Muslim Unity:
A Business-like Approach
[Some
pertinent background info:
This essay was composed in May 2000 on invitation from one of the leading
Islamic monthly magazines in North America. The editor was aware of my often
unorthodox or non-conformist perspectives, but I alerted him about those
again. Regardless, I was asked to send it in. Arguably, he had second thoughts
after receiving it. I was requested to remove a section to conform to their
length requirement, even though I was commended by the editor. I was told that
if I just removed the part related to Bangladesh and the genocide in 1971 it
would be excellent. I firmly refused. I was deeply disappointed over this, and
there was a time lapse of more than a year before I finally had it published.
That
many Muslims around the world do not know about the genocide in 1971 is most
pathetic. Worse, the apathy of many Muslims who know about this genocide in
1971, that was perpetrated by the Muslims against fellow Muslims as well as
non-Muslim fellow citizens, is most unfortunate. Moreover, those who simply
plead to forget about this without any accountability are simplistic at best,
or hypocritical, at worst. Morever, any such call for forgetting and glossing
over a GENOCIDE is plain and simple, UNISLAMIC. Individuals, who are the
victims, can forgive if they like and that might be noble. However, the
collective Islamic conscience cannot gloss over the issue of accountability in
this regard.
This article
does not directly deal with the topic of genocide in 1971. Rather, it reflects
on that topic in a relevant context.]
A business-like approach to Muslim unity? Astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah ...!
This is like mixing the secular with the sacred, worldly with divine. What is
this world coming to?
If the above is the initial reaction from some Muslims to this article, I
won't be surprised. After all, Muslims are supposed to aspire and pursue an
Akhirah (hereafter)-bound life based on the commandments of Allah, the
Omnipresent, the Omnipotent. We should just listen to what our Omnipotent Lord
commands. That's it!
Since my youth I have heard so much about Muslim unity or the unity of the
Ummah that over more than last two decades, while I feel the need for Muslim
unity is ever so greater, I have also become somewhat desensitized to pious
calls toward it. This might be partly because all of these things are
generally presented as a religious "duty" or "obligation".
We must emphasize it because Allah has commanded it and we should be pursuing
and cherishing it! Isn't that the way we should be approaching it?
Well, before dealing with that question, let me briefly dwell on what is
routinely wrong with our current approach and attitude toward unity. In
dwelling so, I would like to apply the Qur'anic precept of taking a look at
our past with a focus on a special case to extract some learning, so that we
can look forward to a better future. Also, in this retrospection, I bring in firsthand,
personal experience as part of a larger Muslim community's experience and with
special reference to the ideas and acts pertaining to Muslims or the
revivalist forces of Islam that cherish and advocate the unity of the Ummah.
Before Islam or anything else in life meant much to me, I was merely 12 in
1971, living in a smaller town in East Pakistan, a part of the first "Islamic
Republic" of Pakistan that symbolized a new phase in Muslim political unity.
Toys, friends, and fun were my world like any other kid. I vaguely remember
the Pakistan-India war (1965) and going to bunkers in our yard hearing sirens
alerting us about possible enemy aircrafts approaching. In 1971, still quite
young to have adequate understanding of the unfolding events, in no time we
found ourselves panicking and packing our essentials to relocate to a remote
rural area where our grandparents used to live. Everyone was trying to flee
from the towns to save themselves from the wrath of our brother soldiers of
Pakistan army. People of East Pakistan have already learnt about the indiscriminate massacre that began in Dhaka on March 25,
1971. Besides selected targets, including university dormitories of male and
female students, whoever came in the way were shot, butchered, maimed, or slit
at random. It was too hectic for the army to begin then to have some "Halal"
Islamic fun with the "captured" women, who in the view of some
quarters were less than Muslims. But such fun followed not too long after.While reading the experience about 1971, readers might like to keep in mind
that the experience I am highlighting is basically of a practicing Muslim
family. While the break up of Pakistan was a complex historical outcome of
multiple factors, which included the role of India and the secularist
forces in East Pakistan, the fundamental responsibility of sowing the seed
of disunity and distrust squarely lied with the leadership of Pakistan,
beginning with the language movement in 1952 and the "death nail
to the unity" in 1970, when Pakistani leadership refused to turn over the
governance to the political force that was elected by the majority of people.
