Muslims need to reach beyond the Ummah

By Farish A. Noor

We live in an age where Muslims increasingly see themselves as the victims f an undeclared war on themselves, their religion, their culture and way of life. Increasingly the Muslim world feels itself marginalised, isolated and discriminated against on a global level. The events that followed in the wake of 11 September 2001 have convinced many Muslims that theirs is a persecuted religion and that there is indeed a ‘Clash of Civilisations’ in the making. Muslims now find themselves routinely harrassed, monitored,
policed.

The reaction of the Muslim community has equally been diverse: Some Muslims have opted for the option of ghettoising themselves, closing into parochial and isolated communities with the hope of turning their backs to the world. Others have opted for the opposite extreme, calling on other Muslims to join them in an often indiscriminate ‘jihad’ against the rest of the world, and the West in particular. Faced with the prospect of defeat, Muslims are asking ‘What is the Victory of Islam?’

Here I state my own position on the matter, beginning with a few cautionary qualifications to serve as premises: Let us be clear on this matter: The victory of Islam should NEVER be equated with the victory of Muslims. And the victory of Muslims does not necessarily mean a corresponding victory for Islam…

All too often we hear of Muslim groups that call on their brethren to take part in some or other ill-conceived ‘jihad’ against the West. Often this ‘jihad’ is also directed towards other Muslims whom the pharisees denounce as traitors, apostates and hypocrites, following the logic of takfir. Those who sound this clarion call for aimless violence and bloodshed are often labouring under the mistaken impression that the victory of Islam will be served only when the banners of the Ummah are flying high over the capitals
of Europe and North America. In their naive and shallow understanding of Islam they see a war of all against all as the only solution and regard wanton bloodshed and slaughter as legitimate tools for struggle, regardless of the victims.

Let me pose this question to them and their like-minded ilk: Was the victory of Saddam Hussein over Kuwait a victory of Islam? And was Saddam’s gassing of the Kurds a victory of Islam? And was the slaughter of Shia Muslims at the hands of Mullah Omar’s CIA-funded Taliban a victory of Islam? Not surprisingly, the bloodthirsty hotheads among us have remained silent in such cases when Muslims were blatantly guilty of murdering other Muslims. Why have they been equally silent in cases of Muslim cruelty and violence
meted out upon innocent people of other faiths?

The victory of Islam, it should be noted, is not necessarily the victory of Muslims. The victory of Islam is only secured if and when the universal values of Islam are realised in the wider contex, and Islam’s struggle for justice, human dignity, equality of gender and races, transparency and accountability, are achieved in a wider context that extends beyond the limited frontiers of the Muslim community.

But for this victory to be achieved, Muslims themselves need to look beyond the confines of their own community and to realise the truth uttered by the late Indonesian Islamist Intellectual Nurcholish Madjid who stated that ‘being a Muslim is not like being a member of a club or tribe, it is a state of being, an existential truth.’ We are not a tribe at war against other tribes. There is no membership card to being a Muslim.

Realising this means that Muslims need to acknowledge that their identities are fundamentally socially-constructed and that they are social beings. Society here means Civil Society as a whole, and not simply Muslim society. The tendency of Muslims to hide in their self-made ghettos, turning their backs to a world they deem is hostile, is not only analytically false, but morally unsound and ultimately self-defeating.

Today the Muslim world feels itself held captive to a host of variable factors beyond our control. The most devastating of these is the discourse of the ‘War on Terror’ that has invaded our lives, reconstructed our identities, redefined our being and place in this world and robbed us of our dignity, rights and sense of place. On their own Muslims will not be able to counter the negative stereotypes of the war on terror discourse simply because it has been hegemonised to the extent that it now saturates global political and mediatic discourse. How then can we struggle against it?

To struggle for justice in an increasingly polarised, militarised and authoritarian world means having to reach beyond our own sectarian concerns and embracing the lot of humanity as a whole. The communitarian close-mindedness of so many Muslims means that we have of late neglected our duty to communicate and to communicate effectively. Muslim arrogance, coupled with ignorance of geopolitical realities, means that we have painted ourselves in a corner and thereby doomed ourselves. Just look at how Muslims
rise in protest whenever there is a perceived injustice meted out on another Muslim community elsewhere. We bemoan the fate of Muslims in Kashmir, Chechnya, Patani, Aceh, and so on. Yet how many Muslims have shown the same concern for the other communities that have falled victims to the logic of Empire, from Cuba to Venezuela, from the Philippines to the underdeveloped countries of Africa? Is Muslim sympathy so poor, so finite, that it stops at the borders of the Muslim community?

Our failure to stand up for other communities who are suffering under the same oppresion as we are is the main reason why we Muslims are seen as a community apart, alien and aloof from the world. We have, as a result of our short-sighted and short-termist outlook, scuttled our own efforts to translate Islam into a living faith that is dynamic, universal and race/colour blind. Racism, gender and class prejudice still poison our minds and colour our discourse, betraying our own inadequacies and how far we are
from realising the goals of our universal creed.

Yet today these repugnant and un-Islamic values which we have tolerated and denied for too long are threatening to undermine us for good. The communitarian, sectarian mindset that has taken root in the Muslim community worldwide has erected barriers and obstacles where there should have instead been inter-communal co-operation, discourse and solidarity.

Let us recognise that the discourse of the ‘War on Terror’ signals the advent of the New Empire: A vast apparatus of geo-political domination, conquest and exploitation driven by Capitalist Imperialism as never before. The victim of this global onslaught on fundamental liberties is humanity as a whole and not simply Muslims. WE are not the only victims.

Struggling for the Victory of Islam would entail an outright, unapologetic challenge to this global hegemon, though this struggle cannot and will not be secured unless and until Muslims learn to work with other communities. Here lies the truth that many of us have failed to realise or have not been able to admit: The Victory of Islam’s universal values untimately depends on humanity as a whole, and not Muslims alone. We are, all of us, the bearers and custodians of thi terrible yet noble responsibility.

End.