IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE
BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL [April 9,
2002]
[Shamim A Siddiqi,
Currently, a lot of concern is being expressed in
different quarters around the world that due to Muslim freedom movements in
This wish is very pious and should, therefore, be encouraged. Equally, it needs an analytical approach to the issue to come to right decision. This concern is partly due to frustration that Muslims could not succeed in getting any of these bleeding issues resolved to their satisfaction or get the Deen of Allah established anywhere in this world. At the same time, this frustration is also due to our ignoring of some of the hard facts of history that have brought the Muslim world to its existing condition and the struggle of freedom fighters to such a climax that they cannot be side tracked. To have a better understanding of the perplexed situation at hand, we have to explore some of the current as well historical realities of the last century, especially in reference to Pakistan and the Middle East that are at focus in the global fight of the West against terrorism.
1. After the demise of communism in early nineties of the last century,
the Zionist media turned its barrels of attack towards Islam and leveled it as
rival to secular West and capitalistic liberal values. The concept of
"clash of civilization" as projected by Dr. Huntington is now in full
play. The Big Seven + Russia, India, China and International Zionists are
determined to the extent that Islam should not be given any chance to emerge
anywhere as a political entity. President Bush of the
2. There are so-called 52 Muslim countries in the world but,
unfortunately, Islam does not exist anywhere in the body politic of any of
these countries. From Casablanca To Jakarta and from Central Asia to
Karachi/Eden every country is ruled by some vested interests, opportunist
coteries, self-imposed military dictators, kings or monarchs, all towing the
lines of the USA or its hegemonies and keeping Islam away from the
tentacles of power. Entire forces of Kufr [idolaters] and the world of
Christendom are united on this issue.
3. Muslim masses everywhere are disorganized and disenchanted with the
ruling junta/regimes of their respective countries. Muslim world as a whole is
suffering from dearth of effective leadership. The undersigned made a detailed
plan with my beloved brother Late Salahuddin in June in NY to organize and
rejuvenate the leadership of Muslim countries but, unfortunately, he was
assassinated same year in December in Karachi. Late Hakim Sayeed
also consented to be an integral part of this process but, unfortunately, he
too was killed. As such, no headway could be made in this respect. Unless Muslim
world is reorganized on the pattern, Rasulullah (S) built the Ummah;
nothing substantial can now be achieved towards its resurrection. "La
uslehu Akhiru hazehi Ummah illa bema suleha behi Awwaluha" - adage of Imam
Malik (RA).
4. The Islamic Movements around the world, especially that of the
Indo-Pak subcontinent and the Arab world could not do their job of Iqamatuddeen
within a stipulated time frame. Mohtram Maulana Wasi Mazhar Nadavi had
enumerated the causes of their failure in Takbeer # 6 and 7 and also quoted Mohtram
Dr. Israr Ahmad to this effect but there are many more reasons that may
encompass this tragedy that is deep rooted. It should be traced out within the
framework of these Movements themselves and the order of their priorities.
Briefly, it can be said that they did not follow the rules of the game in its
totality as demonstrated and practiced by Rasulullah (S) in his life pattern.
This has resulted in the frustration of Muslim Ummah everywhere. The sentiments
of frustration that are being expressed by Muslims now is only one way to
ventilate the sufferings that the Ummah has sustained due to the failure of
these Islamic Movements.
5. The Jamaat-e-Islami and Muslim Brotherhood all were started in the late twenties or early thirties of the past twentieth century. They could not catch the imagination of masses of their respective regions/countries but became elitist. They had ample time to change the system of their lands at least at one place to cite as model of a modern Islamic State. If they could succeed anywhere, the history of the world would have been different today. They failed. Meanwhile, the European countries that were licking the wounds of the Second Great War were resurrected by aid provided by USA's Marshall Plan. They came to life again by mid fifties. Their first target was Pakistan that was carved out of India as laboratory for Islam. The West managed to bring military rule in Pakistan in 1958 through a coup and brought Ayyub Khan, a free mason, in power. [Ayyub khan became the member of Free Mason Club in 1944 when he was captain in British army and serving in Coaxes Bazaar] The constitution of Pakistan that had the genesis to be developed into an Islamic State was abrogated.
Since then more than 42 years have passed but the derailed train of Pakistan
could not be put on lines again. This is the greatest tragedy of the Muslim
Ummah. Unfortunately, the present military dictator in Pakistan is bent upon to
transform it into a secular and liberal society on the pattern Ata Turk did in
Turkey. President Bush, EUA countries and the entire secular World are at
his back. Will the Muslims of Pakistan succumb shamelessly to this challenge or
rise to the occasion and smash this secular conspiracy? Forthcoming future will
be a witness to this phenomenon.
6. Jamaat that launched a successful campaign for the Islamic Constitution got
it enacted in March 1956. It, unfortunately, then resolved to go through
the election process and abandoned the mass movement that could be augmented to
force the government of the day to bring the Constitution in effect or wither
away. JIP lost its winning hours in this pursuit and the Muslim world to bring
Islam in force after twelve hundred years living in abstinence.
