War on Terror or a War on Muslims?: Unveiling Geopolitical Dynamics

By Leslie Terebessy

The umma is experiencing turbulence. There were fitnas, wars, and struggles from the beginning. Caught between tradition and modernity, the umma is finding its bearings in a different environment while holding on to its heritage. Adjustment is rendered more challenging by a poor knowledge of religion. Islam was politicized. Hawkish ulama re-articulated the teaching of reconciliation as a manifesto for war. Traditional Islam equates religiosity with rituals rather than ethics. There are few books on morality and plenty of writings on rituals. The umma turned from the Book of Allah to books of traditions. Six phases are perceptible in the transformation of Islam into Islamism. The drift from the Book of Allah was reflected in the recording of traditions. After being recorded, traditions began to supersede revelation. The turn from revelation to traditions was assisted by the repression of reason. Rationality was associated with kufr. There was also physical repression. The slaughter of the philosophers by Musa al-Hadi in 786, during the early part of the Inquisition (mihna) was probably to most brutal manifestation of this. This was followed by the persecution of the rationalists by Mutawakkil in 852. The mihna predated the Reign of Terror in revolutionary France, in 1792, by a millennium. The Inquisition suggests that the imposition of orthodoxy was due through recurse to arms rather than arguments. This set a pattern for centuries to follow. The repression of reason enabled the treatment of tradition as "revelation from Allah." This was an expression of shirk, as treating traditions as "revelation from God" treats traditions as equal to, and even a "part of" the Book of Allah. Then tradition became a "judge" of revelation. This relegated revelation under the jurisdiction of tradition. Tradition would "explain" and "detail" "unclear" and "incomplete" parts of revelation. These mischaracterizations defy the Book of Allah. For the Book says it is "clear" and "fully detailed." Then the verses of reconciliation were "abrogated" by the verse of the sword. This was tantamount to tampering with the teaching of revelation. The final phase entailed the treatment of jihad al-talab as a sixth pillar of Islam. Waging war on non-Muslims every year, even if they were at peace with Muslims, became a requirement of the faith. Aggression became a requirement. The articulation of offensive jihad as a pillar of Islam represented a corruption of the teaching of revelation. It transformed the teaching of reconciliation into an agenda for war. How did this transpire? Knowledge was corrupted by politicized jurisprudence and exegesis. Mercenary ulama weaponized exegesis and jurisprudence to endorse the expansionary aspirations of their rulers. Providing a "religious" justification for waging wars of aggression required reinventing the teaching of revelation to render lawful what Allah prohibited: wars of aggression. Unlawful wars of aggression would be waged under the rubric of Islam, touted as a "propagation of Islam" through force, proscribed in revelation. The resulting aggression brought the umma into wars with non-Muslims. The umma was not invariably triumphant. Extremism is a residue of the teachings of the separation of the globe into dar al-Islam and dar al-harb as well as traditions which teach that "the blood of the kafir is halal for the believer." Tradition was incorporated as a part of Islam rather than as a part of its history. Reform requires the re-education of the umma. It also requires the rehabilitation and de-weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence and the de-politicization of Islam. This requires a return to the Book of Allah and the reengagement of reason to understand revelation. Perceptions that the Book of Allah is "unclear" and "insufficiently detailed," require being rejected. The teachings of predestination and abrogation also require being set aside.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0932CSRH7
• ISBN13: 9798742285168
• Release Date: April 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"