Foreign interference in SL Muslim problem

From the very moment that the BBS became prominent in Sri Lanka, there has been speculation about sinister foreign forces operating behind it. There is certainly a Norwegian connection, about which no clarification has been forthcoming. Now the BBS leaders are in the US on a month-long visit, which is reportedly part of a programme to make their movement international. There seems to be big money and power behind the BBS. Most curious of all are the coincidences between what is happening here and in Burma. By Izeth Hussain

I concluded my article, Sri Lankan Muslims in the racist paradigm (The Island of March 18) with the following paragraph: "Were the Bodu Bala Sena and the JHU unaware of what was going on in Geneva, and that the anti-halal campaign could have very adverse consequences there? Commonsense should have dictated that the anti-halal campaign be postponed until the conclusion of the UNHRC meeting. Some who are over-fond of conspiracy theories would say that they are secretly serving the purposes of the US and of India. Others would say that they have been manipulated by the CIA and RAW without being aware of it. I cannot subscribe to such notions. I have the strong conviction that the explanation for the horrendous mistiming of the anti-halal campaign is to be found in the irrationality that goes with racism. The usual paradigm of racism does not include a recognition of the fact that racism and irrationality go together." Let me make my position absolutely clear before proceeding further. Both the BBS and the JHU are very widely regarded as extreme racist organizations, and therefore both have to be regarded as having a proneness to extreme irrationality. It was that extreme irrationality – and not their being traitors – that made them blind to what was going on in Geneva. But, of course that extreme irrationality would also make it very easy for the CIA, RAW etc to manipulate them without their being aware of it. Assuming that they were indeed manipulated, we have to ask what were the presumed objectives of the CIA, RAW etc. The objectives could have been along the following lines: the anti-Muslim hate campaign, which clearly had the acquiescence if not the positive support of the government behind it, could lead to genocide and, therefore, it was impossible for any self-respecting Muslim state to vote against the anti Sri Lanka US Resolution. Without the Muslim vote for Sri Lanka, the US Resolution would have won overwhelmingly, and Sri Lanka would have been seen internationally as a virtual pariah state. That may be precisely what certain sinister forces want for Sri Lanka. Fortunately, the indefatigable campaigning of the Pakistani Foreign Minister and her officials prevented that outcome. Anyway, there is no getting over the fact that objectively – whatever might be the subjective intentions of the BBS and the JHU – their allowing the anti-halal campaign to mount to a crescendo precisely at that time served the purposes of the enemies of Sri Lanka. They should be more alert to the international implications of their actions in the future.

From the very moment that the BBS became prominent in Sri Lanka, there has been speculation about sinister foreign forces operating behind it. There is certainly a Norwegian connection, about which no clarification has been forthcoming. Now the BBS leaders are in the US on a month-long visit, which is reportedly part of a programme to make their movement international. There seems to be big money and power behind the BBS. Most curious of all are the coincidences between what is happening here and in Burma. The T-shirts worn by the demonstrators in both countries look identical except that the logos are different, suggesting that they were produced by the same manufacturer. A new wave of anti-Muslim violence broke out last month, this time in central Burma against Muslims regarded as indigenous Burmans unlike the Rohingyas who were targeted last year. Apparently the rhetoric used by the Buddhist monk leader there is very similar to the rhetoric used here.

