REFLECTIONS: Why only Pray for Paris?

On the evening of November 13, 2015, Paris’ northern suburb Saint-Denis was hit with a series of coordinated attacks. Three suicide bombers struck near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, followed by suicide bombings and mass shootings at cafés, restaurants and a music venue in Paris. The attackers killed 130 people, including 89 at the Bataclan theatre. French President Francois Hollande responded to the attacks saying:

“France, because it was attacked cowardly, shamelessly, violently, France will be merciless against the barbarians of Daesh.”

This was followed by an intensified campaign of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria by France, in coordination with the NATO countries. The events have also been used to ramp up the war agenda in other European countries, successfully so in England, which for the first time has voted for a combat role in Syria.

Deplorable Violence

The human heart naturally detests violence. Our Creator has endowed in us an innate respect for life as a gift from him, and it being taken senselessly irks anyone with a sound heart. The Quran informs us:

“...that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul [i.e. murder] or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely…” [TMQ 5:32]

Following the attacks in Paris, many have expressed their disgust with these actions. Not just political leaders, who are crafting a public image, but also artists, activists, and everyday people have felt the desire to show solidarity with Paris. People have draped the French flag on their Facebook profiles, at public events, etc.

The Muslim community has also been dragged into the spotlight. There are constant demands on us to condemn the killings, and explain why our faith is being used by militants to justify terror attacks. In these moments, it is crucial for Muslims to not cave into social pressure. Rather we must respond in a way that is both politically aware and Islamically correct. So, what should our message to the community be?

1.      Clarifying Islam’s position on violence, without apologizing for Islam

Muslims need to be clear that Islam has categorically forbidden the targeting of innocent civilians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. All recognized Islamic schools of Fiqh agree on this, and therefore no Muslim can find a legitimate reason for this great sin. It can be frustrating for us to continually repeat our position as Muslims. However, this is required to repel the continuous anti-Islamic propaganda that the Canadian society is bombarded with. And so again, in this instance, we reiterate the Islamic position regarding the matter and we call the Muslim community to strictly adhere to the rules of Islam. Regarding the call of the militant group ISIS to do anything: since their claim of the establishment of the caliphate is illegitimate from the Islamic perspective, the Muslim community should disregard the call from ISIS. They have no legitimate authority over the community, and therefore the community bears no responsibility towards ISIS or towards any call from ISIS.

Violence is also not a means to create political change in Islam. The greatest political activist of all time was our beloved Messenger (saw), and he forbade his companions from engaging in any armed conflict when they were in the struggle to establish the first Islamic state. Instead, he restricted them to intellectual work.

 

This does not mean that our response should shy away from any aspect of Islam. We should clarify the correct understanding of Islam and always remember that we are slaves to Allah (swt) and we are not authorized to censor any portion of His Message at any time.

2.      Challenging the mainstream discourse regarding political violence

It is now important to challenge the underlying assumption behind the question. Why is it that we, as Muslims, continually have to defend our deen from associations to political violence, when we – the Muslim Ummah – are the ones that are the most victimized by political violence in the ways of shock-and-awe US-Ied bombing campaigns, Guantanamo prison, and Abu Ghraib.

Furthermore, was it not the colonial powers that inflicted us with violence when they colonialized our lands, destroyed the Khilafah, divided us into unstable nation states and installed the worst of us as our leaders? Is it not the colonial powers, US, UK, France, and Russia, who continue to support these brutal dictators – who brutalize, impoverish and murder their own citizens – while suppressing the call of the Muslims to return to a system that is built upon their beliefs? Was it not the colonial powers that entered the land of Iraq, wreaked havoc on its soil, created and funded sectarian death squads, and left a gaping wound in the heart of this Ummah? It is from these disasters that organizations such as ISIS have emerged. Is it not these same Western powers, who in the name of the “war on terror” rain death from the skies of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen, and arrest and torture hundreds of Muslims in unnamed prisons all over the world? And is it not the Capitalist system imposed by the imperialists in our lands that has impoverished this Ummah, stolen its resources, and left it enslaved in debt?

