Hijacking of Islam

People find it hard to understand why so few educated Muslims speak up against Jihadi fanaticism. Many also equate terrorism with Muslim fundamentalism without knowing that fundamentally Islam is strongly opposed to all forms of terrorism and that a fairly recent Islamic sect has succeeded in capturing the minds of poor Muslims worldwide.

Most Muslims believe that the Quran is the infallible, eternal and unchangeable words of Allah but very few know how much the teachings of The Prophet had been revised over the past fourteen centuries. The Quran only began to be compiled fourteen years after Muhammad’s death in 632 AD when Khalif Abu Bakr gave Zaid Ibn Thabit, one of The Prophet’s companions, the task of writing it. The third Khalif Othman then announced the definitive Madina version in 665 AD. Several other versions were gathered up and burned.

But the Suras, or verses, of the Quran did not answer all the questions of a changing society so Muslim clerics sought further scriptural authorities for interpreting Islamic law. Two hundred years later the celebrated Al-Bukhari added examples from the life of The Prophet as the Hadith. He traveled the entire Muslim world to compile most of it. But he, appalled by the credulity of people, on his own authority rejected 99.6 % of the 600,000 pious contributions offered to him.

The first schism occurred when the Shia sect split from the dominant Sunnis. Although it was originally a result of a battle for succession to the Khalifate, the Shia faith, widely adopted in Persia, allowed many Persian traditions like portraiture and glorious tombs to continue. It affirmed its faith in the Quran but developed its own Hadith. But many other sects, with their own interpretations of Islam, kept erupting. There were the Fatimids, Sufis, Kaljrijites, Ismailis, Zaidis, Nizaris, Alawis and several others. By the end of the 13th century the Sunni clerics declared that the doors to further revision were closed but many revisionists continued to appear.

Then in the 18th century Abd Al Wahhab began the Sunni Wahhabiya movement that while accepting the Quran and Hadith as fundamental texts opposed all innovations, superstitions and deviances with a very narrow interpretation of these in a puritanical and legalistic form. In its opposition to idolatry it even opposed the worshipping of Muhammad or other saints and praying at tombs. It demanded very strict restrictions on the rights of women, Hijab or Burkah, prohibiting the wearing of charms, going to sorcerers, etc.

Many of their beliefs however went beyond the teachings of The Prophet. The word Jihad is rarely found in the Koran but is referred to 199 times in the Hadith. They interpreted Jihad to mean a holy war even though Jihad had actually meant a striving and Mujahiddin was no holy warrior but only one who strives. There were also two Jehads and the greater Jehad meant a struggle against one’s own weakness while a lesser Jehad was to fight against injustice. Both enjoined adherents to struggle on regardless of the odds with the certain faith that Allah would come to the aid of the sincere devotee. But there were strict rules and the Jehad could not be declared by anybody but only by an authority of widely accepted repute. The dreaded word Fatwa had never meant a draconian sentence but was just a cleric’s ‘opinion’ on any issue.

The Quran says that killing in the name of Islam was the opposite of Jehad and had expressly forbidden an attack on anyone who had offered no offence. It was forbidden to harm or to kill women and children. It was also forbidden to take hostages or to torture or kill prisoners. Even suicide was forbidden. Muhammad also said that anyone who sets another on fire commits the greatest sin and is destined to the fires of Hell.

In 1924, unfortunately, the Wahhabi al-Saud dynasty captured Mecca and Madina giving them control of the Hajj. This enabled their fiery clerics to preach their version of Islam to the entire Islamic world. Then the enormous wealth from oil, discovered in Arabia in 1938, enabled them to fund the construction and repairs of mosques around the world and to finance the Madrassas, or Islamic schools attached to them. They were vigorous proselytizers so their radical influence quickly spread through the Muslim world to radicalize many previously moderate communities from Indonesia to Uzbekistan.

Though the Wahabis were themselves a recent sect of Islam they furiously attacked other gentler Muslim sects like the Bahai’s and Ahmadiyas. Under Wahhabi pressure Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto in 1971 declared Ahmediyas as non Muslims. Later Zia al Haq made a Madrassa education necessary for army recruitment. The CIA then decided that such fanatics would be helpful in expelling the Russians from Afghanistan and gave arms and finance for creating the Taliban. The children of over three million poor Afghan refugees studying in Pakistan Madrassas produced an army of indoctrinated and gullible youngsters. But the fanatics considered the Saudi surrender to the economic and political influence of America as a great heresy and the Al Quida was born. Taliban and Osama bin Laden were thus American creations and USA is reaping the whirlwind.

The massive attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq and Israel’s aggression in Palestine alienated Muslims around the world who felt that these were totally unjustified on any moral ground. Many felt that words like ’Axis of Evil’ confirmed that the US and its allies were on a virtual Crusade to destroy Islam itself. Many moderates, including technically well educated young men from good families, became much easier to recruit.

In India, the radicalisation of Hindus with the Jehadi rhetoric of Hindutva suited these radicals perfectly. Revenge is sadly an important element of the Arabian psyche and so a part of Muslim thinking. So it inspired angry vengeance for the massacres after Babri Masjid and the subsequent mayhem in Mumbai and Gujarat.

The moderate Muslim majority will not regain control of the mosques or places of religious education until the numerous poor Muslims can be educated enough or can earn enough to be liberated from Wahhabi influence. But as long the Muslims feel that they are being unjustly targeted they are bound to continue a painful round of revenge after revenge.

George Bush’s ’war on terror’ may have been motivated by a ’cowboy’ spirit of revenge or from domestic political compulsions but military options that multiply the vicious cycle of hate and violence will not end Muslim terrorists. But violence might diminish if Muslim leaders can convince poor Muslims that Wahhabi extremism is a heresy to the sacred words of Muhammad.