Democracy or Dictatorship? Religious Extremism or Secular Westernization?Discovering the Third Option for Pakistan!A latest poll of youth by BrassTacks, incredibly, suggested that almost 85% of youth in Pakistan are now demanding judicial, political and economic systems in the country to be remodelled on the pattern of Khilafat-e-Rashida (KR), the golden benchmark era of Islam. This is a stunning paradigm shift in the thinking of the modern Pakistani youth who are now rejecting the modern democracy and dictatorships for an alternate home-grown ideological and historical model of governance based on KR. On March 23rd, 2010, Pakistani youth passed a resolution in Lahore to demand that Pakistan be remodelled on the pattern of Khilafat-e-Rashida and not the democracy or dictatorship.
In Pakistan, our society swings between two extremes without any voice of moderation and sanity. It’s either democracy or the dictatorship in politics. It’s either religious extremism or secular westernization in matters of ideology. It’s either capitalism or the communism in spheres of economy. No one ever envisaged a third option in matters of ideology, politics, governance or the economy. Now Pakistani youths are demanding the unthinkable – the fascinatingly balanced KR model.
Before I get into the details of my argument on the above subject, I would like to categorically make certain statements.
• Pakistan is an ideological Islamic State where Quran and Sunnah will remain the supreme guiding beacons for lawmaking in all spheres of life. The country was founded in the name of Islam and would always remain an Islamic country. Pakistan is NOT and will never become a secular State. Inshallah.
• Allama Iqbal is the contemporary visionary guide of ideological and philosophical basis of Pakistan and the entire Muslim Ummah. His thoughts, ideology and vision have a great role to play in achieving the destiny of Pakistan as well as the entire Ummah.
• Quaid-e-Azam is the greatest political leader of the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent. Quaid-e-Azam and the founding fathers of Pakistan never envisioned a secular Pakistan but laid the basis of an enlightened, modern and just Islamic State which would have a great role to play within the Muslim Ummah.
• Two nations theory remains foundation of creation of Pakistan and would remain strongly valid forever.
• Khilafat-e-Rashida model of governance is NOT an outdated, medieval, dogmatic, narrow or sectarian ideology of extremism nor does it represent liberal westernization of Pakistani society in the name of modernization. KR is ideally envisioned to represent the true ethos of Islam with tolerant face and benevolent values as desired in Islamic doctrine and philosophy and as practiced in totality in the early golden era and in part throughout the Muslim history.
Now I come to the details of my argument and would heavily rely upon a policy speech by Dr. Mahathir Muhammad for his precious inputs to supplement our core argument. Much of the content below has been drawn from it.
In the last 200 years, in the period of downfall of the Muslim civilization, the only new ideas, which have come our way, have all come from the rich West. Our faith has been assailed with such ideas and ideologies as Secularism, Liberalism, Republicanism, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism and a lot of others. If we care to examine all these so-called perfect solutions to the woes of humanity, we will find that eventually they all proved to be failures, that the very people who conceive and espouse them would lose their faith and enthusiasm and that finally such solutions would be discarded as harmful. But while they are charmed by these ideas they would not hesitate to force them upon the world, by every means at their disposal.
We have no part in the formulation of these ideas, nor with the periodical reinterpretation and enlargement of their application. Being unable to reject the logic and due to universal acceptance of these ideas, we are forced to try and justify them according to Islam. Quite naturally we will fail because our religion insists on justice and morality and not the absolute freedom leading to immorality now being advocated by the West. We must therefore consciously reject such ideologies.
Islam is faced with this ideological challenge and the challenges of more new ideas, which will come out of the West. The capacity of Islam to emerge victorious in the ideological war is undermined by our own insistence and emphasis on form rather than substance. For example, we stress the manner with which trials should be carried out and the punishment meted rather than the justice that Islam promotes.
We talk about the need for Muslims to be strong in defense of themselves but we neglect the study of the sciences needed to enable us to produce modern weapons ourselves. Instead we only stress religious studies and religious piety in order to gain merit in the next world. In the process, we neglect the injunction of Islam to always be quipped to defend ourselves and to instill fear in the hearts of the enemy.
