Muslims &
the Western World Have to Work Positively
By Dr. Mohiuddin Waseem
Karachi, Pakistan
Prophet Mohammad once told
his companions that Muslims will follow the foot
steps of Jews and Christians (their religious
cousins) span by span and cubit by cubit, so much
so that if they have entered a hole of a mastigure
Muslims too will follow them there (Sahih Bukhari).
One may appreciate the genius of the Prophet’s
statement as well as the prophecy hidden in his
saying by identifying many similarities in the
religious and political history of Judeo-Christianity
and Islam. Because Islam is the youngest of the
three Abrahamic faiths identification of certain
traits in its predecessor religions might help
us better understand our modern day problems and
their solutions.
You’ll agree that Islam as a religion is
far closer to the Judeo-Christian traditions than
to any other religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism
or Confucianism. Both Judaism and Islam share
a belief in divine law which regulates all aspects
of human activity from the cradle to the grave.
All three religions have their own period of triumph
in history; their belief that they alone are the
chosen people of God and therefore the fortunate
recipient and custodian of God’s final message
to humanity which makes it their duty to bring
this message to the rest of the world. This doctrine
of election did not so much proclaim a privileged
status (as the more easy-going often liked to
think, a phenomenon common to all Abrahamic faiths)
as a glorious destiny and an ineluctable fate
but a responsibility towards fellow human beings
(Holy Bible, Amos 3;2). Unfortunately corrupted
“privileged” mentality and “chosen
of God” ideologies are big reasons which
prevent rational thought process in its adherents
and thus lead to early resort to intolerance and
violence.
It is true that all three religions had a tolerant
and a humble beginning where the act of war was
either deferred or refused as was done by early
Muslims of Mekkah and the ancient Israelites of
Sinai desert respectively.
Christianity too grew and developed as a religion
of the downtrodden with frequent references of
Christ’s preaching “render unto Caesar
the things which belong to Caesar’s; and
unto God the things which are God’s (Holy
Bible, Mark 12; 17).
But once weak all three became triumphant in due
course of history with Jews citing King David’s
monarchy, Christians conversion of Emperor Constantine
and Christianisation of the Roman Empire and Muslims
establishment of Islamic statehood by Prophet
Mohammad and the first four rightly guided Caliphs
as the golden era and zenith of their respective
faiths. Like all great civilizations these faith-based
civilizations too suffered losses and defeats
but to the adherents of their respective faiths
the consolation rested in striving to achieve
that golden era once again and therefore inspires
both the revivalists as well as the extremists.
The most important period of Jewish history which
defined the fate of Jewish people for the last
two millennia started after the arrival of Alexander
the Great in 330 BC and lasted up to 135 AD when
Roman Emperor Hadrian banished Jews from Palestine
and scattered them throughout the Roman Empire
as a final solution for their constant rebellion
and unrest. Being the “chosen people”
of God it was difficult for Jews to comprehend
that God will allow heathen Greco-Romans to enslave
them and occupy their lands. As a result, many
violent revolutionary groups which emerged in
those perilous times included Maccabees, Zealots,
Scarii and others. Among them Maccabees were the
only lucky ones able to defeat the Greeks and
establish their own rule till the arrival of Romans
who successfully eradicated each and every one
of them. The rallying cry of these groups was
“no lord but God”, therefore refuting
man-made Greco-Roman laws and a reason for condemning
to death their own fellow Jews who cooperated
with the Romans and did not follow their brand
of ideology. Other than the violent groups there
were also apocalyptic visionaries who called their
followers in a divine war against Rome. They called
the people to return to their true faith, not
to arms, expecting God to fight for them through
miracles especially by letting Messiah to appear.
Unfortunately it was only after the fall of Jerusalem
and the total destruction of Solomon’s Temple
at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD, that Josephus
(a priest and commander of Jewish armies) realized
that those few Jews who recklessly led the nation
into revolt were entirely idiosyncratic. Their
mad squabbling among themselves and ruthless behavior
in Jerusalem proved that they were only out there
for personal gain. As for the Romans, Josephus
inferred from their obvious supremacy that God
was on their side and Jews were committing a sin
fighting against them. In the course of his oration
to those warring Jews Josephus states, “God
when he had gone round the nations, bringing to
each in turn the rod of empire, now rested over
Italy.” It is thus that he was able to say
in the same context that Fortune, that “unconditional,
absolute, and predetermined divine favor,”
has passed over to the Romans (The War of the
Jews, Flavius Josephus, 5.367).
Clearly many parallel in Muslim history can be
drawn from the above mentioned Jewish account.
In the last two centuries Muslims too have lost
two of their great empires, Ottoman and Mogul
to European colonialists. Because they too believe
in the “chosen” status many violent
revolutionary groups can be cited in last the
last 2-3 centuries especially armed with the concept
of “Mehdi” a redeemer, who like the
Jewish Messiah is expected to appear before the
end of time and fight on their behalf. The most
recent such group was the Taliban who in trying
to fulfill the prophecy of Prophet Mohammad that
“Mehdi’s army will come out of Khurrasan
(Afghanistan) holding black flags (Musnad Ahmad)”
colored their turbans black for obvious political
reasons. Because the apocalyptic reactionary groups
believe in self-righteousness they see it fit
to kill anybody who does not follow their ideologies
which was the case behind the murder of Egyptian
President Anwar Saadat and the attempt on the
life of Pakistani President Parveiz Musharraf,
both professed Muslims.
Clearly like Judaism before, Islam is in a state
of both religious and political crisis, especially
within itself. Many of its sects, because of divergent
religious ideologies, consider each other apostate
and therefore condemnable to death. The situation
becomes more evident with the disappearance of
law and order situation as for example in Afghanistan
and Iraq, where sectarian violence has killed
more people than the casualties of war together.
Because no Muslim leader has been able to eradicate
the theological differences and unite the Muslims
into one body it is in their own interest to at
least provide a common enemy which could be either
communism or capitalism which really does not
matter much as long as this diversion serves the
purpose. The situation is akin to the time of
Pope Urban II (1095 A.D) who unable to prevent
the split in the Catholic church on the issue
of Jesus Christ’s status in trinity, into
Eastern orthodox and Western Churches; gave a
call for crusades to expel the infidels (Muslims)
from the Holy Land as a mean and way to divert
the attention of the people from an issue which
the Church was unable to settle effectively.
In conclusion, to make our world a safer place
to live both the Muslims as well as the Western
world have to work positively keeping the larger
good of humanity in mind. To this end Muslim clerics
and political leaders should focus ‘inward’
and try to resolve the theological differences
in the Islamic world which will reduce the need
for an ‘outward’ enemy and the appeal
to violent groups. As for the Western powers resolving
the long awaited political conflicts in Kashmir,
Chechnya and Palestine is all that is required
as has been pleaded many times by President Parvez
Musharraf.
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