What a common Muslim thinks of ISIS Terror?

        Paris attack last week (November 13, 2015) came as a shocker for the Muslims of India, who are already living under watching eyes of their friends and neighbors for their ‘inherent qualities’ of eating beef, ‘love jihad’, ‘intolerant and violent nature’, ‘keeping more than one wife’ and ‘breeding like pigs—which ultimately led to increase in their population growth percentage which is more than that of Hindus’. This attack has further added suspicion and has created a trust deficit among the communities. Many groups organized silent marches in support of Paris all over the country the same day. Everyone was almost more than ready to condemn the barbaric attack in whatever capacity and manner they could have done. Whereas some others, while standing with Parisians in this hour of grief, also questioned the selective pain for Paris as other cities in Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey also suffered such attacks within 36 hours of Paris attack. While all these activities were going on in public spaces, I wanted to understand the common Muslims’ perspective: what they discuss in tea shops, at barber’s place while waiting for their turn for a hairdo or after disassembling from a formal meeting for a protest against the attack. My methodology was just listening to these people without intervening into the discussion so that I may not, unnecessarily, inject my understanding of the events.  Here is what I gathered from the discussions:

1.    Creation of Dayesh (ISIS)

Photo: The Guardian

The so-called Arab Spring was actively supported by the West and French, the former colonial masters of the region were more than active in it. The way the ISIS fighters, as their propaganda videos show, run their tanks and possess all the military skills of handling sophisticated weapons and the weapon itself say it loudly that these fighters have been trained by the West intelligence or the defense departments. The West funded and fuelled the rebels of Syria and Iraq with weapons and training to overthrow the Asad regime, who in turn sought help from Shia fighters. This multiplied the problems of the region and neither the Asad regime was toppled nor the rebels remained in the hands of the West. It is a problem with the West that when they do not find a regime of their choice they seek a violent regime change, especially in the Middle East (read Muslim countries). In Egypt, first they toppled the Mubarak regime and elections were held, what happened then?, Muslim Brotherhood came into power, Morsi (an elected President), who represented nativists and orthodox Muslims was again toppled to suit the West. Morsi could have again created Suez Canal crisis for Britain and France like Iran did with the oil fields contracts after the Islamic Revolution. Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Husein and the Taliban all were creations of Cold War, where their strategy was to invoke the name of religion and jihad to fight their war as foot soldiers.

2.          The Arab Spring could have been dealt with differently: Rise of Arab Spring was hailed by one and all, but nobody was ready to pay any heed to the danger of the rightist political groups such as Banna inspired Muslim Brotherhood. If the people were not happy with their respective governments, they must have been left to protest peacefully, they must have been given moral support. UN must have kept a watch on the situation and it should have taken actions if required, but rebels must not have been armed to match the might of their governments. These groups did not get time to mature their movements, the unparalleled armament and money left them unbridled. They started advancing their own personal ambitions. After all, Burma is on the verge of becoming a democratic country and all these happened with peaceful protests and demands of the people of Burma without any active support from foreign powers. It took time, but this transition would be relatively peaceful. They have some problems, but they have a tradition of mass mobilization and people’s intervention, they will handle these peacefully. What be the need of providing monetary and strategic help to the rebels? They do it for the values of democracy? Why states like North Korea, China, and Saudi Arabia are not visible to them? Why don’t they fund and encourage people from these countries to throw their oppressive regimes? 

                

3.        What ISIS wants :  ISIS is either a group of mindless youths, who have no knowledge of basics of Islam or the reincarnation of the ‘kharjites’ (khariji, a group emerged during the last days of pious caliphates, who were responsible for bringing down the pious caliphate and inciting different violent movements within Islam, killing a number of friends and relatives of the Prophet), who are mindlessly killing innocent people to satisfy their hunger for power in the Levant or beyond that. They bear no morality prescribed in Islam, have no faith in Kaba, they talk of destroying it as for them to revering it is idolatrous. They don’t believe in injunctions of even Quran, where it has been prescribed in bold letters that no innocent person be killed and such killing is like the murder of all humanity. But certainly they have their political motive behind all their barbaric acts. With their act of terror: butchering innocent people in front of public and on camera, killing people in their suicide attacks and enslaving and killing of women and children is well-planned policy. They want to heat the grounds for Muslims who are living their lives peacefully all over the world. These acts of theirs with all kind of propaganda are to make Muslims suspicious in the eyes of their friends and neighbors. It is their strategy to make the Muslims insecure in their own homes. So that they are persecuted everywhere and they have no alternative but to leave their peaceful lives. They want all the Muslims to be pushed towards terrorism. ISIS has a very dangerous plan to destabilize the peaceful existence of the Muslims all over the world.   

4.       Refugees: The people fleeing from the war-torn regions have become a problem for the Europe and now after the Paris carnage, the debate of admitting or not admitting the refugees into their territories has become very harsh. While a number of people are standing in their support but the voices against giving refuge to such a huge number has become very loud and a section of the Europeans are against allowing Muslim refugees since they think that these Muslims are a threat to their national security. Indian Muslims are of opinion that the fleeing from their war-torn region is not the solution. It is their duty to fight and struggle into their own countries. If they live and struggle only then they will reach to a solution. Fleeing from their homes is not the solution at all because they are facing much more problems than they could have faced while remaining and struggling for their rights. How can you expect Europe to help you when other nearby Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Quwait and other Middle East countries are not ready to give refuge to you? The people of Syria, Iraq and other affected region should help each other in the time of crisis rather than seeking help from outside world. The organizations/people you are battling with wants you to become refugees and with these tactics only they have become so powerful. Give them a befitting reply by not leaving your home.

It was quite interesting to know the opinion of common Muslims of an international crisis, nearly all of them blamed the West for the present crisis, but at the same time they had a piece of advice for the people of the war-torn zone to resist the terror of ISIS and their likes. People were very much critical of Saudi Arabia and the Arab world, which have not only been hostile to the victims of the crisis but also been a part of the problem itself. ISIS, for them, is not only a problem for the world but they are particularly the greatest danger for the Muslims.

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The question of Islam, ‘Islamists’ and Resistance in the backdrop of Nigerian Crisis

Islam is most often invoked for justifying acts of terror by certain political outfits drawing a picture as if they are the only ‘true’ followers of Islam and those who are against their acts of violence have abandoned their path. In fact, these groups for their goals try to create an atmosphere of terror, which ultimately help them in realising their goal. Most of these groups claim to be the revivalists. The present essay tries to question their idea of revivalism; to which Islam they try to restore; the one which was nourished by the Rashidun Caliphs or the one which Kharajites wanted or the one of Ummaiyyads or the Abbasids. This essay also seeks to show historically, that whatever the political Islam or the orthodoxy preached or expected from the umma, they always faced stiff resistance from an individual or a group from within the community. 

Abduction of Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram and developments since then has shocked the world. World leaders have pledged to help the Nigerian government in locating and liberating them. Recently a tape was released by the Islamist terror outfit, Boko Haram which says that they might sell the girls in slave market. What is shocking is that they invoked names and symbols of religion for justifying their inhuman action. They said that the Western education is sin and the girls should get married as soon they turn twelve.

Since insurgency began, the Boko Haram has carried out attacks on schools, students and teachers in a bid to create a strict Islamic state in the Muslim north of Nigeria. Their targets are mostly schools imparting Western education, which they think is a hurdle in their aim of making the Nigerian north an Islamic state. The group leads a nativist movement based on tribal alignments and rivalries. The group has been responsible for several killings in the region including government officials, students, teachers and Muslim clerics who oppose their activities.  Similar Christian militant group, Niger Delta is active in oil rich Niger delta (Southern Nigeria) and demanding an independent South Nigeria. Clash between these two have claimed several lives in the past. Whatever their political movement means to achieve is not our concern, our concern is their way of realising their goals. 

Photo: thejournal.ie

Islamic God, whatever He had to say has already revealed in His Book, the Holy Quran and He is not in contact with any Boko Haram leader (as the recent video sent by their leader claims) and ordering him to stop people from going to schools or condemning the girls to death or slavery. Islamic politics (I would prefer, Arab politics of different shades), one may argue, have always been aggressive and this very aggression had led the Arabs successfully conquer regions upto Spain. But the voices of dissent from within the community (umma) have always been there against Arbo-Islamic politics.

The third Caliph, Othman (r.644-656) was murdered by a dissenting group. He was charged with favouring people of his own clan in political and government appointments. He was also blamed for not properly distributing the income from Swat region among the people of Medina. It was said that Othman’s rule was not according to the Quranic principle of governance and hence his murder/killing was justified and needed no revenge. This argument convinced Ali (d. 661) the fourth Caliph, who was raised to the post by these dissenting groups. Later on, Ali waged war against the Prophet’s youngest wife, Ayesha and captured her for her opposition to his elevation as Caliph. When Ali agreed to resolve the dispute between him and Muawiya by a treaty, he too was charged with incompetence and later murdered by a group of people known as Kharajites. All these political events made a large number of ordinary Muslims uneasy and though, they accepted Muawiya as the political authority; at the same time they rejected the religious leadership of Muawiya and his successors. Murders of Husayn and his associates at Karbala was a shattering event for the common Muslims. Frustrated commoners turned towards the people who preached love and advocated personal relations to God, the Sufis, who raised their voices individually. But with the dynastic and autocratic evolution of Caliphate these individuals started gaining influence among the masses. Mansur al Hallaj (858-922 CE) preached personal relations with God above any religious rituals; in doing so he said that the ultimate goal is to dissolve oneself into the presence of God. He used to say that, “If you do not recognize God, at least recognize His sign, I am the creative truth —Ana al-Haqq—, because through the truth, I am eternal truth.” He represented the stage of baqa of Sufism as propounded by Ali Hajveri. For Al Hallaj, "Love means to stand next to the Beloved, renouncing oneself entirely and transforming oneself in accordance to Him." (Massignon, 74) He spoke of God as his "Beloved", "Friend" "You," and felt that "his only self was God," to the point that he could not even remember his own name." (Mason, 26) His ideas were against the Caliphal state and for them it represented chaos against the order of God. Therefore, he was accused of heresy and after a trial of 11 years, he was executed. The martyrdom of Mansur al Hallaj was held in high esteem by the contemporary and near contemporary poets and sufis. Farid ud Din Attar (1145-1221 CE) says that when they were taking al Hallaj to court, a Sufi asked him, “Whati is love?” He answered, “You will see it today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow." They killed him that day, burned him the next day and threw his ashes to the wind the day after that. "This is love," Attar says. His legs were cut off, he smiled and said, "I used to walk the earth with these legs, now there's only one step to heaven, cut that if you can." For Muslims, Al Hallaj, even today is a celebrated Martyr. His martyrdom is exemplary for spiritual masters as well as common Muslims even today. Faiz Ahmad Faiz (d.1984) exploits that sentiment when he says:

Bas Naam rahay ga Allah ka 
Jo Ghayab Bhi hai Hazir Bhi

Jo nazir bhi hai manzar bhi

(Then only God's name will remain

Who is both absent and present 

Who is both the observer and the view itself)

Uthay ga Analhaq ka Naara

Jo Main bhi Hun aur Tumbhi ho

(When the anthem of ‘I am the Truth’ will be raised

Who I am and you are as well)

Aur Raaj karay gi khalq-e-Khuda
Jo main bhi hun aur tum bhi ho

(And the people of God will reign 

Who I am and you are as well)

Faiz invoked the utterance of Anal Haque (I am the Truth/God) by Mansur al Hallaj, which had become a symbol of revolt/resistance in Muslim societies to remind that it is not new for us to revolt against the established orders (in his other poem na unki rasm nayee hai na apni reet nayee). 

Islam was understood to be a religion of Arabs and they treated their subjects, even if they were Muslims, differently. The non-Arabs were organized in patron-client relationship with the existing Arab tribes. These non-Arabs were called the maula (pl. mawali) or slave of the Arab tribe which they were tied to for politico-social reasons. Dissenting Arab groups such as the Kharajites (khariji) were against this system in their early phase of existence and talked of unity of the ‘umma. But later on they too changed their position with the beginning of Mawali Movement, which is well-known for their opposition to the Arab supremacy. Abbas Saffa exploited the mawali sentiment against the Arabs and with their help the Ummaiyad rule thrown out and the ‘Abbasid Revolution’ took place, which introduced completely a new system of state modeled on erstwhile Sassanid’s with some modifications. The Abbasids too betrayed the non-Arab cause and introduced regressive Arabisation of society, state and culture. The non-Arab Muslims, particularly Persians resisted this move with full vigor and they started Shubbiya Movement (shubbiya derived from shub, Arab., nation) to keep their Persian language and identity intact. The movement extolled the “Wisdom” of non-Arabs, the Indians, the Greeks, and especially the Iranians in contrast to the lack of culture of the Arabs. The psyche of the Persians can be understood in the words of a Persian commander as related to by Firdausi (c. 1010) of Shahnama fame:

From mere drinkers of camel’s milk and lizard-eaters,

The Arabs have reached such a state

That they are aiming at the Iranian imperial throne

Fie upon thee, fie, O ever-turning Fortune!

In response to the Persian criticism of Arab racism in Islam and politics, the Arabs emphasized that they were the ‘first to produce Islam’ (Irfan Habib 2013). This kind of common Arab attitude and their notion of Islam, which emphasized on the reward in afterlife for obeying God in this world, did not impress more cultured Persians; to them it was a selfish motive. The response to this notion, Rabia of Basra (d.801 CE) gave the idea of ‘disinterested love’ for God. She is reported to have said that, “I am going to light a fire in paradise and pour water in hell, so that the servants of God can see him without any object of Hope or motive of fear.” Rabia is much celebrated women sufi, who has been referred to by several sufis as example for their own teachings. One such example is narrated by Shaikh Nasiruddin Chiragh of Delhi (d. 1356) about her:

“Rabia of Basra possessed much beauty and grace. The principal men of Basra, consisting of scholars and mystics resolved unanimously that this woman, while traversing the path of God, was not to behave like men; it might not happen that Satan led her astray. Thereupon they assembled together and went to Rabia. They told her, a woman however pious must have a husband. She asked the most learned of them to come forward. Upon Khwaja Hasan Basri doing so, she asked him: How was wisdom (aql) divided, at Creation? He replied, “Nine parts were given to men, one to women”. And how, she went on, was lust (shahwat) divided. He said, contrary to that, nine parts of it were given to women, and just one to men. Rabia thereupon countered: One-tenth of wisdom that I possess prevails over nine-tenth of lust that I have got, while the nine-tenths of wisdom that you people have cannot prevail over just one-tenth of lust!” (Hamid Qalandar. 1959, 200-201 c.f. Irfan Habib. 2013)

Rabia’s story, here, became the voice for challenging inherent patriarchy in the Muslim societies, perhaps, of Delhi if not of Basra. Although, Razia Sultan almost a century ago had challenged the patriarchal nobility by becoming an independent Sultan with the help of common Muslims, to whom she requested for help after Friday prayers in Delhi, but unfortunately, she could not hold her position in a hostile environment for long. It was perhaps Razia, who caused the beginning of the debate around patriarchy among the Muslim elites of Delhi.     

Exposition of Sharia law in itself is a story of different politico-intellectual conflicts prevalent in the early umma (Muslim brotherhood).  The succession of early caliphs depended on claimant’s nearness to the Prophet and his piety as described by the companions (of the Prophet). By the time Marwanid Ummaiyads came to power, no one from the companions was alive, therefore the caliphs started patronizing writing of Hadith (traditions), which was related through a chain of proofs. The Quran and the Hadith became the basis of Islamic law and its interpretation became a leading science to be studied. Intellectual pursuit of this kind was also accompanied with philosophical studies. Soon after the conquest of Syria the Arabs started translating Hellenistic literatures into Arabic. These translations crept into the philosophical understanding of the Arabs and influenced religious thought as well. Mutazallite movement is an example of these influences on Islamic thought, which not only tried to understand the cosmology of Islam with reasons but also challenged very basic belief system. They said that the Quran is a part of creature and like any other creature of God has a life-span, thus the Quran can also become irrelevant in future. For some time the Mutazallites had a great influence over some of the caliphs who also unleashed mihna (inquisition) on the people who refused to accept the Mutazallite view.

These influences were not restricted to religious philosophy and theology but it influenced many individuals who did not hesitate in recording their dissent against established orders. Muqaddasi, one of great geographers of Islam, while writing in c. 985 wonders, whether it would not ‘have been better if the vast sums of money spent on mosques had been spent on roads and carvanserais (rest-houses) and frontier fortresses’ (Irfan Habib. 2013).  Abu Raihan Alberuni, the writer of Kitab ul Hind (c. 1035) is well-known for his open mindedness and liberal attitude is very frank in asserting that “To offer to him who has beaten your cheek, the other cheek, also to bless your enemy and to pray for him: Upon my life, this is a noble philosophy.” It is impossible that Alberuni was unaware of that this is not what Muslim theology preaches. His admiration of Bhagvatgita and Vyasa is an exemplary in itself.

The brief survey of history, which I intentionally kept restricted to first five centuries of Islam, narrates the stories of Arabo-Islamic politics and commoners’ response to it. The driving force of Islam, as it is preached, was its emphasis on egalitarianism atleast, among the umma. But, throughout the period of caliphate one notices, the principle hardly been followed. However, it is quite interesting to see that the orthodoxy always faced challenge from one quarter or the other. In the present scenario of Nigerian crisis and their likes, one has to resist and come out against their design to take the society backward. The history remembers those who resist against tyranny.

Na unki rasm nayee hai na apni reet nayee!     

         

References

Massignon, Louis  (1983). "Perspective Transhistorique sur la vie de Hallaj". Parole donnée (Paris: Seuil): 73–97. 

Mason, Herbert (1983). Memoir of a Friend: Louis Massignon. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press

IRFAN HABIB (2013). “Questionings within Religious Thought:

The Experience of Islam”, K. M. Ashraf Memorial Lecture at Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi in 2013.

HAMID QALANDAR (1959), Khairul Majalis, ed. Khaliq Ahmad Nizami. Aligarh 

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