Consider this for example: "When the profit goes to the enemy’s hand, our nationality, language and religion are all harmed. They will take girls with this money. They will force them to convert religion. All children born to them will be a danger to the country. They will destroy the language as well as the religion." It seems to be the same unholy brew as in Sri Lanka, with a nexus drawn between money, sex, and conversion. This could be standard fare in racist hate speech, or it could be that the same sinister forces are operating behind the campaigns in Sri Lanka and Burma. I have no hard evidence to cite in support of my position that the same sinister forces could be at work behind the campaigns in Sri Lanka and Burma. Even so, I concluded my article Clarifications on Genocide in The Island of April 22 with the following: "I must also say that I have come to suspect more and more strongly that behind the nonsense about halal and the anti-Muslim programme sinister foreign forces have been at work." Though lacking the hard evidence I can however set out the rationale for that position. But, before doing that I must refer to important material about secret service activity in Sri Lanka that I came across while in the process of writing this article. The material is given in Upul Joseph Fernando’s article Paving the way for US intervention in Sri Lanka? (Ceylon Today of April 24). According to the American website World Net Daily a source within the Iranian Intelligence Services told it (WND), even before the identities of the Boston bombing suspects became known, that the Islamic regime was behind them and to look for trails through Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Earlier when the German bakery bomb explosion took place in Pune (India), the chief suspect had in his confession revealed that the final operational plan had been drawn up in Colombo. Various details were given in that connection. Another interesting detail is that President Bush had stated that a Sri Lankan Tamil speaking Muslim was the chief financial officer and money launderer behind the clandestine operations of A. Q. Khan (the reputed father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb). A further detail worth mentioning is that a few months ago the New York based Open Society Foundation had in their report mentioned that Sri Lanka permitted use of its air space and airports for flights associated with the CIA’s extraordinary renditions operations in 2003. There is further interesting material in the article but I will not go into all that as my purpose is merely to point to material indicating that several secret services have been active in Sri Lanka. But I must quote the following from UJF’s interesting speculations in his concluding paragraphs: "In essence, all these revelations and disclosures amount to an alarming trend in Indian and American strategy – vis-à-vis Sri Lanka. Both countries are committed to proving Sri Lanka as a hot-bed of Islamic terrorism targeting Europe, America and India." I will now set out the rationale for believing that the same sinister forces could be behind the anti-Muslim campaigns in Sri Lanka and Burma. It all goes back to the 1972 Arab-Israel war, in the aftermath of which there was a phenomenal increase in oil prices. One of the main beneficiaries was Saudi Arabia, which chose to spend part of that wealth in spreading its Wahabi version of Islam. Its main instrument for that purpose was the madrasa, which provided free education since under Islam it is forbidden to make money out of religion. The main beneficiaries of madrasa education were members of the poor and the lower middle classes, precisely the classes from which violent revolutionaries are bred. The result was seen in the Eastern Province in the form of violent incidents after the death of a Sufi mystic, who caked himself Pailuwan (wrestler). Later there was violence in Beruwela, the result of what orthodox Muslims would regard as sacrilegious behaviour on the part of Wahabi Muslims. At the time of the conclusion of the war in 2009 there were several Jihad groups in the Eastern Province, and it took some time to make them give up their weapons. Not much more is known to the general public about the impact of Wahabism in the Eastern Province. But as UJF’s article brings out the EP and the rest of Sri Lanka have for years been a hotbed of international secret service activity. The madrasa education has everywhere led to what is called political Islam, militant Islam, and fundamentalist Islam, which has bred hatred of the West and terrorism. The US and India, as well as Pakistan, Iran, and Israel had to be concerned about what was going on in Sri Lanka on the religious front and we can expect that all their secret services have been active here. In connection with the anti-Muslim campaign we have to be concerned mainly about the possible interests of the US and India. The US could want to alert our government to the dangers that could flow from Wahabism. As I have argued in earlier articles, halal is really a non-problem, something that could have been easily solved. But, the halal problem was a way of targeting the ACJU, which significantly is regarded as the spear-head for Wahabism in Sri Lanka. But, I don’t believe that the US will pursue its own interests in Sri Lanka at the expense of India’s interests. If the US did promote the anti-Muslim hate campaign, it would have been to serve India’s interests. How have those interests been served? The hate campaign leads to one resounding question: if the Muslim minority which has been so much on the side of the Sinhalese against the Tamils can be treated in this way, how can we expect the Sinhalese to ever give fair and equal treatment to the Tamils? The question leads to the idea that a political solution for the Tamils has to go beyond 13A or even 13A+. Was that what the TNA President Suresh Premachandran had in mind when he told a visiting delegation of Indian MPs, "We need an interim administration overseen by India or the United Nations until there is a final settlement for the Tamils."

