Striving for Justice and Unity: Priorities for Muslims as Minorities in the West

Striving for Justice and Unity: Priorities for Muslims as Minorities in the West

by: Dr Mohammad Akram Nadwi
Oxford

Muslims have been deprived of political power for so long that they have become adapted to the views about Islam and Muslims of those who have and continue to hold power over them. For example, it is common to hear Muslims blaming the governments of Muslim countries for betraying the interests of Muslims in their own countries and in the rest of the world. Against this background it is a very simple job for the enemies of Islam to spread stories which incite division and distrust among Muslims. So, Muslims are quick to condemn the Gulf states, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey etc. for failing to come to the rescue of the Palestinians who are under genocidal attack. What they should do instead of such condemnation is to ask themselves what in reality the governments of these countries have the power actually to do that would in any way be effective in reducing the suffering of Palestinians. The reality is that these governments do no have either economic or political sovereignty and cannot act either singly or as a group to affect the situation in Palestine in a single, swift move. In practice the only way to address the situation is a slow war of attrition. For example, it is within the power of the Gulf states not to go along with the Western policies, and this is a form of opposition and it is effective if it is sustained, despite the cost imposed by the West. At the same time this approach minimizes the risk of an all-out war by the West on these countries singly or as a group, which they would very quickly lose. Given the realities, Muslims in the West should be more careful in what they say and what they are willing to believe about their fellow Muslims not in the West. It is almost a sin to recommend military jihad to others while living comfortably and safely in the territories of the active enemies of Islam. Such a recommendation could only be sound advice if the Muslims giving it were actively engaged in doing hijra from those countries. Of course they are not. Just as it is an injustice to recommend a religion to someone else while not believing in it oneself, so too it is an injustice to recommend jihad to others while not engaging in it oneself.
Muslim majority nations, like almost all other countries outside the West, have been the victims of direct military and economic war from the West for generations. So, in effect Muslims cannot believe in themselves in their own capacity to unite and defeat their enemies. Muslims living in the West as minorities have in effect gone to live in the places from which that military and economic war originates. Perhaps they thought it must be safer to be where the gunfire is coming from rather than staying or going to where the gunfire is directed. This situation is fundamentally weak.
If Muslims in the West desire to think, speak and act justly with respect to Muslims in the world they left, they must begin by properly appreciating the circumstances and the freedom of action which those Muslims actually enjoy. Once you begin from this position it becomes easier to resist the propaganda from the West about the impossibility of Muslims being able to succeed in the world as it is presently configured. It will be easier not to assist the Western propaganda from its first mission which is to divide Muslims from each other and against each other, and to prevent Muslims from believing that they can and will succeed if they have right strategy, the right tactics, and they remain united.

If we look at these qur’anic passages that speak of the desirability, the necessity of unity among Muslims we can see clearly that there are two most important conditions for sustaining unity. One, the belief that other Muslims (regardless how they may have offended you) are your brothers and you must treat them as brothers (regardless of any ongoing dispute and with commitment to ending that dispute). This condition means that disagreement or dispute can only be short term, just as between flesh and blood brothers. Second, the determination to serve Allah in the world as Allah has commanded His prophets to serve in the world, namely to establish and to spread justice among humankind. That is why, when Muslims are commanded to intervene in a dispute and reconcile the disputing parties by establishing some form of agreement between them, and one party either rejects the possibility of agreement and / or does not honour the agreement, it is a duty to make war against the rejecting party. You can only act within the boundaries of your general knowledge of human nature and your particular knowledge of the circumstances of the dispute between fellow Muslims. You can safely rely on the help of Allah to protect your judgements in the effort of reconciliation only if you are sincere in your brotherliness towards both parties and in your commitment to reconciling them as far as practicable.