Whither Muslim Solidarity

Schisms are as inevitable for belief systems as cracks are for tall edifices. Both can, however, be endured and repaired and integrity of the structure retained. But there have been times when it was seriously threatened.

It happened when one group of the faithful started calling another heretics and two factions of the same religion committed fratricide. Fanatics got hold of believers of their own faith, accused them of witchcraft, blasphemy and apostasy and deprived them of their lives and property by acting as judges, jury and executioners. Even kingdoms professing the same faith have attacked each other, or watched passively when one of them was destroyed by an alien power. That period is known as the Dark Ages of Europe, which came after Christianity had suffered the fatigue of a millennium. 

The conditions sound familiar. Could the Muslim society be currently passing through a similar age after its first millennium? Jury is still out on Spengler, when it comes to the doctrine of history repeating itself, but no one can afford to ignore the warnings of history. There may not be a timetable of the rise and fall of great societies but an observable pattern is suggestive. It was about five centuries after Christ that the Christian Roman Empire lost its vitality and fell to the barbarians, thus starting the process that was later to become the Dark Ages. Ironically the emergence of Muslims on the scene, with the vigor of a young faith and strength of knowledge changed that tide. They came practicing compassionate values and displayed chivalry in war, which proved to be a challenge that generated a positive response. Western historians of repute do not hesitate in giving Muslims the credit of contributing to European Renaissance.

Coincidentally or not, about six centuries after Hijra, Baghdad, the pinnacle of the Muslim excellence met the same fate at the hands of another hoard of barbarians, which possibly signaled the beginning of decline of the Muslim power that has possibly sunken to its lowest by now. 

Now we see Muslim states bloodletting each other in Iraq - Iran and Iraq - Kuwait conflicts in a loose-loose situation. We watch helplessly as the Palestinians are deprived of their hearths and homes, robbed of their dignity and killed at will. We witness free-for-all blitzkrieg on unarmed and disarmed Muslim countries and cannot do a thing about it. We see hapless Muslim pockets on the outer periphery of the erstwhile empire being annihilated and cannot reach out to them to offer help. We allow the Arab-Iran regional rivalry, stoked by the oil- consuming powers, to corrupt into Shia-Sunni poison that spills over into Iraqi politics and into Pakistan, where Muslims kill Muslims while in state of prayers in mosques. 

Outraged at our helplessness, we seem to compensate for our loss of face by being fanatically zealous in our faith. Finding no other targets we use concocted heresy charges as an excuse to fall on each other's throats. We feel pride in taking law in our hands as defenders of faith, accusing some of blasphemy and others of apostasy before executing them in the manner of Spanish inquisitions that was perpetrated against Muslims. We are ready to kill and get killed in foreign lands, ostensibly on our way to paradise, the way the Christian crusaders did in Muslim countries during their Dark Ages.

We may not own it, but our future generations are going to look back at our times and call them the Dark Ages of the Muslim history, the same way as the Europeans look at theirs. Taking advantages of the hindsight they can now see how the clergy transformed the simple message of love and peace given by Jesus Christ into hundreds of conflicting interpretations to suit the rulers they served. They also analyze how the commandments for the right action were neglected and rituals promoted to tie people down to the Church.

It should not be difficult for the Muslim intelligentsia to introspect, communicate with each other using modern technology, and correct their ways. For one thing Islam enjoins a direct Man - God relationship without the need of an intermediary. Therefore it is easier for a Muslim individual to fall back on the undisputed purity of the message of Holy Quran and use his own intellect to interpret it. It would come to be the original pre-sectarian faith that Mohammad preached. Muslim can then make his way straight to the challenges of the modern times, without depending on any anachronistic school of thought.

As for adopting the qualities of enlightenment and modernity, if Muslims could bestow these to a backward Europe, they are certainly capable of embracing them on their own. They must acquire knowledge from the developed world without foregoing their own ethos. After all, the West borrowed the seeds from the East and nurtured them, and borrowing them back is no robbery. Beside, knowledge is the most favored acquisition in Islam.

What befell Baghdad again and again is symptomatic of the state of Muslims. When it capitulated in 1258 a religious autocracy was ruling with their minds closed. When it invited destruction in 2003 a secular despot was in charge with his eyes closed. Is it not sufficient to open the minds and the eyes of Ummah?

The author is an independent commentator based in Karachi, Pakistan