Religion &
Politics: What American Muslims Can Do (2)
By Zaheer Jan
Bedminster, New Jersey
The founders and framers of the
Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution
were Christians. They had rebelled and fought
against a tyrant Christian king, the so-called
protector of faith, to gain their independence;
at great cost to themselves and their families.
They were highly educated. They were thinkers,
philosophers - well read in history. They took
pride in reading and in education. It is little
wonder that they came up with documents the like
of which have few peers in human history.
These documents not only spelt, for all time to
come, the reasons for the founding father’s
revolt against their Christian King but also,
enshrined in letters the rights and obligations
of the citizens of their future country - the
United States of America. They wanted to safeguard
their nascent nation from repeating the hideous
legacy of their religious progenitors.
In 1797, ten years after the constitutional convention,
the Senate unanimously ratified a treaty with
Islamic Tripoli that declared the United States
government “is not in any sense founded
on the Christian religions”. Then again
in 1786 Jefferson, in the preamble to the Virginia
Statute for Religious Freedom, proclaimed that
“our civil rights have no dependence on
our religious opinions, any more than our opinions
in physics or geometry.”1
Surprisingly, the founders’ thinking was
very similar to the diktats of the Qur’an,
revealed to Prophet Mohammad over a millennium
ago, “There shall be no compulsion in religion:
Truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects
evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most
trustworthy Handhold, that never breaks. And Allah
heareth and knoweth all things (2:256)”.
"Those who believe (in the Qur’an),
those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and
the Sabians, Christians, Magians and Polytheists
- Allah will judge between them on the Day of
judgment: for Allah is witness to all things (22:17)”.
There is much to do about religion these days.
In the US, Pat Robertson talks about “One
nation under Christian God”. He says, "When
I said during my presidential bid that I would
only bring Christians and Jews into the government,
I hit a firestorm. `What do you mean?' the media
challenged me. `You're not going to bring atheists
into the government? How dare you maintain that
those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values
are better qualified to govern America than Hindus
and Muslims?' My simple answer is, `Yes, they
are." --from Pat Robertson's "The New
World Order," page 218.
"There is no such thing as separation of
church and state in the Constitution. It is a
lie of the Left and we are not going to take it
anymore." --Pat Robertson, November 1993
during an address to the American Center for Law
and Justice.
"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance
wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred
wash over you. Yes, hate is good...Our goal is
a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we
are called by God, to conquer this country. We
don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
-- Randall Terry, Founder of Operation Rescue,
The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 8-16-93
There is much to do about religion these days.
Pat Buchanan and Billy Graham talk about Christian
values; Jerry Falwell rails against Islam and
Mohammad; Senator Liebermann makes no bones asserting
his religious beliefs. Where is this all coming
from? Was this the intent of the founding fathers?
Would they have been pleased hearing this cacophony
of differing religious noises emerging from America’s
future political leaders? How is it different
from Osama bin Ladne’s same kind of nonsense
about Islam being the only true religion and Muslims
better qualified to govern than anyone else?
Pat Buchanan talks about this country being founded
upon Christian values. Values, without a doubt,
philosophically the highest ever propounded. In
practice however, how have the they behaved through
history? Do Christian values mean tearing away
humans from their home – men, women, children
and selling them into slavery; North of the country
fighting the South on the question of freeing
human beings from slavery or keeping them slaves?
Do Christian values mean discriminating against
people with darker skin and looking down on them;
do such values mean discriminating against women?
Where in Bible does Christ espouse these values?
Do we ponder, even for a minute, that if Christ
were to rise today would he approve the actions
of the people who claim to follow in his footsteps?
Let us flip the coin and look at the people who
wish to usher in the “Islamic Caliphate”.
The very proposition is frightening! What about
them? These fundamentalist talk of “Jahaliyah”?
It is they who abuse and kill women, cut the throats
of innocent and unarmed men and blow up children
– isn’t that truly ‘Jahaliyah’?
These type of actions used to occur before the
time of Prophet Mohammad. With what conscience
can they pretend to represent Islam and its noble
principles? They call Jews and Christians Kafirs.
Don’t they even know that the Holy Qur’an
calls them people of the book? Are they even aware
of the heydays of Islamic civilization? Lawrence
Wright, in his book “The Looming Tower”
writes, “Until the end of World War II,
there was little precedent in Islam for anti-Semitism
……Jews had lived safely under the
Muslim rule for 1200 years, enjoying full religious
freedom…”. Clearly these fundamentalists
think themselves superior to the Prophet and those
who followed after him, and brought peace, justice
and enlightenment over 1200 years!
What about us, the American Muslims? We have pledged
allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America and to the Republic for which it stands:
One nation under God with liberty and justice
for all. We do not espouse an Islamic government
or for that matter a Christian or any other religious
government for the whole world. How boring would
that be and against the Creator’s plan too.
Even the Qur’an says: “O mankind!
We created you from a single soul, male and female,
and made you into nations and tribes, so that
you may come to know one another. Truly, the most
honored of you in God’s sight is the greatest
of you in piety (no matter that he be a Jew, a
Christian, a Muslim or a Polytheist). God is All-Knowing,
All-Aware. (49:13). (Text in parenthesis is that
of the author)
And, the Qur’an challenges us: “(O’
Muslims) Ye are the best of people evolved for
mankind, only because you enjoin what is right,
forbidding what is wrong, (and because ye are
just with all, irrespective of their faith, nationality,
skin color or sex) and you believe in Allah….”(3:110)1.
This is our belief. We do not believe in the hegemony
of anyone people over another. We are against
every people or priests who teach hatred or dislike
of another people for their religion, race, sex
or skin color. Islam is NOT a religion of hatred
or of the sword, it is a religion of peace and
understanding.
We, American Muslims, are proud of our heritage
and of our history. It is a history not as full
of blood and gore as some others. Genocide of
a people has seldom occurred in the history of
the Muslims, a phenomenon which has occurred quite
frequently in the history of other people. There
haven’t been any inquisitions or holocausts
in the history of Islam; we do not have a history
of burning women at the stake like Joan of Arc
was or being tortured on the rake like Beatrice
Cenci was. We do not have a history of people
of science being threatened with excommunication
from the Church for discovering the secrets of
God’s creation like Copernicus or Galileo
were. Nor does Islamic history have a parallel
of racist cliques like the Ku Klux Klan and their
hatred of the blacks and Jews or the Nazis with
their hatred and near extermination of the Jews.
Ours is a history of enlightenment, a history
that has been termed the golden age.
We, American Muslims, are at cross roads. For
too long we have sat around our hearths sharing
meals with our families and friends, talking about
events roiling the world. Events that are having
and will have profound effects on the coming generations
of Muslims here in the US, and by association
all over the world. Our country America is militarily
the mightiest on the planet. It has lost its political
and moral capital however. America’s influence
in moving peoples’ minds has diminished.
It is in this arena that we, American Muslims,
can be of help. We respect the Prophets of the
Old Testament. Too, we respect Jesus and his teachings.
It is now left to us to educate the non-Muslim
American public about Islam and about Prophet
Mohammad.
We have only one choice and that is to come out
of our hibernation. Besides chasing the almighty
dollar we have also to start working in public;
help our local, state and national leaders with
our sincere advice; lead by example like Prophet
Mohammad and the other Prophets did. And, by so
doing leave a proud legacy for the future generation
of American Muslims to come.
Bibliography:
• Al Qur’an
• Moral Minority by Brooke Allen
(Zaheer Jan is a former Chairman of Bedminster’s
Democratic Committee)
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