Excerpt: “When it comes to democracy and the rights of all people living in Muslim-majority realms, moderate Muslims would like us to believe that democracy and Shura (consultation among leaders) are of the essence of Islam. However history, ancient and modern, disproves that claim. The Caliphate from its earliest days (632) to the end of the Abbasid Caliphate (mid-13th century) exhibited no democratic features, and lacked a well-defined system for an orderly change of succession and governance. This continued under the Ottoman Caliphate and in the successor states in the modern times. “For example, the first caliph, Abu Bakr waged war on several Arabian tribes that went back on Islam, after the death of Muhammad in 632. He forced them to re-embrace the faith. [Abu Bakr’s campaigns are known as ‘Huroob al-Radda,’ i.e. the wars against the apostates. That set the precedence for the Law of Apostasy stipulating that a Murtad (apostate) must either return to Islam, or face the death penalty. “In the final analysis, a serious and objective study of Islamic history refutes the claims of moderate Muslims who insist that Islam is a peaceful religion. This is not to deny the genuineness of their desire to look for the rise of an Islam that is tolerant and willing to coexist with the other civilizations in our globalized world. The moderates may play a role in strengthening the idea of moderation that exists among large sections of Islamic societies; however they will never be able to convince the Salafists-Islamists whose beliefs and convictions are rooted in the clear teachings of the Qur’an and the Hadith. Unfortunately history is not on their side, real Islam is the one advocated by the extremists, while moderate Islam remains an unrealized dream!”
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 17:56:52 +0000
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