7. However, after the Second Great War, the European powers started to
abandon their colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as they could not
keep the agitated people and the freedom fighters under their control anymore.
All were set free within a short period of twenty years in a hurry with legacies
of unprecedented latitude that are still bleeding and tormenting the Muslim
world. The fate of the Princely states of India was left unresolved. It created
the Kashmir issue in its wake. An Israeli State was thrust upon the Muslim
world in 1948 through a conspiracy of Anglo-French-Russian-American-Zionist
forces and the Palestinians were ousted from their homeland and thrown to
wonder around the world. In fact, the third Crusade was started with it.
President Bush is just fomenting its conflagration all around. The Muslims of
Balkan were forced to live under Marshall Tito. They are fighting for their
freedom and getting it in a restricted sense. Chechnya is another tragedy of
the subjugation of Czarist Russia and communists oppressive tyranny. It is fast
bleeding but who cares?
8. All these territories are being subjugated and dominated by foreign
rules. The people of the areas are fighting for their freedom. They have no
choice but to shed their innocent blood for their human rights that are being
denied by supreme military strength of the usurpers and through international
conspiracies. Their fight for freedom is quite legitimate and within the
permissible bounds of morality. They are deprived people and have every right
to fight against the forces that have occupied their land illegally. No one has
any right to condemn his or her desperate actions in self-defense. They are
fighting for their homes and hearths, as a Muslim ought to do. To measure their
fight with the process of Dawah Ilallah will be a kind of Zulm [oppression]
upon them. People, who are dying day in and day out for their very existence
and survival, are justified to defend themselves the way their ingenuity could
innovate. To condemn them in any way will be immoral. Their bleeding
condition is a challenge to the moral conscience of the world. If the so-called
free world has any sense of morality, it should stand up with one voice and get
these lands free and vacated forthwith or keep quite. Meanwhile, it
should be understood by all concern that their struggle for freedom is a Dawah
of different nature. It is meant to hammer the sleeping conscience of the
so-called democratic forces around the world and the feelings of Akhowah of the
Muslim Ummah.
9. However, the question of Taliban is quite different and does not fall in any of these categories. They had an established Islamic government of their own and within their own rights, they were practicing Sharia, but they lacked Hikmah and practical wisdom to get the things done intelligently and befittingly in the present context of the world. They should not have given any place to Osama on their territory to fight his war against the USA whose army is illegitimately staying in his homeland. They should have told him clearly to fight his war from his homeland and not from the soil of Afghanistan. They should have asked him and his partymen to leave the country and go to their respective homeland. In all fairness, no one could then blame Taliban for committing any crime against any foreign state what to say of the USA. They committed an Ijtihadi mistake and lost everything in its wake. I think only at this point the critics are right. Taliban provided a false and concocted plea to the USA to pounce upon them, destroy the Islamic character of Afghanistan, “enslave” Pakistan to follow its secular trends and capture the Muslim countries of Central Asia with only one misguided stroke, the fight against terrorism that does not exist anywhere except in their own courtyard. The resisting nature of Afghan people that is allergic to foreign domination is now the only hope to get the situation corrected within a decade or so.
10. At this juncture, Dawah Ilallah is the socio-political need of
Muslim Ummah. We have to present Islam as the only way of life that can
deliver justice to the suffering humanity. Apparently, its advocacy and
presentation has rather been made difficult due to anti-Islam propaganda being
carried out day in and day out by the Western secular media. But the West has
made it easier for us to encounter its propaganda and meet the opposition in
its own coin.
The West, especially Mr. Bush and Tony Blair are trying to convince the
world that they are not against Islam but only fighting
"terrorism." Similarly, a Da'ee, in the global perspective,
should declare that Islam has no concern with what is going on in
Thus, Islam is to be presented both in the Muslim countries and in the Western
hemisphere as the need of the people and the Da'ee should present it
courageously. The Da'ee is to reach every home and hut and tell the people
that Islam has come to help you and get your personal, social and family
life replenished with new hopes and expectations. It needs the men of selfless
character, struggling only for the pleasure of Allah, expecting reward only
from Him. Teams of Da’ees should meet the Western media, its intelligentsia and
masses and open dialogues with them at every level with love and concern for
the future of their society and generations that are at stake. It needs a
continuous effort for decades together to remove the centuries old prejudices
against Islam and Muslims and to convince them that future of humanity now lies
only with Islam. For that Muslims have to present a trustworthy character in
the midst of permissive societies against a lot of provocation's and
enticements that are sprouting everywhere both in the East and the West. Dawah
Ilallah is now the universal need and the Islamic Movements around the world
should re-set their programs and plan to reach out the common people of their
respective lands without any delay. Only then they can compensate
the causes of their failure and look towards future with renewed hopes.
Shamim A Siddiqi