Mixing Islam and politics: a historical overview.

Tarek Heggy
2018 / 7 / 14


(1) In 1891, the Second Saudi / Wahhabi state collapsed, 147 years after the founding of the first Saudi / Wahhabi state (Saudi – named after Muhammad ibn Saud and Wahhabi -- named after Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab). The Saudi / Wahhabi state was to be headed by the governor of the Saud family (which, according to the fatwa of the family, the Sheikh would be Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his descendants). Further, the society should abide by the Sharia (religious law), based upon the Hanbali school of orthodox Sunni jurisprudence. In practice, the Sharia followed within the first Saudi state (established in 1744), was based on the writings of Ibn Taymiyyah.
On January 13, 1902, approximately ten years after the collapse of the Second Saudi state, the young Abdul Aziz Al-Saud was able to capture the city of Riyadh. Between 1902 and 1934, the first rulers of the Third Saudi state expanded its influence, with the ruling powers being the al-Saudis in combination with the power of the fatwas issued by the al-Sheikh al-Abd al-Wahhab. This expansion covered more than two million square kilometers.
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom decided to join most of the Arabian Peninsula under one ruler, and, as the British contributed to the rule of this great new state, it could delay the discovery of oil in it. With this influence, the new state then became under the authority of the pro-British ruler, and in its next phase, under the authority of its successor - the United States of America.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was established in 1934 and in 1938 began production of oil from the largest deposits in the world, located in its Eastern Province. During the early twentieth century, there were two points of view within the British Intelligence Service (MI6). The first point of view, expressed by St John Philby of the British Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi, believed in the need to unite the greater part of the Arabian Peninsula under the banner of Islam. Another opinion - led by T.E. Lawrence of the Bureau of British intelligence in Cairo, believed in the need to unite the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and al-Sham -- Greater Syria and Iraq -- under the banner of Arabism (Arab kingdom). British intelligence was allowed to work for both of them: the first (Philby) with Abdel Aziz Al-Saud, and the second (Lawrence) with al-Sharif Hussein, King of Al-Hijaz. Britain decided to side with Philby in retaliation against the Arabs, who supported the Ottoman Empire during the First World War in 1914 - 1918, during which the Ottoman Empire was on the side of Germany against Great Britain. Thus, Britain supported the creation of the state that, in the future, would play an important role in the creation and spread of the ideas of Islamic states.

(2) In India, prior to independence in 1947, Abu al-Ala al-Maududi worked as a writer. It can be argued that the works of Maududi are the basis of all that has been written over the years by an Egyptian and influential member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb. Perhaps the most important idea in all the writings of Maududi is the idea of ​​"control", which states that the Muslim community should not be guided by the law created by people, and that all provisions of Sharia should only come from Allah. One of the most important associates of Mahatma Gandhi was Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was a Muslim. British intelligence working in India did everything to ensure Muhammad Ali Jinnah absorbed the ideas of Abu al-Ala al-Mawdudi, which led to the formation of an independent state of Muslims in India. In 1947, Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the founder of the state of Pakistan.
While India has the largest democracy in the world and promotes statewide pluralism and co-existence, Pakistan has seen many upheavals and was divided into two states, as East Pakistan became Bangladesh. An extremely dangerous development is that Pakistan has become one of the largest sources of fundamentalism and terrorism. Instead of one state, include three (India + Pakistan + Bangladesh), mankind has been forced to endure a state that possesses nuclear weapons and has in its territory such groups as the Taliban. And while the last British Governor - General of India (Lord Mountbatten) opposed the partition of India, the Bureau of British intelligence (MI6) in Delhi reached its goal as India was forcibly divided and a large new state was formed solely on the basis of religion. As I have already said many times, every Pakistani (during the creation of Pakistan) was a person who went to sleep on May 12, 1947 as an "Indian Muslim" and awoke on May 13, 1947 as simply a "Muslim". After the adjective "Indian" was removed, religion now became the sole basis of Pakistani identity.

(3) The political landscape in Egypt at the time of Hassan Al-Banna tells us a lot. Starting in 1918 and




Add comment
Rate the article

Bad 12345678910 Very good
                                                                                    
Result : 100% Participated in the vote : 3