"No to political Islam"

By: Taj Hashmi Joint-Convener of the Movement, "No-to-Political Islam"

Dear Friends: This is a very interesting Muslim movement. Following is their message that was sent to me, and the reply that I sent back to them. God bless, Abdullah Al Araby

"NO-TO-POLITICAL ISLAM": AN APPEAL TO GET PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS.

By: Taj Hashmi Joint-Convener of the Movement, "No-to-Political Islam" [Dr Taj Hashmi has done graduate studies in Islamic, South and Southeast Asian history, politics and anthropology. He has taught at universities in Bangladesh, Australia, Singapore and Canada. His publications include four books on the history, culture and politics of South Asia, Islam and gender. He is an erstwhile visiting professor of Asian Studies at the UBC, Canada, and currently a research associate at the York Centre for Asian
Research, York University, Canada. His email address is:
taj_hashmi@hotmail.com

This is an appeal to all peace-loving people-Muslim and
non-Muslim- who would extend their helping hand to any effort to uplift humanity, liberty, equality, fraternity, and above all,
justice anywhere in the world. What happened on that dark day of human history, September 11, 2001, which shattered world peace and disgraced Islam and Muslims throughout the world, is a turning point in world history and the history of Islam. It is high time that sensible and civilized Muslims and non-Muslims put their heads together to understand the causes of this catastrophic event ith a view to defusing the unnecessary tension, conflict, mutual hatred and lack of trust and understanding between Islam and the West. This is a global and collective responsibility of both the Muslims and non-Muslims of the world to take a positive step towards preventing more violence, injustice and uncivilized behaviour in any name and form, especially in the name of Islam.

I am sending this message to each and every honest and sincere, brave and righteous person to join our movement, "No-to-Political Islam" to strengthen our cause-bringing peace and justice within and outside the amorphous Muslim community. Our prime object being the exposure and the eventual eradication of all obscurantist views and beliefs, programmes and objectives bearing the prefix of "Islamic", we believe, should get wholehearted support of every civilized human being irrespective of her/his faith and nationality. We would most appreciate your lending support to the movement to crush the evil of "political Islam" from Indonesia to Morocco, and Australia to America and beyond, once for all.

We want Islamic scholars (not the so-called Ulama, whose knowledge does not go beyond the age-old Fiqh or Muslim jurisprudence, and the controversial Hadis literature), both Muslim and non-Muslim, and organizations and individuals who promote human rights to support our movement against "political Islam" and all the variants of the not-so-divine Shariah law, anachronistic to civilization, common sense and antipodal to the teachings of the Holy Prophet.

Now, what do we mean by "political Islam"? Since all our activities in power perspective, within a community, society or a club, or within a state and beyond at the inter-state level is "political"; whatever Muslims do in power perspective within a
clan, village or community by citing Islam as the source and
sanction behind such activities is "political Islam". The persecution of village women in the Salish courts in Bangladesh in the name of Shariah or death threats and execution of women in the name of Islam in countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and lately, Nigeria, come within the broad definition of the expression. And we want the disempowerment of the self-styled custodians of Islam, both Ulama and the non-Ulama sections of Muslim leaders, to establish the rule of law in accordance with the principles of human rights and common sense. We do not want the preponderance of the Ulama (Sunni Islam does not recognize any established and formal clergy) and the obsolete Shariah in deciding the fate of the Muslim community. We want the preponderance of "spiritual Islam" at the cost of the "political" one.

We know some people justify "political Islam" arguing that Islam
is a very unique religion. The religion of Islam, as it began in
Mecca in 610, was transformed into a state with the Hijrat or
migration of the Holy Prophet from Mecca to Medina, they argue.
Some even cite Iqbal and Gandhi as both of them believed in the
inseparability of religion from politics. They, however, ignore
the fact that Iqbal's and Gandhi's association of religion with
politics was in the spiritual and ethical sense, rather than in the political sense of the expression.

Nothing can be farthest from the truth that the Prophet of Islam
ran a theocracy, mingling religion with politics. Although his was
a unique situation, the Prophet being the preacher of a new
religion and the head of the Medina-based state for about a
decade, yet he relied on both the Quran and local customs,
traditions and consensus of his followers in the day-to-day
running of the administration. Many Shariah codes are but
replication of the pre-Islamic rules and traditions. The early
caliphs (632-661) also relied on local traditions and common sense in running the civil and military administration of the state. So, there is hardly anything rigid and "Islamic" or divine about the Shariah law as secular, mundane needs and traditions moulded the bulk of the Islamic code.

We should not ignore the fact that the Holy Prophet was not only
the first Arab nationalist-unifying tribes into a nation- but also
a great and successful synthesizer of mundane, secular
(pre-Islamic) Arab traditions along with the spirituality of
Islam. We often forget that the Ummah or polity of Islam, as the
Prophet conceived of and promoted in Medina, at least in the first five years of his rule, had more Jewish and non-Muslim members than the Muslim minority. It is wrong to assume that the Prophet promoted and ran a theocracy. So, we believe that the mullahs and others who promote an "Islamic State" are talking about something, which never existed before.

