Quixotic Concepts
The aircraft was in extreme turbulence. There was something terribly wrong. The jerks were horrendous. Passengers were in panic. All of a sudden a voice broke in, “Dear Passengers! Nothing to worry about. Everything will be alright. The weather is pleasant. If you look out of your windows, you will see a beautiful boat down in the sea. I am addressing you from the same boat.”
I am quoting this amusing anecdote to explain a tragic paradox. A growing number of religious luminaries who exhort Muslim masses to shun everything Western, are settling in the same West. Allama Tahir ul Qadri is headquartered in Canada. Al-Huda fame Dr. Farhat Hashmi has been fighting with Canadian judiciary to make that “non-Muslim” country her new home. My friend Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal too has preferred Canada over 57 Muslim countries. He talks of “ten long years filled with those stark realities and the eventual painful squeeze” which resulted in his departure from Pakistan. Well, barring less than 5 cent of them, Pakistanis as a whole are even more squeezed in but they are not as lucky as Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal who now addresses his countrymen who are trapped in the ill-fated airliner.
When Muzaffar Iqbal wants us to ‘imagine’ a union of Muslim states, it is nothing more than a mere imagination. He claims that ‘its rationale is built upon solid logic and clearly delineated arguments’ but unfortunately he puts forward no logic and no argument. A union of Muslim states is a utopia, a fantasy. First, there has never been any such union in any phase of Muslim history. That Ottoman Empire covered the largest belt of Muslim population or Middle East was part of a single administrative unit under the Ottomans, is nothing more than a self defeating nostalgia. Ottoman and other such “Caliphates” were in fact dynasties sustaining themselves on the basis of conspiracies, tyrannies and exploitation of masses. Muzaffar uses the terms of empire and caliphate alternatively for Ottomans and bewails that the Caliphate was ended by “that terrible drunkard” in 1924. Interestingly, Maulana Maudoodi, the arch architect of “political Islam,” a term used very fondly by Muzaffar, wrote a book (Khilafat – o – Mulookiyat) elaborating as to how the Caliphate, after death of Hazrat Ali, was converted into monarchy.
Secondly, the idea of such a union, in all probability, will remain a myth and the ground realities indicate that. Close of the century has witnessed establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. On the other hand, Syria attacked Jordan in 1970 and occupied Lebanon in 1976. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 and occupied Kuwait in 1990. Both the parts of Yemen fought with each other for a decade. Pakistan broke into two halves. Rich Arab states of Middle East look askance at Iran’s nuclear capability and Israel’s threat to destroy this capability provides them a cozy feeling.
Quixotic concepts like Muslim unity are taking the spotlight awayfrom crucial issues like backwardness of Muslim world in education, science and technology. It is this ignominious sub-normality which is “the greatest tragedy that has fallen upon the Muslim community.” Literacy in Christian world stands at nearly 90 percent and average literary rate in a Muslim majority state is not more than 40 percent. Muslim countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The U.S. has 4000 and Japan has 5000 scientists per million. Look at this from another angle. Muslims have not come up with a single discovery or invention during last 500 years. Railway, electricity, automobile, aero plane, life saving drugs, vaccines, dialysis machine, telephone, television, refrigerator, internet, even hanger and ambulance have been gifted to humanity by Jews and Christians.
Out of 57 Muslim states, there is not a single state to which Muslims can emigrate. On the contrary, millions of Muslims have adopted USA, Canada, France, UK, Spain, Australia and other developed countries as their new home in search of rule of law, better education prospects for their next generations and a respectable living. The primitive land ownership pattern, illiteracy, corruption, political instability, moral decline, lack of equal opportunities, and many other social ills in Muslim world are pushing more and more Muslims to non Muslim “Kaafir” countries! In this backdrop, proposing a union or confederation of Muslim states is meaningless.
Muazaffar Iqbal taunts “others” for having ‘no grounding in Arabic’. With his grounding in Arabic Dr.Iqbal should know that his favorite term, “political Islam” is not valid vis-a-vis Quran, hadith and fiqh (jurisprudence). Islam cannot be divided into political and non political Islam. What an irony that scholars like Javed Ghamdi who do have “grounding in Arabic” have to leave the country because of threat to their lives by protagonists of political Islam!
