ISLAM: YESTERDAY,
TODAY AND TOMORROW
Islam was the greatest religious revolution in history. In the
first 100 years of Islam, it
created an empire that stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Himalayan
mountains in India. For 1000 years, Islam would be the dominant religion
on the planet. Even the conquest of some Islamic states by the Mongols did not
stop Islam. The Mongol Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate Mongol Kingdom in Central
Asia soon converted to Islam.
Islam continued to expand and, by 1700, it had reached its greatest extent. Since then, Islam has declined. The defeat of
the Ottoman Empire in World War One, in many ways, set a low point for Islam. It
formally ended the caliphate and eliminated the last significant power, which
was a Muslim state. Some experts in the West predicted that Islam was finished, but
they were wrong. As history continued to unfold, a great deal of power moved
towards the Petro states, particularly in the Persian Gulf, and in 1973, history
changed. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia slapped an oil embargo on the West for its
support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Oil prices were sharply raised after
that, causing a flow over the years of trillions of dollars of wealth into
Muslim states. In a word, Islam was back on the global game board as a major
force in world history.
Now, listening to so-called "experts" in American
imperial circles, one might get the idea that Islam is a problem and that
Muslims need to be bombed, killed, tortured, educated, and starved by sanctions
so they can be a shining example of humanity, like in America and England. There
are a couple of complications with this view in seeing these societies as some
kind of wonderful example, such as the fact that America was founded on genocide
and slavery or that the British Empire killed at least 50 million people.
Today, American imperialism is in big trouble. England
is a joke. It's a pale shadow of what it used to be, and Brexit has shown that
the whole British political system is an utterly dysfunctional piece of junk.
So, these powers are declining; clearly, they are an example of what not to
do when setting up a country.
STATUS OF CURRENT
MUSLIM LEADERSHIP
We need to look forward to what is the role of Islam
in today's world. It is a complicated question because there is no caliphate
today and no center of Islamic power. The closest thing we have to this is the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which controls the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia
has played a huge role in funding and organizing a major global expansion of
Islam. Not all Muslims agree with the version of Islam that
dominates Saudi Arabia. However, Saudi Arabia today is moderating some
aspects of its religious policies and has shown a willingness to work with all
reasonable forms of Islam. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's military ties to
America are also a source of controversy. Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia will
play a major role in the future of Islam.
It is also important to realize
that Allah could raise a prophet in any nation who could change the world.
A recent poll of Islamic countries showed that faith
is critically important to the youth of the Islamic world. Sorry, but Western
consumerism is not winning out. By 2070 or earlier, Islam will again become the
world's largest religion. (Regarding people who believe in something, it is
likely already the largest religion on the planet.) So, what Muslims think matters.
However, the imperial power structure that is set up today has been designed purposely to shut Muslims out of world leadership. Muslims need to unite so their large numbers count regarding global power. The genocide in Gaza has been a global humiliation of the Ummah. To the worldwide community of Islam, it has been a total humiliation and shows how completely unacceptable the current political state of Islam is in the current world.
MODELS FOR LEADERSHIP
We do not have an exact agenda for what should happen
because it depends on the actions of each country. You can look at Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan, or the place with the largest Muslim population in Indonesia. We
certainly do not claim to know where leadership for the global Islamic community
will come from. Allah could raise a leader anywhere.
We need to set some templates for Islamic leadership
and have a very frank talk about some false templates that have been promoted.
To understand the present and future, Muslims must understand the past and look
back at how the most incredible religious revolution in history occurred. Did
Muslim leaders adopt the Declaration of Independence like America did? Well, of
course not. Did they adopt the Magna Carta? No, they did not. These are models
that Muslims clearly have little use for and should pay little to no attention
to.
What Muslims need is to get back to the Quran. Tolerance is demanded by the Quran, and the Muslim regimes that
were put in place in the seventh century respected religious tolerance. Now, it's imperative to
understand that Christianity in the Middle Ages was a complete nightmare and was
the most murderous and intolerant religion the world had ever seen. So when
Muslim armies conquered Christian areas, they were bringing religious freedom.