Izethhussain@gmail.com

Beware of the rock star imams!

Salina Khan

Muslims are now going to b confronted by US-promoted Imams through the Internet. Welcome to a new form of cyber warfare on Muslims!

If you are among the growing number of Muslims who get their information on Islam online, keep reading but with your antennas on alert. There is a conspiracy afoot to virtually misguide you. A new report released in February by the US global policy think tank RAND Corporation, entitled “Promoting Online Voices for Countering Violent Extremism,” discusses plans to more deeply infiltrate, co-opt and subvert popular sources of online Islamic information — websites, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and more — with disinformation that is packaged as Islamic guidance based on the Qur’an and Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) but in reality is government propaganda aimed at aligning the political views and behavior of Muslims with imperialist interests.

The report’s authors, Todd C. Helmus, Erin York and Peter Chalk, all of whom have links with the US military (RAND originated as a project of an American military aircraft manufacturer), instruct government officials, nonprofit organizations and private funders on how to “encourage and empower credible, authentic, and constructive online Muslim voices” that echo the White House’s 2011 initiative to “counter violent extremist (CVE) narratives on the Internet.”

These efforts are ostensibly to foil online recruitment by al-Qaeda and other Muslim extremist groups, but RAND analysts admit in their own report that “…this [al-Qaeda] campaign has produced an extremely low yield of recruits in the United States and that vast majorities of American Muslims hold no sympathies for al-Qaeda’s distorted vision.” So the true purpose of this expansive initiative lies elsewhere: to control, direct and shape the social and political agenda of Muslims, who they realize are mandated to de-establish the existing oppressive systems and replace them with peace and social justice in the world.

Some of the RAND recommendations to be aware of include the following:

1. Building alliances with existing “rock star imams” that already have huge online followings. “US officials should identify both established and up-and-coming social media personalities and incorporate these individuals into interagency engagement strategies.”
2. Creating new “Web sensations.” This is to be done by developing leaders who have “scholarly credentials, understand and are able to work in an American context, and can speak to young American-born Muslims who may feel disenfranchised from local religious institutions.”
3. Disseminating political information through popular online magazines, virtual masjids, blogs and other portals that cover all aspects of Islamic life. “The key is that efforts placing less emphasis on CVE and security aspects will gain better traction and resonance among many important audience members and promote participation from a broader cadre of influencers.”
4. Funding technology, public relations and marketing training for “Muslim influencers” at home and abroad. Recently, during two-and-a-half day training sessions in Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Jakarta, people were introduced to social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. “Individuals were taught the basics of how to successfully get a message out, the art of storytelling, and the creation of viral messages.”

History has repeatedly shown that coordinating with imperialists to bring peace and justice is not only folly but also counterproductive. Leaders, movements and organizations directed by the ruling elite don’t speak out against oppressive systems like Zionism, capitalism and globalism and end up supporting extreme violence in the forms of imperialist wars (e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq) and terrorist groups that serve their interests (e.g. al-Qaeda in Libya and Syria).

While this RAND initiative to take on high-tech Islamic personalities is new, sell-out scholars have been around for ages. When Moses (foster son of Asiya, one of the four perfect women of all times) went to the mountains for 40 days, Samiri — a religious scholar and savvy engineer from among the Israelis — used his knowledge and skills to turn the people back to the Pharaonic system and ways. Allah (swt) says in the noble Book,

“Said He [Allah], ‘Then [know that], verily, in your absence We have put your people to a test, and Samiri has led them astray’” (20:85).

Imam ‘Ali said, “I warn you about the munafiqs [dual-loyalists]. They are misguided and they misguide as well. They have appeared in society in different colors and with different faces. Their speech is eloquent, profitable and is even a cure for pain. But their actions are like incurable diseases.”

To prevent such false scholars from gaining power and influence, the Muslim masses must be able to identify them, put pressure on them to return to Islamic principles, and if they refuse, abandon them for principled scholars who not only have knowledge but also the courage and strength to speak truth to power — like Talut, a true leader of the Children of Israel mentioned in the Qur’an.

