Mr. Don Joshua raised some issues about violence perpetrated by Muslims and general indifference of Muslim masses towards this violence. Mr. Javed I. Chaudry, in his response gave a clean bill of health to the Muslims saying that all violence perpetrated by Muslims is reactionary and the fundamental blame lies with the western world’s warlords. This is quite an uninformed analysis. Mr. Chaudry either doesn’t know or has ignored the fact that much of this violence is firmly rooted in Islamic theology as expounded by various Muslim scholars who were neither reactionary nor illiterates. Actually, It would be safe to assume that these scholars knew a lot more about Islam than the people on this forum who are always trying to present the benign image of Islam.  It’s true that a lot of this violence is reactionary. It is also true that the mobs setting buildings on fire in various Muslim countries these days comprise of largely uneducated masses but that is an incomplete picture.

Al-Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat Islami and various other Islamic religious organizations are fashioned after the thoughts of people like Syyed Qutb and Maulana Maududi. These people didn’t suggest that one must rise up against West because West is cruel or brutal. These gentlemen said that Islam must dominate the world in any case. Syyed Qutb, thru out his work, preached armed struggle against the West (Dar-ul-Harb) to bring it under Islamic banner (Dar-ul-Islam). In his book, Milestones, he wrote that people usually objected to his teachings saying that Islam only allows defensive wars. Qutb’s reply was: if that is the case then we need to change the definition of defensive war. He argued that the rule of humans is inherently flawed and cruel and it’s the duty of Muslims to perpetuate Jihad against non-Muslim governments all over the world to “liberate” humanity from human rule and bring it under Allah’s rule. People who answered the call of Syyed Qutb were not uneducated people. Osama Bin Laden and Eman Al-Zawahiri are followers of Syyed Qutb’s ideology. Hizb-ut-Tehreer’s spokesman in UK is another of Qutb followers. Recently he was interviewed on the television and when he was asked why doesn’t his organization adopt democratic methods to address the issues, his reply was that the democracy was man-made system and his conviction was to overthrow all such systems. Needless to say that it was democracy that allowed him to make such a statement.

Al-Muhajiroon is another well-known Muslim fundamentalist organization operating primarily out of United Kingdom. In 2003, they celebrated what they call the "Magnificent 19", the 9/11 hijackers. They publicly issued a statement that they were praying for another 9/11. Were they just reacting to Western atrocities? Here is the pertinent part of the public statement that they issued on the occasion.

"We pray that the reverberations of the attacks two years ago will continue until the eradication of all man-made law and the implementation of divine law in the form of the Khilafah"

Please point me to the reactionary sentiment in the statement.

Moving on,  Maulana Maududi writes in his book “Al-Jihad fil-Islam” [translated by Prof. Kurshid Ahmad. All emphases mine]

“Islam wishes to do away with all states and governments which are opposed to the ideology and program of Islam. The purpose of Islam is to set up a state on the basis of this ideology and program, regardless of which nation assumes the role of standard-bearer of Islam, and regardless of the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic state. Islam requires the earth — not just a portion, but the entire planet — not because the sovereignty over the earth should be wrested from one nation or group of nations and vested in any one particular nation, but because the whole of mankind should benefit from Islam, and its ideology and welfare program. It is to serve this end that Islam seeks to press into service all the forces which can bring about such a revolution. The term which covers the use of all these forces is ‘Jihad’. To alter people’s outlook and spark a mental and intellectual revolution is a form of Jihad. To change the old tyrannical system and establish a just new order by the power of the sword is also Jihad, as is spending wealth and undergoing physical exertion for this cause.” [Do you see the similarities in GW Bush's justification for war on Iraq and Maududi's rationale of the war on the entire planet?]

At another place in the same book, Maududi writes, “Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and program of Islam.”

Do you see a single reactionary thought in the above passages? One can say that that is the opinion of one person but that would be a gross understatement since Maududi was one of the most influential Islamic scholars in the second half of last century (or maybe the entire century). Muslim scholars all over the world sought his opinion on all theological matters. He had an instrumental ideological role in Anti-Ahmedi riots in 1950s. The likes of Mr. Chaudry may shrug those riots off as nothing but doings of uneducated masses, not recognizing that the murder of the apostate is a unanimous tenet of all Islamic jurisprudence schools and these uneducated masses were doing nothing but acting on their theological beliefs.

In presence of these writings and the followings these names command, I fail to understand how one can totally dismiss the Muslim violence dubbing it as “reactionary”. It sure is an effect and the cause in many cases is the religious beliefs of these people. Any different analysis is just an illusion.

Mr. Najeeb Kazmi is absolutely right, in my opinion, when he says that this is not just a war between an oppressor and reactionaries. It is a war for power. Muslims have had their share of being imperialist powers and now the cycle has turned against them. The West certainly exploits the third world, and not just the Muslim world, with all the means at its disposal (and all of us at this forum have moved to the Western world to share the benefits of this exploitation) but at least it does it for it’s people. The other group just wants to dominate the world because the guy in the sky has told them to.

 Regards,

 Rafi