To Richard Lion Heart -- Islam & fascism

Submitted by Bader S (United Arab Emirates), Mar 14, 2006 at 16:49

The Kuran contains rules and recommendations regarding how a society should be governed and how people should behave within society. These rules and regulations do not make up the entire philosophy of Islam the religion; just a part of it. So in this sense it can be said that Islam contains a political philosophy, but Islam is not purely a political philosophy. ( you might disagree but what political philosophy discusses heaven, hell, God, Satan?)

Islam, as the non-Muslims seem to know as well as Muslims, means submission to God. This is important because fascism requires that the citizen puts the state or the race higher than the individual. Islam, on the other hand, offers the individual the free will to submit to God and only to God as the higher entity.

The Sharia law, while it is divinely inspired by the Kuran, is not the word of God. The sharia law came about through the infusion of existing laws with Islamic ethics ( Ira Lapidus: A History of Islamic Societies)

Jihad, semanticaly, means to "strive, exert oneself, or take extraordinary pains"(Reuven Firestone; Jihad:The Origin of Holy War in Islam). There are muslims who have formed movements centered on the pursuit of the lower jihad, or what they consider is war on behalf of Islam. Jihad is a verbal noun not a movement. Empires were conquered through an exertion or a struggle if you like,(jihad being the semantical translation), or a duty to perform jihad , not through a "jihad movement" as it has come to be known in these past decades.

The reason that fundamentalists want the return of the Caliphate is because they see that current rulers of Muslim states do not live up to the standards of the true or rightly-guided Caliphs. The Muslims that are fleeing their countries provide examples to fundamentalists that prove the point that the current rulers are not worthy of being labeled true Islamic leaders.

Description of The rightly-guided Caliphs
"Those Caliphs who truly followed in the Prophet's foot steps are called 'The Rightly-Guided Caliphs' (Al-Khulafa-ur Rashidun in Arabic). They are the first four Caliphs: Abu Bakr, 'Umar, Uthman and Ali. All four were among thc earliest and closest Companions of the Prophet (peace be on him). They lived simple and righteous lives and strove hard for the religion of God. Their justice was impartial, their treatment of others was kind and merciful, and they were one with the people - the first among equals. After these four, the later Caliphs assumed the manners of kings and emperors and the true spirit of equality of ruler and ruled diminished to a considerable extent in the political life of Muslims." (http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/politics/firstfourcaliphs.html)

How Caliphs are elected and removed; what are their responsibilities and how they should govern can be examined here: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/politics/khalifa.html

In conclusion, it is easy to label a religion fascist and bypass the complexities that make up a religion.

Catholism, with its own state that has survived till this century, with a head of state that cannot be removed while alive, and a state that still receive taxes from all its subjects does resemble fascism in more ways than one and can easily be labeled fascist too. Or maybe not !!!!

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".