to turn in their fellow Muslims! The old British game of divide and rule.

Dividing the Ummah

In an article entitled ‘America to use "traditional islam" to divide ummah - Preventing a 'clash of civilisations'’, Paul Reynolds of the BBC (29/03/04) writes,

‘A strategy for the West to counter Islamic extremism by supporting Islamic moderates has been put forward in a report funded in part by a conservative American foundation.

The report, called "Civil Democratic Islam: partners, resources and strategies", was drawn up by the Rand Corporation with financial help from the Smith Richardson Foundation

… It is a contribution to a debate well under way in the West. The latest manifestation of this debate was a recent speech by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey, who wondered why Islam was "associated with violence throughout the world." …

The recommendations have also come as the Bush administration is proposing to use the G8 summit in the American state of Georgia in June to push the issue of democratic and social reform in the Middle East. …

… identifies four essential positions in Muslim societies:
Fundamentalists who "reject democratic values and contemporary Western culture."
Traditionalists who "are suspicious of modernity, innovation and change."
Modernists who "want the Islamic world to become part of global modernity."
Secularists who "want the Islamic world to accept a division of religion and state." …

It suggests a strategy of supporting the modernists first. … by, for example, publishing and distributing their works at subsidised cost, encouraging them to write for mass audiences and for youth, getting their views into the Islamic curriculum ...

It goes onto the say that traditionalists should be supported against the fundamentalists by publicising the traditionalist criticism of extremism and by" encouraging disagreements" between the two positions. It says that "in such places as Central Asia, they (traditionalists) may need to be educated and trained in orthodox Islam to be able to stand their ground."

A third strategy would be "to confront and oppose the fundamentalists" by, among other things, challenging their interpretation of Islam and revealing their links with illegal groups and activities. …’

It is clear the ‘moderate’ type of Muslim the West would wish for. It would be like Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, the (American) Ruling Council Members of Iraq, the (so called) Muslim Council of Britain. These are ‘Muslims’ who would betray a fellow Believer, who would consider the Shari’ah only as one of the sources of legislation but not the source of legislation. Who would surrender our lands to invaders and colonialists without a fight. These are the Muslims who would accept the kufr and taghut of democracy and the corruption that arrives with Western culture. In other words, the moderate Muslims as defined by Bush, Blair and the Rand Corporation and Carey are the ones who would reject the Shari’ah of Islam and embrace kufr and taghut instead.

Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala warns us in the noble Qur’an,

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ بِطَانَةً مِّن دُونِكُمْ لاَ يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالاً وَدُّواْ مَا عَنِتُّمْ قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاء مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الآيَاتِ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made plain to you the Signs, if ye have wisdom.
[TMQ Al-e-Imran: 118]

It is clear that the kuffar have no care for what is truth or what is right. The very fact that they wish to manipulate Islam to serve their objectives and needs, betrays their contempt for Islam and their loathing for the Ummah.

Islam
Although there will be no further Prophets after Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he left for us to guides, the Qur’an ul Kareem and his sallallahu alaihi wasallam sunnah. Islam is not a ‘soul’ that requires saving. Nor can it be manipulated in any direction the kuffar might wish. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has determined His own Deen,

One thousand fourteen hundred years ago, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala revealed,

يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِئُواْ نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَـفِرُونَ - هُوَ الَّذِى أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ
Their intention is to extinguish Allah's Light (by blowing) with their mouths: But Allah will complete (the revelation of) His Light, even though the Unbelievers may detest (it). It is He Who has sent His Messenger with Guidance and the Religion of Truth, that he may proclaim it over all religion, even though the Pagans may detest (it). [TMQ As Saff: 8-9]

We are not terrorist, nor moderate, nor fundamentalist nor traditionalist nor secularist. We are Muslims, we declare, that there is only One God, One Power, Supreme that is Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger. We have surrendered completely, to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.

Khilafah.com Journal
18 Safar 1425 Hijri
07 April 2004

Click here to E-mail us regarding this or any other article on Khilafah.com