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.

13 Feb 2010

Russia's Resurgence: Lessons for the Ummah

The election of Victor Yanukovych in Ukraine's general election in February 2010 officially brings to an end the colour revolutions that came to symbolise the post-Soviet states. Whilst the opposition will in all likelihood contest the election result, the reign of the Orange revolution has now been reversed. Throughout the 2000's the US through verbal support, through the funnelling of money to various student and revolutionary groups created the climate for regime change in order to bring pro-Western leaders to power and officially remove Russian influence in such states.

Regime change historically is through the use of a nation's military in the form of a coup. Any attempt at overthrowing an existing government requires the support of the army as they physically have the power in most nations. The colour revolutions which began with the rose revolution in Georgia, then the Orange revolution in Ukraine where Victor Yanukovych's victory was annulled due the role of various students groups in undermining his election victory. The Tulip revolution in Kyrgyzstan undermined the parliamentary election in 2005 and overthrew Askar Akayev. Each of these revolutions was led by nonviolent resistance and protests against governments seen as corrupt and authoritarian. Such revolutions are notable for the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and particularly student activists in organising creative nonviolent resistance.

21st Century Cold war

Many US policy makers saw the dismemberment of Russia as unfinished business. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the West led by the US began working to push its boundaries in Europe rapidly eastward, destroying Russia's ability to influence the region. The pro-Western lines have continued moving to the east for the past two decades, via NATO and EU expansion, until they pushed hard up against Russia's borders. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the US worked to dismantle the architecture established by the USSR, it worked to contain Russia by bringing all the former Soviet republics under its sphere of influence and for the next decade through the IMF and the World Bank it economically linked them to the West.
All this changed when Vladamir Putin succeeded Boris Yeltson in 1999. He was a nationalist who endeavoured to change the fortunes of Russia. Putin began the process of re-nationalising key sectors, assets, utilities and industries through policies intended to change the course of the nation. He dealt with the oligarchs who were looting the nation, by restricting the amount of money they took out of the nation; some were forced to contribute to the re-building of the nation such a Roman Abromovich, whilst other oligarchs were dealt with ruthlessly. He stabilised the domestic situation through economic policies which were only possible under a dictatorship - any parliament or senate would have stalled on such huge decisions and would have allowed their own interests to get in the way. Russia's resurgence has brought it into direct political conflict with the US. In less then 10 years Russia has been transformed from a fallen animal stabbed in the back by its own people, to a lion roaring its way back to its old status.

Russian foreign relations are currently being driven on reversing the post cold war trend and securing Russia's periphery by bringing all the former Soviet republics under its influence.

Russia has taken full advantage of America's preoccupation with the Islamic world to reverse all the American sponsored colour revolutions. The project to bring all of the former Soviet republics under Russian influence has been a meticulous task led by Vladimir Putin. Any effort to change Russian expansion must be monumental if it is to succeed.

Through vision, ambition and strategic choices Russia has been able to change the status quo, this cannot be understated with regards to Ukraine. Ukraine is the Russian Empire's breadbasket. It is also the location of nearly all of Russia's infrastructure links not only to Europe, but also to the Caucasus, making it critical for both trade and internal coherence; it is central to the existence of a state as multiethnic as Russia.
The challenge Russia faced and to a large extent has reversed is reducing foreign influence in the former Soviet territories. Russia used its gas to choke western influence in its former territories which has made many pro-Western republics rethink their strategy to move out of Russia's orbit.

Democracy promotion in practice relied heavily on the development of NGOs as autonomous groups reflecting the interests of civil society. NGO's were clearly Western backed and subsequently the Putin regime intensified its efforts to enact legislation regulating NGOs. The NGO law was signed by Putin in April 2006, which ensured the colour revolutions would not spread to Russian territory or any other former Soviet territory. The Kremlin as a counter-response to the colour revolutions reacted by establishing pro-Kremlin youth organizations aimed at garnering the political support of Russian youth in the former Soviet republics.

