Dare to Speak: Islam vs Free Democracy and Free Enterprise (I)
Osama bin Laden inspires many Muslims because his theology and reasoning agree with the Koran. In fact, according to a recent poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, [20] “The percentage of people expressing ‘a lot of confidence’ or ‘some confidence’ in bin Laden was vastly higher than similar ratings for Bush in the Palestinian Territories (71 percent vs. 1 percent), in Morocco (49 percent vs. 2 percent), in Jordan (55 percent vs. 1 percent), in Indonesia (58 percent vs. 8 percent) and in Turkey (15 percent vs. 8 percent).” In fact, in a July 2005 letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri (bin Laden’s number-two man), to Abu Masab Zarqawi (the now-deceased former head of al Qaeda in Iraq), al-Zawahiri wrote: “The strongest weapon that the holy warriors enjoy is popular support from the Muslim masses…”[21] He also called this fact to President Bush’s direct attention in a recent video where he declared: [22]
Bush do you know where I am? I am among the Muslim people enjoying what God has given me from their support and their care and their generosity and their protection, and their participating in jihad until we defeat you , by Allah’s grace and help.
The United States, reputedly the most powerful nation in the world, has led a four-year international manhunt for bin Laden without success. At the same time, al Qaeda and its affiliates have continued to mount deadly attacks around the world. Obviously, bin Laden and his message enjoy strong and widespread support. As explained in an interview with Afghani Colonel Mohammad Yahya Effendi in a recent National Geographic article entitled Land of the Pashtun: [23]
Anyone who hands bin Laden over to the Americans might be 25 million dollars richer in reward money…but…disgrace would hang over this person, along with his family, clan, and tribe, for many generations. “Osama’s a major Islamic hero,” he added. “Whoever betrays him, why, his life wouldn’t be worth an onion.” As this series will show, the reason bin Laden enjoys this support is that his call for destruction does not emanate from himself. He simply channels the Koran, which calls all Muslims to oppose the Infidel nations of the world until they surrender to Islam. It is through the submission of Infidels that Muslims believe world peace will finally be achieved.
To many Muslims, who see the world through Islam’s lens, Osama bin Laden is a noble rebel fighting for Allah (the Muslim interpretation of God). They admire his resolve to throw off the House of Islam’s decadent entanglements with the Infidel West and to lead the charge against unbelievers. While many Muslims may disagree with Osama bin Laden’s tactics and timing, they do not dispute his goal.
What are his tactics? Bin Laden seeks to engage the United States and other Western nations in a series of guerrilla actions, proxy wars, and terror campaigns, somewhat reminiscent of the early Cold War. By creating a climate of fear and uncertainty, he aims to undermine, demoralize, and destabilize the nations of the West. Once they are weakened, these Infidel nations will be ripe for Islamic conquest.
If bin Laden’s tactics are controversial in the Muslim community, then what is the underlying goal that he and all devout Muslims share? The underlying goal of Islam is to establish a global Islamic state, which Muslims believe will be the ideal form of government and economy. Devout Muslims believe that “Islam is the solution” [24] to the injustices perceived in lands currently governed by Free Democracy, where economies are guided by Free Enterprise. In other words, their shared goal is a global Islamic revolution, leading to rule by the laws of Allah, otherwise known as Islamic Law, or Shari’ah.
This may sound like an outrageous claim. Many people may admit that there are extremists who think this way, but they cannot accept that these beliefs are prevalent. To remove any doubt, I am about to present the first of many quotes from an assortment of friendly beginner’s books on Islam. These primers were written mostly by Muslims, and are meant for new converts and Westerners curious about the faith. They include titles from the familiar “For Dummies” and “Complete Idiot’s Guide” series. Among them are “The Koran for Dummies,” “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Koran,” “Islam for Dummies,” and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam.” These books are designed to provide sympathetic introductions, seasoned with humorous quotes and cartoons. Beneath their breezy appearances, though, these books reveal profound attacks on the foundations of Western society that are shocking and alarming.
When reading my comments on these primers, please keep in mind that they are not about the books themselves, but on the Islamic beliefs they present. The authors are not indulging in personal opinions, but are conscientiously trying to present how Muslims interpret their Holy Scriptures, and how they apply those scriptures to their lives. These books were written by Muslims and recognized scholars, and were designed to be uncontroversial, at least for Muslims. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam even includes a lengthy and shining endorsement from Qasim Najar, one of the founding members of The Islamic Foundation of North America.
