The ironical state of terrorism and violence in Islamic world that has become one of the greatest challenges for humanity in general, and Muslims all over the world in particular, has its roots in the long political history of power dynamics among various Islamic identities. For most of the last millennium, Islamic rulers held sway over the world. Many of them were not originally from the Middle East, and almost none from the Arab tribes which gave rise to Islam. Their diverse cultures, their complex interactions with Western scholars on the West and Indian culture in the East as also their tolerance to the various cultural and semi-religious practices that flourished in their vast empire often made them relatively cosmopolitan and liberal, while their role as rulers ensured that they establish peace and prosperity in the territories ruled by them.
History of Islamic Spread in Asia
While Islam is often instantly related with Middle East, in reality, the Middle East comprises a relatively small proportion of the global Muslim population. In fact this has always been so, ever since Islam spread to South and South East Asia, where the majority of Muslims reside. A look at the history of Islam in these areas can help us appreciate how the Muslim world existed just about a century ago.
In South East Asia, Islam arrived through Tamil traders. Parmeswara, who founded the Malay Kingdom, was a Malay Hindu, even though after marrying a Muslim Pasai Princess, he assumed the name of Iskander Shah. The third King in the dynasty was the son of a Tamil Muslim wife and the one who actually adopted Islam and raised the Sultanate of Malacca, which formed the base from which Islam spread to the other areas of South East Asia, including territories of Indonesia. In most of these areas, spread of Islam generally co-existed with the local culture which was rich, vibrant, liberal, tolerant, very Asian and far divorced from the medieval practices of Arabian peninsula. Even till the 1950s, it retained most of its ancient cultural identity, and the life-style and culture of South East Asia including Indonesia remained very different from the Middle Eastern cultural practices.
In India, Islam arrived initially through traders, but it established itself largely through invasion of Mulsim invaders from Central Asia, who established kingdoms in India from 10th century AD onwards. However, in course of time, these rulers invariably adopted the local cultural practices as their own and got merged in to the rich cultural complexities of the Indian civilization, making it their home. They had contacts with Middle Eastern religious Leaders, and were constantly educated in the intricacies of Islam, and yet, for all practical purposes, the Islam they practices and followed was far too Indian and not easily comparable with Middle Eastern practices. The largest Muslim dynastic in India was by the Moghuls. The third Emperor of this dynasty, Akbar, was the most liberal of them all. He married a Hindu princess, who was allowed to retain her religion, minimised differences between Muslim and Non-Muslim in state matters and finally raised a new sect, called “Deen-E’Elahi” which has elements from all major religions of India. Akbar is also considered one of the greatest Emperors of Indian history and is generally credited with establishing an empire that stretched beyond Afghanistan in the West and up to China in the East.
The version of Islam that became popular in most of Asia was thus not exactly the version that was being practiced in the Middle East and the cultural practices of people following it in Asia were far divorced from the rigid tribal practices of the Arab world. All this begin to change in the middle of the twentieth century.
Arab Dominance in Middle East after the Fall of Ottoman Empire
During the First World War, the already weakened Ottoman Empire got dragged into the conflict because of its treaty with Germany. During the peak of the war, two major events happened that changed the destiny of Muslims for all times to come.
The first was the support of Armenian nationalists living in Ottoman territories to Allied powers, which lead to a very strong retaliation by the Ottoman Rulers. Till then, Ottoman Empire has generally been secular in its approach. Large non-Muslim populations consisting of Christians, Armenians, Jews and others had resided within the territories of the Ottoman Empire for centuries without facing major persecution or harassment. The Armenian support of its enemies lead to what is known as the Armenian Holocaust or the Armenian Massacre, in which, millions of Armenians were forced to flee to the deserts of Syria for resettlement. Over a million were massacred on the way by the Islamic tribals, often with active encouragement of Ottoman authorities.
The second turning point of Islamic history came in the form of British-Arab Alliance that sought a revolt from the Arab protector of Mecca against the Ottoman Empire, in lieu of allowing them full sovereignty over Arab territories. The Arabs revolted and supported British, making it the last nail in the Ottoman coffin. Soon, the Ottoman Empire disintegrated and Arabs rose as the most dominant power in the Middle East.
Western-Arab Alliance
The great historical alliance between Arabs and the West began with the friendship between British Capt T. E. Lawrenceand Amir Faisal, son of Sharif Hussain of Mecca, who had sided with the British. The Alliance continued to grow when Faisal was installed as the King of new state of Iraq.
