The Middle East New
Caliphate
(The utopia of pan-Islamic state)
Preface:
Among its many characters, The Middle East is characterized
as region of “uncertainty” meaning no one knows where it is
heading
Now the vast and wide geo-political changes taking place in
the ME as the aftermath of so called Arab Spring are entering the region into a
new era where uncertainty remains.
As a new parameter of such uncertainty is the appearance of
ISEL. This is a phenomenon, we dare to say, no one could predict once Arab
Spring sprang out.
This paper is a humble attempt to find out the roots of
ISEL’s legitimacy attracting many people around the globe to its proclaimed
Islamic state.
Key words:
Caliphate, Islamic State, Ummah, Shari’a, Political Islam, Arab Spring
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Emergence of the Islamic State[1]
reshaping the history of an
entire region, if not an entire faith, has attracted much attention in the past
few months with its remarkable military gains, brutal behavior and abolishing
the borders between Muslim countries[2]
.
A U.N general assembly report[3]
states that waging a campaign of fear including amputations, public executions
and whippings are common spectacle in areas run by ISIL. "Bodies of those
killed are placed on display for several days, terrorizing the local
population. Women have been lashed for not abiding by IS's dress code. Children
as young as 10 are being recruited and trained at IS’s camps." The
document says.
Despite ISIL’S barbaric behavior, surprisingly we witness
radical Muslims around the world, impressed and inspired by ISIL, become convinced
that the ISIL is deserving of their allegiance. It has attracted jihadists not
only from across the region but also from across the globe including Western
countries. They continue leaving their countries and migrating to the Islamic
State to wage jihad. In other words, a sizable chunk of the world's Jihadists
all become localized in the ME displaying openly and proudly their anti-infidel
supremacism (Excommunication / Anathema)[4].
A U.S led coalition of 40 countries fighting against the group
which is said, has only 50 thousands fighters, is the best indicator to realize
the crucial role of ISIL in deterioration of ME geo-politics.
This indicates that ISIL is a phenomenon more than just a
militant cult. At present, ISIL controls cities with millions of residents, in
addition to oil resources and military bases. It now controls a contiguous area
of territory stretching from deep into Syria to western Iraq.
Here is the fact why ISIL is the best-organized of the jihadi
Islamist movements[5] that
have emerged in the Middle East.
The question, hence, is: How is ISIL’s success in attracting Sunni[6]
Muslim’s attention and gathering forces from all over the world? What is the
secret of its success?
To address the question and understand ISIL we need to
examine its doctrine which brings legitimacy for ISIL’s believers. So the initial
question is: Where does ISIL’s legitimacy come from?
ISIL’s Genealogy:
Identity Crisis and Dignity the lost
Unlike in the Western world, religion still plays a dominant
role in people in the Middle East region. Hence, the political Islam
uses religion as an excuse to mobilize forces.
Since the Arabs were suffering a continuation of the
underlying conditions and sometimes feeling degraded (as in case of
Palestinians), it gave rise to Islamists in the first place in recent decades to
practice their doctrine achieving their lost dignity.
The last 40 years have been very telling in this respect. The
Muslim Brotherhood movement enjoyed a major boost in the
mid-late-1970s. In the late 1970s some frustrated members of the Muslim
Brothers turned to armed violence against the state in Egypt and Syria.
In the early 1980s Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in
Lebanon came into being and attracted significant followings. In the latter
part of the 1980s Al-Qaeda was born to fight against Soviet troops in
Afghanistan. After 2001 smaller groups of militant Salafists
started to operate in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and other countries and engaged in
battles with state armies.
Eventually ISIL, Jabhat el-Nusra, Ansar Beit el-Maqdas and
dozens of other small Salafist-Takfiri
groups have emerged in the last few years. Nobody should be surprised if
even worse responses show up in the years ahead.
Accordingly, the appearance of the Islamic State (IS) was not
only a result of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 or the Syrian civil war,
but also a result of a lost dignity.
The emergence of the Islamic State, on the one hand, can be
viewed as a symptom of the region’s political chaos and uncertainty. On the
contrary, it may be considered a symptom and a reflection of the identity
crisis in the region.
To overcome such rooted crisis and chaos, the solution for
Islamists is ‘political Islam’. While Caliphate means little to the
non-Muslims, it means everything to the Islamists. For certain number of
Muslims, the Caliphate is not a mere name but a code to the utopia of pan-
Islamic state[7]
for the lost dignity.
The Caliphate Paradigm: Nostalgic Dream and ISIL’s legitimacy
ISIL is the latest manifestation of at least half a dozen
other Islamist movements that have entered the stage of Middle East.
ISIL’s entire legitimacy is founded on its namesake i.e. the
Islamic state. The
self-proclaimed Islamic state claims[8]
religious authority over all Muslims worldwide.
The notion of Islamic state rooted in Salafi Islam (Salafism[9]).
The Salafism as a backward-looking view of Islam calls for re-establishing and returning
to the reign of the actual followers of Prophet Muhammad (the “salaf” or successor).
Once Islam appeared in the deserts of Arabia some 1,400 years
ago, it changed the plight of the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula and formed a community
of faithful followers. Muslims population is now over one billion in all parts
of the world, and forms the majority faith in 57 countries.
Muhammad not only was successful to unite the Arabs in the
name of Islam in the entire Arabian Peninsula but also managed to form a state
which is considered to be the first Islamic State
ruling over first Muslim community (Islamic Ummah[10]).
