03-20-2005, 06:16 AM
The Poverty of Radical Islamist Philosophy: The Jama'at-i Islami of Jammu and
Kashmir
Yoginder Sikand
Some months ago, when holidaying in Jammu, I happened to visited a Muslim
bookshop. That is where I chanced upon a book titled 'Ashob-e-Dahr' (roughly
translated as 'Calamity of the Times') and authored by Qari Saifuddin, a leading
spokesman of the Jama'at-i Islami of Jammu and Kashmir and one of its
founder-members.
The book is a collection of Qari's Islamically-inspired Persian poetry. Since I
cannot understand Persian I cannot comment on the quality of his poetic
creations. Fortunately, the book carries a lengthy preface by Qari in Urdu,
which I can read. The preface neatly summarises the radical Islamist vision of
the Jama'at, and probably also reflects the contents of the poems as well.
Radical Islamism is premised on the notion of a sharp distinction and an
inherent and undying antagonism between Islam and other religions. Islam and
other faiths are, then, put in a permanent adversarial relationship, there being
no possibility of any compromise between them. Consequently, Islam comes to be
seen as perpetually surrounded by a host of enemies. Since Islam is seen as the
only true religion acceptable to God, those who are branded as 'enemies' of
Islam are, by definition, regarded as 'enemies of God' as well. All the problems
of the Muslims are then traced to an alleged grand conspiracy against Islam by
its manifold 'enemies'. Thus, Qari begins the preface of his book by appearing
to suggest that the ills of all the Muslims, including of Jammu and Kashmir, are
a result of a plot by non-Muslims to destroy Islam. He claims that the head of
the intelligence department of the Crusaders', a certain German called Hermann,
addressed the victorious Muslim commander Salahuddin
Ayubi, who finally drove the Crusaders out of Muslim lands, thus:
"Respected Sultan! This war that we are fighting is actually one between the
Church and the Ka'ba, and this shall carry on even after we die. We will not
fight on the battlefield. We will not besiege any forts, but we shall besiege
the religious faith of the Muslims. The allure of our daughters, our wealth and
our culture, which you call immoral, shall cause a gaping hole in the wall of
Islam, and then Muslims will start hating their own culture and loving the ways
of Europe".
The alleged meeting between Hermann and Ayubi is used by Qari to symbolise what
he sees as the eternal war between Islam and non-Islam. The travails of the
Muslims, the Qari goes on to elaborate, stem from this alleged anti-Islamic
plot, which has resulted in Muslims refusing to abide by the injunctions of the
Qur'an and accepting the Prophet Muhammad as a perfect to emulate. Muslims must
realise, Qari says, that prosperity in this world and in the life after next
cannot be had unless they firmly follow the Islamic shari'ah in all aspects of
their lives, from the seemingly most personal to the collective. The shar'iah is
presented as a complete system, a comprehensive body of rulings. It is also seen
as completely distinct from all other systems of law and belief, which are,
accordingly, dismissed by Qari as 'batil' or 'false' and even as 'shaitani
nizam' or 'Satanic systems'. The possibility that the shari'ah might share
certain ethical perspectives or legal injunctions in common
with other, non-Islamic, religions or belief systems is completely ruled out or
else conveniently ignored.
Re-living the shari'ah in their own personal lives and struggling to impose it
as the norm for society as a whole to be governed by is considered by Qari as an
urgent imperative for every Muslim. He appeals to his readers thus:
"Stand up and remove laziness from your hearts and rekindle the light of life.
Reawaken your spirit and bring it to act and then you will see that the necks of
your enemies will be in chains (dushmanon ki gardaney zer-e-zanjeer hai). Stand
up and capture the world, which is today based on falsehood and deceit. Then,
establish a just world which will be free from the dark stain of deceit. Build
such a world that shines with the light of the Prophet, a world whose beauty
lies in obedience to the path of the Prophet, a world which is coloured in the
dye of the Qur'an and is fragrant with the perfume of the Prophet".
Every Muslim, Qari appeals, must be fired by an irrepressible zeal to establish
this utopian dispensation. He explains his own condition thus:
" A voice from the unseen has awakened a hidden pain in my heart, which has now
burst forth like a fire-temple (atish kadah). This furious fire in my heart is
so intense that before it the flame that burns in the heart of the
fire-worshipping mendicant pales into insignificance".
