Who causes the worst Misrepresentation of Islam? Many Muslims complain that the TTP, ISIL, Boko Haram and Al Qaeda cause the biggest misrepresentation of Islam - and they become highly active in denouncing them, demonstrating against them, or holding conferences and lectures intellectually criticising them and openly advocating Muslims to disassociate themselves from them. While it is true that the methods and tactics of these groups can misrepresent Islam to those who don’t know better, people actually miss the larger and more egregious perpetrators of the misrepresentations of Islam - the Muslim governments, the media and politicians of the Western world, and ultimately, the Muslim world itself. The Misrepresentation of Islam by Muslim Governments Like the rise of uncivilised barbarian tribes after the fall of the Roman Empire, the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate led to the rise (and foreign imposition) of a collection of Secular warlords, feudal rulers and dictators masquerading as elected Presidents and constitutional monarchies. These rulers rule over a colonialised Muslim people - who have forgotten what actual Islamic rule is like, and are politically illiterate when it comes to understanding the rights and protections the Sharia gives them - and more importantly - the purpose that it came to drive us with. Consequently, these rulers rule according to a collection of mostly victorian-era colonial ideas of modernity and a highly defensive Secular ideology. Of course, when the people have lost a common way to live that is higher than themselves, there resort to a sort of law of the jungle where power and reputation become the only social currency. Religiosity, morality and virtue have become in the Muslim world, traditions and relics from the past that although hold some esteem, are viewed as idealistic and impractical in the new jungle of the dog-eat-dog world that the Muslim world has become after the fall of its civilisation. Some people call this a returned state of jahiliyyah, and they wouldnt be fall wrong - you see, Jahilliyah (i.e. ignorance) is the Islamic concept of Anarchy. And Anarchy doesnt mean an absence of government - because humans always form hierarchies in any situation, whether they are gangs, mafia, tribes or states. TRUE anarchy, is where people live absent of anything higher than basic power concepts, where the simply rule is, Might equals Right. The strongest rules, the weakest serves - and different factions perpetually fight eachother. Such was the Jahilliyah of the Pagan Arabians (who had government - but lived for nothing higher than power and reputation). The gross misrepresentation of Islam occurs when these governments control the institutions that produce Islamic scholarship - twisting and controlling Islamic scholarship and thought to JUSTIFY their regimes and their arbitrary (and UnIslamic) laws with their self-appointed right to rule and do as they please. The people are told that Islam commands them to obey as long as the leader calls himself a Muslim (of course, this is curiously suspended when it comes to overthrowing of popularly elected Mohammed el Morsi of Egypt). Consequently, in the minds of the Muslim people, the Muslims serving in the Army, working in the courts, the business owners, the shop keepers, and the street sweepers - their country and all its injustices becomes synonymous with Islam. The irony is, its actually SECULAR rulers, who believe that government and laws should be detached from Islam, are the ones who get involved with the Islamic institutions to dictate and control what Islamic legal rulings they say - so that their government rule can be officially justified by Islam - which is having their cake and eating it (an English expression). Furthermore, whenever non-Muslims enquire about Islam and its claim to bring justice, they look to the Muslim world, and all they see is the sorry and pathetic state it is in - all justified by the (secular) state approved Islamic Scholars - which spreads the misrepresentation of Islam beyond the Muslim world. These governments and regimes, have killed, arrested (i.e. taken hostage) and tortured far more people through unjust laws, corrupt police practices & actions of security services (and secret services) than the most wildest of Terror groups ever could hope to achieve - yet we overly-focus on condemning the latter and not the former. For just one example, the actions of ISIL have been heavily condemned for their sectarian killings - yet the Iraqi government hasnt received not even nearly as much condemnation despite their sectarian killings of a far larger scale - for a longer period of time - in ways far more gruesome than any ISIL practice (e.g. Iraqi government security services uses power drills on detainee Iraqi Sunnis, before executing them and dumping their bound bodies on to the streets of Iraq). The Muslim governments are by far, the worst misrepresenters