This is a guest post by Bravo56
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Since returning from Baghdad in 2008 I have been amazed to see how Islamist groups have gained such popularity and standing among Muslims in the UK. The Middle Eastern “Islamic” states for over a decade have lived with their ethos and agenda that have failed morally, ethically and practically. How is it that intelligent students, communication-savvy youngsters are so easily radicalised by Islamist preachers who have turned Islam into merely a political code? Why is it not clear to them that Wahabi-inspired Islamists have done nothing but incite and applaud outrageous acts of violence and mayhem that have crippled Muslim majority nations throughout the world?
My experiences of political Islam are horrifying. In the southern belts of Baghdad scenes of horror akin to the concentration camps of Nazi occupied Europe and the genocide in the Balkans are all too clear evidence of the Islamist gangs that laid siege to the villages and towns in the area. Islamist groups there would ethnically cleanse whole villages of threatening young men, enforce curfews on local communities and enact their laws by brute force. Local Muslims there who were sick of this corrupt marshal law formed ‘Awakening Councils’ and eventually took part in combined operations with the coalition forces to rid the whole area of the Al Qaeda terror network that plagued their communities. This is what I witnessed.
In the UK on the other hand, it worries me greatly to see passionate educated people seeking to impose a religious code on developed democratic civilizations and create a financial and judicial system entirely run by politically charged Islamists. Common sense, a sense of right and wrong, diplomacy, ethics and democracy developed through time and experience are all denounced by these people in favour of a system that is visibly failing today in so-called “Islamic” States.
One has to hope therefore that young British Muslims will listen to the experiences of Ali A Allawi. Ali Allawi served as the Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance in the Iraqi post-war governments. He is a graduate of Harvard University and MIT and has worked in both the financial sector and academia in the US. His recent talk at the LSE entitled In Search of Islam’s Civilization gave an informative and critical insight into the modern political strand of Islam that is polluting the religion that he grew up with and which has stifled the progress and development of the Muslim world.
His descriptions of growing up in the Middle East were far different to the experiences of the last ten years.
Muslims identified themselves by national, ethnic or ideology affinities not through Islam…I do not record coming across jihad in its modern interpretation…Women throughout the Muslim world hardly wore the hijab or Islamic clothing
Allawi was also very critical of the Islamist parties in Iraq during his period in government, slamming them for failing to live up to their pre-election promises:
Not once during my entire three year stint in the Iraqi government did I witness an Islamist party – Sunni or Shia – promote an Islamic cause they had earlier compounded in their manifestos. Gone were their proposals for an Islamic economy, an Islamic system of laws or an Islamic State. The ruling parties were driven by an obsessive desire for material gain and power and a desire to keep in the good graces of Washington.
He also compared the Islamist groups to their secular counterparts in government:
In practice Islamists behaved no differently or often worse than their secular counterparts. Iraqi Islamists abuse their power, squandering or outright theft of public resources and massive corruption were all endemic to Islamist-led governments. Their brand of Islam was devoid of any deep ethical content and was at odds with my understanding of Islam and its own legacy.
Many references have been made to the influence of the Saudi based Wahabi sect of Islam, and its direct links to violent extremism and to al-Qaeda. This was reinforced by Alawi in his speech:
The murderous, violence that was unleashed by radical Wahabi inspired Islamists was sanctioned with laborious jurisprudential justification from leading religious figures. Saudi based clerics applauded the outrageous acts of violence and mayhem perpetrated by the al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq.
It was clear from the lecture that Alawi has seen his faith practiced in many diverse regions and cultures, alternatively used to strengthen or to destroy nations, to enhance or to deceive the public. He recollected a Muslim world where progress, innovation and academia were world-changing and where religion was a personal relationship between the individual and god rather than a pretext for oppressing others. This is a stark contrast to the Islamism that has caused so much intolerance and suffering today.
The question is: are young British Muslims listening to people like Ali A. Allawi who have seen the failures of Islamist politics or are they listening to Islamist preachers who offer them simplistic solutions to the complex problems of the modern world?
5 Comments
How strange the methods of ruling “Islamist” parties when the second surah of the Qur’an states, “There is no compulsion in religion. Right guidance is clearly distinguishable from error” (2: 256). What part of “no compulsion” (la ikraaha) do they not understand?
I think it is correct to distuinguish “Islamist” from “Islamic”, where the word Islamist denotes groups that claim to be Islamic but whose understanding of Islam is warped to the point of caricature or even, in some cases, complete opposition.
Once “Islamism” has been identified as such, the problems, which are twofold can be tackled: firstly, that “Islamists” cannot see that they are wrong and have built up strong defense mechanisms to reinforce this myopia (defense mechanism which where shared by the Kharijis), and secondly that the non-muslim world finds it hard to distinguish between Islamism and Islam and have built up equally strong defense mechanisms to protect this xenophoboic misunderstanding (the Daniel Pipes syndrome).
To stop young British Muslims from listening to Islamist preachers, we actually have to battle them head on! Take Hamza Andreas Tzortzis for example, an Islamist with an ideology akin to Hizb ut-Tahrir, who constantly debates on topics such as ‘Islam v Secular Liberalism’ (guess which side he favours) – this self appointed ‘international lecturer and intellectual activist’ does many rounds at universities, and is, worringly, quite popular amongst many active ISoc’ers.
We have to challenge these kinds of Islamists, to show British Muslim students at university campuses how shallow their ideology actually is, no matter how wrapped up it is ‘intellectualism’.
Hamza Tzortizis is an unoffical member of HT.
It’s a tactical move.
There are a few like that.
Yea Tzortzis is not ‘official’ – but he was probably one of the ‘shebab’! And it is a tactical move for sure! Even his ‘intellectual’ Hittin Institute has HT rhetoric written all over it!
Looks like 90% of Muslims will have to be ‘dealt with’ then. If HT uk is anything to go by then a shudder to think of what your ‘sweet dialogue’ will sound like.