It is because we misinterpret or wrongly emphasize the teachings of Islam and stress form instead of substance, that we Muslims find ourselves unable to meet the challenges of the Industrial Age and now the Information Age. We should have learnt the lessons from our failure to participate in the Industrial revolution and should prepare ourselves to participate in the Information revolution, but we have not.
Yet we Muslims are no less capable of acquiring knowledge, of innovations and inventions, spewing new ideas. We are as capable of governing, developing and strengthening our countries as good as anyone else can be. We know what we need to do. Indeed our religion gives us all the necessary guidance. If today we lag behind, disdained and oppressed by others it is because we have actually forsaken the true teachings of our religion and returned to our pre-Islamic ways, feuding with each other, closing our minds to modern knowledge and ignoring reality, deceiving ourselves that we are better than others when we are not.
If we are to face the challenges of the 21st Century, the first thing we must do is to put our own houses in order. We have to administer our countries well, promoting stability and economic growth, using the wealth we generate to build needed infrastructures and to equip ourselves with all the skills of the Information Age and of the Industrial Age as well. We must always be at the cutting edge of technology.
To do all this we need to be rational. It is understandable that we should feel frustrated and angry while watching everywhere Muslims are being oppressed. They are frequently massacred, their countries forced to accept hostile foreign dominance which render them just nominally independent. We are helpless to defend ourselves or our Muslim brothers anywhere. We see them being shot and killed virtually before our eyes and there is nothing we can do about it.
After 9/11, Islam and not the terrorism is biggest issue for the West. Islam has been burnt, bruised, branded and abused under the garb of war against terrorism in every part of the world including the Muslim world. It is not just the extremists who are angry, even the most moderate and docile Muslims are feeling threatened under the aggressive drive against Islam and Muslims globally. Their anger is universal but its expression is different for extremists and moderate Muslims. Just because moderate Muslims are not sending suicide bombers does not mean they are not hurt or angry. They are just silent or cribbing but are indeed very angry.
We appeal for justice to those who talk incessantly of justice and we see them ignoring us. We see those powerful nations committing horrendous crimes against humanity and Muslims only to blame us as terrorists. We look at , Kashmir, Palestine, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq and our own humiliation at the hands of dominant powers. Human rights, justice, and fair play we find to be only meaningless words and our anger overflows. In frustration we resort to violence. But our frustration only worsens because we gain nothing from this, only more oppression.
We become frustrated with our own countries and our governments. Why cannot they do something about the oppression and humiliation of the Muslims? We vent our anger against our governments by more acts of violence and terrorism, this time directed at our own governments and leaders. Again we gain nothing but only succeed in weakening ourselves further. After years of indiscriminate acts of terrorism, what do we have to show for the sacrifices we made? Nothing. We have only brought more oppression and more painful retaliations against us. We have not advanced our cause one iota. We and our own governments and countries have become weaker.
We want quick fixes but there are no quick solutions to our problems. And most of us refuse to believe in the truth of this, in the reality of our failures. We just do not seem able to learn.
If we are going to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, we should pause now and take stock. And having done that calmly and dispassionately we should then set out to plan for our future; not the next year, not the next decade, but the whole century and more for that is how long it will take to achieve any degree of success.
First of all we must go back to the true teachings of Islam, to the Quran and the Hadith. These teachings had obviously converted the ignorant desert Arabs into brave and talented people who in less than 100 years, were able to build a huge empire extending from Spain in the West to China in the East- the greatest civilization the world had ever seen. If Islam could do these for the ‘Jahiliah’, the ignorant ones, there is no reason why it cannot do the same for us now.
