Since imperialism occupied Muslim countries, it has established its rule on the basis of its plan. The imperialists captured the countries which were under the control of the Ottomans in 1918 and imposed martial law upon them until 1922. They fixed their rule in some of these countries in the name of mandatory administration and in some others under cover of self-independence. But when the year 1922 came several events took place. In that year Muslims performed many activities to defend Islam in the face of imperialism, but these were checked. In that year Turkey was drifting into Westernism away from the authentic Islamic spirit. In that year Mustafa Kemal, under the impact of imperialism, abolished the Khilafah and turned Turkey into a democratic republic. Thus he got rid of the Khilafah in order to bring the last hope of restoring the Islamic State to a mere name. In that year Al Husayn bin Ali was driven away from Hejaz and imprisoned in Cyprus, because he was striving for the Khilafah. In that year the English intervened, through their agents, in the Khilafah conference held in Cairo and did their best to break it up and fail it. In that year the English started work for the abolition of the Khilafah Committee in India, the obstruction of its efforts, and the diversion of its trend from Islam towards patriotism. Before, in and after that year futile debates argued whether the Arab league or the Islamic league is the more able and the better.Newspapers and magazines dealt with this point of debate of this issue for a while, all through both leagues did not agree to the Islamic doctrine, since in practice they impeded Muslim unity and distracted Muslims from the notion of Khilafah and Islamic rule. Before its seizure of the Islamic countries, imperialism started to diffuse the idea of Turkish nationalism among the Turks and convince them that Turkey was holding the heavy burden of the non-Turkey peoples, and that it is time to step aside from them. For this purpose, political parties were formed to work for Turkish nationalism and independence. In the same manner, imperialism spread the idea of nationalism among the young Arabs, declaring that Turkey was an imperial state, and it is time for Arabs to liberate themselves from its yoke. To this effect political parties developed to reawaken national consciousness and rekindle the Arabs desire for unity and independence.
Little by little patriotic and nationalistic trends replaced Islam. Thus, the Turks became independent on nationalistic-patriotic grounds and the Arabs rushed to work for self-government on nationalistic patriotic bases. The terms nationalistic and patriotism spread among Muslims and became a source of pride, glory and honour.
In addition, imperialism spread faulty concepts about Islamic rulings, so Muslims started to look in disdain to their religion and were ashamed of uttering the word Khilafah. There was a convention among them which implied that if a Muslim called for the return of the Khilafah, he would be reactionary and uncivilized, and such a call should not, therefore, be aroused by an educated person or a thinker.
In this nationalistic-patriotic atmosphere imperialism dissolved the Ottoman empire into a number of local governments or small states and made the citizens of each province confirm this partition. On this ground the Turkish state was established. Likewise, the Iraqi state was set up and the Syrian state rose. Then imperialism established a National-Home for the Jews in Palestine which by and by turned to a state which serves as a bridge head by which the West can engage Muslims away from Britain, USA, France and other European states. Thus the geographical status and the general atmosphere were fashioned by the imperialists to prevent any Muslim liberation.
Afterwards, imperialism began applying the capitalist system in economy, the democratic system in politics, and Western laws in state administration and in jurisprudence.
Furthermore, imperialism made the citizens of those countries desire the political organization which it erected is maintained, since the inhabitants of each country considered their country a state. Therefore, they began to understand the necessity of their independence from other countries. The Iraqi was a foreigner in Turkey; in the same way, the Syrian was considered a foreigner in Egypt, and so on.
Besides, Western political systems appeared in all Islamic countries, and the general tradition of the educated class was the separation of religion from the state, and that of the common people, the separation of religion from politics. Consequently, a group of educated Muslims were found to claim that the cause of Muslims underdevelopment is their adherence to religion, and that the only way for their progress lies in the reactivating of nationalism. This group of secularists argued that political and legal matters should not be entrusted to religious leaders. Another group, in contrast, believed that the cause of Muslim backwardness lies in moral corruption, so they dedicated themselves to the re-establishment of moral forms and spiritual values.
The first group, the secularists, worked for patriotism and nationalism, and deemed any effort exerted for Islam as a political system, an imperial intrigue, a sort of reactionism and petrifaction. The second group, devout (purists) encouraged virtue, preached high moral principles and had dreams of spiritual revival. These imposed as a condition on themselves not to interfere in politics.
As a result, these political groups became the actual barriers which alienated people from political activity, which is legally obligatory, and drove them towards moral practice, which is the inevitable outcome of Muslims' application of Islamic law.
In addition to these political views, laws which preserve them and guarantee their execution were laid down. These laws prohibited the establishment of political Islamic parties or movements and, in general, considered Muslims a sect among a group of sects, and included provisions which state that political parties and movements should have democratic procedures and their membership should not be limited to a single one sect. This meant that the establishments of political Islamic parties or movements in Muslim countries was forbidden. Besides, it meant that Muslims had no right to form any organization unless it was a charitable one. Some of these laws further considered the formation of Muslim political parties a punishable crime.
Imperialism also encouraged Islamic conferences as a sort of diversion to the Muslim Community. Such conferences used to take resolutions, publish and broadcast them but never carry anyone of them out. In fact they all remained ink on paper.
[Extracted from the book ‘Factors of Muslims Weakness’ by Zafar Mahmoud]
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