“You think it’s easy to propagate the truth in hostile territory, even if that hostile territory is your own [Islamic] center? It takes bravery,” says scholar Yusuf Husayn. Thanks to social media tools that allow interactions, we can put public pressure on scholars through questions, comments and feedback online.

Imam Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, teaches us how to deal with court scholars when it becomes evident they are cooperating with tyrants and their dual-loyalist enablers. In an open letter he wrote to Hussein Ali Montazeri, the imam informed him that he will no longer be the imam’s successor, “Can you see what valuable services you have offered to arrogance?” Imam Khomeini asks and then gives Montazeri the following advice in his letter:

1. Change your advisors or “bureau.”
2. Because you are “gullible” and “provoked easily,” stay out of political matters.
3. Stop ridiculing scholars truly committed to Islam.
4. Don’t be a “mouthpiece” of the oppressors.

Imam Khomeini said, “Muslims must think about training, controlling, and correcting the leaders… They must use advice or warnings to wake them up from their deep sleep that is killing them and the interests of the Islamic nation. They must not be unaware of the danger of the dual-loyalists and those who work for the arrogant powers of the world.”

For those willing to take on such “leaders,” I also have a tip: get a thick skin. Recently, I questioned a popular American Islamic scholar on Facebook for supporting the Western-backed Syrian opposition. He called me a “lunatic.”

Salina Khan runs the blog: theperfectionistas.blogspot.com/

The Ummah: its role and responsibilities, Part 1

Zafar Bangash

What or who constitutes the Ummah and how should we define progress? Zafar Bangash examines these concepts and sheds light from the Islamic perspective challenging some long-held but erroneous beliefs.

In the first part of this series of articles on the theme, The Ummah: its role and responsibilities, Zafar Bangash, director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT), discusses such concepts as progress and what or who constitutes the Ummah.

The Muslim world is beset by so many problems — both internal and external — that many Muslims have become despondent about the future of the Ummah. Some wonder out loud whether Muslims will ever make progress like other peoples and communities. Before this question can be properly answered, we must first have a better understanding of the meaning of the word progress and also, what or who constitutes the Ummah.

we must first have a better understanding of the meaning of the word progress and also, what or who constitutes the Ummah... Since Western values and ethos dominate much of the sociopolitical discourse in the world today, Muslims too are not immune from their corrosive influence. In the West, progress is equated with material or financial gains.

Since Western values and ethos dominate much of the sociopolitical discourse in the world today, Muslims too are not immune from their corrosive influence. In the West, progress is equated with material or financial gains. A society that becomes industrialized is said to make progress regardless of what destruction it causes to the environment or how much inequality in wealth it spawns. Growth in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) — that is the value of goods it produces — is generally taken as a sign of progress.

Each government’s performance is measured by the growth it achieves in its GDP in a specified timeframe. These are all material parameters. Whether such “progress” brings satisfaction or happiness to families or the society at large is not factored in. Similarly, degradation of the environment or the rate at which non-renewable resources are being depleted is also not considered. There is absolutely no room in this materialistic vision of progress for moral growth, spiritual elevation or satisfaction because these are non-quantifiable entities.

Yet those familiar with his Sirah would confirm that his progress in society was not based on his success in business, the number of camels or the acres of orchards he possessed or even the square miles of territory he controlled.

But we cannot accept this Western view of progress. Let us consider this in light of the Sirah of the noble Messenger of Allah (pbuh). Muslims believe he was the most successful human being in history. Even many fair-minded non-Muslims agree with this view. Yet those familiar with his Sirah would confirm that his progress in society was not based on his success in business, the number of camels or the acres of orchards he possessed or even the square miles of territory he controlled. His success was measured in terms of the number of hearts he liberated through his exemplary character, pleasant manner, forgiving nature, and principled determination. People longed to be in his company because of his lofty qualities of character. He had what we would term in contemporary terminology, immense charisma. How does one measure charisma on a materialistic scale.