The truth is that we have deviated from the teachings of Islam; we have at times rejected it in practical terms. We have grossly abused it. Thus, we are told to be brothers and to fight only those not of the faith who make us their enemies, we now fight ‘jihads’ against fellow Muslims, declaring them to be infidels when we know they are not. We should be preaching love and brotherhood of fellow Muslims but the learned ones, the political ‘ulamas’ are very fond of preaching hatred of other Muslims who do not accept their teachings and politics and urging holy wars against them, while ignoring completely the non-Muslim enemies who are oppressing Muslims. Indeed by what they preach and do, they are actually helping the enemies of Islam.
We are enjoined by Islam to be fair and just in the administration of our laws. But we care not for justice and fairness as long as we uphold the process of judgment. In some instances, we advocate punishing the victim rather than the criminal. After 1400 years, we have still not codified Islamic laws, leaving it to the judge to refer instances of similar crimes in the past to pass judgment and sentence. For most of the Muslim countries, the due process of law has not been institutionalized, even though Muslim jurists abound in Muslim societies.
We are enjoined by the Quran to prepare the means to defend Islam and the Muslim Ummah. We are told to maintain warhorses, swords etc. That may have put fear in the hearts of the foes of the Muslims in the time of the Prophet but it will not work today. We need guns and tanks, fighter planes and battleships etc. But we are not truly capable of producing these weapons. We may be licensed to produce them but by and large we have to buy them, sometimes from the very people who are our foes.
If we are really to put fear in their hearts and to be able to defend ourselves then we must have the capability to devise and produce these arms ourselves, upgrading them to keep pace or to be ahead of the rest of the world. To do this we must acquire the necessary scientific and technical knowledge, industrial skills and capacity and management know-how. But we do not possess these skills because we are not encouraged by our religious leaders to acquire such knowledge. They urge us to study religion instead, as this is believed to gain us merit in the hereafter. That we fail to protect the Muslims as enjoined by the Quran actually commit a mortal sin does not seem to bother these people.
If we go back to the true teachings of Islam on the need to be able to defend ourselves, we cannot but agree on the need to acquire knowledge of the sciences and the technologies, which will enable us to design and produce the weapons for our protection. Indeed if we follow the teachings of Islam we must acquire knowledge in all fields to ensure the well being of Muslims and the safety of their countries. We should actually be formulating and improving on all the sciences and skills required for a modern Islamic state where the Ummah is protected and where they are free of poverty, have adequate food, are able to provide clothes for themselves, live in decent dwellings, are respected and even looked upon by the rest of the world.
Good governments are not beyond us, Muslims. We need a professional civil service, a professional police force and a professional defense force. They can all be trained and installed with right spirit and the proper sense of duty to the nation. Rules and regulations, rewards and punishment can be devised to ensure that there is minimal corruption or abuse. Systems of monitoring performances can be put in place in order to maximize the achievements of the government.
Under a good honest leader, be he a king or a Prime minister or a President or a military ruler, helped by able advisers and experts, a country can be developed to a high level. It can become stable, peaceful, wealthy and fully able to deal with all kind of challenges, both ideological and material. It can become sophisticated in every way, able to compete in every field. Being a Muslim country will not prevent this from being achieved. We are not going to be able to do this overnight. It will take time, a lot of time, but it is possible. There is nothing inherent in Islam or in the Muslims to prevent them from achieving this. Islam enjoins upon us to be patient and this is what we need to be right now.
Even if we strive towards establishing stable and peaceful Muslim countries, we should be preparing ourselves to deal with the challenges that will come our way. We are now already in the Information Age. It is going to transform our lives completely. We have to accept that there is no way we can isolate and insulate ourselves. We are going to be assailed by information, both good and bad, and that, which can undermine our faith. We will have to strengthen our Islamic moral strength not by appealing to blind faith but by reason and logic. Certainly, we must not try to ignore what is happening around us. We must know that what is bad will weaken and destroy us but what is good will give us strength and success and knowing this we must resolve to reject what is bad and extol and practice what is good as enjoined upon us by Islam.
