MUSLIM UMMAH: YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW

TODAY     1944—1994

50 YEARS

PERIOD OF FIRST LIBERATION AND ISLAM TURNS

TOWARDS THE WEST

“For five centuries—from 700 to 1200—the Muslim world led the Christian world in terms of geopolitical power, standard of living, religious toleration, sophistication of laws, and level of learning in philosophy, science and culture.

Decades of warfare turned the tables. As Durant wrote, “The West lost the crusades, but won the war of creeds. Every Christian warrior was expelled from the Holy Land of Judaism and Christianity; but Islam, bled by its tardy victory, and ravaged by Mongols, fell in turn into a Dark Age of obscurantism and poverty; while the beaten West, matured by its effort and forgetting its defeat, learned avidly from its enemy, lifted cathedrals into sky, wandered out on the high seas of reason, transformed its new languages into Dante, Chaucer, and Villon, and moved with high spirit into the Renaissance.”

As we develop our policies to engage the Muslim world, we must begin with respect and understanding for peoples who feel that they have been misunderstood, discriminated against, and exploited by Western powers. We should not try to impose our values on them. Though the Muslim lags behind the West in political development—only two Muslim nations have democratic governments –our civilization is not superior to theirs. The people of the Muslim world were more resilient against the appeal of communism than those of the West, and their widespread rejection of the materialism and moral permissiveness of Western culture redounds to their credit. Just as knowledge from the East helped trigger the Renaissance in the West, time has come for the West to contribute to a renaissance of the Muslim world. If we engage the modernist states of the Muslim world as full and equal partners, and we seek to resolve the difficult security issues plaguing the Middle East, we can lay the foundation for such a rebirth. If we work together and combine the best of our civilization, the next period of our history will be one of constructive cooperation, not destructive conflict”. President Richard M. Nixon in his book Seize the Moment”

United Kingdom, North Western Europe, Canada and USA:

See the design of Almighty God, so for as USA is concerned. As our lands were being occupied, a simultaneous process was started during the same period .The first wave of Muslims were brought in here as slaves from Africa. The second wave of Muslims arrived here after the First World War and the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

The western powers, the ones who drove us out of Europe, were compelled to invite us in a way. After the Second World War England needed labor, Muslims arrived from India and Pakistan with others. France needed labor, Muslims arrived in great numbers from North Africa. Germany needed labor, Muslims arrived from Turkey. I want you to note that for the first time in the history Muslims arrived in England and North Western Europe in a way needed. Muslims did not invade, in a way we they were invited. By the same token in mid sixties, at the height of Vietnam war USA needed skilled labor. Johnson’s administration relaxed the immigration laws.

The third wave of Muslims arrived from sixty five different countries to this country of USA. They were highly educated and professional people. During the same period the indigenous group came to the real fold of Islam. Warith Deen Mohammed (after the death of his father) brought the Nation of Islam to the real fold of Islam. Now it is called the Missionary of Warris Deen Mohammed. Canada also embarked on massive immigration program in mid sixties and many Muslims came to Canada

Saudi Arabia:

In the first part of the last century, Sandra Mackey wrote in her book, Saudis lived hand to mouth. When Masjid-e-Nabwi was electrified Nizam of Hyderabad paid the bill. In 1938 the oil started to flow.

There is no doubt that the Saudi Government physically transformed Saudi Arabia. It spent $800 billion on development projects between 1979 and 1990.  It built 300 hospitals, 1700 state run clinics, seven universities, ninety nine colleges, 18,000 schools, 29 airports and more than 45,000 miles of paved modern highways. Saudi Government should be commended for making excellent arrangements for the pilgrims of Omrah and Haj, with the same token Saudi rulers should be condemned for not developing a political system, where the people have a say in running the country.   

Iran 1944—1994:

The notable things are:

The second liberation in the Muslim lands thus began.

Elsewhere in the world:

When the Khilaafah was abolished in 1925, the enemies of Islam might have thought the sun of Islam will never rise again. The plane of Islam is grounded for ever. The sun always rises from the East. The plane took off again. A beginning was made in Indonesia – in the wake of surrender of Japan in 1945, a militia known as Hifzullah established a rule in some islands. Later on he liberated west Java and proclaimed Negara Islam Indonesia—Indonesian Islamic State.

After the II WW the Western Powers started to withdraw from their colonies due to their own reasons and revolts. Pakistan came into existence. Indonesia was librated from the Dutch in 1949. Muslim lands were liberated one after another as follows:

1951—Libya gained independence from Italy,

1952—Egypt,

1956—Sudan and Tunisia,

1957—Malaysia,

1960—Mali, Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Somalia, and Mauritania,

1961—Cameroon, Sierra Leone, and  Kuwait,

1962—Algeria and Yemen,

1965—Gambia and Maldives,

1967—South Yemen,

1971—Qatar, Bangladesh separated from Pakistan,

1974—Guinea-Bissau,

1975—Comoros,

1977—Djibouti,

1984—Brunei).

By the middle eighties the physical occupation of the Muslim lands ended except the lands, which were occupied by the Russians.

The Algerians paid the heaviest price in murder and mayhem, a million martyred or maimed.

The Western Powers departed but they left rulers (puppets) who were worse than their masters to rule over Muslim masses. Neocolonialism was started. .

1991—The Soviet Republic of Russia was disintegrated and the six Central Asian Muslim countries were freed.

1992—Bosnia and Herzegovina and in

1993—Eritrea was freed.

THE RULERS LEFT NO STONE UNTURNED TO PUT OFF THE FLAME OF ISLAM

THE REFORMERS TRIED THEIR BEST TO KEEP IT BURNING.

WHAT THE RULERS DID?

It is worth knowing, what the Muslim rulers did in this period. Shari'ah Law was abolished in Turkey. Article 63 of the Turkish Constitution says—efforts to bring back Shariah Law is a punishable crime.

REFORM MOVEMENTS IN MUSLIM LANDS

Ikhwan-ul-Muslmoon was formed in March 1928 by Hassan-al-Banna with only six persons giving Bayyah (oath of allegiance) to him.  He was a self taught Islamic scholar. He was a customs clerk. His disciple Syed Qutub galvanized the Muslims.

Jamat-e Islami was established on August 26^th 1941 by Abulala Maudoodi, a genius, a self taught Islamic scholar. Only 75 people offered the initial membership. He galvanized the Muslims of undivided India. Tablighee Jamat was also establishd during the same period in 1927 by Maulana Ilyas Mewat, India.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, another genius, who became an Aalim at the age of 16 years. He was the most famous scholar of Islam at the age of 22. He started the news paper Albalagh and Alhilal.

In 1870s Muslims of India began to build their institutions. A group of Muslims in Bombay formed an Anjuman-e-Islam in1876 which included a school project for children. Anjuman School opened in 1880. The most famous pupils of that school were Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, and Sir Akbar Haihydri. The first gave a country, the second gave one of the best translations of Quran in English, the third became the prime minister of the State of Hyderabad

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan founded a college in Aligarh, Which became Aligarh Muslim University.

Osmania University was established by Mir Osman Alikhan , ruler of Hyderabad in 1920.

In Algeria Sheikh Abdul Hameed Ibn-o-Badi started his work in 1913. On May 5, 1932 he formed the Algerian Muslim scholar’s Association

Sanusi Movement in Libya and Mehdi Movement in Sudan

Basmachi movement in Central Asia

OTHER MOVEMENTS IN THE WORLD:

During this time two significant “isms” engulfed the whole world, communism and nationalism, leaving aside the Nazism and Fascism which were localized.

Nationalism is the cancer of Islam.

Russian revolution occurred –the menace of communism became the political currency and the West welcomed it with open arms. President Nixon wrote in his book Seize the Moment “People of the Muslim world were more resilient about the appeal of communism than those of the West, and their widespread rejection of the materialism and moral permissiveness of Western culture redounds to their credit”.

The big European Powers realized the menace of wars and established a “Christian Club”, the European Union. The nationalism went in background. The Arab nationalism is buried in the trenches of Kuwait. The communism, the man made system died its own death. The capitalism and socialism are struggling. We also established the world’s most impotent organization called the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Today the world is divided into two camps so for as Islam is concerned. The first group is advocating cooperation and coexistence. The other is advocating confrontation, conflict and containment. President Nixon, President Carter and Prince Charles are in the first group. The Neoconservatives and Kessingers are in the second group. This grouping occurred after the publication of an article “The clash of civilizations” by Professor Samuel Huntington in which he warned that the greatest threat to the West is Sino Islamic cooperation.

WHERE DO WE STAND IN 1994?

Numerically:

1,029,427,000 according to M. A. Kettani. 900,000,000 according to Thomas W. Lipman. There are thirteen million Muslims in Western Europe and Four million Muslims in the USA (65% immigrants, 35% indigenous).  Muslims are concentrated in Asia, and Africa.