Many might not know, but it is worth mentioning that a good number Muslims in
East Pakistan joined the war of independence inspired by Islam to defend their
rights.
With many wake up calls about Muslim unity, I remember: "Wake up, wake
up! Hurry, the military is coming!" My mother and relatives would often
wake us up late night, and we would rush from our remote village homes to even
remoter parts. There were some pre-planned straw-huts, camouflaged in the crop
fields, where we would spend the remaining hours till dawn or longer, until
our brother soldiers have departed until next time. For nearly nine months the
entire East Pakistan spent in an unprecedented horror and crime against both
humanity and Muslims about which the Muslim world at large did not bother. The
spirited army of the first so-called "Islamic Republic" of this
century was reinforced by the organ of the prevailing, traditional Islamic
Movement in the then East Pakistan. It was such a monstrous folly and blunder
of such movement that the likelihood of ever overcoming it is hoping against the hope,
particularly because the Islamic organization is yet to reconcile either
within itself or outside about its role in 1971.
While Bangladesh as an independent country remains in disarray due to the
corrupt, inept and sold-out politicians, there is an ongoing effort in Bangladesh to
bring the case of genocide and crime against humanity against the Pakistan
army and its collaborators. Parallel to this, a part of Islamic future of
Bangladesh is being held hostage basically by extremist, traditionalist
Islamic groups and by the leading Islamic political party that collaborated
armed and up in arms with the Pakistani army that perpetrated the genocide. Defending Pakistan as
an "Islamic Republic", particularly against an Indian design, was one thing;
armed collaboration with a genocidal army was something altogether different.
The revivalist work of Sayyid Abul Ala
Maudoodi would end up this way in the second largest Muslim (more
appropriately, Muslim-majority) country is a great
tragedy for all those who cherish Islamic revival and Muslim unity.
While Serbian genocide and rapes against Bosnian Muslims were hotly pursued and
publicized and there is now an international tribunal to pursue it, the same
has not been the case with the genocide that occurred in what is now
Bangladesh. There is a fundamental difference though. Bosnians were massacred
by non-Muslim Serbs, and Bosnian women were systematically raped by
"those" non-Muslim Serbian villains. The same can't be said in the
case of the people of East Pakistan. Although the genocide included both
Muslims and Hindus, and it was wrong in either case, the fact of the matter is
that even the Muslims of Bangladesh, men, women and children, were not spared.
Many Islamically-conscious people consider such issues to be secular
propaganda. However, the deep scar and bloody memory from which not blood, but
now pus continuously ooze out spoiling the relationship between the second and
the third largest Muslim-majority country, is not an issue that should be taken
lightly, particularly if we are to talk about the lofty issue of Muslim unity.
Such discourses would be mere fantasy and romanticization that would fly in
the face of grim reality.
Pakistan is still not an inch closer to take the responsibility of what
happened in 1971 - sorry, saying sorry is not enough - and Muslims around the world have not even recognized and understood
what has happened at that time. I have also met some very nice, Islamically-oriented, Pakistani brothers who still feel too hurt to be able to
call East Pakistan as Bangladesh. I met one such brother at an Islamic
conference who, even sixteen years after 1971, still used the former name of
Bangladesh and expressed his wish and hope that maybe someday the breakup can
be mended. After all, Muslims are understandably nostalgic about Muslim unity,
especially because unity is a Qur'anic commandment.
Politely, but firmly I explained that his attitude is merely romanticization
and thoroughly inappropriate. According to the original Lahore Resolution,
Bengal (not just East Bengal) was supposed to be a nation by itself. But later
on historical developments as well as manipulations facilitated Bengal (well,
only East Bengal, to be precise) being a
part of Pakistan as the first Islamic Republic, a country supposedly
established in the name of Islam. Yes, name is all that was there and the
history continues to bear testimony to that. It was a marriage that did not
have the right ingredients to begin with. The divorce that ultimately followed
was most gruesome and painful. I pointedly told that brother that it was okay
that he had made such statements before me as I understand and have experience
in dealing with attitude and statements like these. However, I advised him not
to make such remarks in future before someone else from Bangladesh, as such
comments would be taken as most insensitive by almost all, and unislamic by some,
because it's adding salt to the inhuman injury of 1971.