Mastery of the sciences and the technologies should be easy if we are not prevented from learning them or harassed by the theologians. I am sure that given the opportunity Muslim scholars will once again dominate the world. They will not only master the extant knowledge but will develop new knowledge. Best of all, their faith will bring morality into the application of the knowledge that they will acquire.
Muslims must eschew aggressiveness and thoughtless violence. As good Muslims we must seek peace and seek to live in peace with the rest of the world. I am absolutely sure that the oppression of the Muslims will cease once the Muslims and their countries are as well developed as the best developed countries in the world are. We must of course be capable of defending ourselves with our own weapons but they should never be used for blatant aggression but instead play a role together with other countries in the maintenance of peace in the world.
Today many Muslim countries are very rich but they are not categorized as developed. The reason is clear. They do not have the industrial and commercial capacities of the developed countries. On the other hand there are many Muslim countries, which are extremely poor. They have mostly to depend on the charity of the non-Muslims. Few Muslim countries have foreign aid programs even for Muslim countries. But should the Muslim countries only help poor Muslim countries after becoming successful in establishing good governments and developing themselves? No, rather as the non-Muslims help Muslim countries, we should be prepared to help all poor countries.
In a world that is so extremely rich, there really should not be any poor country. We can blame the people of these countries for their own poverty but blaming them will not make them rich. The rich of the world, Muslims or non-Muslims, must help the poor to enrich them. This is entirely possible. We should not be proselytizing but we must correct their wrong impressions of Islam as being an anachronism given to violent and irrational behaviors. It is the duty of Muslims to give Islam a good image even if it gains us nothing. But I believe, it will benefit us a lot as we seek to play a role in world affairs in the 21st Century.
Muslims must make up for the mistakes of the past, which left Islam in disrepute. We should not seek to be accepted just as partners in the building of a better world rather we should prove that it is our right, as Muslims, and that our countries have as much capacity to influence the direction of the world progress as anyone else possibly can possess. We are being forced to accept a globalised world. So far it is an idea crystallized and interpreted by the West. But it is not necessary that their interpretation is right or final. We the Muslim countries must have a say, a big say, in the shaping of this globalised world.
But we must base our stand on the logic of our interpretation rather than merely saying that it is based on our faith. Muslims may accept the injunctions of the religion without question but others will not. We must put up our ideas and proposals based on logic and reasoning and on the maximum good that it can bring to the maximum number of people. This should not be too difficult because globalization as it is presently defined will benefit only the rich few. Indeed the richest will be benefited the most and the poorest will get even poorer. Our proposals must be more equitable and fair, aiming at nothing less than the enriching of all peoples of the world, irrespective of race, religion or geographical location.
This is the role that Muslim nations and especially Pakistan can play in the 21st Century. While striving to establish good relation among Muslim countries, while striving for and adopting good governance and developing their nations, having discarded the senseless expression of anger and frustrations, the Muslim nations must help contribute towards world peace and prosperity by adopting a rational clear-headed policy in their relation with each other and with the rest of the world. The Muslims and Muslim countries must once again play the role that they played when they built the great Muslim civilization. After achieving this or even while striving to achieve this, it’s most likely that many of the problems in the relations between Muslim and non-Muslim countries will be resolved.
The challenges of the 21st century will be many and varied. But these challenges can be met and, if not overcome, at least can be somewhat blunted if the Muslims face them with rationality and resoluteness. Through this process, the role of the Muslim countries will be defined and recognized.
The 21st Century must be made the century for the world where everyone, including the Muslims and their countries will prosper and take their proper place as equal partners. Our role is not to be dominated but to be equal partners in a richer equitable world that is more rational. Inshallah.
The Two Visions of Iqbal:
Allama Iqbal simply did not operate on intellectual plane alone. He was blessed with a unique balance of various paradoxical ideas. He combined modern thought process with traditional wisdom backed by intense spiritual enlightenment which enabled him to emerge as the most profound dreamer and visionary of the 20th century, still inspiring the entire Ummah from central Asia to North Africa. It is time we once again refer back to him to respond to the challenges faced by Pakistan and Ummah.
