4.4. THE MOVEMENT AND MUSLIM MINORITIES
Muslim minorities all over the world should be among the targets of attention of the Islamic Movement.
Important Facts About Muslim Minorities
We must take some factors into account in this connection, including the following:
-These minorities account for about one quarter of the total number of Muslims all over the world, perhaps even more, as indicated by the studies made in Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh about fifteen years ago.
-One of these minorities represents, in sheer numbers alone, the second largest Muslim community in the world: that is the Indian Muslim minority, which comprises over one hundred million Muslims and has had its historic, scientific and cultural impact on the Indian subcontinent and Islamic culture in general.
-Some of the so-called minorities are actually peoples of purely Muslim countries that were annexed by force to larger countries so that they might dissolve in them and become oppressed minorities among larger majorities. Examples of these are the “Muslim republics” of the Soviet Union Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan etc, which, on examination, have proven to be part and parcel of the Muslim World.
-Some of the Muslim minorities counted as such by biased world statistics are in fact quite the contrary, as true figures state that Muslims are an overwhelming majority in the countries in question despite the fake statistics that intentionally cite smaller numbers for Muslims, especially in certain regions, so as to serve the political purposes of the enemies of Islam. The most obvious example of that is the Muslims of Ethiopia: they are a majority, but an oppressed one that is deprived of even the most basic human rights.
What Do These Minorities Need Most?
These minorities need many things from their fellow Muslims in the big Muslim World, such as the following:
-They need support for their religious institutions, especially educational establishments, so that they may preserve the Muslim character, especially in the face of the fierce campaigns that the advocates and establishments of Christianization wage against Islam to uproot it.
-They need to obtain the original Islamic references that explain Islam’s creed, worships, morals and legislations in the languages of these minorities, so as to provide them with a proper source of knowledge. They particularly need the interpretation of the Holy Quran and a number of the approved and accepted hadith collections.
-They need to have some of their members admitted to the Islamic universities of Arab states, so that they may return later and preach and instruct in Islam in their own countries (And admonish their people when they return to (And admonish their people when they return to them that thus they [may learn] to guard themselves [against evil]) [ Surat AlTauba: 122].Unfortunately, such universities have recently been closing their doors to students from these countries, despite the risk posed by such action to the future of Muslim minorities and the Islamic call in these countries, even to the future of the Muslim Nation itself.
-They need support for the teaching of Arabic and the financing of Arabic schools in their countries, a field where the failure of Arabs has been most abysmal. Advanced countries pay tens, hundreds even, of millions of dollars for spreading their languages, which are the messengers of their civilizations and cultures. But not the Arabs, who hold to their pennies when it comes to spreading their language. If the Muslim minorities were not moved by their own love for their Religion, their Prophet and their Book into learning Arabic and building schools and colleges for teaching this language on the basis that it is the language of the Holy Quran, hadith, worship, Islamic culture and understanding among members of the Muslim Nation, then we would not find anyone outside the Arab World who knew Arabic or ever heard of it. I am only to speak highly here of the Association of Arab Schools headed by Prince Mohammad AlFaisal AlSaud and managed by Dr. Tawfiq AlShawi. It has held several useful courses in many African and Asian countries to promote Arabic and help educational establishments that teach Arabic there.
-They need preachers and teachers who are wellversed in the languages of these minorities, so that they may live among their people, teaching the ignorant and admonishing the straying, answering questions and giving fatwas, uniting people on religion and piety and hearts on love and goodwill. We have, however, to beware of destructive preachers, who only know how to demolish and set fire through useless debate and dissent that only produce hatred. Some of those [preachers] may be goodintentioned, but good intentions coupled with foolishness yield more harm than good, as the old adage goes: God deliver me from my friends, far from my enemies 1 will deliver myself.
-They need frequent meetings and visits with prominent intellectuals, education experts and preachers, as such meetings open new horizons for thought and boost the morale of members of these minorities. Such meetings, visits and symposiums should be arranged as frequently as possible, so that those brother whose destiny is to be living in countries far from the heart of this Nation may not feel neglected by the mother Nation, or isolated from the focus of thought and feeling by the leaders of the Islamic Movement.
-They need, perhaps before everything else, to be united in one front, so that they may be able to preserve their entity and religious presence. It is unfortunate that we should see minorities all over the world uniting and closing their ranks to form stronger entities against the majorities facing them, except for Muslim minorities, which are always at odds with one another and spending their time and effort on useless and meaningless disputes, especially religious differences over jurisprudential or doctrinal issues.
It is the duty of all Muslims to stand side by side as ordered by Allah. It is enough for them that they have a unity from which to start, for they are united on belief in, Allah, the Prophet and the Holy Quran.
I say this although I know that Muslims living in the heart of the Muslim World have their grievances. So how could those Muslim minorities living outside the Muslim World not complain?
If the Muslims living in Muslim countries are suffering persecution, injustice and oppression at the hands of rulers who are supposed to be Muslims, why should we expect no complaints from those Muslims living in nonMuslim countries and ruled by nonMuslims, be they Christians, Communists or Heathens?
A Nation Without a Leadership [Neither a Caliph nor a Pope]
The most serious problem of Muslims and their minorities scattered all over the world is that our Muslim Nation, expansive and large in numbers as it is, has no leadership that can order it to move, stop, cry or keep silent, or turn right or left.
We did have a caliphate system that united Muslims under one flag someday. We did have a caliph who represented the central leadership of the unified Nation. When the enemies of the caliphate system plotted against it and managed to tear down that magnificent edifice which embodied the unity of the Muslim Nation, we no longer had one entity, nor one flag under which to gather.
We lost the caliphate system, and we have found no othersystem to replace it, so we have lived without any leadership of any kind.
Christianity has its leadership recognized by its followers. This leadership is an organized religious one that has its own institutions and its own men; and its financial means come third to those of the United States and Russia. Its preachers are all over the world, including Muslim countries.
But we Muslims have neither a caliph to obey nor a Pope to listen to. We are like orphans that are turned away from every door they knock at.
There used to be a position called Sheikh AlIslam one day. Though there was no official post like that in Islam, some scholars were so knowledgeable, studious and pious that they deserved to be honored by the Muslim masses who gave them this title. Today, with ulema keeping in step with the rulers, not only refraining from speaking the word of right but speaking the wrong word, people have lost confidence in prominent sheikhs, and none of the senior ulema is called “Sheikh Allslam” any longer! As for those scholars who resist temptation’ they turn on them with their tremendous resources and with the tools of their masters who dictate their acts and words, trying to isolate or taint them, unless they stop resisting and thus become isolated from the people.
The Movement’s Mission In This Regard
The Islamic Movement should play the role of the missing leadership of the Muslim Nation with all its trends and groups. It should seek the support of true scholars until a real “Sheikh Al-lslam” appears from amongst them to claim their loyalty and support and possess the ability to call the great Muslim Nation at the time of need and find a response to his call.
Source: Islamic Basics by Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
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