For centuries "political Islam" is being sold to unsuspecting
Muslims as an integral part of the Islamic faith system. But a
close look at Khomeini or Taliban type of states shows that
"political Islam" does not bring any good to anybody other than
promoting the interests of the ruling clergy. A monolithic and
theocratic Islamic State cannot achieve progress with such a
dogmatic and unyielding attitude discriminating against non-Muslims and others. It is divisive, belligerent and dangerous to humanity. Such an effort is bound to backfire endangering the existence of both Islam and its peaceful adherents throughout the world.

Since we aim at bridging the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims by placing an alternative to militant and obscurantist "political Islam" for the sake of peace and justice, we would like to enlighten and educate both liberal and militant Muslims and
friendly and not-so-friendly non-Muslims through a concerted
effort of our team. We believe that ignorance breeds prejudice and prejudice is the nursery of hate-crimes and terrorism. In
accordance with Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), the founder of the Aligarh Muslim University in north India, and some of his followers, Chiragh Ali, Sayyid Ameer Ali and others who tried to revive the spirit of rationalism, secularism and peaceful
co-existence with non-Muslims among Indian Muslims in the 19th century, we are also going to bridge the gap between ignorance and knowledge eventually to bring the East and West closer to each other for the sake of global peace and progress.

We firmly believe that the so-called tide of "Islamic fundamentalism" is a passing phase and a part of the growing pain and birth pang of progress. But we should not underestimate its baneful effects on the Muslims and the world at large. The bulk of the backward Muslim community throughout the world has been experiencing an unfair deal at the hands of their rulers and their overseas patrons. The colonial legacy of exploitation and misrule is still felt almost everywhere in the Muslim world. Even people in the prosperous but abysmally backward Arab world are not free from such exploitation in the name of Islam and patriotism/nationalism. A similar passing phase was witnessed in the 12th and 13th centuries in parts of modern Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. The "Old Man of the Mountain", Hassan bin Saba, ran a large gang of hashish smoking killers (hence the term "assassin") belonging to the Ismaili sect of Shiites who indiscriminately killed Sunni Muslims and others with impunity until their suppression by Halagu Khan in 1258. This would be too trite an assumption that Ismailis are synonymous with terrorists, as we know how peaceful and civil are members of this relatively prosperous Shiite sect, wherever they live as traders and professionals.

Consequently through our movement, we are trying to establish that Islam per se is not the problem or threat to world peace and
progress. Some misguided Muslims under equally or more misguided leaders, motivated by "political Islam" for various socio-economic and political reasons are the problem. As one can no longer portray the Ismilis as "Assassins", so eventually one would not associate Islam with terrorism provided we liberate the religion and its followers from the clutches of "political Islam". We want estern support and cooperation in this regard. As the Western media and intellectuals distinguish Hitler and Nazism from Germany and Christianity for the sake of objectivity, our movement aims at bringing about similar objectivity between Islam and terrorism. Like Buddha, we believe that: "Not by hate is hate destroyed, but by love alone is hate destroyed."

Our movement is going to educate Muslims and others about how Muslim vainglory and neglect for philosophy, mathematics,
rationalism, science and technology since the 11th century has
been catastrophic to the community. We must know that the builders of the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort and the Ottoman conquerors of Europe did not establish a single university (the Ottomans established one as late as 1879). Consequently most Muslims have remained pre-modern, pre-capitalist nourishing medieval, feudal and tribal traditions and culture. Since Islam has not gone through its Reformation and Muslims have not staged their Renaissance to revive the lost glory of the early Abbasid era (before the ascendancy of Mutawakkil the Bigot as the Caliph), half-educated mullahs reign supreme everywhere from Indonesia to Morocco in the Muslim world and elsewhere among the Muslim Diaspora in the West. Our movement is a step towards Muslim Renaissance and Reformation of Islam.

However, the Ummah needs a thorough home cleaning and soul
searching. And this cannot be achieved without the support of
Muslim and non-Muslim human rights groups, intellectuals, legal
experts, historians, anthropologists, philosophers, scientists and others who want liberal, secular laws and institutions for
everyone, everywhere.

Please feel free to contact me giving your feed back, telling us
what you can do for the promotion of our cause:"No-to-Political
Islam". Quite a few enlightened Muslim and non-Muslim scholars and human rights organizations have already lent support to our
movement. We want organizational support and team work with human rights activists, development agencies,feminist organizations, NGOs, media and academia throughout the world to fight "political Islam. We need your support and cooperation, now.

Thank You.

By: Taj Hashmi
Joint-Convener of the Movement, "No-to-Political Islam"
taj_hashmi@hotmail.com

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Dear Mr Taj Hashmi

I appreciate and support your efforts on trying to reform Islam. A religion that is built on 7th century way of life cannot deal with the realities of our modern life in this 21st Century. I have always maintained that the brand of Islam preached by the likes of Ben Laden will inevitably clash with the Christian Western civilization with disastrous consequences to all humanity.

If Islam is to continue its coexistence rather than confrontation, Muslims must reform their religion and control the fanatical elements in their midst. Before doing so they must separate Islam as a spiritual religion from legalistic issues that are part of Islam. They must come to an agreement that this part was needed then but can not and must not be applied now.

This is not an easy task as it will be seen by hard-liners as tampering with what Allah has ordained. This is an offense that is punishable by death based on the Sharia and could be executed by any zealot Muslim. Farag Foda of Egypt was an advocate of this same view and was branded as an apostate and later was assassinated.
Good luck to all of you, you are going to need it.

Abdullah Al Araby
www.islamreview.com

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