However, the real alliance between the Arabs and the Western world began to develop after the discovery of vast reservoirs of oil in the gulf, which made Middle East the most important geo-political territory for the oil hungry economies of the West. Since it is always easier to deal with an individual dictator than hordes of heterogeneous stakeholders in a democratic chaos, the Western powers began to support the dictatorial regimes of the Middle East, in absolute contrast to their stated goal of promoting democratization.
The Salafi-Wahaabi School of Islam Comes to Fore
The Salafi school of Islam preaches literary interpretation of Islamic texts, and frowns upon any practice that is not specifically sanctioned therein. It is rigid, purist and intolerant, and demands literal following of each and every word of the Holy text as it is, without any impurity, as the final wisdom. It does not approve of any spiritual experiences, any mystical views or any other locally developed practices, even though they may have been traditionally practiced by the Islamic populations of that region. Belonging to the Sunnis sect, it looks down upon all other schools including Shiyas, Sufis and Ahmedias even though they are also followed by millions worldwide.
The Wahaabi School is even more rigid and advocates all means including killing and violence to purify Islam. The Wahaabi school’s history is closely linked with the Saudi dynasty which rules Saudi Arabia, and has its origins in close family relations between Mohammad Ibn Abd-Al Whaab, who gave rise to Whaabism and Mohammad Bin Saud, the founder ruler of Saudi kingdom. The close ties between the two families continue even today, and have immensely contributed to the rise of Wahaabism throughout the world. One can understand Wahaabism as the Arabian version of Islam with its roots still firm in the medieval tribal traditions.
The Salafi scholars do not accept the term Wahaabism as the word is suppose to be a synonym of God and hence its use can be considered blasphemy. This difference of opinion notwithstanding, the Salafi and Wahaabi scholars have largely joined hands today to propagate their version of Islam to all corners of the world, largely as a matter of convenience that arises from the Saudi petro-dollar resources and its potential in spreading their common version of radical Islam.
The Petro-Dollar Power of Radical Islam
As Saudi Arabia came to be recognised as the owner of largest oil reserves in the World, and as more and more petro-dollars begun to flow in through oil exports to the rest of the world, the Arab dominance in Islamic world also grew by leaps and bounds. It was during the 1940s and 1950s when the Arab Kingdoms found themselves in a position from where they could use their petro-wealth to gain cultural ascendancy and influence in the rest of the Islamic world.
Their primary targets have been the impoverished communities of South and South East Asia and Africa. Even small amounts of monetary support to Masjids (Mosques) and Madrassa (Islamic schools) there, with Salafi-Wahaabi preaching thrown in as a bonus, achieved dividends that far surpassed the influence generated during the last thousand years of history. Over a period of six decades or so, Salafi-Wahaabi version of Islam has spread throughout the world. While its impact in South East Asia is still muted, largely because of its strong cultural identities, its impact in Africa and South Asia is much worse. The greatest impact of this school can be seen in Pakistan, which today has become a great challenge even for the United States, in spite of its five decade long strategic military and political alliance.
According to noted Egyptian Islamic scholar, Tawfik Hamid, the Salafi-Waahaabi school has been propagating that the petroleum wealth of Saudi Arabia is a divine gift and a reflection of favors bestowed upon its people for following pure Islam, an argument that is often accepted by the impoverished communities of poor Muslims with little resistance or arguments, and pave the way for acceptance of radical Islam and Arab culture as the best available means of pleasing the Lord and ending their own misery. The master strategy, combined with the power of petro-dollars has already worked wonders in establishing radical version of Islam as the only one acceptable. This extreme brand of Sunni Islam has now spread from Saudi Arabia to the rest of the Islamic world and dominates all other traditional and more liberal versions.
Tawfik Hamid says that the violent and regressive Islam, began to take global roots in the late 1970s, and is precisely due to the growing financial clout of Saudi Arabia. In his words, this Arabian sponsored version of Islam is “puritanical, extreme and does, yes, mean that women can be beaten, apostates killed and Jews called pigs and monkeys.”
Radical Islam and Terrorism
The relation between radical version of Salafi-Wahaabi Islam and terrorism is not straight forward, and is complicated by numerous other players, stakeholders and geo-political factors. However, there can be no doubt that the sanctity given to violence and the intolerance to anything not Islamic, as preached by the radical Islamic versions has been a primary factor in the growth of Islamic terrorism.
Is it not ironical, then, that the world which faces the threat of Islamic terrorism also continues to finance it through its oil imports and petro-dollars!
nice share
Very interesting history and well illustrated text.Enjoyed reading it.
thnx
well written article