Muslims, Qari appears to believe, are destined to rule, not to be ruled by
others. This follows from the general Islamist insistence that Islam 'has come
to rule, not to be ruled over'. That is why for Qari, and for most other
Islamists, the fact of Muslims living as minorities in non-Muslim countries
under 'un-Islamic' rule is simply intolerable. Islam and political power, in
this understanding of Islam, come to be seen as inseparable. Muslims must
consistently struggle to establish Islamic rule. In this regard, Qari urges his
readers to take a cue from the path of Khomeini, lauding his achievements in
'liberating his people from oppression'. He hails the revolution that Khomeini
ushered in as 'being free from strife' (shor-o-shar se pak). He also exhorts his
readers to take a cue from the Afghans who fought the Soviets, and claims that
in doing so the Afghans were motivated simply by their love for and dedication
to Islam.
They, he says, 'taught the Russians the meaning of life', that the 'beauty of
life lies in service to the Creator'. 'They called the irreligious Russians to
the path of the true faith', he claims, and 'cleansed the Russians' hearts of
the dirt of war'.
All these, Qari opines, are valuable lessons for the Muslims to remember and
profit from. He sees Muslims as 'enslaved' in many other parts of the world, and
urges them to take to the path of Khomeini and the Afghans to liberate
themselves. Presumably, his message is primarily directed at the Kashmiri
Muslims in order to enthuse them to rise up against India. As a true hardliner
Islamist ideologue, he glorifies revolution for its own sake, and is wholly
uncritical of movements that claim to be heralding an 'Islamic' dispensation but
which have resulted in murder and mayhem on an unimaginable scale, as in Iran
and in Afghanistan after the Soviet expulsion.
Like almost all other Islamist ideologues, Qari speaks in the most vague terms
of the 'Islamic alternative'. He appears to believe that a mechanical imposition
of the shari'ah is the solution to all of Kashmir's ills. If only the Kashmiris
follow Islam in their lives and struggle to set up an Islamic state, all their
manifold problems will somehow cease, presumably with divine help. He appeals to
the Kashmiri Muslims in this piously formulated homily thus:
"Strengthen your bond with Allah so that God might become happy with you. Make
the path of the Prophet your guide and travelling companion, and acquire the
love of the Prophet as your wealth. When your inner self is enlightened by the
spark of the faith, the accursed Satan will flee. Protect the true faith and God
will protect you. Appeal with Muslims to unite to gain success, because the
Prophet said that Satan runs away from the community (jama'at). If Muslims were
to
become one they will emerge as a very powerful force. God alone grants victory,
which can only be achieved by obeying Him. So, make the Prophet your model".
I do not, for a moment, deny the importance or value of religious faith. I can
fully understand the Qari's impassioned appeal for firm trust in God, this being
a central tenet of almost all religions. What is worrisome, however, is how in
Islamist discourse Islam comes to be seen as a complete system in itself and
seemingly premised on an undying opposition to all other belief systems and
ideologies. This is clearly reflected in Qari's preface and in almost all the
literature I have read by Islamist ideologues. This, of course, is not unique to
Islamism. The same logic underlines the claims of all fundamentalist ideologues,
Christian, Hindu or other. It leaves absolutely no space for sharing across
narrowly inscribed boundaries, and no room for dialogue and cooperation.
Equally disturbing is a complete blindness to empirical reality, as evidenced,
for instance, in the
Qari's wholly uncritical adulation of the Khomeini regime and the Afghans who
fought the Soviets and later fell out among themselves and slaughtered each
other in the thousands. This is also clear from Qari's complete lack of concern
for non-Muslims in Kashmir, who do not merit any mention at all in his book, and
who, presumably, would be condemned to second-class status of dhimmi-tude or
worse in the state that Qari dreams of establishing. This, of course, logically
follows from his basic premise of an undying hostility inherent in the relations
between Islam and other religions, pious Muslims and upholders of 'falsehood'.
Again, I must admit, Islamists like Qari are hardly unique in this regard, a
dogged obsession with rhetoric and blindness to plain and simple reality uniting
them with fellow fundamentalists in other communities as well. As religion gets
transformed into ideology, Islam comes to be reduced to a set of powerful and
emotive slogans ('Islam provides full social
justice'; 'Islam solves all problems and guarantees peace', 'East or West,
Islam is the best', Qari and his cohorts would claim). Qari, like others of his
ilk, is careful to limit himself simply to the level of hollow generalities and
hot, but empty, rhetoric. Thus, he says nothing at all about all the complicated
issues of how the ideal polity that he hankers after would be governed, his
claims that Islam provides an ideal blueprint for a model society
notwithstanding. Presumably, he knows nothing about such mundane matters. Little
knowledge, it is rightly said, can be a very dangerous thing indeed.