Muslims say that “Islam is the solution” because they believe Islamic Law is divine, endorsed by Allah himself. As it says in Sohaib Sultan’s The Koran for Dummies:
Devout Muslims…strongly believe that Islam is a complete way of life that requires obedience to God [Allah] and His Messenger (Muhammad) in communal laws as well as individual ethics.Most devout Muslims can’t accept the notion that religious laws must be replaced with secular laws in order to live in the modern world.
Rather, as representatives or vicegerents of God on earth, Muslims feel a responsibility to live on earth in accordance with divine laws. God alone is law giver, and Muslims (as those who submit to divine Will) must in turn practice and implement those divine laws. [25]
…The entire governance of an Islamic state revolves around the concept of God as the giver of law upon which societies are formed.
An Islamic state must be governed by divine [Islamic] laws and principles. [26]
From the Koranic perspective, every individual in society has the obligation…to worship the Divine [Allah]. This obligation must be facilitated, honored, and protected by an Islamic societyin order to live by the ethical teachings of the Koran.[27]
From the Koranic perspective, Muslims form a social movement dedicated to spreading and implementing divine teachings and laws on earth.[28]Devout Muslims believe that their goal is to liberate the world from darkness by replacing man-made forms of governance with Shari’ah. They believe that the world exists in a state of darkness called Jahiliyya, which means “ignorance of God’s ways.” [29] Muslims once used this term to describe Arabic tribes before their conversions, but now apply it to any nation that does not adhere to Shari’ah.
Even though many “moderate” Muslims do not heed bin Laden’s call for Jihad today, they sympathize with his cause. They also want to lash out at imagined humiliations and restore Islam’s ancient reputation for being the world’s reigning moral and political authority. For example, Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia (now retired), gave this speech at the Tenth Islamic Summit Conference on October 16, 2003:
All Praise be to Allah, by whose Grace and Blessings we, the leaders of the Organization of Islamic Conference countries are gathered here today…to plot a course for the future of Islam and the Muslim ummah[30] worldwide……I will not enumerate the instances of our humiliation and oppression, nor will I once again condemn our detractors and oppressors. It would be an exercise in futility because they are not going to change their attitudes just because we condemn them. If we are to recover our dignity and that of Islam, our religion, it is we who must decide, it is we who must act.
To begin with, the Governments of all the Muslim countries can close ranks and have a common stand, if not on all issues, at least on some major ones, such as on Palestine [31]From being a single ummah we have allowed ourselves to be divided into numerous sects, mazhabs [32] and tarikats,[33] each more concerned with claiming to be the true Islam than our oneness as the Islamic ummah. We fail to notice that our detractors and enemies do not care whether we are true Muslims or not. To them we are all Muslims, followers of a religion and a Prophet whom they declare promotes terrorism, and we are all their sworn enemies. They will attack and kill us, invade our lands, bring down our governments…And we aid and abet them by attacking and weakening each other, and sometimes by doing their bidding, acting as their proxies to attack fellow Muslims……over the centuries…the Muslim civilization became so weak that at one time there was not a single Muslim country which was not colonized or hegemonized by the Europeans. But regaining independence did not help to strengthen the Muslims. Their states were weak and badly administered, constantly in a state of turmoil. The Europeans could do what they liked with Muslim territories. It is not surprising that they should excise Muslim land to create the state of Israel to solve their Jewish problem…
…The early Muslims were as oppressed as we are presently. But after their sincere and determined efforts to help themselves in accordance with the teachings of Islam, Allah had helped them to defeat their enemies and to create a great and powerful Muslim civilization. But what effort have we made especially with the resources that He has endowed us with?
We are now 1.3 billion strong. We have the biggest oil reserve in the world. We have great wealth…We are familiar with the workings of the world’s economy and finances. We control 57 out of the 180 countries in the world. Our votes can make or break international organizations. Yet we seem more helpless than the small number of Jahiliyya converts who accepted the Prophet as their leader…Today we…are treated with contempt and dishonor. Our religion is denigrated. Our holy places desecrated. Our countries are occupied. Our people starved and killed.…Today, if they want to raid our country, kill our people, destroy our villages and towns, there is nothing substantial that we can do. Is it Islam which has caused all this? Or is it that we have failed to do our duty according to our religion? Our only reaction is to become more…angry. Angry people cannot think properly.tyle=”text-align: left;”>They launch their own attacks, killing just about anybody including fellow Muslims to vent their anger and frustration…The enemy retaliates and puts more pressure on the Governments. And the Governments have no choice but to give in…There is a feeling of hopelessness among the Muslim countries and their people. They feel that they can do nothing right…The Muslims will forever be oppressed and dominated by the Europeans and the Jews…It cannot be that there is no other way.