Yet, amid the backdrop of such longstanding atrocities by the colonial powers, when a handful of Muslims fall into the folly of reacting with violence, the entire Muslim Ummah is taken to task for it, and asked why is our faith so violent! Talk about adding insult to injury!

If we are to be outraged at violence, let us be outraged at all violence, the root and its fruit, and put an end to this sordid state of affairs by stopping it at its source. The death, poverty and destruction that are inflicted by the Capitalist system across the Muslim world should be just as consequential as the brutality witnessed at Bataclan theater. In fact, the political and economic violence imposed upon all the powerless and oppressed across the world, from the slum-children living in the sewers of Colombia, to the favelas of Brazil should be just as much a cause of concern. After all the death squads that found their way into Iraq were first used by the US in South America.

3.Calling for an end to Capitalist meddling in the Ummah’s affairs

Capitalism has shown its brutal face, and should be disqualified from its self-professed title of global peacekeeper. We need to communicate to the non-Muslim societies in which we live that when their elite intervene in the affairs of a nation, peace and prosperity does not follow. Rather, destruction, dependency and debilitating debt is the outcome. Thus we must be united in calling for an end to any intervention in the affairs of the Muslim lands by Western colonial powers. Any appeal to humanitarian, democratic, or human rights concerns must be seen as the farce that it is and rejected outright. “Foreign assistance” has been a poison in the body of the Ummah and it must be expunged. It should not take another Iraq, another Somalia, another Yemen, another Afghanistan, another Vietnam, another El Salvador, and another Falkland Islands for the world to realize what colonial intervention actually results in.

4.      Calling for a true solution to the problem of violence in the Muslim lands

This Ummah has been through every imaginable atrocity in the past century. The main cause of this misery is not a want of resources or a rise in extremism but a want of true sincere Islamic leadership. What we lack is the shield that RasulAllah (saw) prescribed for us to use to protect ourselves. The shield is described in the following hadith:

“Indeed, the Imam (Khaleefah) is a shield, from behind whom you fight and by whom you are protected.” [Muslim]

Allah (swt) has made it an obligation on us to refer solely to the Quran and the Sunnah of His beloved Messenger in matters of ruling, economy, and settling the affairs of the people. As long as we tolerate the rule of the despots all over the Muslim world – who do not rule by what Allah (swt) has revealed – we can only expect our present-day condition to persist. Allah (swt) has revealed:

'And rule between them by that which Allah has revealed and follow not their vain desires, but beware that they may turn you away from some of what Allah has revealed.' [TMQ 5:49]

Re-establishing the true Khilafah – a comprehensive system of governance, education, courts, and other societal institutions which are based on the Quran and Sunnah in the Muslim lands – is the only way of bringing Islam back into our daily lives, free from the influence and dominance of the colonialists.

It will also enable the Ummah to unite herself, freeing her from sectarian violence, brutal dictatorship, and foreign aggression. Finally, the Khilafah will enable us to demonstrate true justice and prosperity to the world, and become a beacon for those who wish to live under a just and prosperous system. 

Praying for Paris

At the end of the day, Muslims want what is best for all of humanity. We are not a nationalistic group with a regional outlook. Muslims should pray for Paris, pray that its people wake up to the plots of its capitalist leadership and free themselves from the injustice of manmade law to the peace of the Divine. We also pray that Allah (swt) guides them to see past the hatred that has been sown in their hearts against Islam for the past few centuries.

We pray that all those who suffer in the world find guidance and peace through our efforts as an Ummah, and we pray that Allah (swt) gives us the strength to fulfill our obligation to re-establish the Islamic way of life and fill our land with peace and justice.

“And there are some people who say: We believe in God and the Last Day and they are not believers. They seek to deceive God and those who believe, and they deceive only themselves and they perceive not.  In their hearts is a disease, so God increased their disease, and for them is a painful chastisement because they lie.  And when it is said to them, Make not mischief in the land, they say: We are but peacemakers. Now surely they are the mischief-makers, but they perceive not.”  [TMQ 2:8-11]