He not only left this world without any material possessions but he also inspired his companions to adopt the same simple lifestyle... They established a civilization that lasted nearly 1,000 years, a feat unequaled before or after the advent of Islam. So we need to move beyond the Western-imposed definition of progress.

According to the Western materialistic view of progress, the Prophet of Allah (pbuh) would not be considered to have been very successful. After all, he did not leave a huge bank balance, palaces or vast estates at death. He not only left this world without any material possessions but he also inspired his companions to adopt the same simple lifestyle. Yet who can say that the early Muslims were not successful or did not make progress? They established a civilization that lasted nearly 1,000 years, a feat unequaled before or after the advent of Islam. They certainly did not dazzle people with their wealth or fancy clothes.

So we need to move beyond the Western-imposed definition of progress. But even by the standards of their own narrowly crafted definition of progress, the West has failed. A small coterie of people has accumulated enormous wealth while the vast majority has been turned into slaves working like automatons to merely make ends meet. Broken families leading to rising levels of depression, suicides, crime and burgeoning prison populations all point to the failure of this system, its values, and its notion of progress. The Western definition of progress, regrettably, is also the one accepted by most elites in the Muslim world although they have demonstrably failed to show any “progress” in their respective societies even on their own accepted scale.

In the Qur’an, Allah (swt) describes the Muslims as the “best Ummah raised among mankind” (3:110), yet the qualities required to make them the “best community” do not exist among most Muslims today. What accounts for this dismal state of affairs?

Who is responsible for this failure in the Ummah is a question we will address a little later. First, let us establish a better definition of the Ummah. One opinion posits that the nearly two billion Muslims in the world today constitute the Ummah. Some Muslims even proudly proclaim that Islam is “the fastest growing religion in the world.” Perhaps, but this definition only accounts for numbers. Do vast numbers automatically translate into transformative power? While constituting one-fourth of the world’s population, occupying 20% of the earth’s landmass, producing 20% of its mineral and 40% of its energy resources, the Muslim world should be a leading if not the leading power in the world, yet at the global level it is quite insignificant, whether assessed on the material or moral scales. In the Qur’an, Allah (swt) describes the Muslims as the “best Ummah raised among mankind” (3:110), yet the qualities required to make them the “best community” do not exist among most Muslims today. What accounts for this dismal state of affairs?

The issue of numbers also needs a closer examination and whether the reverse — that is, small numbers — automatically means lack of power. During the colonial period, the European colonial powers with their relatively small populations — Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, for instance — colonized and ruled societies many times larger. They did not even maintain large armies in the colonized lands yet for centuries the colonial program was able to project power in occupied societies. What accounts for the European colonialists’ projection of power despite their relatively small populations compared to the Muslim countries’ lack of power today despite their large populations? Similarly, we must address the issue of why Muslims lost power along with the pre-eminent position they had enjoyed in the world for nearly 1,000 years. As recently as 200 years ago, the Muslims were a dominant force on the world stage.

A large population may become powerful only if it functions in conjunction with several other factors. In the contemporary global situation, the US, China and Russia’s relatively large populations only augment a power formula that was consolidated by other means. Power is not only a function of a large population but also of such other factors as the determined pursuit of clearly-stated objectives, judicious use of material resources and military strength, but above all, coordination between the objectives to be pursued and the willingness of the masses to support them. In short, what results in power projection is the alignment of a number of factors to maximize one’s strength. When all these factors support each other to optimize output, the result is often quite spectacular. But the power of such states, lacking in moral authority or certitude, declines fairly rapidly; other predatory competitors overtake them. America’s position as a pre-eminent global power is declining while that of China and Russia is rising. Only a century earlier, Britain appeared unrivaled. It would be immediately apparent that all these powers were and are non-Muslim. Power, however, is not the monopoly of any group or religion; Allah (swt) has no favorites. He gives wealth and power to whomever He wills. How they use such blessings is what determines their ultimate position with Allah (swt). That the pre-eminent position of these powers is short-lived clearly points to their weak and unstable ideological and moral foundations.

