Global Intifada

Br. Naeem wrote an interesting post entitled “Muslims in the West Fooling Themselves . . .” because they lack the maturity of Cindy Sheehan to realize that that no real change can be brought about through the American democratic apparatus. I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment for a variety of reasons.

The American Muslim community is a unique community. Imam Musa from Masjid al Islam has made a useful dichotomy of this community into two major groups: the native sons and the immigrants. What the native sons and the immigrants have in common is that they are both, in many ways, the victim of colonization and exploitation and they share a common origin in relation to the era of European expansionism. Africans were brought here, against their will, in the holocaust and Diaspora known as slavery. Immigrants came here in the post-colonialist era due to changes in immigration policy thanks to the works of the indigenous African American lead civil rights movement. However, one sharp distinction remains between the native sons and the immigrants. The native sons represent those who have been largely disenfranchized in American politics either through slavery, Jim Crow laws, or under unconstitutional gerry mandering. The immigrants represents the elites of their respective nations who either directly worked with the colonialist system or are descendants from those who worked within that system. They are not the disenfranchized poor of their countries, but the supposedly “best and the brightest”. Thus, it is no surprise that the immigrant community’s approach towards politics is radically different from the approach of the native sons. The native sons is largely comprised of the African American community whose adherence to Islam can be largely attributed as the logical outgrowth of the Black Nationalist movements such as those under the aegis of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X ash-Shaheed (May Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) grant him Jannat al Firdaus. Ameen.) Thus, many native sons have adopted either a revolutionary approach towards politics since they have had 400 years of historical memory of the failure of democracy to accommodate them or they, at the very least, highly skeptical of the democratic model although they still participate in it out of sheer necessity.

Unlike the native sons, the immigrants lack this historical experience and maturity. They largely stem from a group of people who were naive enough or intentionally worked with Europeans to assist in the colonization and exploitation of their own people. Many of those in the West either had families working for their colonizer’s civil servicer or the post-colonialist civil service (which was merely a clever way of extending European hegemon after the “demise” of colonialism after World War II) Coming from an elitist background, they are generally more financially well off than the native sons. However, in spite of the abundance of wealth, education, and manpower, this segment of the American Muslim community has one thing in greater abundance than anything else: arrogance.

The immigrant community, as stated before, represents a segment of people who were educated under the Western vocational model and were allotted their spot in the capitalist division of labor and happened to be fairly well off. Either too ignorant or too careless to realize that their educational background and immigration to Western countries was merely a continuation of the historic exploitation of their people, the immigrant community moved to the West with the belief that they had accomplished some great feat, instead of attributing their success and wealth to the rizq and will of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). Blinded by their arrogance due to their supposed “success”, the immigrant community views itself as masters of their own destiny. They are fooled into thinking that they can effectuate change in any system or environment so long as they have the proper will. Since most of the immigrants that came to the US came began migrating here in the late 60’s and early 70’s, certain political events were still fresh in their memory. For the Arab immigrants, it was the 67 and 73 defeat of the Arabs by Israel that marred their cultural identity (the latter with support by America). For the Desi immigrants, it was the Pakistani civil war and the atrocities that came with it by Muslims against Muslims with interference and collusion by Hindu India that marred their cultural identity. Immediately, both groups realized that the power of lobbies was the way to power in America. Instead of looking at the Ummah as a whole and attempting to change the global system of subjugation of the Muslim world through revolution, the immigrants dreamed of taking over, peacefully of course, of the American political system and using its foreign policy and military machine for their own ends. The model for this forlorne dream was not the Qur’an or the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam), but imitating the kuffar, specifically the Jews and the Hindus in America.

What the immigrant community has failed to realize is that (a) the democratic apparatus in the West can never be sufficiently controlled by a minority and (b) even if it was able to be manipulated by a minority group, it would have to engage in certain sacrifices.