I further clarified that as a Muslim I believe in the unity of the Muslim
world in any PRACTICAL way possible - and probably most common Muslims also do - but
not in the context of unity in isolation between certain countries. Currently,
such idea of unity does not necessarily and practically include coming up with
a single political entity, comprising all the Muslim-majority countries. Indeed,
before any such unity can happen, Muslims not only need to work toward a
culture of unity among the Muslims in general, but also toward a culture of
seeking harmony and building bridges with any and all neighbors as countries.
It is no secret that countries such as Bangladesh still remains vulnerable to
powerful, non-Muslim neighbor(s) and even Pakistan-India relationship is not
irrelevant to the peace, security and stability of Bangladesh.
Well, it's not just what happened in the name of unity in the case of the
first Islamic Republic of this century, the entire Muslim world, splintered by
nationalism and religious schism, can use a good deal of unity in various ways. We have seen
in the case of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, how much of the Muslim world,
joined by the traditional Islamic movements, ganged up against Iran and the shia-sunni divide continued to be a major fault line. At the same time, Iran,
despite its call for Muslim unity and its ceremonial "Unity Week"
celebrations of the earlier period continued to spew all the Shia propaganda
literature maligning the personalities that are universally revered by the
Sunnis. We saw how Bosnians were initially abandoned by the Muslim world at
large, and now the same is the case of Chechnya. Forget about the
ever-bleeding Palestine and Kashmir. Thus, yes, Muslims can use a
good deal of unity. But I am afraid that it is not going to happen simply
because of the dogma of Muslims or by simply preaching about Muslim unity as a
commandment of Allah. The problem with the current nostalgic approach toward
and advocacy for Muslim unity is endemic and wrought with misgivings and romanticization
as I have articulated above in light of last century's
experience.
Before I explain the business-like approach to Muslim unity, I must point out
that human nature and human experience are both important to Muslims for
their personal and collective betterment. If we believe that this "way of
life" (Deen) is
based on Fitrah (the innate human predispositions), then understanding human
nature is critical. Islam also emphasizes human experience. The Qur'an invites
us to learn about the history and see the consequences of different acts of
the people of the past [3/ale Imran/137]. Hadith tells us that wisdom,
anything good that we learn from human history and experience, is a treasure
to us. ["Hikmah is the lost treasure of a believer, wherever one finds
one should avail it," Sunan Ibn Majah, #4169] This is important because
dogmatism has rarely pushed the world forward, although it has held us back
quite a bit. Doing something because someone commanded may be important, but
Allah himself seems to inculcate in human mind a non-dogmatic approach.
Really? Yes, really.
While retrospection is valuable part of our learning process, we must
recognize that better future requires not only learning from the past, but
also having creative, forward-looking vision and approach. In this context it
is important to understand the contemporary western experience as to how
business-like approach, once sets in, produces certain kind of results. When
the Islamic civilization was reaching new heights over several centuries, the
west was engulfed in the medieval darkness. It gradually woke up, big time,
partially through its contact with Islam, which facilitated the west's
reestablishing its western root of Greco-Roman civilizations. While the west
underwent its own evolutionary process (and it continues to evolve), it also
underwent the terrible experience of nationalism and its dogma about the
"white man's burden" to take care of the rest of the non-white
humanity. Yes, taking care is what they did!
The bitter poison of nationalism and racism, worsened by fascism as in
Germany, resulted into two worst wars in human history, the WWI and WWII. The
nuclear ashes have not fully cleared from our sky, the memory of that for so
many is still fresh, yet how in the world this same Europe, once staunchly and
devilishly nationalistic, is now successfully making transition to the European Union
right before our eyes? Of course, we the Muslims are still writing and reading
books about how to make perfect ablution or whether Tarawih is eight or twenty
raka'at, or whether women are allowed to keep their faces uncovered. Please
do understand that I am not de-emphasizing any of these, rather trying to
highlight the fact that any people that would be discussing eight vs. twenty
rakaat for centuries can do only so much in this world!
