By : Abdul Qadir
Muslims throughout the world celebrated on Monday the birthday of Prophet Muhamad s.a.w. who was born on 12 Rabi ulAwal in the Year of the Elephant [June 8, 570 AD]. There were processions, lectures, syair and music expressing deep love for him.Several governments and politicians in the Muslim states have capitalised the celebration to show their ‘commitment’ to Islam,while violating its basic teachings.Muslims, on this auspicious day, should reflect on his life and teachings, and the state of the Muslim world.
The Prophet s.a.w was sent by Allah as a mercy and blessing to allHis creation – humankind, animals, birds, microorganisms and all of nature. Allah sent the Qur’an as a guidance to humankind to live in harmony with fellow humans and nature, in preparation for the akhirat.
The Qur’an’s revolutionary message La IlahaIllAllah – there is no God but Allah – reverberated throughout the world and struck fear in the hearts of tyrants and oppressors. Societies must be built on submission to God, piety, freedom and social justice. Within a short period, the Qur’anic call spread to the four corners of the world and produced a great civilization whose influence still remains. The Muslim Ummah must be the model for the world, enjoining good and forbidding evil.
But what is the state of the Muslim Ummah today?
A great turbulence is sweeping across the Muslim world. Muslims are killing Muslims with the help of the enemies of the Islamic awakening. In Syria, the Assad-Baathist regime and the takfiris have killed over 400,000 Syrians; forced 4.8 million to become refugees and 6.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) from a total population of just over 20 million. Half the Syrian population are either refugees or IDPs. This is what the Russian TV, recently, called the war for the liberation of Syria from terrorists. With the fall of Aleppo into the hands of the Baathist dictatorship the future looks grim for the Syrian people .
Since March 2015, the Saudi coalition forces, supported by the United States and Britain, have been raining bombs on populated areas in Yemen. The bombings had damaged or destroyed medical centers, schools, mosques, factories and homes.More than 10,000 people have been killed and over 3 million driven from their homes. The bombings and the sea blockade of Yemen have produced a horrible humanitarian disaster there.
The latest UNICEF report published on Monday states that one child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen because of malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory-tract infections. More than 400,000 children are at risk of starvation, with nearly 2.2 million in need of urgent care. An estimated 18.8 million people are in need of some kind of assistance or protection in order to meet their basic needs, including 10.3 million who are in acute need. Yemen is one of the poorest nations with a population of around 27 million people.
The 2003 US occupation of Iraq has done irreparable harm to Iraqi society. It, not only destroyed Iraq’s socio-economic infrastructure, but, worse still, entrenched sectarianism in all the major national institutions –government, judiciary, army, police and the bureaucracy. It ruptured the Iraqi social fabric resulting in sectarian identity acquiring precedence over national identity.
The Iraqi government has failed to unite its people and solve the poverty and deprivation experienced by the majority, and the rampant corruption in the government.According to UN reports, 10 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and 3.1 million are internally displaced out of a population of around 33 million.It has formed a coalition with the imperialist US to free Mosul from Daesh, a product of the US occupation, Assad and Maliki regimes, but refused participation by Turkey, a Muslim nation, in the operation.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate are promoting counter-revolutions in the Arab world to contain the Islamic awakening. They funded the military coup in Egypt that overthrew President Morsi, the first elected Egyptian president through a fair and free elections acknowledged by the international community.Bashar Assad enthusiastically welcomed the coup saying political Islam is dead.
President al Sisi of Egypt and the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are colluding with Israel to destroy the Palestinian resistance to Zionist occupation of their homeland.The neo-con portal The National Interest (January 5, 006)wrote:
“Although Israel and the GCC do not have full diplomatic relations, the Gulf Arab monarchies have maintained informal relations with the Jewish state for decades. Saudi Arabia and Israel established back-channel communications during Sheikh Kamal Adham’s tenure as head of Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Directorate (1965-1979)”.
On the special relationship between Egypt and Israel under the al-Sisi regime, Zena Tahhan wrote in Aljazeera “Almost four decades since former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat extended a hand of peace to Israel, the two governments have reached full partnership and unbreakable alliance.”
Muslims in many countries are facing discrimination, violence and hatred. In Myanmar, Buddhist extremis, with the support of the army, are conducting genocide against the Rohingyas with the international community looking on without taking any action to stop the killing of women, children and ordinary people.
In India, the Hindutva fanatics are preaching hatred against Muslims, attacking and killing minorities. Islamophobia is sweeping across the US and Europe. Women wearing hijab, and men having beards, are insulted, ridiculed and physically attacked. Islam and Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. are insulted and denigrated in the social media.
There is no strong Islamic leadership to deal with the many challenges facing the Muslim Ummah. Governments in Muslim states and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) look to Russia, the US and the United Nations dominated by the big powers, to resolve conflicts in the Muslim world. They are unable to defend the Palestinians against Zionist brutality and gross violation of human rights. Baitulmuqaddis, where the third holiest mosque Masjid Al-Aqsa is located, is being Judaised without any effective response from Muslim leaders.
The leaders in many Muslim states have no political legitimacy as they do not rule with the consent of their people. They use the army, the security apparatus and a compliant media to subjugate their people. Political revolution leading to the overthrow of the dictators and hereditary rulers who collude with enemies of Islam is needed for the triumph of the Islamic Awakening. .
We need to build up a string of civil society organizations (CSO) in the Muslim world which can network together to bring about a heightened Ummah consciousness leading to the Islamic transformation of Muslim states and effectively responding to the challenges and threats coming from the hegemonic forces.
14 Rabi ul-Awwal [December 14, 2016]
