Latest Updates: political islam RSS

  • johnpi 3:55 pm on December 28, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , political islam, ,

    Prophet Mohammad’s promise to the Christians.

    In 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery came to Prophet Muhammed and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of rights, which I reproduce below in its entirety. St. Catherine’s Monastery is located at the foot of Mt. Sinai and is the world’s oldest monastery. It possesses a huge collection of Christian manuscripts, second only to the Vatican, and is a world heritage site. It also boasts the oldest collection of Christian icons. It is a treasure house of Christian history that has remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection.

    The Promise to St. Catherine:

    “This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them.

    Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by God! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

    No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.

    Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

    No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.

    No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world).”

     

  • buzz 3:21 pm on November 18, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , political islam,

    I have been thinking about the question of influential people in Islam and who has the right to speak on behalf of Islam. This led me to an article in the American Muslim today. There is a legal battle in Malaysia where authorities are attempting to silence some self-proclaimed cleric:

    The Sharia authorities in the Malaysian state of Selangor have charged the former Mufti of Perlis, Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, of preaching Islam without a permit to do so. For Malaysian-watchers worldwide, this case will be seen as a litmus test for Malaysia, the Najib administration, the government and Sharia authorities of Selangor (now under the control of the Pakatan Rakyat), and the state of Islamic praxis in Malaysia in general. The outcome of the case will tell us where Islam is heading in a country that has for some time now been seen and cast as an exemplary model of normative Islam at work. But is it really?

    Former Mufti Asri’s ‘crime’, if one could even call it that, was to preach Islam without an official permit. But in the course of the past few weeks the man himself has been vilified by his critics and accused of being – among other things – a Wahabi Muslim as well.

    It is an interesting debate. I can see how some who are drawn to anarchy would also be drawn to Islam. It has a very decentralized nature with only a Transcendent God and an anti-iconic Holy Prophet to hold it together. Islam is ….whatever they say it is. Politics. Activism. Terrorism. Mysticism. Etc. 

    (More …)

     

  • johnpi 10:00 pm on September 30, 2009 | 4 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , political islam

    ‘There’s nothing Islamic about a state.’

    In his new book, Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Sharia, the Sudanese-born academic Professor Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im points out: “You will not find any reference to an Islamic state or to state enforcement of sharia before the mid-20th century – it’s a post-colonial discourse based on a European-style state.”

    Many Muslims fall back on a romanticised view of the very first community of believers in 7th-century Medina, ruled by the Prophet himself, and cite it admiringly as their precedent for an Islamic state, but this approach is flawed. First, any historical precedent that revolves around the presence of a divinely guided prophet-as-political-leader seems wholly irrelevant, in an era in which we have no divinely guided prophet to lead us.

    Second, the Medina “state” should be seen as a purely political and pragmatic, rather than Islamic or religious, construct. The celebrated pact that the Prophet signed with the various tribes of Medina involved the non-Muslims of the city – chief among them the Jews, who were granted formal equality with the Muslims – recognising only his political and temporal, rather than his religious or spiritual, authority. As the historian Bernard Lewis puts it: “Muhammad became a statesman in order to accomplish his mission as a prophet, not vice versa.”

    Third, Medina lacked fixed borders, a standing army, a police force, permanent civil servants, government ministries, foreign ambassadors and a public treasury. To pretend that it can serve as a practical model for the large, complex, post-industrial societies of the 21st century is fanciful.

     

  • johnpi 6:24 pm on July 30, 2009 | 5 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , political islam,

    Religion, secularism working in tandem in Bangladesh.

    Secular governance not reducing importance citizens place on religion.

    Despite the return to power of Bangladesh’s Awami League – the political party that won in December 2008 on a platform of secularism, reform, and a suppression of radical Islamist groups – religiosity is by no means waning in the world’s seventh most populous country. A Gallup Poll of Bangladesh conducted this year finds practically all Bangladeshis saying that religion is an important part of their daily lives (100%) – relatively unchanged from the three previous Gallup Polls of Bangladesh.
    ….