So, what is this business-like approach then? It's fairly simple. Human nature
is such that generally people's decisions are driven by two primary factors:
costs and benefits. They weigh the costs and benefits in such a way so that
their self-interest is enhanced. Thus, the aspiration of greater positive net
benefit is what drives the businesses. After the two worst wars, what is
bringing the Western Europe together toward European Union? The answer seems
to be that they now realize the cost that they have dearly paid when
nationalism was their dogma. In parallel they also see the benefit of such
integration that is just short of turning Europe into one country. There might
be potential challenges and pitfalls of such a trend in Europe. However, if
this avoids another world war originating in Europe, it has to be considered a
positive step for the rest of the humanity.
Why is it that when European countries are seeking and succeeding in
integrating themselves toward closer union, we the Muslims who have been
"commanded" by Allah to get united can't do so? I believe it is
partly because we have a tendency to turn everything into dogmas. If Allah
commanded us not to be divided and be like a wall of steel (bunyanum marsus),
it is not because Allah has any benefit in it, we do. Our prayer, fasting,
zakat, hajj and everything else that we do good are not for the benefit of
Allah, it is for our benefit. We can keep hitting our heads with hammer of the
dogma of Muslim unity and we would be ending up with horrendous experiences as
we have already seen. However, once we understand and absorb the business-like
orientation, our approach can be different. I have seen time and again even
with my own kids and - let's not forget ourselves - whatever they wanted or
want to do, I do not have to worry about it or remind them. Whatever I, or
someone else, wanted them to do, the response was similar only when it
coincided with what they wanted to do.
So, what is the basis of this business-like approach in Islam? Well, read the
following verse that teaches us to treat even the matter of success in the
life hereafter in a business-like fashion. "O ye who believe! Shall I
lead you to a TIJARAH (means trade,
business, commerce, bargain, deal) that will save you from a grievous
Penalty?..." [61/as-Saff/10] If the matter of Akhirah (the life
hereafter) is to be treated as a business, isn't the verse assuming that we
know and understand what is the business orientation and how to conduct
ourselves accordingly?
What might be the implication of this business-like approach in the context of
Muslim unity? Let's just take the international dimension of this unity. Just
consider forty-plus Muslim countries are collaboratively integrated [by the
way, from economic viewpoint, there are various levels of integration] and evaluate the
ramifications in terms of cost-savings on the military front, combined
resources on the economic front, strength on the political front, and so on.
There can be a long list of such aspects based on Muslim Ummah's seeking such
progressive levels of integration and unity. At this point, just kidding!
In the twentieth century, there were many steps toward building some
frameworks for various kinds of unity and cooperation among Muslims, such
as the OIC, the Rabita al-alam al-Islami or RCD that involved Pakistan, Turkey
and Iran. But, some of these are defunct because they were induced more by
external interest, and others have proven simply impotent because their
underlying dynamics is governed neither by Islam nor business.
RCD has found a new life in Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which
was established in 1985 beginning with Iran, Turkey and Pakistan.
Subsequently, several central Asian countries have been added, including
Afghanistan. More recently, there is now D-8, a new initiative for economic
cooperation among developing Muslim countries. D-8 is considered to be a
brainchild of former Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and it includes Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey.
Unfortunately, the very initiator of D-8, PM Erbakan of Turkey is now a
"former" PM, and in the context of the Muslim world and the dynamics
of Turkish politics, "former" PM means lot more than just the PM
Erbakan himself.
These recent initiatives are religiously characterized as these involve some
Muslim-majority countries only, but also these are driven somewhat by business
interests. Hopefully, some of these initiatives would also have an emphasis to
bring about a new cultural awakening that induces us to deal with many of our
fundamental issues with a business-like approach that is rooted in the Qur'an
and reflective of human nature. Whatever has happened in the past, based on
our learning from it, we have only one way to go: forward. Muslim world
remains a powerhouse of resources and potential. However, when dogma prevails
over everything, the powerhouse can be powerful to hold us back or to ruin
ourselves from within. Alternatively, the powerhouse can propel us toward a
new trajectory of positive future.
Muslim unity? We need it badly - for a better future of Muslims and the
humanity. Let's mean business about it!
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