But before that, we need to ponder on his visions and ideals and the mission he aspired for.
Iqbal envisaged Pakistan’s role in two steps:
1. The short term vision was creation of a separate homeland for the Muslims of India to make it a model Islamic state to act as a base to achieve the larger and long term second vision.
2. The second and long term dream of Iqbal was the reformation, renaissance and recapturing the lost glory of the Ummah. He envisioned a united Muslim world, powerful, educated, progressive and moderate, playing a decisive role in global affairs for the betterment of entire humanity. Pakistan was to be the base area to initiate this massive reversal of fortunes after centuries of retreat and defeats of the Muslim world.
“There should be one Muslim world for the defence of their spiritual and ideological centre of gravity (Haramain). From the shores of Nile to the planes of Central Asia”. Iqbal.
“The visionary people will create new centres of Islamic civilization
I am not looking towards Kufa and Baghdad for guidance and leadership”
Iqbal.
The Role of Quaid-e-Azam:
Quaid-e-Azam was handpicked by Iqbal to fulfil his first dream. Quaid was not a visionary per se but was a brilliant executor of Iqbal’s vision, with leadership qualities fit for the mammoth task of carving out a Muslim base area under the resistance of hostile forces of British Empire and Hindu conspirators. Iqbal’s choice was stunningly correct.
But the physical role of Quaid-e-Azam ended soon after the creation of Pakistan. He shared and was inspired by Iqbal on the future of Pakistan but did not have time to complete it. The geographic boundaries of Pakistan were created but spiritual, ideological and visionary goals need some time to complete.
Pakistan’s unfinished destiny:
Under the vision of Iqbal, it is the destiny of Pakistan to become the leader of the Muslim world to unite the Ummah, lead the charge to reformation and progress and reclaim the lost glory of the Ummah to play decisive role in the affairs of the modern world today. Seems like an impossible task but destined nevertheless.
Great nations have great dreams and greater perseverance to achieve the impossible. Our nation needs hope, it needs self respect and dignity more than anything else. All else would automatically follow.
Secular and liberal western extremism and radical thinking cannot be fought with religious extremism. Without arming ourselves with enlightened and benevolent ideological principles of Quran and Sunnah as explained by Iqbal, the hold of the radicals – both secular and religious — cannot be broken, nor can the moral authority be achieved domestically and globally within the Ummah.
Defining and projecting the ideological parameters in all aspects of national and international life is neither extremism nor a path of confrontation but truly a path of moderation within the country and a strategy of benevolent defiance and honourable co-existence with other countries and civilizations.
Under the spearhead and encompassing envelope of ideological vision and parameters drawn from the Khilafat-e-Rashida, would emerge our defence strategy, economic goals, foreign policy, governance methodologies and social welfare and social justice programs, all flowing from the fountainhead of ideological pillar of Khilafat-e-Rashida and having their own set of goals and visions to be achieved.
The following four points represent the vision to become the guiding beacon for all national policies and strategies for future. This is the greater, finer and magnanimous interpretation of Iqbal and Islam in modern time which will make sense to even the most severe critics.
• Pakistan as a leader of the Muslim world taking charge of all the global Muslim issues.
• Pakistan as the powerful Islamic nuclear power with solid homeland defence.
• Pakistan as an Islamic welfare State modelled on the pattern of Khilafat-e- Rashida with emphasis on social justice, social welfare and equitable distribution of wealth. Maintaining and defending its Islamic ideology and character while rejecting the extremisms of all kinds either religious or secular liberalist.
• Pakistan acting as a bridge between various civilizations – between Islam and West, Islam and China. Dealing with dominant and power nations on the basis of honourable co-existence based on ‘Sura Kafirun’.
It is also time to protect and project our core Islamic values and identity. Without Islamic ideology and identity, there is and will be no Pakistan. Our ideological frontiers must be guarded just like our geographical boundaries and nuclear assets with similar jealousy and responsibility.
