Muslims
and Muslim Rulers
By Brigadier (retd) Usman Khalid
Director, London Institute of South Asia
UK
Tony Blair has said that the
West is not engaged in a clash of civilizations;
it is fighting an ‘evil ideology’.
The community leaders of the British Muslims have
been saying ad infinitum that Islam is a religion
of peace and the suicide bombers of 7/7 are ‘criminals’
outside the pail of Islam. The eagerness of the
both sides to avoid blame is understandable, but
the dialogue of the deaf precludes understanding
when, from the Muslim viewpoint, resistance and
war (usually called Jihad) is legitimate and when
it is not. It is also a hurdle in the way of preventing
the recurrence of such incidents.
In Muslim statecraft, countries are classified
into three categories. A country where the Muslims
enjoy sovereign power as well as cultural freedom
is called Darul- Islam. A country where the Muslims
are not sovereign but they do enjoy cultural freedom
is called Darul-Aman (house of peace). A country
where they are not sovereign but are discriminated
against and face danger to their life, honor and
property, is called Darul-Harb (house of war).
The Muslims are forbidden to take up arms in or
against a country that is Darul-Islam or Darul-Aman.
It is a crime in Islam for a Muslim to take up
arms against Britain because it is Darul-Aman.
Not just suicide bombing, the use of any weapon
or tactics in the UK or against the British people
is a crime.
The anger among Muslims is not as much against
Britain and America as against Muslim rulers who
have been unable or unwilling to raise their voice
let alone defend the hapless Muslims who have
been subjected to wanton violence on unprecedented
scale in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq and
Afghanistan. When the leaders of Muslim countries
(or MPs representing Muslim communities in Britain)
fail to voice the anger being felt by those they
represent, and are content with condemning the
suicide bombers as terrorists, they intensify
the rage among their constituents and destabilize
the country.
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