"Democracy" or the battle for supremacy in Islam.
Assad Elepty
2011 has seen unprecedented uprisings in the Islamic Arab world. The upheaval commenced in Tunisia then moved to Egypt. All the time we admired the brave youth in their quest for democracy. The educated modern youth sought to replicate western style democracy free from the shackles of religious interference.
Whilst Egypt raged in the early days of the revolution the uprisings quickly spread to Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Jordan, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria.
Sadly these People’s revolution will never result in democracy. In Tunisia, Islamist seized the opportunity and have taken to the streets calling for Khilafah / Islamic law, the protestors are saying “la ilaaha illa Allah; al khilafahtu wa’daAllah” There is no god but Allah, Al khilafah is the promise of Allah. see this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD3Rd-3kCbg&feature=player_embedded
Likewise in Egypt the Muslim brotherhood and Salafists have seized the moment, the protestors and the drive for democracy quashed, and the Push for islamisation is now number one priority. This started with protecting Article 2 of the constitution, guaranteeing Egypt retains its identity and principles based on Islam and shariah law.
In Libya, the leader of the “rebels” makes no secret he is an Islamist. In Iran the protestors were quickly quashed by the hard-line Shia Islamic regime. The other Arab states have seen Muslim turn on Muslim. It must be acknowledged no democracy in the sense of western democracy will eventuate in any of these countries.
The question must be asked, what is really going on?
To answer that question, we have to go back centuries, so far back that we examine the Islamic world immediately after the death of Mohammed. What the world is witnessing is actually a battle for supremacy in the Islamic world. It is an age long battle coming to a head.
Iran 85% Shia declare: "There is no god but Alláh, Muhammad is the Messenger of Alláh, Alí is the Friend of Alláh. The Successor of the Messenger of Alláh And his first Caliph."
If you are already familiar with standard Sunni beliefs, you will immediately notice the addition to the shahadah regarding Imam Ali, cousin and son in law of Mohammed. Ali was the husband of Mohammed’s daughter Fatima, the second person ever to embrace Islam. The term Shia or Shi'ite derives from a shortening of Shiat Ali or “partisans of Ali.”
Ali is the central figure at the origin of the Shia. Islam has been marred by division, murder and bloodshed since the death of Mohammed in 632. Sunnis regard Ali as the fourth and last of the "rightly guided caliphs", following on from Abu Bakr 632-634, Umar 634-644 and Uthman 644-656.
Shias reject this as misguided and profess Ali is the first caliph and that the caliphate must pass down only to direct descendants of Mohammed, via Ali and Fatima. When Uthman was murdered while praying, Ali quickly succeeded to the caliphate.
Ali was, however, quickly opposed by Aisha, child wife of of Mohammed. She was the daughter of Abu Bakr, and accused Ali of protecting Uthman's killers. The response was a bloody war and Ali's army defeated Aisha's forces at the Battle of the Camel in 656, she was forced to apologize to Ali and allowed to return to her home in Madinah on condition she withdrew from public life.
The actions of Ali enraged Mu'awiya Ummayad, Uthman's cousin, and the battle resumed. The bloodshed continued and Ali was not able to overcome the brutal forces of Mu'awiya Ummayad governor of Damascus. Mu'awiya refused to recognize Ali as caliphate demanding Uthman's killers be apprehended.
At the Battle of Suffin, Mu'awiya's soldiers cunningly stuck verses of the Quran onto the ends of their spears with the result that Ali's pious supporters refused to fight them. Ali was forced to compromise with Mu'awiya, but this so shocked his die-hard supporters who regarded it as a betrayal that he was murdered by one of his own men in 661.
Mu'awiya the victor, then declared himself caliph. Mu'awiya quickly shored his position by offering Ali's elder son Hassan a pension in return for not pursuing his legitimate claim to the caliphate. Hassan accepted and was murdered within a year, allegedly by poison. Ironically Mohammed died as a result of poisioning.
The fight for supremacy was not over; Ali's younger son Hussein strategically agreed to put his claim to the caliphate on hold until Mu'awiya's death. When Mu'awiya finally died in 680, his son Yazid usurped the caliphate.
Hussein was furious and immediately led an army against Yazid but, Hussein was hopelessly outnumbered, he and his men were slaughtered at the Battle of Karbala (in modern day Iraq).
Hussein's infant son, Ali, survived so the line continued. Yazid formed the hereditary Ummayad dynasty. The division between the Shia and what came to be known as the Sunni was now set in concrete for eternity.
In a further meeting of bloodshed, almost the entire Ummayad aristocracy was wiped out following the Battle of Zab in Egypt in a revolt led by Abu Al Abbass al-Saffah and aided by considerable Shia support.
It was intended that the Shia spiritual leader Jafar As-Siddiq, great-grandson of Hussein be installed as Caliph. But when Abbass died in 754, this plan was thwarted and Abbas' son Al Mansur murdered Jafar, seized the caliphate for himself and founded the Baghdad-based Abbassid dynasty which prevailed until the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258.