    It seems as though the general population is further defining the roles of politics and religion in their country by drawing a distinct line between the two. Support for the secular Awami League, according to Time magazine, is as high as it was when they won an overwhelming victory in the pivotal 1970 election that led to the war of independence from Pakistan. At the same time, religiosity remains strong in this country of nearly 90% Muslims: More people claim to have attended a religious service in 2009 than in years past, and confidence in religious organizations has increased over the years.

    The current government defines the country as “secular with a majority Muslim population,” and not officially as a Muslim state.

     

  • johnpi 8:37 pm on May 9, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Mideast oil, , , political islam

    David Sanger reviews Juan Coles’ new book, “Engaging the Muslim World,” which he describes thusly:

    …this field guide to the politics of modern Islam traces the history of the different movements, whose violent offshoots are still morphing into new forms. Along the way, Cole, a historian at the University of Michigan, explores what he sees as the twin dynamic of “Islam Anxiety” in the United States and “American Anxiety” in the Arab world.

    Readers of Cole’s blog, Informed Comment, will find many of the arguments familiar, though they are well assembled here, with essays on the myths surrounding Saudi Wahhabism, the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the unintended side effects of American meddling in Iran. Cole starts his book in the right place: America’s addiction to Middle Eastern oil, which has skewed policy and often led us to support dictators we would ordinarily put on the list of human-rights violators. (The Saudis would probably qualify.) And he declares a truth that should be sobering to President Obama: “The fact is that we are likely to become more dependent on Islamic oil in the coming decades, not less,” he writes, noting that 11 of the top 15 exporters of oil are countries with Muslim majorities.

     

  • johnpi 8:49 am on April 25, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , political islam, , religious political parties

    Islamist political movement ebbing in Indonesia.

    Once the Islamic parties were in office, their pristine image was tarnished after several of their lawmakers were prosecuted in corruption cases. One member of the Prosperous Justice Party is under investigation in a bribery case.

    The parties angered many Indonesians by pressing hard on several symbolic religious issues, like a vague “anti-pornography” law that could be used to ban everything from displays of partial nudity to yoga. The governor of West Java, a member of the Prosperous Justice Party, tried to ban a dance called jaipong, deeming it too erotic, but many people view it as part of their cultural heritage.

    The Islamists’ best issues were clean government and anti-corruption. When these issues rise again in the public consciousness and the taint of their own scandals is forgotten, the Islamists will probably regain some popularity, and that’s great. That’s democracy. Remove democracy from the picture and you would have an oxymoronic government of corrupt Islamists with no means to make them restrain themselves.

     

  • thabet 1:53 pm on April 23, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: critique, , political islam, sadia dehlvi

    This is a silly comment by Sadia Dehlvi:

    The roots of all modern militant Islamic movements can be traced to one man called Abdul Wahab from Nejd in the Arabian Peninsula.

    I can sympathise with her intent in that article, but it just poorly researched and ultimately nonsense. For example, who is “Abdul Wahhab”? Does she mean Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab? They’re two different people.

    I also find it hard to believe one man can be responsible for dozens of groups around the world and across time.

    Let’s hope the author’s new book is a little better researched.

     

  • johnpi 8:11 am on January 26, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , political islam

    I don’t recall seeing Wajahat Ali’s Huffpo piece on political Islam being linked here, but here it is (again), just in case.

    A lovely quote:

    “One thing to keep in mind is that ‘Islam doesn’t speak, Muslims do.’”

     

  • aziz 12:49 pm on December 15, 2008 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , political islam

    new paper on Islamists seeking political power:

    …find[s] the groups increasingly torn between the compromising demands of participatory government and maintaining ideological purity to appeal to their core supporters. The report concludes that Islamists that are free from the constant threat of repression by the state are far more likely to moderate their views and play by democratic rules.

    original paper here (PDF)

     

c
compose new post
j
next post/next comment
k
previous post/previous comment
r
reply
e
edit
o
show/hide comments
t
go to top
esc
cancel