of Islam - not just because they are Muslims, but because they claim Islamic legitimacy for themselves - whether they claim to be Secular or not. The misrepresentation of Islam by Western Politicians & Media If we see politicians like Geert Wilders from Holland whose make blanket attacks on Islam, we call him an Islamophobe, yet no one seems to notice that the bigger Islamophobes are actually the ones who claim not attack Islam - yet in reality they fight intellectual, political and military wars to suppress it. Western colonialism didnt just succeed in detaching Islam from politics, but also helped to detached Islam from parts of itself, and therefore from our minds. What was left was an empty husk of rituals and some theological beliefs left behind. The huge part of Islam that consisted of the mu’amillat (i.e. collective practices, actions, guidance and implementation in life’s affairs) became a distant memory. This new lobotomised ‘religion’ was re-labelled as ‘Islam’ by the West, while any attempt to revive holistic Islam was called a number of pejorative names ‘fundamentalist’, ‘extremists’ and of course ‘Islamist’ (which was actually the first Western word for Islam after they stopped using ‘Mohammedan’). These Western politicians not only misrepresent Islam (in the extreme), but their target audience for this mis-representation is the Muslims themselves. Every time a Muslim uses the word ‘fundamentalist’ or ‘Islamist’ to describe a Muslim who understands Islam’s full and complete guidance in all affairs of life, it represents another victory for a Western project that started at colonialism. In the West, the intellectual battle continued, when, quite ironically, many Muslims who were born or live in the West, had access to academic resources, history, and translations of Arabic books which awakened their understanding of what Islam truly is in its full glory - to which SECULAR Western politicians are now reacting to, by implementing domestic policies intervening in Islamic theology and creating & funding ‘reformist Muslim’ groups to dictate a ‘modern’ form of Islam that conforms to Western culture and ideology (i.e. Liberalism aka Political Individualism). They then use the excuse of ‘the war on terror’ to gradually silence, cajole, bully, pressure and even criminalise Muslim political and ideological dissenters. However, what we should find shocking is the relatively mute reception the Muslim communities in the West have shown to this outrageous denial of our right to believe and practice our religion free from state control or diktat. It is the misrepresentation of Islam by Western governments (and media) that allows them to persecute Muslim intellectual life, and therefore, Islam, yet most Muslims falsely believe that ISIL’s misrepresentation of Islam is more of a pressing concern - even despite the fact that the vast Majority of Muslims are not under ISIL’s control - while many more millions are under the control of Western governments, or Western backed puppet Muslim regimes who also use the same tactics to suppress any return to holistic Islam. In fact, the misrepresentation of Islam by ISIL has been made larger by the huge Western media focus, who further twist the reports to conflate and demonise all Muslims who campaign for the return to a holistic Islam. The Misrepresentation of Islam by the Muslim world This brings us to the most serious, and a most damning truth - the biggest misrepresenters of Islam is the Muslim world itself. As mentioned before, the Muslim world is benighted with a state of ignorance of Islam - and the collective lack of the key prerequisite to understanding Islam and the world - thinking, or to be more exact, rational thinking. The use and application of rational thinking is called ‘Hikma’ in Arabic (lit. Wisdom) and is connected to the Arabic root for sound Judgement. This is reflected in the Quran’s teaching to base thought upon observation of the world e.g. Quranic verses ‘do you not see...’, non-contradiction e.g. Quranic verse: ‘if the Quran had been for anyone other than Allah, you would have found within much contradiction’ and the prevention of blindly following assumptions e.g. Quranic verse: ‘doubt cannot avail against the truth’ or blindly believing traditions that carry no evidence e.g. Quranic verse: ‘they say we follow what our ancestors taught us’. These and many more verses give us the very definition of rational thinking! The state of ignorance in the Muslim world has rendered Islam merely a set of religious rituals, and some beliefs in the metaphysical ‘Unseen’, and a few religious labels. Where once Muslims lived by ideals, codes of conduct, a common purpose, automatic rights for everyone regardless of their reputation, duties and reciprocal obligations - Muslim civilisation has decayed into simple power relations. Reputation is the only social currency (just like in street Gangs) and is mislabeled ‘honour’. And just