Pakistan Dawn July 07, 2007
Changing outlook
By Irfan Husain
IT is two years to the day since suicide bombers attacked the London transport system in 2005, killing over 50 innocent victims. Since then, others have tried to emulate these atrocities, including the botched attempts in London and Glasgow recently. Although thousands of miles separate the recent violence in and around Islamabad's Lal Masjid from the UK attacks, a strong strand connects the incidents.
In both cases, those allegedly responsible were Muslims. Both groups share a worldview where it is incumbent on them to create a world where Islamic law prevails. And to achieve this utopia, both think it is legitimate to use any degree of force necessary. In the process, if innocent men, women and children are killed, so be it. In fact, they usually target civilians because they are easier targets. They have, in effect, declared jihad on the rest of the world.
The theological underpinning of this logic requires a significant departure from orthodox Islamic teachings. For instance, standard commentaries prepared after decades of study by all the major schools of jurisprudence argue that only Islamic states can declare jihad. This is not something individuals can go around doing according to their whim.
However, radical Islamists following the teachings of Syed Qutb and Maudoodi argue that in the absence of a genuine Islamic state and a caliphate, true believers have a duty to bring Islamic rule to the whole world, by the sword if necessary. This line has appealed to two generations of Muslims, and there has been a steady hardening of these beliefs over the last 50 years.
In the same period, Muslims in the West have been expanding their religious and political space. Simultaneously, non-Muslims living in Muslim-majority countries have seen their rights circumscribed, and their freedom to practise their faith reduced. Muslims in the West have taken advantage of the prevailing climate of tolerance, secularism and democracy to demand greater rights and privileges. Mosques and faith schools have mushroomed. Political correctness and the reluctance to debate religious issues in a post-modern West have seen the steady rise in the demands of Muslims.
'The Islamist' is a current bestseller in the UK about Ed Husain's five-year journey from radicalism to disillusionment. The writer reveals how he was indoctrinated by a Jamaat-i-Islami group at a London school, and finally inducted into the Hizb-ut Tahrir. Along the way, he discusses the different extremist groups that have put down roots in Britain:
"But though internally divided, they (extremist groups) are all in agreement in their veneration of Maudoodi and Qutb. In different but unquestionable ways, they are affiliated to the Jamaat-i-Islami of the subcontinent, the Muslim Brotherhood of the Arab world, or Hamas of Palestine. And in recent years they have united as the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), formed in 1997 at the request of the Tory home secretary Michael Howard. What were isolated, competing, often bitter enemies have come together to present a united front as spokesmen for British Muslims…"
Syed Qutb's most influential book is 'Milestones', and one of its chapters is about 'The Virtues of Killing a Non-Believer'. Among the ideas it discusses is 'Attacking the non-believers in their territories is a collective and individual duty'. Ed Husain bought a copy (published in Birmingham) from the mosque bookshop of the London Muslim Centre, 'Europe's largest Islamist hub'.
Ironically, the British government subsidised the expansion of this centre. Needless to say, non-Muslims are prohibited from building their places of worship, or even buying their holy texts, in Saudi Arabia.
Another young British-born Muslim who has recently broken away from extremism publicly is Hassan Butt. He has appeared on TV and radio to denounce the violence that is taking hold in the name of Islam. He also questions the popular liberal notion that western policies towards the Muslim world are the direct cause of extremist terrorism. In an article in the Observer on July 1, Butt writes:
"…I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was western foreign policy. By blaming the government for our actions, those who pushed the 'Blair's bombs' line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology…
"…But the main reason why radicals have managed to increase their following is because most Islamic institutions in Britain just don't want to talk about theology. They refuse to broach the difficult and often complex topic of violence within Islam and instead repeat the mantra that Islam is peace, focus on Islam as personal, and hope that all of this debate will go away. This has left the territory of ideas open for radicals to claim as their own…"
Two events have fed this radicalism and violence. In 1973, the oil embargo following the Arab-Israel war pushed up oil prices, and gave the Saudis enormous wealth as well as leverage in the Muslim world. And the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan gave money, arms and respectability to extremist Islamic groups that defeated the mighty Red Army. Even more importantly, it showed Muslims across the world that a movement inspired by their faith could topple a superpower.
Saudi support of Wahabism, an extremely austere and literalist school of Islam, went global. Petrodollars funded dozens of university chairs for Islamic studies, scores of mosques in western capitals, and thousands of madressahs in poor Muslim countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Salafi ideology, an even more militant version of the faith, gained a foothold in the West for the first time.
There is a notion that despite our backwardness, we are somehow morally superior to the West. But Ed Husain, after a stint with the British Council in Saudi Arabia, sets this myth to rest:
"After hearing personal stories from my students about incidents of paedophilia, rape and abuse in their families I was convinced that the West is no more decadent than the East.
"The difference is that in the West we are open about these issues and try and handle them as and when they arise. In comparison, in the Muslim world, such matters are swept under the carpet in an attempt to pretend that all is well…"
But as incidents like the ones in London and Glasgow increase the uncertainty and fear in the host community, people are increasingly questioning why Muslims who hate their ways are allowed to enter and work in Britain. Several of those allegedly involved in these latest attempted attacks are doctors. This has horrified westerners who are more used to seeing doctors as peaceful professionals than as suicide bombers.
The question being asked privately in the UK is: "If these people hate us and our way of life so much, why don't they just go back to where they came from?"
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges