POLITICAL ISLAM & IT'S PROPONENTS

POLITICAL ISLAM & IT'S PROPONENTS Root Cause of Terrorism A TERRORIST is not created in his mother’s womb. It takes an environment of hatred—a whole jungle of hatred—to bring him into existence. The present community of Muslims has unfortunately provided such an environment. How did this hatred grow? For one, it is the extensive proliferation of a particular ideology among Muslims—a political interpretation of Islam, that offered Muslims the status of God’s vicegerants on earth, with the right to rule the world on His behalf. Islam was the world’s leading civilization in the period between the decline of ancient civilizations and the ascent of modern European ones. But ultimately, Western colonial powers established their dominance over the Muslim world. Political movements were launched in the name of Islam as a reaction to this domination. Their objective was to free Muslim countries from Western rule and to re-establish Muslim rule. It was Syed Jamaluddin Afghani, born in Iran in 1838, who probably developed the concept of Islamic nationalism for the first time. During his lifetime, the colonial expansion of the West was at its peak and almost the entire Muslim world had, directly or indirectly, come under its rule. Jamaluddin Afghani made it his mission to bring down the colonial system and restore the political power of Muslim nations. Towards this end, he launched the movement known as Pan-Islamism. It aimed to bring together Muslims across the world to form a united international power, which would defeat Western nations and set the Muslim world free from their clutches. Jamaluddin Afghani may have failed to achieve his political target but he successfully sowed the seeds of hatred for Western nations in Muslim minds. Muslims in general came to regard Western nations as their enemies. Most Muslim leaders of his time thought in negative and political terms. Prominent of these were Sayyid Qutb and Amir Shakib Arsalan in the Arab world, Muhammad Iqbal and Sayyed Abul ala Maududi in the Indian subcontinent, and later Ayatullah Khomeini in Iran. If you read the Quran, nowhere in it will you find any mention of 'political Islam'. The Quran contains neither information nor injunctions which could lead to the setting up of a political system.