Source: The Economist
ON the face of things, this week’s events in Egypt have validated a theory about Islam and society that seemed contrarian when it was first floated. In 1992 a French analyst of the Muslim world, Olivier Roy, published a book entitled “L’échec de l’Islam politique“—translated into English three years later as “The Failure of Political Islam“.
Back then, political Islam—the idea that Islam could provide a platform for taking and exercising power in modern times—seemed to be doing quite well. The Islamic masters of Iran, having withstood a long war with Iraq, were looking for new places to extend their influence, including the former Soviet republics to their north. In Algeria, an Islamist party had won a clear electoral majority, triggering a military intervention and then a civil war whose outcome was anybody’s guess. It seemed clear that wherever secular despots were willing to relax their grip, Islamist parties would step into the void.
But none of those things disproved the thesis of Mr Roy, who is now a professor at the European University Institute. One of his simplest but most compelling points was that for all its power as a mobilising slogan, Islam just does not provide the answers to the problems of governing a modern state. Quite recently the resurgence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of the Arab spring seemed, once again, to challenge Mr Roy’s analysis. But as of this week, he could be forgiven for saying: “I told you so.”
In fact, he was saying more interesting things than that when I spoke to him today. These are some of the points he has made about the turmoil in Cairo. The Brotherhood regime in Egypt fell, of course, under the weight of its own incompetence (and in particular its failure to recruit technocrats) and its perceived nepotism. These sins fell short of big-time corruption, because the government did not last long enough to refine that art; but it still looked pretty bad. Nor, Mr Roy told me, could the Morsi government consolidate its power by “Islamising society”—one of the Brotherhood’s stated goals—because Egyptian society was about as Islamised as it could be already.
To me concept of political Islam is brain child of so called intellectuals who probably have some vested interests. With intervals such theories keep on propping in the media just to distract the attention of masses from core issues. In order to understand the philosophy how Islam will emerge on globe one has to study very deeply the prophecies made by the prophet of Islam Muhammad (saw). How Islam is likely to revive in times to come has very amicably been explained by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Those interested can always visit alislam dot org for further details. However just to give an appetiser some details are appended below.
In 2005, President Bush warned. “These Al Qaida terrorists are driven by a radical and perverted vision of Islam that rejects tolerance, crushes all dissent, and justifies the murder of innocent men, women and children in the pursuit of political power. They hope to establish a violent political utopia across the Middle East, which they call caliphate … where all would be ruled according to their hateful ideology. This caliphate would be a totalitarian Islamic empire encompassing all current and former Muslim lands”.Mr. Bush was not alone in raising the specter of the caliphate. After the recent unrest and demand for freedom and justice in the Arab lands, many public figures in academia and think tanks have expressed similar alarmist views, while some in the media have circulated wild caliphate conspiracy theories.On the other end of the spectrum, the collective Muslim soul yearns for a global caliphate, which is cherished as a memory of past glories and timeless ideals. In recent years, interest among Muslims in international unity and the caliphate has grown. Popular Islamic movements identify a lack of spirituality and decline in personal religious observance as the root cause of the Muslim world’s problems, and claim that the caliphate cannot be successfully revived until these deficiencies are addressed. Osama bin Laden called the 9/11 attacks “a great step towards the unity of Muslims and establishing the righteous caliphate.” A number of fundamentalist political parties called for the restoration of the caliphate by uniting Muslim nations, either through peaceful political uprising or through force. Two influential and radical pan-Islamic groups, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim Brotherhood, seek to restore the caliphate, but fail to differentiate between a militant Islamic state and the spirituality of the rightly-guided khilafat. Some see the ineffectual Organization of the Islamic Conference, an international organization with 57 Muslim member states, as a precursor to the caliphate. Other scholars, like Tarek Masoud of Harvard Kennedy School, take a milder view envisioning the caliphate somewhat like the European Union for Muslims.Clearly, at the core of the divergent ideas of restoration of the caliphate lies a minimal precondition of the political unity of the Muslim ummah. But that seems to be inconceivable in the present climate. In recent memory, Muslim countries have not been a picture of unity and harmony: the world has been a witness to the Black September of Jordan (1970), the failure of the Pan Arabic movement and of the United Arab Republic (1971), division of Pakistan (1971), the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), the Darfur conflict (2003-2008), and the decision of the southern Sudan to secede from the north (2011).
The Ahmadiyya Khilafat
Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam AhmadAS, the Messiah and Mahdi, likened khilafat to the second manifestation of God’s power – the advent of prophets being the first manifestation. He drew a parallel and proffered the archetypical Khilafat of Hadhrat Abu Bakr as the second manifestation. He quoted the Quranic verse 24:56 and made a prophetic statement: “The second manifestation cannot come till I go. But when I go, God will send a second manifestation for you which will remain with you forever.” This second manifestation unequivocally refers to the Ahmadiyya Khilafat.After the death of Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam AhmadAS, the transitions to Khalifas have taken place with grace and harmony. This was one of the most significant events in the history of Islam whose full impact is yet to be seen.The Ahmadiyya Khilafat categorically rejects militancy in every form and wages an intellectual jihad of the pen. When faced with bitter persecution, it practices patience and perseverance. When subjected to invidious intolerance, it preaches peace and tolerance. It champions the cause of the dispossessed and works towards uplifting the downtrodden.The Ahmadiyya Khilafat has conquered no land and possesses no earthly dominion, but it wields its influence over the hearts and minds of millions by winning over one man and one woman at a time. It is a force for good in the world, and exemplifies, once again, an institution grounded in the precepts of prophethood. So concept of Political Islam actually is something gone idea without any worth.
I can’t find the name of this text’s writer. Do you know who wrote this?
You click More and go to the original source. On top two names written. Most probably are the writers.