Contributed by Mohamed Khaku,
Allentown, USA
“And hold fast, all together, unto the bond with Allah, and do not draw apart from one another… (3:102-103).
Sectarianism has ugly head and there are forces deliberately trying to stoke fears in the Muslim Ummah to keep them divided and control the oil wealth. Islam allows respectful deliberation of opinions, however sectarianism is a deliberately propagated ideology of hate in which one group of Muslims denounces another as infidels (“kafirs”) and even resort to killing. Such hate ideology must be exposed and confronted. Such demonic ideology emanates from sick minds or is actively promoted by the enemies of Islam. We can identify some of the sponsors of this ideology of hate – Wahhabism. The Saudi regime is notorious in creating this division in order to safe guard their kingdom, power and wealth
Nowhere in Quran has one found the words like Sunni, Shia Deobandi or Barelvi, so how did we end up with these designations? Today, exploiting natural difference between Sunni and Shia, to incite violence is being pushed by Saudi monarchy to deprive Muslims from achieving progress in any field. Theoretically speaking, the above policy of divide and rule has been implemented by neo-colonial rulers. Sunni/Shia division is the product of colonialism.
Promoting sectarianism is to keep Muslims divided and distracted from real issues facing the Muslim Ummah. There are many players in this divide and rule game. The evidence of this was provided on March 10th when conference was held at Tel Aviv University. The conference theme was “Shia-Sunni divisions” and speakers considered how these divisions could be deepened. Remarkably on the same day a seminar was organized in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia under the theme, “Islam without sectarianism”. Speaker after speaker discussed how to overcome these artificial divisions and speaker after speaker presented paper titled “accommodation – Not Antagonism”. Iran’s leader Imam Sayed Ali Khamenei and Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani have issued many rulings discouraging or stirring up sectarian tensions and bigotry. Imam Khomeini said “Any person differentiating Sunni and Shias is neither of them “.
Muslims are not in control of their destiny because its power is fragmented into nations ruled by elites and political system that are the products of colonialism, where these systems were put in place to prevent the emergence of Islam. This is perhaps the darkest time of our history, when truth and falsehood have become indistinguishable and forces of colonialism have penetrated deep into the Muslim world. This terrible state of affairs has not emerged overnight; it is the result of long process. However Muslims have started to understand who is responsible for such failures and conflicts. These corrupt rulers have to be exposed for their corruption, incompetent and subservient to enemies of Islam.
Defeat and decadence of the Muslims is due to fall of ethical action, economic and political subjugation and military weakness. Muslim Ummah is not in a very good shape today but Muslims have started to understand who is responsible for such failure. Muslim masses are suffering even more today than they were during the colonial period. Independence has simply meant a change of masters: The colonial master have handed over power to kings, khalifah, military and special elites.
The failure for Muslims to be united is neither due to Islam or Muslims masses but they are the direct result of the illegitimacy, colonial imposed system and incompetence of the ruling elites of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordon, Egypt and many others. These corrupt and incompetent rulers are the real enemies of Islam.
The Muslim communities in North America enjoy a unique position. Never before in our history have we seen Muslim community of this composition. We have among us people of all races, colors, languages and social background. USA has a wonderful mosaic of diverse community and blessed with great resources. American Muslims are in a position to take up leadership and vital role in many fields to bring the Muslim Ummah out of its current predicament.