Islam is a complete and supreme ideology and does not need to borrow its morality, economy and politics from the West or the East for completion. We in Pakistan do not wish to adopt the morals, values, culture and faith of other civilizations despite loud noises by some “liberal” thinkers. We only need to protect, cultivate and project our own values based on our own universal faith.
For example, which model for emancipation of women do the extremists of both camps want us to follow, The American model, the western model, the Indian model or the Taliban model? Shall we make our women abused, humiliated and sexually exploited object of fun of the West and Bollywood or shall we make them as suppressed and restricted as the women of Taliban? In short we reject all of these models as none of these is balanced. We would rather want to implement the model given to us by our faith, values and ideology as practiced in early days of Khilafat-e- Rashida. I agree that we have to go a long way but it is Muslims who have to be blamed not Islam for the weaknesses. We definitely do not need to amalgamate Islam with other ideologies to make it “perfect”. Yes, we do need to revive the institution of Ijtihad to meet the challenges of the present times and environments but that remains within the permissible boundaries of Quran and Sunnah.
If Islam suppresses women then how it can be explained that Islam is the fastest growing religion in America with western women being the maximum number of converts towards Islam leaving behind their “liberated” western values and culture? What peace and serenity is that modern westerners are finding in the Islam which our own “liberals” are finding hard to digest or explain?
The declaration of divinely given moderate Policy of honourable co-existence between civilizations:
Sura-Kafiroon is a brief Surah in Quran. This six verse Surah is the most incredible and concise declaration of foreign policy of an Islamic state for mutual honourable co-existence within the community of nations in the world. It says literally:
“Please announce to all those who do not deliberately accept Islam as their code of life. I will not worship what you worship nor would you worship what I worship. Nor will I ever worship what you worship nor would you ever worship what I worship. You follow your code of life; I follow my code of life”
Interpretation for modern times as policy of dignified co-existence for all nations based on true principles of Islam:
The Islamic civilization in general and the Islamic State in particular would like to make a policy statement to all other contemporary civilizations and nations states co-existing in the world from various religious and cultural divide who do not share Islam as their code of life and article of faith.
The Islamic State announce that Islam and Muslims do not wish to adopt the faith, values, culture, policies, morals, manners, laws and etiquettes of non-Muslim civilizations and countries. We also acknowledge that all non-Muslim civilizations and countries would also not adopt the faith, values, culture, morals, values and laws of the Islamic civilization and Islamic countries.
We also wish to pronounce in no uncertain terms that this declaration of policy is for all times to come and is an irrevocable, non-negotiable statement and Muslims and Islamic civilization would never adopt the value systems of other civilizations and countries. We also fully respect and acknowledge the right of all other existing civilizations that they too have all the right to follow their own set of values and articles of faith for all times to come without any compulsion to follow the code of life of Islamic civilization and Islamic state.
Islamic civilization and Islamic state acknowledge the right of all other existing civilizations and countries to honourably co-exist and follow their own set of faith, values and ideology. Islamic State also expect all other civilizations to reciprocate the same spirit and accept the right of Islamic civilization to follow, implement and practice its own set of values and laws in the domain of its influence. All sides would respect and tolerate each other and would abstain from coercion, blackmail, influence, and threat to other civilization to impose its own version of faith, values and code of life on the others. Muslims and Islamic countries would live in peace and would expect others to live in peace too but would resist and counter with full force all attempts by any other existing civilization or faith to impose its version of code of life on Islamic countries or civilizations. Our final advice to all civilizations would be to live and let live with dignity, honour, respect and mutual sharing and assistance. This will guarantee global peace and progress for all humanity as one large diverse community of humanity.
And in the end to quote from Iqbal once again:
“Makkah has sent a message to Geneva,
What is better? United nations or United Humanity?”
Within the community of nations and within Pakistan, Khilafat e Rashida model of governance is the manifest destiny which awaits us, Inshallah.
(To support our central theme of this policy paper, we have heavily relied upon a speech and concepts by Dr. Mahathir Muhammad. Our special thanks to him for his precious input)
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