Whilst the struggle will continue between Russia's resurgence on one hand and US attempts to push Russia all the way back to Russia proper there are number of lessons the Ummah can learn from Russia's resurgence:

- Russia to a large extent has used bribes and force to being all the former Soviet republics under its influence. In no way has Russia convinced the former Soviet Republics of a new way of life or attempted to absorb them into one nation or one people. This has the effect of creating a fragmented union, which can be easily penetrated form the outside. This was exactly how the US created friction in the former Soviet Union as the Eastern camp was semi-autonomous remaining nominally loyal to Moscow. The Muslim Ummah possesses the Islamic ideology and this is the gel that unifies different peoples, tribes and cultures. The Khilafah is a unitary state which turns different geographical lands into one state, with the same rights, one ruler and with all becoming the same citizens with the same rights.

- Russia has made it clear to the US that Eastern Europe and Central Asia are Russian territory and the US should respect that. Ever since, Putin has been working meticulously to bring the regions under the Kremlins authority. The ambition to be a world power and challenge the current superpower - the US is driving Russia's rapid resurgence, development of its military industry and its aggressive attitude. However Russia's global ambitions are largely nationalist and this means any attempt to go beyond the former Soviet territories will face serious hurdles as ethnic Russians do not exist in great numbers beyond Eastern Europe and central Asia. The issue for Russia is if you have global ambitions what will you take to the world? Russia has abandoned Communism and today has nothing to challenge Capitalism with, which is America's chief export. The Ummah on the other hand lacks no ambition, even without the Khilafah Muslims globally through the internet spread the Islamic message. Many territories, where Islam, in the past never reached, today have sizable Muslim communities such as Latin America and Western Europe. Islamic history has shown that the global ambition of taking Islam to the rest of the world led the Sahabah to take Islam to North Africa; the Berbers from Egypt embraced Islam and within a matter of years travelled across the straights of Gibraltar to give Islam to Spain. Islam has a track record of uniting different people and eradicating sectarian differences and casts.

- The collapse of Communism and the subsequent chaos has created a Russia that has multiple problems. Russia all though quantitatively is on par with the US from a quality perspective it has an industry that is 20 years behind the US, its transport system needs massive investment and poverty still plagues many Russians. Russia's current method of bringing law and order has been through an authoritarian central government and through spying on its own populace and assassinating unsavoury individuals. The problem with this approach is different problems are being dealt with through different approaches which will eventually create a contradiction in Russia. Putin has subdued those who have doubts about his vision, among his population, through his nationalist call, but nationalism will only solve a limited set of problems. Without an ideology Russia will find its biggest challenge is not the US, but actually comes from within. The Ummah posses the Islamic ideology which gives detailed rules on the economy, social system and ruling. In this way there would be no contradiction in legislation and solutions across the Islamic state, it will create harmony, direction and ensure the state moves in a unified direction. Islam in fact historically has been the central motivation that drove many innovative solutions to problems. In the realm of foreign policy Mu'awiyah drove forward the plan to create military bases across the Islamic lands which would act as supply lines to the Khilafah's ships which he foresaw as essential to defeating the Byzantine Empire at sea.

- Russia's major challenges are rapidly developing its military industry for which it has no shortage of mineral resources. Its challenge is largely technical, in terms of developing advanced technology, which will be more efficient in creating an image of strength. Russia also has a population in decline as many have avoided having children due to the unstable situation in the region since the collapse Communism. The Ummah has no such problems, the Muslim lands are full of all the key mineral resources such as oil and gas and the Ummah's population in increasing, with nearly half the Ummah under the age of 30, this means the Ummah will have no shortage in its workforce which is essential for economic development and becoming a world power.

The Muslim Ummah has all the necessary prerequisites to change her situation and become a worlds power, nations such as Japan, Germany and Russia in the past have been in a much worse position than the Ummah and have been able to change their situation and challenge the worlds superpower. US intelligence has estimated the return of the Khilafah by 2020, all that is needed is for the Ummah is to show army general sitting in the Muslim world that is about time he fulfilled the destiny of the Ummah.

[Article written by Adnan Khan, February 2010]
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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]