Educationally:

Our masses are backward educationally but better off than what we were 70 years ago. Lowest literacy is of Afghanistan – the highest literacy rate is 89% in Iraq. A recent report of United Nations on educational performance gave 13^th rank to Jordan, 12^th rank to USA, and top two were Japan and Germany. The most educated Muslims are found in USA and the recently liberated Muslims of the central Asian countries.

The news paper Observer of UK reported that “the Central Asian Muslims are, on average, the best educated, best housed and healthiest in the world.

Average incomes are also high by the standards of the Muslim world, probably the highest excluding those Muslim countries with the artificial and temporary benefit of oil exports. In addition, women have equal social status guaranteed by law and play a full part in the professions. There is also a coherent system of criminal justice and a low crime rate.

The literacy is in Central Asia is total. There are 150 Uzbek language news papers alone, with official circulations totaling 5.5 million. Uzbekistan has one doctor for every 350 people and one university or polytechnic level teacher for every 500 people. This compares with ratios of 1/89300 for doctors and 1/6500 for university places in neighboring Afghanistan and 1/2500 for doctors and 1/2000 for university places in Pakistan”.

Economically:

Muslims are definitely better than they we were 70 years ago. The lowest PCI is of Bangladesh $760, the highest PCI of the world is of Brunei $15,320. 

676 billion Dollars were lost in Iran and Iraq war, a similar amount was lost in Gulf war which has put Saudi Arabia in deficit financing.

But the economic sun started to rise and shine from the east. The economies of the western industrialized nations are stagnant for the last 5 years with one percent growth or less the economies of Indonesia and Malaysia are growing at eight percent. The recent publication of the human development report by the United Nations Development Program shows that there are eleven countries where things are getting better since 1960 when measured on the parameters of economic growth, income distribution, poverty eradication and universal education.

Six out of these eleven countries are Muslim countries namely Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Turkey and Tunisia. Just take the example of Indonesia – with 187 million Muslims (roughly 20% of the Muslim Ummah) where they were 70 years ago a Dutch colony. Just 30 years ago Indonesia was one of the poorest country in the world—with a PCI of $50 per year—in 1992 this had risen to $650 per year. They are aspiring to exceed a PCI of $1000 by the end of this century. Despite the huge numbers of rural poor in Indonesia – the proportion of people living in absolute poverty has fallen from sixty percent to fifteen percent today. President Suharto on the occasion of the 48^th anniversary of Indonesia’s independence said to his parliament that Indonesia will become a developed country in 25 years. Economically American Muslims belong to the top 20 percent of the American population.

Energy Source:

Seventy percent of the world’s energy sources are in the Muslim lands. We started to reap some benefit monetarily, thanks to Mossadegh. At the height of the Gulf war, according to the world energy conference one fourth of the oil needs of the West came from Persian Gulf.

Geographically: 

We have the most temperate regions of the world, and some of the most beautiful parts of the world.

Territorially:

Twenty three percent of the land mass belongs to Muslims and we occupy the most strategic locations as mentioned above. Now we know the significance and importance of these locations but we are unable to get any political capital out of them because puppets rule those territories.

1. Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important oil chokepoint due to it’s daily flow of 15.5 to 17 million barrels.

2. Strait of Malacca, which is  located between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, links the India ocean to the south China sea and pacific ocean. Malacca is the shortest sea route between Persian Gulf and the Asian markets. It is the key chokepoint in Asia with an estimated flow of 13.6 bbl/d. 

3. 16500 ships transited through the Suez Canal from January to November of 2010 carrying petrol and Liquefied natural gas (LNG).

4. Through the Strait of Bosporus 2 to 3 bbl of crude oil is transported every day. If all these points are chocked the world economy would collapse!

Militarily:

London based institute of strategic studies reported that at the height of the Gulf war the combined man power of Muslims under arms was 3.3 million soldiers west of Afghanistan (the armies of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Oman., Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Yemen) against their common foe Israel which had only 141,000 soldiers.

So were the machines, tanks 19275 versus 3799, Artillery Pieces 10699 versus 1360, combat air crafts 2300 versus 676. East of Afghanistan we have armies of Pakistan and Indonesia, which are notable. Pakistan has one of the best army in the Muslim world. 4.5 million Muslims are armed in 1994.

There are three kinds of armies in the Muslim world. The first kind defends the country and most of the time rules the country such as Pakistan. The second kind protects the dictatorial regimes. The third kind protects the country but is most anti Islam such as Turkish army.

