Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Saudi Arabia's gift to Pakistan and Afghanistan
True Islam I'm afraid is many things! This is one of the problems the true history of Islam in that very region is extremely violent the region was once populated with Buddhist, Hindus and Sikhs were slaughtered en masse to bring Islam to these areas. Historians note that 80-100 million and some suggest up to 120 million were killed by Muslim conquerors in India. Millions were enslaved many shipped off to Baghdad's slave markets many forcibly converted and turned round to go on jihad and bring more of India under Islam. Muslim conquerors recorded that at times 100,000 Indians were slaughtered in a single day. One historian expressed annoyance with Indian Yogi philosophy and argued that although it was okay to seek this inner peace and fulfillment that a country must equally look to protect its borders. And that when the Muslim invaders attacked the first time around the 7-8th century that this should have given them warning. What stopped the wholesale spread of Islam in this manner was partly due to ironically the collection of the Islamic jizya tax which is a protection tax required by all non-Muslims. When Muslim rulers governed areas where the people remained unconverted they were able to profit from the collection of the jizya tax. When other Muslim leaders would pressure them to convert their populations they were often reluctant because the tax allowed them to live extremely lavish lives compared to Islamic rulers governing mainly Muslim or converted populations. They say Hindu Kush also means Hindu blood over the sheer amount of blood spilled during the Islamic attacks. And we know that there are no Buddhists left in Afghanistan / northern Pakistan except at funerals you still see the little flags like those used in the Buddhist ceremony they give you on the way up Mount Everest evidence that they were there. What is driving the current upheaval is perhaps also Pakistan's desire to be like Saudi Arabia and in their view to be more in line with True Islam here's what some of the kids have been learning there. Islam is based on the Quran and hadiths. The Quran itself says 'obey Allah and obey the Prophet (ie his hadiths or sayings). Also what the Prophet did is not open to criticism as he is supposed the most perfect man who ever lived. That is why you will never have Inayat or any Muslim condemning stoning women, because the Prophet did have a woman stoned to death for adultery. Or criticising the Saudis for not allowing the building of churches, because the Prophet said let there be no two religions in Arabia. Moreover Ibn Abd al-Wahhab also repudiated the consensus of the community (Ijma) as he felt that the prevailing social order at his time was itself corrupt. That is why he called for a return to a pure and unadulterated form of Islam closer to the ideals of the Prophet. This madrassa inspired and Saudi financed Wahhabi Islam is destroying indigenous Islam in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Crucially it is imposing a radical creed that represents a distortion and perversion of true Islam. Madawi al-Rasheed in her book A History of Saudi Arabia (Cambridge University Press, 2002) have documented the violent history of the Wahhabis on the Arab peninsula and beyond. That is why their followers today want to create a global Ummah in their own image, composed of only themselves and the other few elect who conform to their standards of purity. Little wonder that so many Muslims around the world are outraged by their lethal injunctions and reject their absolutism and suppression of local traditions including Sufism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. So yes, any madrasas that preach this theology should indeed be closed and their proponents excluded from Mosques, preferably by fellow Muslims on religious grounds. This is of course a task for Imams and other religious authorities who have more duties in Islam than only to lead people in prayer. Where this is not possible, the public authorities should intervene and expel hate preachers on legal grounds (incitement to violence)
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