1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews…And we can only find a way if we stop to think, to assess our weaknesses and our strengths, to plan, to strategize, and then to counter attack…The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them. We may not be able to do that …But even if we can get a third of the ummah and a third of the Muslim states to act together, we can…do something. Remember that the Prophet did not have many followers when he went to Madinah. But he united the Ansars [34] and the Muhajirin [35] and eventually he became strong enough to defend Islam. Apart from the partial unity that we need, we must take stock of our assets. I have already mentioned our numbers and our oil wealth……We are up against a people who think. [The Jews] survived 2000 years of pogroms [36] not by hitting back, but by thinking. They invented and successfully promoted Socialism, Communism, Human Rights, and Democracy, so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power. We cannot fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains also.Of late, because of their power and their apparent success, they have become arrogant. And arrogant people, like angry people, will make mistakes, will forget to think.…There are many things that we can do. There are many resources that we have at our disposal. What is needed is merely the will to do it. As Muslims, we must be grateful for the guidance of our religion, we must do what needs to be done, willingly and with determination. Allah has not raised us, the leaders, above the others so we may enjoy power for ourselves only. The power we wield is for our people, for the ummah, for Islam…Insyaallah [37]we will triumph in the end.
These are not the words of some firebrand upstart, long on ideology and short on real world experience. These are the words of an experienced world leader, who was Prime Minister of a nation of over 20 million people for 22 years.
One aspect of Prime Minister Mohamad’s speech is particularly interesting: he blames a Jewish conspiracy for the humiliation and powerlessness of Muslims around the world. It makes one wonder how many Jews he has actually encountered in Malaysia during his 22-year rule. Certainly, for Malaysia to be humiliated by the Jews there must be at least a few Jews living there!
According to the CIA’s World Factbook for 2006, the religions of Malaysia are “Muslim, Buddhist, Daoist, Hindu, Christian, Sikh,” as well as Shamanism in East Malaysia. Jews are so rare there that their faith is not even listed. Despite this, Prime Minister Mohamad expresses a deep hatred of Jews, upon whom he blames Islam’s perceived humiliations. Remarkably, he firmly believes that Jews have subverted the world for their own advantage, and invented human rights and democracy to help them do it.
In this speech, Prime Minister Mohamad used the language of war – a cold war, perhaps, like the one between Communism and Capitalism, but war all the same. And the battle is for world domination.
REFERENCES:
[20] Arab Hostility Toward US Growing Poll Finds, by Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, June 4, 2003.
[21] Bombings reflect Zarqawi’s growing reach, by Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, November 13, 2005.
[22] Al-Zawahri in first video since failed U.S. strike, Associated Press, MSNBC News, January 30, 2006.
[23] Land of the Pashtun, by Tim McGirk, National Geographic Magazine, December 2004 issue.
[24] This is a popular slogan throughout the Islamic world; also used by Hamas during the 2006 elections in the Palestinian Territories.
[25] The Koran for Dummies, by Sohaib Sultan, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2004, chapter 11, section entitled Doing as God and His Messenger Do, page 164.
[26] The Koran for Dummies, by Sohaib Sultan, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2004, Chapter 8, section entitled The Verse of the Throne, page 113.
[27] The Koran for Dummies, by Sohaib Sultan, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2004, Chapter 14, section entitled Preserving religion, page 204.
[28] Ibid, Chapter 16, section entitled Witnessing the Truth, page 238.
[29] Ibid, Chapter 7, section entitled Qutub: The controversial revolutionary, page 101.
[30] The worldwide community, i.e. nation, of Muslim people. Also referred to as the Ummah Islamia.
[31] Throughout this book, the author adds emphasis to quotes via underlining. Special emphasis is occasionally made via bold black print.
[32] The teachings and principles of a particular sect of Islam.
[33] Lodges or Orders, usually headed by a teacher or master known as mürsit.
[34] Arabic term for “helpers.”
[35] Term for those who accompanied Muhammad on his flight from Mecca.
[36] Yiddish, from Russian, literally, devastation: an organized massacre of helpless people; specifically : such a massacre of Jews. – from Mariam-Webster On-Line Dictionary, 2005-2006 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
[37] God willing.
Recent Comments