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Men die for other men, not for God

By Bashir Goth - posted Tuesday, 24 July 2007


Hard as it may seem, I can understand people rejecting change and being determined to continue to live as the Prophet lived in the 14th century. But what I cannot understand is how they are able to twist the words and actions of the Prophet, in whom they so vehemently believe, and commit such inhuman crimes in his name.

There are in fact a number of Prophet Mohammed’s sayings and Koranic verses that glorify martyrdom. But as the commander-in-chief of the Muslim army, the Prophet may have encouraged martyrdom in the battlefield to raise the morale of his soldiers. With the absence of military rank, medals and all modern methods of honouring soldiers, and with his role as spiritual leader of his followers, Mohammed could only promise mystical rewards.

Martyrdom was, therefore, limited to the battleground; the Prophet promised heavenly paradise to those who fell during battle. The holy Koran, meanwhile, admonishes Muslims not to count those killed fighting for Allah: “And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision,” says a verse 169 of Aal-Imraan chapter.

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Despite this, it is neither Prophet Mohammed nor the holy Koran that is to blame for today’s mayhem, simply because any rational human being would place these canonical texts in their historical perspective and realise that they applied to a different time, a different world and different circumstances.

I am unaware of any occasion or record in which the Prophet or even the holy Koran sanctioned people to kill innocent children, women, elderly and non-combatant civilians in their homes, work places, mosques and schools.

It is unfortunate that Islam - which opened the minds of people to science and research, liberated man from the worship of rocks and sculptures, challenged human beings to think and reflect, which started its message with a veneration of the written word - has been ossified into a dogma of death and ignorance.

Instead, one can see that it is modern age self-appointed prophets who have hijacked Islam for their own personal goals. Firebrand clerics such as Sayyid Abul A’la Al Mawdudi of Pakistan and Sayyid Qutub of Egypt preached their own rigid brand of Islam and converted the Muslim youth into time bombs.

It is these men and their present day disciples who reinvented Islam and preached an Islamic era of inquisition where no other faith could exist alongside Islam. It is they who made martyrdom and self-immolation the uppermost duty of the Muslims.

Classifying Muslim morality into four aspects, Mawdudi made Ihsan (Godliness) as the highest stage. Further elaborating on this, he said it was impossible for people to be counted Muhsinin (Godly people): “… who stand passively by and see the religion of God dominated by forces of kufr (infidels), the sanctions of Allah (hudud) completely ignored and divine laws being at best neglected and at worst overturned … the reign of tyranny and oppression unleashed on God’s earth by God’s rebels …”

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Sayyid Qutub, himself a disciple of Mawududi, went even further to claim that the Islamic world was immersed in ignorance (jahiliyah) compared to that which prevailed in Mecca before the appearance of Prophet Mohammed.

“… The entire life of man should revert to God. Men should not take any decision in any matter or aspect of life on account of their autonomy … all systems and governments should be done away with. After the hegemony of Islam, people will not have the liberty of thought to embrace any religion of their choice …” he wrote in his seminal book The Milestones, simply brushing aside the Koranic verse which says: “There is no compulsion in religion.”

Sayyid Qutub was in such a hurry to bring about the change he wanted that he called his Egyptian fellows to launch an armed revolt against society: “… the present Egyptian society is a jahili (anti-Islamic) society. Egypt’s present system of government is a jahili system. Every Muslim should, therefore, exert that this order should come to an end. Using force in this exercise is not only permissible but obligatory …” he wrote.

These jihadist apostles have dominated the thinking of the Muslim world for much of the 20th century. Their jihadist messages have echoed in the Islamic world and impressionable imams have emulated them by inciting hatred from mosque pulpits.

Immersed in such self-destructive and jihadist rhetoric, it was difficult to find a voice higher than that of the revisionist apostles of martyrdom stoked by the communist invasion of Afghanistan, the never-ending Middle East conflict and the oppressive Western-supported states of the region.

However, it didn’t take an insightful new convert to be alarmed by the dangerous turn that the Islamic message had been taking, judged by the sermons heard in mosques.

“… My own impression is that those sermons, too, rarely applied to the rational side of man and much often to his emotions. At times, I feel as if the imam is calling the faithful to an imminent battle for life or death rather than expounding a point of ethics or doctrine …” wrote Murad Hoffman, a German scholar converted to Isalm, in his book Islam 2000.

It is not, therefore, the holy Koran or the Hadith or religion per se that turns people into human bombs, but it is men possessed by certain demons who take advantage of the naivety and ignorance of the masses to immortalise their names.

“… What gives birth to religious extremism and religious wars is not dogma, but men who transform dogmas into specific cultures and national identities. For if all the faithful limited themselves to the effort to seek God and adhere Him, the search of God and his adoration could not be the causes of wars, hatreds or discrimination …” wrote the French philosopher Mohammad Arkoun.

At the end, it is the power that men have over other men below them, men who claim to speak to God, which sends their loyal disciples to their death either by blowing themselves up or dying on the battlefield.

It was man and not God who killed millions in the Spanish Inquisition; man and not God who burned others at the stake for denying that wine is converted into blood by prayers; man and not God who launched the merciless Crusades; man and not God that laid the Byzantine and Persian civilisations to waste to raise the flag of Islam; man and not Allah that led tens of young men, women and children to burn in hell in the Lal Mosque; and al-Qaida and not Allah that brainwashes Muslim youth to cause death and destruction.

No wonder former US army interrogator Tony Lagouranis said in a BBC interview recently that he went to Iraq as a good Christian and returned as an atheist because he couldn’t stomach the hypocrisy of people portraying themselves as fulfilling God’s commands, committing gruesome crimes.

It is unfortunate that God cannot speak for himself to expose those conmen who slaughter innocent creatures in his name. I wish he could.

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First published in the Washington Post on July 14, 2007.



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About the Author

Bashir Goth is a Somali poet, journalist, professional translator, freelance writer and the first Somali blogger. Bashir is the author of numerous cultural, religious and political articles and advocate of community-development projects, particularly in the fields of education and culture. He is also a social activist and staunch supporter of women’s rights. He is currently working as an editor in a reputable corporation in the UAE. You can find his blog here.

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