like in street gang culture, if you have no reputation or standing, you get nothing, and people can walk all over you. Consequently, many people in the Muslim world kill, take revenge, react violently to being insulted, and take extreme measures to protect their reputation - just like street gang members do. In a society without any real confidence by the people in the ‘official (yet arbitrary) rules and laws, many feel forced to lie, cheat, steal, take bribes and beg to earn their daily bread. Being truthful, honest, upright or refusing bribes - is viewed as putting a disadvantage against your competitors. Getting any kind of rights from the state requires family connections or reciprocal favours from friends who are within the structure of government (at some level). These behaviours are not merely the providence of corrupt people, but many people who are considered normal average people just trying to survive and get along with their lives, feel that at times, these behaviours are ‘necessary’ in a corrupt society. In such a Anarchy, Muslims form into groups based on either race, nationality, city, tribe, school of thought/sect, class and sub-culture - and via with eachother for power and prestige. The people of the Muslim world consider Islam to merely be checklist of morals that should be adhered to, in convenient circumstances - yet any understanding of Islam as an actual purpose for their life is lacking and vague. Instead, they exist merely to keep existing - until they die. Islam - in its purely ritualistic and limited non-political form, is of course still seen as respect worthy in Muslim societies - but following it completely is seen as, though laudable, completely impractical, outdated, ‘living in the past’ and overly-idealistic. Those who adopt public ‘full Islamic practice‘ either use it to elevate their reputations - and hence their social standing and social currency, yet partake in the same social practices as the rest of society (e.g. a government employed Islamic scholar who merely parrots the government line), or they isolate themselves from the corruption of what they see as Muslim ‘mainstream society‘ - usually by living in fringe areas with like minded neighbours and wearing ‘traditional clothes’ and focus purely on ritualistic religious actions). You may ask how can religion still be held in respect in a Jahil (ignorant) society? Quite easily actually, consider that the Pagan Arabs of pre-Islamic Mecca took great pride in being hospitable to pilgrims, praying and circumambulating the Kabbah - they even respected certain holy months in the year where no fighting was allowed between tribes. Virtues like generosity was as valued by the Pagan Arabs as they are by modern Muslims! The point is, much display of virtue and religiosity was mostly for show, rather than because they had committed their entire lives to living for an all-embracing higher purpose that guided them with a detailed methodology and way of life! Now, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t any good in the Muslim world - far from it - the fitra (innate nature) of the people, and the remnants of Islamic practices from the times of Islamic civilisation maintain a lot of goodness, kindness, mercy, generosity and strong family & community ties. The problem is, if the people do not have a common way of life, underpinned by an all-embracing purpose, they will act pragmatically, selfishly and defensively (i.e. in an Anarchy) - ultimately clashing with each other and fighting each other to get ahead. And in extreme circumstances, they will do extreme things, believing it to be ‘necessary’. The Rulers in the Muslim world are brutal and very hard. The reason for this is because they are products of the society they were born into, and in order to stay in power over a society that exists in Anarchy, they feel they must use fear, intimidation and leverage family connections, favours, and even twist religion to their cause to justify their reign of power. This is unfortunately why every time a leader is replaced in the Muslim world, the following one is just as hard as his predecessor - or they get kicked out of power by a coup. To stay in power, and guarantee the protection of their own family too, these leaders see it as ‘necessary‘ to kill, torture and imprison anyone they feel is a threat to them - even if it means hundreds or thousands must suffer. Unfortunately, due to the ignorance of many in the Muslim world, this misrepresentation of Islam by the people and the rulers lead many believe, and lead others to believe, that this is the best Islam can do. Many people apostate from Islam, become Secular Liberals, and look towards the West - because they see the anarchic state to which the Muslims wallow in. What they don’t realise is that what caused them to be in such a state is due to, not just the absence of the Islamic mindset, but the absence of Wisdom and the absence of actual Islamic