Concerning the former point, it will be probably at least 75 years before the Muslim community in America becomes the major religion in the US. However, the level of effective organization of the community that would enable dominancy of the political system is conditioned upon the elimination or reduction of sectarian, ideological, and ethnic differences. Such differences are next to impossible to eliminate and attempting to eliminate them will merely fuel the flames of conflict. How often do we witness our communities fragmenting into smaller cliques that eventually break off and form their own communities or organizations? Yet, somehow, all of these warring factions are supposed to unify and somehow convince their non-Muslim counter parts to elect them into Congress or the Presidency and get appointed to the Supreme Court? Is such thinking not naive? It would be far more difficult to unify the Muslim community in America than to get Muslims elected into office, but the latter is contingent to the former if Muslim participation in the American political system is to be a productive process. Otherwise, Muslims getting into office will just be self-serving elites who will do whatever they can, compromise on any and all issues, to get into power and stay into power and thus the cycle of elitism that we witnessed in the colonized Ummah will perpetuate itself in America. Without a coherent vision for the destiny of the American Muslim community, Muslims elected into office will contribute to the anarchy of our community, not to its unification and empowerment. They will not represent the American Muslim community, but their local constituents who may or may not be Muslim. The benefit to our community will be minimal and the harm greater.

Concerning the latter point, even for the sake of argument it is assumed that the American Muslim community does not need to become a majority of the US population in order to attain dominancy and can still attain such power as a minority, as the Jewish community has done, such an ascension to power comes with a cost. What American Muslims don’t realize is that while the Jewish community is “successful” in manipulating American foreign and domestic policy, it was only able to do this at the expense of sacrificing its religion which was, in effect, reduced from an ethical system designed in the worship of God to merely another form of cultural identity. In fact, many Zionists today are not even “Jews” in the religious sense since they don’t even believe in God or organized religion. The American Muslim community cannot allow athiesm, homosexuality, or feminism to be legitimized to such an extreme that they conflict with the very pronouncements of the Shari’ah that we as Muslims are sworn to protect by our covenant with Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). The ends do not justify the means. The ends must be halal and the means utilized to attain such ends must be halal.

Moreover, the immigrant-lead American Muslim community is too naive to realize that investing all of its time and energy into Western polities is ultimately a waste since Western hegemony is no longer increasing or maintaining the status quo, but is actually on the decline. The military maneuvers we are witnessing in Iraq are merely the last breaths of a dying power desperately clinging for its life. A handful of mujahideen with light arms have, once again, defeated a superpower. Iraq is not alone in the global resurgence of Islam: Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Somalia, Malaysia, Lebanon, Sudan, Nigeria, etc. While these countries are at various degrees of Islamization, they are all heading towards the inevitable full implementation of the Shari’ah which is a necessary precedent for the restoration of the Khalifate. Let me make this clear: Islamic revolution is not only unstoppable, it is inevitable.

Thus, all of the Islamic movements and organizations must adopt a revolutionary methodology. They must interact within the liberal democratic capitalist framework in so far as it is necessary, as many of the ‘Ulema have authorized. However, at the end of the day, we must work to change the very system itself and replace it with an Islamic order. If we are true Muslims, then in this day and age, we must become revolutionaries to defend our Deen. By revolutions, I am not referring to the storming of a Bastille ( or Guantanamo Bay) by an angry mob, but by the methodology of those great revivers of Islam such as Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio, Shaykh Sanusi, Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, and Shah Waliullah. The method of revival was not only revolutionary in the sense that it replaced a decrepit system with a completely uniqiue one, but also in the sense of returning to a common point of origin, which was the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam). Shaykh Uthman Dan Fodio’s establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate and Shah Waliullah’s HujjatAllah al-Baligha read like a seerah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam). Historically, revolutionary movements grew out of resistance movements which grew out of revivalist movements which were all almost entirely based upon the imitation of the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) and the elimination of bid’a.

The American Muslim community must adopt the revolutionary method of these revivers and must use their talents and resources to lead a global intifada against Western hegemony and the restoration of the khalifate and the implementation of the Shari’ah. The sooner we realize our destiny and the impractality of change through Western models of economics and governance, the sooner we will begin developing alternatives and restoring Islamic autonomy. Unfortunately, what many of our Muslim brethren fail to understand is that a true victory can only come from Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) and obeying His commands and following the Sunnah of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) is the way to victory, in this life and the next.

May Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) raise up a leader from amongst us who will unite our Ummah and end this fitnah. Ameen.

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