Muslims and the Road to Perdition

After the July London bombings, Tony Blair's condemnation of the evil ideology, or Binladenism, has finally culminated into the banning of politically active Islamic organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir and al-Mujahiroun in the UK, among other measures.

The move might be surprising for some but many knew it was coming. Hizb ut-Tahrir is already banned in some Central Asian countries. Russia and Germany banned it in 2003 for its radicalism and anti-Semitism. It will not be surprising if other Western countries followed suit and banned these organisations on their soil.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a politically ambitious organisation that wants to restore Islam to its past glory by establishing the Khilafat (Islamic Caliphate) and by removing what the organisation considers to be imperialistic non-Islamic control of Islamic societies.

The idea might sound glorious to some, but many Muslims treat it as fanciful and quixotic. It is foolhardy to try turning the clock back and choose to confront the current socio-political world order.

My friend, Maulana Naeem Qasmi, an astute Islamic scholar, questions the idea of re-establishing the Khilafat: ’’Where would they make the headquarters of the Khilafat? In Turkey or in Pakistan? Can't Muslims live in peace, in harmony with the current world? It is an absurd idea. Islam believes in harmony, not in confrontation.''

And Maulana Qasmi is right. Every idea has its time. Political Islam had it.
Communism had it. Islam, as a political and economic ideology, had its heyday in the middle ages.

When Khilafat was abolished in Turkey after the First Great War, there was a worldwide movement to restore it. It failed. And there is no reason why such an idea should succeed now, especially when Muslims are embattled and suspected everywhere.

It is anything but certainly not the right time to promote political Islam, especially in the Western societies that host Muslim populations. It is indeed important for Muslims to grasp this fact.

Muslims must understand that the West has had enough of practicing a soft approach toward them. The consequences of this soft approach have not been very palatable for Western societies. Countries like US, UK, Spain, France, and Netherlands have suffered from some form of cultural or bloody clashes because of radical Islamic ideas. The Madrid and London bombings are the recent reminders.

Consequently, the tough anti-terror measures announced by Tony Blair's government might be adopted in other western countries as well. From now on, no form of political Islam will be given an inch to infect the heart and soul of ordinary Muslims.

Thomas L. Friedman's suggestion of institutionalising thought policing in Muslim communities is finally taking a concrete shape. It is the policy equivalent of shining the spotlight on hate speech wherever it appears. In a war against the open societies and the Islamo-fascists, the boundaries between legitimate political dissent and terrorism have disappeared. There are important lessons to learn here.

In the new scheme of things, terrorism is terrorism, no less and no more. It cannot be justified in the name of religion or as a reaction against imperialism, Zionism, colonialism or military occupation. That's the idea behind anti-terror thought policing. You can be angry about a country's military occupation but you cannot use this anger to support or justify Islamo-fascist suicide bombings and killing of innocent civilians. That is the message for all Muslims, vocal or passive.

Before it gets any worse for the Muslims, they must read the writing on the wall. Even though Binladenism is the unfinished business of the cold war and much of today's terror-related problems owe it to the willed amnesia of the cold warriors who had acted as handmaidens for radical Islamist jihadis, as has been shown by political scientists such as Mahmood Mamdani (Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War and The Roots of Terror, 200), the fact remains that Muslims are at the receiving end of the anti-terror brunt.

A few misguided Muslim jehadis perpetrate the acts of terror and the entire Muslim community has to take the blame, and face the tightening anti-terror laws and diminished civil liberties.

In the given circumstances, Muslims today need to establish the disjunction between Islam and Binladenism, both within and outside their communities.
While I welcome Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's urging that America needs to convince Muslims that it is not against them, I also urge Muslims to convince others in the world that they are not against them.
Muslims have to play an active role in identifying the terrorist elements in their midst. If they don't do this, suspicion about them will rise further and all hopes for harmony and assimilation with other communities will be dashed. Then police might make a preventive search any time in their homes and they can't even complain about the violation of civil liberties. They will become social outcasts and anti-Muslim backlash will make their stay in Western and non-Islamic countries hellish.

Ironically, Muslims will gain the most by eradicating terrorism. They must do this to salvage their faith and their dignity. At the same time, the West can also no longer continue to ignore the festering political problems in Muslim societies. But lets not wait for that. We must do what we can.

What Muslims need is decent education and decent jobs, not radical gobbledygook. In today's globalised flat world, Muslims must harmonise themselves with other communities and reap the benefits of a changed world.
Like the true deputies of God on earth, let's make it a better place.

Only harmony and positive thinking will help us keep our kids in Nikes. The other way is the sure road to perdition.