government. Islam is actually the untried solution, yet due to these misrepresentations, many think it can’t work, despite the fact that the Muslim world has experimented repeatedly with Secular Liberalism, Fascism and Communism - leading to spectacular failures each and every time. Where do the Terror groups come from? Many Muslims like the blame terror groups on one sect of Islam (those who usually do this, do so for their sectarian reasons), or they blame these groups on people who desire a holistic Islam (usually as a pathetic attempt to call for Secularism and reformation) or an old prophesy of the ‘Khawarij’ (despite the fact that the Khawarij fought the Islamic Caliphate, and many of them even rejected it as an obligation. They never fought to establish it!). But, however, the awful and unfortunate truth is, the terror groups that rise up and aim for power, and kill, torture and take hostages come from the same Jahil mindsets that pervade the Muslim world, and ARE NO DIFFERENT from them. What makes them different could be that they have undergone a particular set of extreme experiences that led them to, with their mindset, undertake extreme, unIslamic actions. Just compare them to the governments of the Muslim world and you’ll see the same patterns. To take and keep power in Jahil societies, they both justify as ‘necessary’ to kill their opponents, those who insult them, even those who publicly disagree with them - all to stay in power ‘for the sake of order’. People complain about ISIL killing civilians, yet if they have done so, they are no different to SECULAR Saddam Hussein, Nouri al Maliki (Saddam’s replacement), Assad (father and son), SISI (whose soldiers fired on civilians), Ghaddafi, the Algerian government during the Civil war etc etc. All these governments ALSO use Islamic scholars, or invoke Islam to say that their government and actions were justified (Secular Saddam Hussein even put ‘Allahu Akbar’ on the Iraqi flag, and claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammed (saaw)), while the pro-SISI Mufti of Egypt gave a fatwa to Egyptian soldiers worried about firing on protestors, that it was ok to do so! The only difference between groups like Boko Haram, ISIL, and TTP and the Secular governments of the Muslim world, is that the the former want to establish a society with perhaps more overt Islamic ritual practices, while the latter does not see it as ‘necessary’ to maintain their power by requiring their citizens to partake in these actions as obligatory. The reason for this is, the Secular ‘faction’ of the Muslim world, who were left in power by colonialism merely require the Secular religion of Nationalism be taught and practiced to shore up the people’s desire to obey them. However some Secular regimes are overtly portraying themselves as ‘Islamic’, when they deem it necessary to keep the people’s loyalty (however, their claim to Islam is a facade - one obvious simple test usually reveals all: Do they allow Interest-Banking?). Further evidence that the terror groups actually come from a common Jahil mindset is the case where we find that many in wartorn areas of the Muslim world join the ranks of these groups. Some people even say that if they do not get aid or food from their governments, they will join such-and-such a group. We witnessed this in Iraq, when many Baathists (who are Secular Arab-Nationalist Socialists) JOINED Al-Qaeda! Many of these people were brutalized in U.S. prisons first. Others who join feel that their reputation or standing as Muslims is being attacked by the West, and like anyone from their society, they fight to defend what is ultimately an extension of their reputation or honour. We witness this when many fighters enlist stating that they are angered by Western attacks against Muslim civilians, and they justify killing Western civilians in retaliation as essentially (the UnIslamic concept of) revenge - despite the fact that Islam prohibits the deliberate targeting of civilians!! Its not Islam that makes them do these crimes, but a mentality no different to the societies they emerged from, where many people will do anything to defend their reputation, honour and standing - including revenge that targets innocents. As Muslims, the terrorists are not the biggest misrepresenters of Islam, they are merely a symptom of the greater problem. It is the Muslim governments, the Western governments, and ultimately, a pervading mindset within the Muslim world that current constitutes the biggest misrepresentation of Islam. IF we truly want to end the misrepresentation of Islam, we must start with denouncing and calling for change upon these biggest and most serious culprits. If people suffer from nightmares, then they should realise that nightmares only come from themselves. [Article Originally Posted Here: wp.me/p1yZme-1rC ]
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 14:35:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015