In 1994, at least there are four Muslim countries, which have the nuclear capability. Of the fifteen developing countries armed with ballistic missiles, nine are part of the Muslim World!

Industrially:

We are better off than what we were 70 years ago. We are self sufficient so for as small arms and armament are concerned, we do not have a high powered armament industry and aeronautical industry.

Religiously and spiritually:

It is said that since the creation of this earth Allah (swt) sent 124,000 messengers to teach the humanity La-ilaha-ilallah that there is no deity but one God. The majority of humanity did not heed to this persistent call. Even today in 1994 the non- believers outnumber the believers 4:1.

The largest  group is of mushriks two billion and 406 million persons, which consists of one billion 720 million Christians  (24 % of world population), who say there is God but Jesus is son of God and 686 million Hindus (14% of WP), who say that there is God but worship many idols.

The second biggest group is of non-believers, one billion and 68 million (about 22% of WP), which consists  of 836 million persons who do not have any religious affiliation who do not care whether there is God or no God—and 232 million atheists who deny the existence of God outright.

The third biggest group is we the Muslims one billion strong (20 % WP) who at least say by our lips Lailaha Illalah and 14million Jews and Ahmedis.

The fourth group is of Buddhists 320 million (6 % of WP) who are silent about God. The remaining 4% of the world population practice Confucianism, Baahism, Shintoism, Marmonism, Sikhism, Zorastrianism.

You may ask—when we are better of educationally, economically, militarily then why we are so weak politically? Muslim masses are deprived of self determination. In 1990 Random House published a study in which it said that the 60% of the world population is free to elect their governments and 40% are not. Who are those unfortunate people? They are one billion Chinese and one billion Muslims.

Muslim masses are ruled by rulers who rule by conceit and coercion, fear and fraud, tyranny and terror. 57 % of Muslims live in so called 56 Muslim majority states, who are ruled by unelected tyrants except a few. 5 % of Muslims live as subjugated majorities (one million Chechens, two million Kosovans, three million Palestinians, 13 million Kashmiries, and 33 million Chinese Muslims of Sinjiang. 38% of  Muslims live as minorities in the world.

There are 77 countries in the world where the Muslim population is 2% or more USA may become the 78^th. Biggest Muslim minority lives in India (120 million), followed by China 33 million and 1/3^rd of Surinam is Muslim.

Five types of Governments exist in the so called 56 independent Muslim majority states.

1. One party rule headed by a former military ruler.

2. Direct military rule.

3. Monarchies, nine countries are ruled by kings.

4. Democratic rule.

5. Guided democracies.

36 of them called themselves as republics, six of them called themselves as kingdoms and six of them label themselves as Islamic Republics. In the Middle East out of 16 Arab states six are absolute monarchies, five are secular dictatorships.

In a nutshell as of today as compared to what we were yesterday, we are numerically 1/5^th of world population. Educationally and economically we are better off than yesterday. We are most strategically located in the world. World’s 70% energy sources are in our lands. We have a substantial industrial base as we had nothing before. Militarily we have 4.5 million armed persons. Politically we will be undergoing a process of second liberation. Our greatest weakness is our divisions. In spite of all our drawbacks, our greatest strength is our family life, which is intact from Morocco to Malaysia. Definition of a family has not changed in the Muslims..

Patrick J Buchanan paid tribute to Islam in his book "Where the Right Went Wrong."  He says:

“While the ideology of “Islamism” has failed in Afghanistan, Iran and Sudan to create Modern state that can command the loyalty of its people and serve as a model for other Islamic nations, the religion of Islam has not failed. In science, technology, economics, industry, agriculture, armaments, and democratic rule.  America, Europe, and Japan are generations ahead but the Islamic world retains some thing the West has lost! A desire to have children and the will to carry on their civilization, culture, families and faith. Today it is difficult to find a Western nation where the native population is not dying as it is to find an Islamic nation where the native population is not exploding. The West may have learned what Islam knows not, but Islam remembers what the West forgot “there is no vision but by Faith”.

The question is what have we achieved Islamicly up till now in USA?, in the last 30 years?             
You may differ with my assessment, but allow me to give my assessment. In my Humble opinion, what we have done till now, is that, we have taken care of ritual Islam. Where ever you go you have built a mosque to pray, may be a hall to celebrate. Our functions, or a piece of land for burial and a few schools where only 5% of our Children are educated. The real work of Islam has not yet begun.
 

 To be continued ........