About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

29 Dec 2009

Can Nationalism Save Pakistan?

Political ineptitude, greedy politicians selling the interests of people for personal gain, economic instability, daily suicide bombings and foreign inspired militancy have brought Pakistan to the brink of destruction.

Muslims in Pakistan are rightly concerned about the situation. This has led some to call for more assertive Pakistani nationalism to save the country. The question that must be asked is can nationalism save Pakistan? If not what’s the alternative? To address this we need to understand what nationalism is and the implications of following it.

What is Nationalism?

Nationalism is an extension of the family or tribal bond – where the relationship between people is based upon the fact that they are members of a particular tribe or people. This concept has been expanded to entire races and nation states. Arab nationalism which today is largely a spent force dominated the political scene in the countries like Egypt, Syria and Iraq for decades. Today nationalism and patriotism in Pakistan are being aroused because the very existence of Pakistan is under threat.

Some in Pakistan believe by re-asserting Pakistani nationalism and making it the basis of society they can keep Pakistan intact and bring progress in economy, education, societal relationships and even international relations. This belief has to be to be examined.

Can Nationalism Solve the Challenges Facing Pakistan?

What does being a Pakistani, an Arab, a Turk or an American have to say about the issues facing governments and the people? Does nationalism have an answer about how the state should raise funds and how it is allowed to spend them, does it define the rights of the ruler and the rights of ruled, does it provide a framework of how to deal with other nations. When the matter is considered carefully nationalism does not answer any of these questions. Nationalism provides no laws or rules, criteria for right or wrong or a direction for issues facing life.

Muslims are increasingly aware that nationalism has kept Pakistan and the other nations in the Muslim world firmly under the influence of the West. The lack of solutions that deal with the business of state has led politicians to imitate western solutions. The attempts to implement democracy, looking to the UN to solve disputes and enslavement to the IMF are direct results of the vacuum of solutions caused by those that based their politics on nationalism. This is why the well-established political parties in Pakistan have no answers as they take nationalism as one of their root ideas. They are easily manipulated by the outside powers as they are forced to imitate their ideas without any thought.

Nationalism cannot deal with the current crisis facing Pakistan. Empty slogans based within a nationalistic framework like “roti, kapra, makan” ring hollow to the millions displaced in tribal areas. What is required now is for Muslims of Pakistan to get to the root of the problem.

Understanding The Core Problem Facing Pakistan

The root of the problem lies in the politics of Pakistan. Which can be seen to be a complicated cocktail of agendas to serve the ruling elite, the military and foreign powers. The politics in Pakistan is not based upon the Islamic ideology that serves as a compass for politicians to direct their actions by. Indeed Pakistani politics has never been intended to serve the Muslims of Pakistan, to better their lives or to bring progress- rather it is a colonial legacy that serves the foreign powers, the ruling elites and their cronies.

The solution to the problem is to abandon the politics of nationalism, foreign agendas and self-interest, replacing them with the politics of Islam. Until the politics of Pakistan is established on a firm basis as witnessed over the last 62 years there will be little progress and situation will continue to go from bad to worse.

Islam - a Political Ideology.

Islam unlike nationalism answered the questions about dealing with life’s affairs. Not only did it address what the purpose of this life is. It told mankind how to deal with everyday of life. It defined the rights of the woman and the man; it defined the relationship between people in detailed rules of mu’amalat. It defined what the due procedure should be for those accused of crime and the type of sentence if they are found guilty. It defined that the wealth of the natural resources belongs to the Muslims and not the rulers who are there to administer it on behalf of the Muslims.

Above all it defined a political framework in which the Muslims conduct their politics- a framework that would implement the rules revealed by Allah (swt). This framework is the Khilafah ruling system.

In Pakistan the Khilafah state would work to eject the colonialists from the region let alone allow the operation of enemy spy networks and drones that spill the blood of the innocent within its borders. The rulers and the politicians in the Khilafah state will be accountable servants of the people because Islam obliged them to be. The Khilafah state would build infrastructure, schools, hospitals and power stations to allow the people to live a good standard of life.

Above all the rulers and the politicians in the Khilafah would be aware of their identity as Muslims and not behave like today’s empty minded stooges that base their politics around nationalistic slogans and the securing of colonialist and self-interests. Pakistani nationalism will result only in further conflict and misery for the people - only the Islamic Khilafah system can solve the problems for the Muslims in Pakistan. The damage that the concept of nationalism at the hands of Pakistani politicians has inflicted upon Muslims of Pakistan can be witnessed today. Nationalism is a destructive concept and is prohibited by Islam.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, “He is not one of us who calls for ‘asabiyyah, (nationalism) or who fights for ‘asabiyyah or who dies for ‘asabiyyah.” [Abu Dawood]
[Article written by Abdur Rahman Siakhi]
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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”





[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]





"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"





[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]





"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."





[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]





"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."





[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]



"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."





[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]





“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”





[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]





"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."





[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]





"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."





[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]





“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”





[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]





"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"





[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]





"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."





[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]





"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."





[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']





"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"





[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']





"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.





[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]





"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"





[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]





"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"





[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]





“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”





[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]







“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”





[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]