When you look at the very humane manner in which Caliph Umar conquered
Jerusalem, it's a model, and it's a stark contrast to the conquest of Jerusalem
by the Christian crusaders who massacred just about everyone in sight. Umar was
probably one of the greatest leaders in world history. He created an empire that
was every bit as great as the empire of Alexander. Still, because of the
narrow-minded view of Anglo-American imperialists, there's little teaching about
him. He's completely ignored in Western colleges as if he were a nobody. That's
a reflection of the West's stupidity, not Caliph Umar's historical value.
Islam must
also return to its tradition of social justice, compassion, and justice
for the poor. Malcolm X was an example of this in the west. These are essential points that Islam should return to. These
plans for a global Islamic agenda regarding global Islamic leadership are not
visible right now. No, it is not, so that somehow has to evolve, and the sooner,
the better.
THE GAZA GENOCIDE AND THE
END OF WESTERN CREDIBILITY
In looking at today's world, we need to see
that a turning point has taken place, and that is the genocide in Gaza for
American imperialism is kind of what Stalingrad was for Nazi imperialism.
It's probably much more serious because Gaza is such a colossal moral atrocity.
Gaza has exposed the lie that countries like England and America have
anything to offer the world in terms of teachings about human rights or democracy.
The history of America and England in terms of imperialism, genocide, and mass
murder is a history of horror and hypocrisy. So, this has exposed these leaders as
false. As Muslims organize to move forward again, they must return to the
foundations of the global Islamic revolution in the 7th century. For example,
when Caliph Umar presided over the enormous conquest of Egypt and Persia, what
did he do? Did he call for elections? Did he set up a sham democracy like
America? Well, of course not, and Western-style so-called democracy has little
to do with anything other than a system that is failing. He set up a rule by
people who were morally fit to rule. This is real life, so it doesn't mean there
weren't human rights violations, and war is not grim. It doesn't mean there
weren't any war crimes, and it wasn't brutal business, but one thing he did not
do was set up elections. Why would he set up elections? Just because
most people vote for something doesn't mean it's right. It's a rather
obvious point. Democracy is not an end in itself, and Muslims should stop going
around trying to appease America or claim that they support Anglo-American
concepts of democracy. This is just garbage. Islam needs to have a tolerant view
of other religions, but also the exact political structure of the coming global
Islamic revolution. This is not something we would presume to define. That's up
to the leaders who create it. But in light of the disastrous performance of
America and England, we could certainly say that their political systems are a
case study of what not to copy, and Muslims should stop running around trying to
claim Islam and American democracy are somehow compatible. It's absolute
blasphemy.
Looking forward, the whole structure of the post-World
War II American imperial system is collapsing. It's created an economic system
based on the destruction of the environment. Right now, the system is just sort
of an upside-down debt pyramid as it's gotten into deeper and deeper trouble.
Meanwhile, all in the 21st century, there has been just an endless series of the
most diabolical war crimes in places like Iraq, Libya, and other places
committed by US imperialism. These are evil people, and this is
a system that is heading towards a big crisis and a big breakup. The point for
Muslims is to be well organized in the way they present Islam. This is the issue
of Muslims in the West because it is very unclear as to whether they are
organized enough to reach out to express what was significant in the
demonstrations over Gaza. For the first time, you saw young radical leftists; in
fact, it was not just radical leftists... a good part of the youth, radical or
not, was outraged at the genocide of Biden and marching shoulder to shoulder
with believers. People could see in the big demonstrations that Muslims would
bow down to the Almighty in prayer, which was a turning point—in our view,
raising the credibility of Islam and laying the groundwork for the enormous
growth of Islam in the West. Something that might be considered unthinkable, but
what's genuinely unthinkable is to have any confidence in people like
Biden, who would openly engage in genocide and lie about it. That and
the foreign policy establishment's monsters like Samantha Power and people like
these are absolute filth. So there's no reason to have any confidence in
them.
THE MISSION AHEAD
Ultimately, Muslims will do what they've always done or should do, which
is to humble themselves before Allah and seek guidance. We don't pretend to have
an exact plan of what they should do, but we know things they should not do,
such as engage in a lack if tolerance against other religions or cheer on US
"democracy".
We are living in the twilight of the idols. As the US
imperial system tears itself apart and collapses, it's a historic opportunity
for a second giant Islamic revolution. This opportunity could be as big as the
religious revolution of the 7th century. Muslims around the world should prepare
and organize themselves. Think about the mission that they have today.