The line of Mohammed through Ali and Hussein became extinct in 873CE when the last Shia Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who had no brothers disappeared, suspected of been murdered within days of inheriting the title at the age of four. The Shias refused, however, to accept that he had died, preferring to believe that he was merely "hidden" and would return.
When after several centuries this failed to happen, spiritual power passed to the ulema, a council of twelve scholars who elected a supreme Imam. The best known modern example of the Shia supreme Imam is the late Ayyatollah Khomeni, whose portrait hangs in many Shia homes. The Shia Imam has come to be imbued with infallibility. Sunni’s utterly reject the Shia Caliphate, sighting Islam does not have a formal clergy. Sunni believe the caliphate must be a just scholars and jurists, who may offer binding edicts and fatwas.
The Shia’s denounce that interpretation and believe that their supreme Imam is a fully spiritual guide, inheriting some of Muhammad's inspiration "light", and not the AL-Azhar university, that Sunni’s worldwide recognize as the highest Islamic institute in the world (based in Cairo).
Further, They consider their imams are believed to be inerrant interpreters of law and tradition. Shia theology is distinguished by its glorification of Ali. In Shia Islam there is a strong theme of martyrdom and suffering, focusing on deaths of Ali and, particularly, Hussein plus other important figures in the Shia succession. Shi`ism has attracted other dissenting groups, especially representatives of older non-Arab ‘Mawali’ civilizations (Persian, Indian, etc.) that profess they are not treated fairly by the Arab Muslims.
While the Sunnis and Shias agree on the core fundamentals of Islam, the Five Pillars, and recognize each others as Muslims they are at logger heads in a centuries old struggle for supremacy.
Sunni scholars from Al Azhar contend that Shias take the fundamentals of Islam very much for granted, shunting them into the background and focus on the martyrdoms of Ali and Hussein. This is best illustrated at Ashura when each evening over a period of ten days the Shias commemorate the Battle of Karbala, with a wailing Imam whipping the congregation up into a frenzy of tears and chest beating.
Sunni’s also allege the Shia harbor a deep-seated disdain towards Sunni Islam and prefer to devote their attention to winning over other Muslims resulting in ongoing violent strife between Sunnis and Shias in countries like Pakistan.
Today we are witnessing that struggle return to the Arab Islamic world with Shia-dominated Iran doing all it can to overthrow the Sunni governments and monarchies of the other Arab nations, with the exception of Syria, no other Arab state is a supporter of Iran. Prior to the uprisings in the Middle East, wiki leaks disclosed by the King of Saudi Arabia and Mubarak of Egypt called on the USA to strike Iran saying “take the head off the snake”. These revelations were very telling and disclosed the rivalry for Islamic supremacy that started in the 7th century is alive and well in the 21 century
The Shias also prefer the ahadith narrated by Ali and Fatima rather than those by Aisha and other companions of Mohammed. Aisha herself rejected those narrated by Ali.
Shia Islam also permits fixed-term temporary marriage, which is are banned by the Sunnis as adultery. Ironically temporary marriage “Muttah” was originally permitted at the time of Mohammed and is is heavily promoted in Iran by conservative clerics and feminists. They also downplay the obsession with female virginity which is prevalent in both forms of Islam, pointing out that only one of the Prophet's thirteen wives was a virgin when he married them, that been 9 year old Aisha when he consummated the marriage at age 54.
Today Iran is 89% Shia. Shias also form the majority of the population in Yemen, Azerbaijan and Bahrain and make up 60% of the population of Iraq. There are also sizeable Shia communities along the east coast of Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Currently the Worldwide Shias population constitutes ten to fifteen percent of the overall Muslim population.
The drive for true democracy, unfortunately will never come to fruition, the disunity in the Islamic world and the strive for supremacy is the overriding factor during the “revolutions”. Both Sunni’s and Shia’s agree the world must be dominated by Islam and governed by a Caliphate under Islamic “shariah” law. The question is will the Caliphate come from the school of Sunni or Shia? This struggle is destined to rage on for many centuries to come, as the Shia minority headed by Iran becomes more militarily powerful and desperately seeking nuclear Arms. For so long as these two groups exist, it gives the world a sense of hope that no caliphate is possible in the foreseeable future. A united Islam will pose a far greater threat to international security and global peace. Islamisation of the globe is quaranic doctrine that involves extermination of the Jewish state, annihilation of Christians and suppression of non Muslims.
If any person seriously considers that true democracy will eventuate in any of the Arab countries facing uprisings, they are very sadly mistaken. Western style democracy is viewed as an enemy of Islam and a trait of Judo-Christian infidels and has absolutely no place in the Islamic world.
All the countries facing uprising have been ruled by Islamic despots taught and raised under the teachings of Islam, it is of their own making. There is no foreseeable end to the internal division and struggle for supremacy in the Islamic world.
Assad Elepty