Kashmir
Yoginder Sikand
Some months ago, when holidaying in Jammu, I happened to visited a Muslim
bookshop. That is where I chanced upon a book titled 'Ashob-e-Dahr' (roughly
translated as 'Calamity of the Times') and authored by Qari Saifuddin, a leading
spokesman of the Jama'at-i Islami of Jammu and Kashmir and one of its
founder-members.
The book is a collection of Qari's Islamically-inspired Persian poetry. Since I
cannot understand Persian I cannot comment on the quality of his poetic
creations. Fortunately, the book carries a lengthy preface by Qari in Urdu,
which I can read. The preface neatly summarises the radical Islamist vision of
the Jama'at, and probably also reflects the contents of the poems as well.
Radical Islamism is premised on the notion of a sharp distinction and an
inherent and undying antagonism between Islam and other religions. Islam and
other faiths are, then, put in a permanent adversarial relationship, there being
no possibility of any compromise between them. Consequently, Islam comes to be
seen as perpetually surrounded by a host of enemies. Since Islam is seen as the
only true religion acceptable to God, those who are branded as 'enemies' of
Islam are, by definition, regarded as 'enemies of God' as well. All the problems
of the Muslims are then traced to an alleged grand conspiracy against Islam by
its manifold 'enemies'. Thus, Qari begins the preface of his book by appearing
to suggest that the ills of all the Muslims, including of Jammu and Kashmir, are
a result of a plot by non-Muslims to destroy Islam. He claims that the head of
the intelligence department of the Crusaders', a certain German called Hermann,
addressed the victorious Muslim commander Salahuddin
Ayubi, who finally drove the Crusaders out of Muslim lands, thus:
"Respected Sultan! This war that we are fighting is actually one between the
Church and the Ka'ba, and this shall carry on even after we die. We will not
fight on the battlefield. We will not besiege any forts, but we shall besiege
the religious faith of the Muslims. The allure of our daughters, our wealth and
our culture, which you call immoral, shall cause a gaping hole in the wall of
Islam, and then Muslims will start hating their own culture and loving the ways
of Europe".
The alleged meeting between Hermann and Ayubi is used by Qari to symbolise what
he sees as the eternal war between Islam and non-Islam. The travails of the
Muslims, the Qari goes on to elaborate, stem from this alleged anti-Islamic
plot, which has resulted in Muslims refusing to abide by the injunctions of the
Qur'an and accepting the Prophet Muhammad as a perfect to emulate. Muslims must
realise, Qari says, that prosperity in this world and in the life after next
cannot be had unless they firmly follow the Islamic shari'ah in all aspects of
their lives, from the seemingly most personal to the collective. The shar'iah is
presented as a complete system, a comprehensive body of rulings. It is also seen
as completely distinct from all other systems of law and belief, which are,
accordingly, dismissed by Qari as 'batil' or 'false' and even as 'shaitani
nizam' or 'Satanic systems'. The possibility that the shari'ah might share
certain ethical perspectives or legal injunctions in common
with other, non-Islamic, religions or belief systems is completely ruled out or
else conveniently ignored.
Re-living the shari'ah in their own personal lives and struggling to impose it
as the norm for society as a whole to be governed by is considered by Qari as an
urgent imperative for every Muslim. He appeals to his readers thus:
"Stand up and remove laziness from your hearts and rekindle the light of life.
Reawaken your spirit and bring it to act and then you will see that the necks of
your enemies will be in chains (dushmanon ki gardaney zer-e-zanjeer hai). Stand
up and capture the world, which is today based on falsehood and deceit. Then,
establish a just world which will be free from the dark stain of deceit. Build
such a world that shines with the light of the Prophet, a world whose beauty
lies in obedience to the path of the Prophet, a world which is coloured in the
dye of the Qur'an and is fragrant with the perfume of the Prophet".
Every Muslim, Qari appeals, must be fired by an irrepressible zeal to establish
this utopian dispensation. He explains his own condition thus:
" A voice from the unseen has awakened a hidden pain in my heart, which has now
burst forth like a fire-temple (atish kadah). This furious fire in my heart is
so intense that before it the flame that burns in the heart of the
fire-worshipping mendicant pales into insignificance".
