It happened 41 years ago today, September 7, 1974: Muslim unity. And then it disappeared.
And despite the sectarian violence, fatwas of infidelity, and state sanctioned terrorism, the myth of Muslim unity pervades the Muslim “Ummah.”
I call it a myth because in every spectrum where it truly matters, Muslim unity seems to disappear. For example, it disappears when we ask why Muslim leaders aren’t uniting to alleviate the suffering of Palestine? It disappears when various Arab states in the Mid-East remain unwilling to take Syrian refugees. It disappears when the Muslim world sits idle as Muslims suffer in CAR, Myanmar, and China.
But just as perplexing, Muslim unity suddenly re-appeared on one major topic, which manifested itself once more in the past week.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s former High Commissioner to London, spoke at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s 49th annual International Jalsa Salana—UK’s largest Muslim conference. In his short remarks before His Holiness the Khalifa of Islam, some 35,000 attendees and tens of millions watching via satellite, Mr. Hasan condemned Pakistan’s 1974 decision to constitutionally declare Ahmadi Muslims as “non-Muslim.” Mr. Hasan instead advocated universal freedom of conscience, and praised the Ahmadiyya community’s motto of “love for all, hatred for none.”
The whole of the so-called Muslim world only unites when it comes to taking any kind of ‘action’ or fatwas against our peaceful community. Otherwise it is TOTALLY selfish and disunited in the extreme!