A challenge to the Western critics of Islam
A tool which the Western critics of Islam have recently been employing is to accuse Islam and its followers of anti-semitism. (They are, of course, helped in their argument by the foolish pronouncements of certain Muslim political and religious leaders.)
Yet when Hitler was conducting the oppression of the Jews in Germany, before the Second World War began, very few people in the U.K., U.S.A., France, and like countries, condemned his actions. In fact, a large number of people in these countries supported various policies of Hitler until they were compelled to fight Germany’s aggression towards its neighbours.
But who condemned Hitler’s anti-Jewish measures at an early stage?
It was Muslims.
Please see at this link a page from The Light of Lahore, an English language Muslim journal, dated 8 April 1933, just two months after Hitler came to power. On this page there is a comment in the right-hand column near the foot of the page, which is headed Hitlerism.
“The West may rightly be described as a continent of “isms”. Capitalism, Socialism, Bolshevism, Facism, Communism — these are the so many manifestations of a restless soul seeking after some true solution of a social system. On top of them all now comes in Germany what may be called Hitlerism. Whether this new tide will take the German people back to the promised land flowing with milk and honey is yet to be seen. In the meantime it has launched a bitter campaign of hatred against the Jews who, as reports show, are subjected to severe persecutions all over Germany. This is deplorable, to say the least and no movement based on hatred can be expected to blow any good to humanity. Europe in quest of a social order has tried so many isms, each having landed it in deeper social bogs. Will it not give a trial to the one “ism” that sprang from the soil of Arabia and which combines all that is best and is free from all that is evil in all the “isms” it has so far tried, viz., Islamism?”
(The bolding is mine.)
It is nothing short of astonishing, if not a Divine miracle, that a Muslim organ based so far from Europe, writes that Hitler’s policies will lead to no good because they are based on hatred and on persecuting the Jews. Please remember that during the 1930s eminent persons in the West outside Nazi Germany (particularly the U.K.) believed that many of Hitler’s policies were admirable.
Challenge number 1 to critics of Islam: How many persons can you point out in the civilised West who, at the very time Hitler came to power, condemned Hitler’s persecution of Jews and predicted that it would lead to no good for humanity?
If this was not enough, I refer you to statements of the Imam of the Woking Mosque in 1939. The Woking Mosque was, at that time, the main Muslim centre in the U.K., frequented by leaders of various nations when visiting Britain, and its Imam was the spokesman of the Muslim community.
1. In 1939 he was asked if Nazism was compatible with Islamic teachings. He replied that:
“The present-day legislation in Germany is inspired by racial discrimination and religious distinctions. It, to begin with, believes in racial superiority, it believes in exiling people for their religious opinions. It has actually pulled down synagogues.
… there can be no two opinions on the matter. Islam has come to establish in reality the Brotherhood of Man which is the imperative need of the present-day world. Enough of dissensions. Let us talk of ways enabling us to treat each other as brothers and members of one family.”
He went on to denounce the persecution of Jews in Germany. See: www.wokingmuslim.org/work/imams-reply-mar40.htm
2. In the Eid-ul-Fitr khutba, 13 November 1939, he declared:
“A Muslim is bound to wage war against any person, whether of his own kith and kin and religion or not, who interferes with the beliefs of a non-Muslim. … Muslims are ordered to sacrifice their lives not only to save their own mosques but the religious houses of other peoples as well. …
The Zionist policy in Palestine has done us great harm. Untold miseries has it brought upon our brethren in the faith in that country. But the very fact that synagogues have been pulled down in Germany upon the slightest pretext makes it obligatory upon us Muslims to throw our weight into the cause of the Allies. ”
See: www.wokingmuslim.org/work/id-ul-fitr-1939.htm
Challenge number 2 to critics of Islam: How many Christian religious leaders at the time preached from the pulpit that it was the religious duty of Christians to take up arms against those who destroy synagogues?
I will be sending out my challenge by post to certain newspapers columnists in Britain. (Zahid Aziz)
From ikram:
The world is witness that Nazism and Communism ended up in dustbins of history. Hindsight is 20/20 through which historians keep themselves busy by slicing and dicing one theory over another. To a certain extent, Muhammad Ali with a historical view summed up the core cause for the failure of Christianity:
It is amazing that Muhammad Ali in his book The New World Order, Abdul Majid in his Eid Sermon and answer (above) and The Light, had a foresight that foretold it all about Communism and Nazism. It was not that they were economists, social scientists or even fortune tellers. They simply based their arguments on the User Manual of mankind, commonly known as The Quran. One is amazed that they “got it all,” the spirit of the Message of Quran and foresaw the aberrance of human designs of this ism or that ism versus the gold standard of isms i.e. Islam. Their almost divine understanding emanating from the moral principles as outlined in Quran closely matches that of the ultimate teacher, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) when he similarly foretold the fate of Persians and Romans:
Once one reads “The New World Order” by Muhammad Ali and reflects on the inherent greed in Capitalism, one naturally concludes that Capitalism did not defeat Communism, it is only surviving a little longer. Muhammad Ali then goes on to give the actual solution to the morass of isms when he makes a convincing case and states about Islam:
Thank you Dr. Aziz for drawing our attention to these topics.
From Mohammed Iqbal:
Interesting to note that the “Light” used the word ‘Islamism’ as far back as 1933. Please note that the word now is extensively used by the champions of political Islam. They call themselves ‘Islamists’.
From Zahid Aziz:
As far as I know (and I may be wrong on this), the term “Islamist” has been coined by Western media commentators who wished to avoid using the terms “Islam” or “Islamic” in association with extremist organisations, so as not to tar all Muslims or Islam itself with the same brush.
From Mohammed Iqbal:
May be the western media coined the term. But it is outfits like Jamath Islami Hind and others who tow their line who call themselves ‘Islamists’, again to distinguish themselves from the Muslim mainstream, at least here in India.
From Zahid Aziz:
People often take up terms coined for them by others and start proudly revelling in them.