What is the role of Islam in Muslim society? Is it just a religion to be practiced privately, as Christianity is understood in the West? Or does it call for theocracy—governance according to the laws derived from it, also known as Sharia?
Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb—currently Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar University and former Grand Mufti of Egypt—recently discussed this question on his television program. He did so in the context of discussing the efforts of Dr. Ali Abdel Raziq, a onetime professor at Al Azhar who wrote a highly popular but controversial book in 1925—one year after the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate. Titled, in translation, Islam and the Roots of Governance, Raziq argued against the idea of a caliphate, saying that Islam is a religion that should not be mixed with politics or governance.
While Raziq had his supporters among those Westward leaning Muslims, he was strongly criticized by many clerics, and even fired from Al Azhar. As Tayeb confirmed:
Al Azhar’s position was to reject what he said, saying he forfeited his credentials and his creed. A great many ulema—in and out of Egypt and in Al Azhar—rejected his work and its claim, that Islam is a religion but not a polity. Instead, they reaffirmed that Islam is both a religion and a polity.
The problem with this assertion is self-evident: to say that Islam demands theocratic rule, is to say that Islam demands rule according to Sharia, a body of rules and regulations that are fundamentally at odds with modernity—for example, by punishing apostates with death, as Tayeb himself recently made clear—and the source of conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims the world over.
Excellent data, again. Yes, islam demands submission to its shari`a, whatever madhab is chosen. And its epistemological basis must be refuted. Western media and journalists must begin to research and expose the historical falsehoods in the qur’an and the human element in the qur’an so that jihaadi’s do not continue to flow into various jihaadi fighting organizations. Islamic supremacism cannot be defeated by bombs but must be refuted by fact and by exposing the evil inherent within islamic supremacism. That exposee is the unwanted task that western media shirks because it requires pointing out historical falsehoods and theological evil in islamic sources. But only in this way can someone argue with a “true believer” that God does not want them to “fight, fight, fight” according to sura 9.
Thank you for this straightforward analysis of the oneness of religion and polity under Islam. This connection sets the belief system of Islam at variance with democratic governance with its separation of the state from religion. The two systems cannot co-exist.
In turn, with the rejection by Islam of other social orders, conflict must naturally ensue when the agents of Islam try to impose this religion and its theocratic rule on others. The West has beat back the retrograde religion of Islam in the past, and can do so again.
Meanwhile, we cannot rely on news media workers to inform the public of the structure of Islam and its intention to spread Islam worldwide by the sword, as of old. These workers lack the intellectual training to carry out this purpose.
And worse, likely from his Muslim upbringing, the president of the United States cannot lead the nation by properly naming the enemy as Muslim terrorists. Instead, he employs extreme euphemisms (political correctness) by mis-characterizing the Muslim terrorists as criminals, radicals, militants, and suchlike. One must name the enemy in order to know and defeat him. The president fails to adhere to this maxim.
We have an antidote to political correctness by way of Confucius, who said, “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right name.”
At present, only one major political leader in the United States shuns the social evil of political correctness: Mr. Trump. The news media workers and the talking heads do not have to tell the people what Mr. Trump really means. He speaks in plain terms directly to the voter without this filter. He succeeds by the power of words.
Mr. Trump also understands that the Muslim terrorists arise from the Muslim community, and from nowhere else, This fact renders the Muslim community suspect. This status necessitates and justifies screening all Muslim immigrants and visitors to American soil, to detect the Muslims terrorists among these incoming Muslims. This screening must happen in the interests of public safety. This activity has nothing to do with a religious test or profiling and everything to do with finding Muslim terrorists to keep them from entering the United States.
We shall see.