I am quoting this amusing anecdote to explain a tragic paradox. A growing number of religious luminaries who exhort Muslim masses to shun everything Western, are settling in the same West. Allama Tahir ul Qadri is headquartered in Canada. Al-Huda fame Dr. Farhat Hashmi has been fighting with Canadian judiciary to make that “non-Muslim” country her new home. My friend Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal too has preferred Canada over 57 Muslim countries. He talks of “ten long years filled with those stark realities and the eventual painful squeeze” which resulted in his departure from Pakistan. Well, barring less than 5 cent of them, Pakistanis as a whole are even more squeezed in but they are not as lucky as Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal who now addresses his countrymen who are trapped in the ill-fated airliner.
When Muzaffar Iqbal wants us to ‘imagine’ a union of Muslim states, it is nothing more than a mere imagination. He claims that ‘its rationale is built upon solid logic and clearly delineated arguments’ but unfortunately he puts forward no logic and no argument. A union of Muslim states is a utopia, a fantasy. First, there has never been any such union in any phase of Muslim history. That Ottoman Empire covered the largest belt of Muslim population or Middle East was part of a single administrative unit under the Ottomans, is nothing more than a self defeating nostalgia. Ottoman and other such “Caliphates” were in fact dynasties sustaining themselves on the basis of conspiracies, tyrannies and exploitation of masses. Muzaffar uses the terms of empire and caliphate alternatively for Ottomans and bewails that the Caliphate was ended by “that terrible drunkard” in 1924. Interestingly, Maulana Maudoodi, the arch architect of “political Islam,” a term used very fondly by Muzaffar, wrote a book (Khilafat – o – Mulookiyat) elaborating as to how the Caliphate, after death of Hazrat Ali, was converted into monarchy.
Secondly, the idea of such a union, in all probability, will remain a myth and the ground realities indicate that. Close of the century has witnessed establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. On the other hand, Syria attacked Jordan in 1970 and occupied Lebanon in 1976. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 and occupied Kuwait in 1990. Both the parts of Yemen fought with each other for a decade. Pakistan broke into two halves. Rich Arab states of Middle East look askance at Iran’s nuclear capability and Israel’s threat to destroy this capability provides them a cozy feeling.
Quixotic concepts like Muslim unity are taking the spotlight awayfrom crucial issues like backwardness of Muslim world in education, science and technology. It is this ignominious sub-normality which is “the greatest tragedy that has fallen upon the Muslim community.” Literacy in Christian world stands at nearly 90 percent and average literary rate in a Muslim majority state is not more than 40 percent. Muslim countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The U.S. has 4000 and Japan has 5000 scientists per million. Look at this from another angle. Muslims have not come up with a single discovery or invention during last 500 years. Railway, electricity, automobile, aero plane, life saving drugs, vaccines, dialysis machine, telephone, television, refrigerator, internet, even hanger and ambulance have been gifted to humanity by Jews and Christians.
Out of 57 Muslim states, there is not a single state to which Muslims can emigrate. On the contrary, millions of Muslims have adopted USA, Canada, France, UK, Spain, Australia and other developed countries as their new home in search of rule of law, better education prospects for their next generations and a respectable living. The primitive land ownership pattern, illiteracy, corruption, political instability, moral decline, lack of equal opportunities, and many other social ills in Muslim world are pushing more and more Muslims to non Muslim “Kaafir” countries! In this backdrop, proposing a union or confederation of Muslim states is meaningless.
Muazaffar Iqbal taunts “others” for having ‘no grounding in Arabic’. With his grounding in Arabic Dr.Iqbal should know that his favorite term, “political Islam” is not valid vis-a-vis Quran, hadith and fiqh (jurisprudence). Islam cannot be divided into political and non political Islam. What an irony that scholars like Javed Ghamdi who do have “grounding in Arabic” have to leave the country because of threat to their lives by protagonists of political Islam!
(A truncated version of this article appeared in daily TheNews of 15 March 2012 which can be seen here)