The cry of a shattered crescent
In their zest to overwhelm Muslims the Pan-Islamists continually failed to align their movement with reality ensuing its collapse

December 10, 2005
iranian.com

Oft voiced is the fear of an austere or revivalist form of Islam sprouting in the dark tropics of Sub-continent and South East Asia, threatening to overwhelm the pluralism which once existed. Iranian revolution triggered huge revival of political Islam, the Sunnis not to be devoured by Ayatollah's created their version of extremism, it turned out to be much more virulent and much more violent. Iran, as I will argue in a following article, is not experiencing "revivalist Islam" or "Pan-Islamism" rather it is merely following its organic evolution dictated by its unique historical and cultural characteristics.

Yet these Muslims so intent on reviving the Arabian roots of Islam, and disregarding the civilisation that followed, pursued counterintuitive strategies to further their strength. For instance Allama Iqbal's foremost aspiration, the "creation of Pakistan was against the pan-Islamic concept of institutionalised fight for restoration of pure Islam."

In their zest to overwhelm Muslims the Pan-Islamists continually failed to align their movement with reality ensuing its collapse. As a movement it can no longer be taken seriously, it is highly unlikely that an Islamic confederation will arise. There have been no qualitative successes in that camp and the empirical evidence, highlighted by the number of intra-Muslim wars, that nationalistic feelings exacerbated by sectarian violence figure prominently amongst Muslims.

Paradoxical Islamists rely instinctively on Western instruments to bring about their aims. Such reliance is a necessity when rallying and integrating the distant South India Muslims or the isolated Hui Muslims of China. Exogenous influences such as the tape recorders (a necessary vehicle of expression for Khomeini during the Shah's era) or televisions to appeal to a mass audience imply fundamentally their visions of an ideal Islamic society are compromised by their reliance on Western innovations and technology. A faithful recreation of the social mores and attitude must be accompanied by a concurrent regression in the standard of living as evidenced by the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

One is reminded of a pagan region in Afghanistan, Kafiristan ("Land of Darkness"), which embraced Islam just over a century ago and earned the epithet Nuristan (Persian for "Land of Light"). It must be asked whether other population's will receive Persian accolades for their renewed fanaticism and immersion (or is it reversion?) in a purely Islamic framework. It is important to discern whether the historical trends allow for such an eventuality.

Islam as a civilisation was bifurcated for over a millennia after the initial energy of the Arab invasions was spent. The varying strains of Islam organically arose out of indigenous traditions, invariably Indo-Persian with the exception of the Hellenic mores of the Levant, of the conquered lands. It is only within the last century, and through the intervention of the colonial powers, that it can be confidently stated that Islam is reuniting under a common banner.

As I have stated once before the unmitigated European expansion and its encroachment into Islamic lands provided a catalyst for Islamic thought. The effect was felt on a number of distinct dimensions. For instance the European invasions rendered an abruptly tangible quality to the previously abstract concept of "Dar-ul-Islam", the House of Islam.

Muslims hitherto were lacking the characteristic "other" ossifying to the extent that internal wrangling occupied much of their time. At the time the barbaric Turko-Mongolians overlords had successfully assimilated into the dominant Islamic clique and the Hindu populaces of the Sub-continent writhed under Islamic Imperiums.

States had coalesced into the geopolitical fault lines within the Islamic Crescent with the Ottoman Caliphate confronted by Safavid Persia, which in turn was buffered from the decaying Mughals. Prior to the European "colonialism" interaction between Islamic societies had been reduced to mindless hostility. Through the alien appearance and customs of their European masters Muslims once more intuitively grasped the qualities the distinctiveness and commonalities that underlined their civilisation.

Once the conception of an united Pan-Islamic state had become a reality, where it was understood and fervently believed that Muslims were linked by a common fate, "for Muslim philosophers the great question, which had to be pondered over, was how to respond to Western onslaught? Would it be through a fierce retreat in to the Islamic past (as the Wahabis of Saudi Arabia, Deobandis of the Sub-continent and the Sanusis of Libya advocated) or would the answer lay in the complete rejection of Islamic thought and an adoption of the ethics of the secular West."

Fundamentally at discussion was that under threat of negation and cultural upheaval how Islam should formulate a coherent response to the West. There were those such as Allama Iqbal, through his foresight, argued that a true Islamic community could only arise at the preservation of essential Muslim values supplemented (and complemented) extensively by the advances Western civilisation had to offer.

He was starkly contested by the regressive variant, which believed that there was only one valid Islamic path. This was to be found in the periphery of the Islamic world purified by the blasting deserts of the Nejd and isolated from the corrupting influences of the Occident by remaining close to the Hijaz, the birthplace of the faith. It advocated absolute conformity to the lifestyle of a community that had existed in Medina millennia past.

Pan Islamism is a spent force that compounds the instinctual solidarity felt by Muslims throughout the globe and is fuelled by the frustrations of Muslims. Revivalist Islam may gain currency in certain regions of the world like it has in post revolutionary Iran but its demise is all but certain, nevertheless Afghanistan proved the tenacity of parochial cultures and that the imposition of any sort of "pure" Islamic would meet with certain failure.

Freedom and tolerance is negated by the political Islam the twain shall never meet, it is the era of freedom of tolerance that we living in today, political Islam imposes censorship and lip sewing as part of constitutional set up whereas man born free will tear the system that sews his thoughts. The dissent of Bazargans,Yazdis, Rajavis and Shariatis from crux of the revolution that they helped deliver is a stark reminder that even moderately free minds will not adjust to the strict intolerance that revolution brings, Ahmadinejad is so right that Iranians did not bred the revolution to uphold democracy.