Muslims, Qari appears to believe, are destined to rule, not to be ruled by
others. This follows from the general Islamist insistence that Islam 'has come
to rule, not to be ruled over'. That is why for Qari, and for most other
Islamists, the fact of Muslims living as minorities in non-Muslim countries
under 'un-Islamic' rule is simply intolerable. Islam and political power, in
this understanding of Islam, come to be seen as inseparable. Muslims must
consistently struggle to establish Islamic rule. In this regard, Qari urges his
readers to take a cue from the path of Khomeini, lauding his achievements in
'liberating his people from oppression'. He hails the revolution that Khomeini
ushered in as 'being free from strife' (shor-o-shar se pak). He also exhorts his
readers to take a cue from the Afghans who fought the Soviets, and claims that
in doing so the Afghans were motivated simply by their love for and dedication
to Islam.
They, he says, 'taught the Russians the meaning of life', that the 'beauty of
life lies in service to the Creator'. 'They called the irreligious Russians to
the path of the true faith', he claims, and 'cleansed the Russians' hearts of
the dirt of war'.
All these, Qari opines, are valuable lessons for the Muslims to remember and
profit from. He sees Muslims as 'enslaved' in many other parts of the world, and
urges them to take to the path of Khomeini and the Afghans to liberate
themselves. Presumably, his message is primarily directed at the Kashmiri
Muslims in order to enthuse them to rise up against India. As a true hardliner
Islamist ideologue, he glorifies revolution for its own sake, and is wholly
uncritical of movements that claim to be heralding an 'Islamic' dispensation but
which have resulted in murder and mayhem on an unimaginable scale, as in Iran
and in Afghanistan after the Soviet expulsion.
Like almost all other Islamist ideologues, Qari speaks in the most vague terms
of the 'Islamic alternative'. He appears to believe that a mechanical imposition
of the shari'ah is the solution to all of Kashmir's ills. If only the Kashmiris
follow Islam in their lives and struggle to set up an Islamic state, all their
manifold problems will somehow cease, presumably with divine help. He appeals to
the Kashmiri Muslims in this piously formulated homily thus:
"Strengthen your bond with Allah so that God might become happy with you. Make
the path of the Prophet your guide and travelling companion, and acquire the
love of the Prophet as your wealth. When your inner self is enlightened by the
spark of the faith, the accursed Satan will flee. Protect the true faith and God
will protect you. Appeal with Muslims to unite to gain success, because the
Prophet said that Satan runs away from the community (jama'at). If Muslims were
to
become one they will emerge as a very powerful force. God alone grants victory,
which can only be achieved by obeying Him. So, make the Prophet your model".
I do not, for a moment, deny the importance or value of religious faith. I can
fully understand the Qari's impassioned appeal for firm trust in God, this being
a central tenet of almost all religions. What is worrisome, however, is how in
Islamist discourse Islam comes to be seen as a complete system in itself and
seemingly premised on an undying opposition to all other belief systems and
ideologies. This is clearly reflected in Qari's preface and in almost all the
literature I have read by Islamist ideologues. This, of course, is not unique to
Islamism. The same logic underlines the claims of all fundamentalist ideologues,
Christian, Hindu or other. It leaves absolutely no space for sharing across
narrowly inscribed boundaries, and no room for dialogue and cooperation.
Equally disturbing is a complete blindness to empirical reality, as evidenced,
for instance, in the
Qari's wholly uncritical adulation of the Khomeini regime and the Afghans who
fought the Soviets and later fell out among themselves and slaughtered each
other in the thousands. This is also clear from Qari's complete lack of concern
for non-Muslims in Kashmir, who do not merit any mention at all in his book, and
who, presumably, would be condemned to second-class status of dhimmi-tude or
worse in the state that Qari dreams of establishing. This, of course, logically
follows from his basic premise of an undying hostility inherent in the relations
between Islam and other religions, pious Muslims and upholders of 'falsehood'.
Again, I must admit, Islamists like Qari are hardly unique in this regard, a
dogged obsession with rhetoric and blindness to plain and simple reality uniting
them with fellow fundamentalists in other communities as well. As religion gets
transformed into ideology, Islam comes to be reduced to a set of powerful and
emotive slogans ('Islam provides full social
justice'; 'Islam solves all problems and guarantees peace', 'East or West,
Islam is the best', Qari and his cohorts would claim). Qari, like others of his
ilk, is careful to limit himself simply to the level of hollow generalities and
hot, but empty, rhetoric. Thus, he says nothing at all about all the complicated
issues of how the ideal polity that he hankers after would be governed, his
claims that Islam provides an ideal blueprint for a model society
notwithstanding. Presumably, he knows nothing about such mundane matters. Little
knowledge, it is rightly said, can be a very dangerous thing indeed.