Often, when we Muslims think of the Ummah, our emotional fascination with what could be someday if we were united, obfuscates our understanding of the meaning of the Qur’anic word ummah, and thereby the intent and purpose of its use along with the binding concept that lies behind it. Few Muslim scholars have attempted to attach a contemporary value to the word so that ordinary Muslims can have a tangible idea of what meanings the word is supposed to elicit when used. It is interesting to note that the Arabic words, umm for mother, and imam for leader, derive from the same root as the word ummah. In a metaphorical sense, umm leads one in the direction of source, origin, foundation, gist, and essence.

For instance, Makkah is often referred to as Umm al-Qura, meaning the original city, country or place of settlement; and similarly, Surah al-Fatihah is sometimes characterized as Umm al-Qur’an, meaning the foundational surah. When one thinks of the word imam, what comes to mind are things like in front of, in the lead, pacesetting, guiding, and setting direction. Thus when we hear the word ummah, all of these layers of meanings ought to occur in our collective consciousness, the only difference being that while umm and imam may apply to individuals, ummah refers to a social aggregate that functions as if it were one entity.

To solidify this view, listen to how Allah (swt) uses the term in describing an experience of Musa (a) when he was at Madyan,

“Now when he arrived at the wells of Madyan, he found there an ummah of men who were watering [their herds and flocks]; and at some distance from them he came upon two women who were keeping back their flock…” (28:23).

Notice that in this description, the collective strategies, energies and labors of a large group of men are being harnessed to accomplish a singular objective — drawing water for livestock — that would be difficult, if not impossible, for one to achieve by himself. Therefore, in a generic sense, an ummah is: many hands, one purpose.

...to collect people with different understandings, different backgrounds, different problem-solving approaches, different ways of processing information, different cultures, different upbringings and different mindsets on a unified mission is not an easy task...

But, to collect people with different understandings, different backgrounds, different problem-solving approaches, different ways of processing information, different cultures, different upbringings and different mindsets on a unified mission is not an easy task: it takes planning, it takes work, and it requires institutional channels of open communication. Consistent and regular effort is required to bind people to a common purpose, for unity of purpose would have no meaning if everyone was thinking and acting the same way. Human differences are by divine decree; indeed Allah (swt) says,

“And [know that] all mankind were once but one ummah, and only later did they begin to hold divergent views. And had it not been for a decree — that had already gone forth from your Sustainer — all their differences would indeed have been settled [from the outset]” (10:19).

What this means is that all humanity has the innate capacity to recognize the existence of Allah (swt), to be conscious of His authority, to appreciate His power, and thus to conform to His command and counsel. However, man’s capacity is constantly compromised by subservience to less worthy authorities, resulting in a progressive deviation away from his inborn characteristics. And had Allah (swt) chosen, such an estrangement of man from his fitrah would never have occurred, but this would have precluded his intellectual, moral and social development — meaning that Allah (swt) desires man to use his rational faculties, cultivated through prophetic example and guidance, to discover these universal truths.

Rational confidence is a by-product of the exchange of ideas between thinking people, of a collaborative dialogue to test theses and hypotheses so that all those thus engaged can have certitude of the way reality ought to be. Developing a consciousness of Allah’s (swt) power presence, His authority, His omnipotence and His oneness is a joint effort, a cooperative exercise; in short, it takes an ummah. In other words, for an individual with his limited abilities, no matter how extensive they may be, to achieve this is problematic; but the collective consciousness of an entire society dedicated toward this recognition makes this possible.

This is why Ibrahim (a) has been characterized as an ummah unto himself; he was uniquely able to accomplish what it would normally take an ummah to do,

“Verily, Ibrahim was an ummah [a man who combined within himself all virtues], devoutly obeying Allah’s will, turning away from all that is false, and not being of those who ascribe divinity/authority to any beside Allah; [for he was always] grateful for the blessings granted by Him who had elected him and guided him onto a straight way” (16:120–121).

State of the UmmahIslamic CivilizationClarity of Thought