The creation of the Islamic Ummah during his lifetime in Medina and
later on in the whole of Peninsula is a unique occurrence in the history of
religions. Muslims do not see such a tremendous success as Mohammad’s genius
but God’s will as they see the prophet as God’s “divine providence”, messenger,
prophet and especial envoy.
Mohammad’s successors known as Caliphs )literally substitute i.e. prophet’s
substitute[11]) are
regarded with the same respect to Mohammad as God’s providence. Their period of
reign is called Caliphate (literally substitution)[12].
The Caliphate as a paradigm in political Islam is, in fact, a
pan-Islamic-Sunni-state whose entire goal is not but to follow
the Mohammad’s guidelines and implement the Shari’a[13]
law which is presumed to be the only protection for Islam and Muslims according
to Salafism.
The Caliphate, in that sense, is a “spiritual” and holy institution
and the Caliph is spiritual authority whose every order must be considered as
God’s order. The Caliph legitimacy, accordingly, is not driven from people but
from God. He is also a sign of divine providence and God’s authority on Earth.
The head of Caliphate Islamic state is also named Amir
Al-Mo’minin (i.e. the commander of believers) as a sign of his
politico-religious leadership of the Islamic Ummah. That is why the believers
to political Islam of Sunni branch follow every order of Caliph even his order
of suicide attack.
According to the Salafism teachings, Caliphate represents both
potent symbol of Islamic unity as well as a sovereign state for the entire
Muslim faithful (the Ummah) under Islamic law (sharia).[14]
Recalling the vast scientific
and military superiority of Muslim Ummah, the notion of Caliphate as a notably
“nostalgic” dream still plays a significant role in propelling Sunnis hopes for
better economic, political and social justice in restoration of Caliphate. Some
Salafis[15]
even go further and call for the formation of a Worldwide Caliphate.[16]
In short, they believe in:
One God
One Prophet
One State (Caliphate)
One Caliph (so he is the symbol of Muslim’s unity)
One nation (Ummah i.e. Muslim commonwealth = pan- Islamic
state)
One rule (Shari’a Law)
To realize the claimed superiority of Islamic Ummah, we just
require recalling the caliphates formed over course of centuries (from the
seventh century until 1924) not only in the length of Central Asia, Middle East
or North of Africa but also in Córdoba (in Andalusia, southern Spain, Europe) namely[17]:
1- Rashidun[18]
Caliphate (632–661)
2- Umayyads Caliphate
(661–750) continued as Emirate (756–929) & Caliphate of Córdoba
(929–1031)
3- Abbasids Caliphate
(750–1258) continued as Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo (1258–1517)
4- Fatimids Caliphate (909–1171)
5- Ottomans Caliphate (1453–1924)
The Caliphate as a Paradigm Shift: Nation
State or Islamic State
The Pan-Islamism Movement
is an Islamist political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one
Islamic state as a form of religious nationalism. This was first theorized by
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928 just four years after demise of Ottoman
Caliphate.
Consequently, the political Islam looks
back at the life and teachings of Prophet Mohammad, and especially his rule in
Peninsula, and takes it as the highest pattern of an ideal religious
government.
We are not wrong, then, to conclude that
the notion of re-establishing the Caliphate over the course of last century is
dreamed to be the “renaissance” of the Muslim golden era.
Here the contradiction appears: The
contradiction between Nation State and Ummah State (Islamic State / Caliphate).
In a Nation state the political legitimacy is driven from people for serving
within geographical area in certain borders whereas in the Ummah State, it is
God who is the source of legitimacy (and not people) and therefore, the Ummah
is not bounded to any border.
Given the fact that there are other
Jihadi fighters in Syria, what makes ISIL unique is its aspiration to form
immediately an Islamic state (Caliphate)[19].
The new Caliphate: The Islamic Ummah Renaissance
If you are a Sunni faithful what damage you feel if such a
divine institute is demolished?
The official termination of the Ottoman caliphate on 1924 was
not like demise of many other political systems in the world. It was a blow to
the Sunni Muslims’ identity throughout the world.
In pan-Islamists’ perspective , the Sykes–Picot Agreement is considered the termination of Islamic Ummah unity and Arab
Nationalism as an alternative failed to be the solution for the gone supremacy
of Ummah.
The crushing defeat of the Arab Nationalism led by Naser as a result of 1967 war with Israel
led to searching of a new alternative.
The significant role of Caliphate as an alternative paradigm
was so centric for political Sunni Muslims that soon after dismantling of Ottoman
Caliphate, king Hossein ibn Ali of the Hejaz[20],
a former Ottoman province, proclaimed a new caliphate.
That is why just four years after demise of Ottoman Caliphate
and a vacuum of Caliph Power, the Muslim Brotherhood as the first pan-Islamic
movement suggested that Muslim countries must eventually unified in a Caliphate
system. As an established fact in the Salafism teachings, no Ummah can exist
without Caliph.
The elements of ISIL’s identity as the newest version of Salafism
following the Muslim Brotherhood’s guideline are apparently manifested in their
flags in which Jihad in the name of Allah became the symbol of the potential
paradigm.
Here is the secret why Abu Bakr Al-Bagdadi adopted the title
of Amir Al-Mu’minin for himmself in a reference to his source of divine
legitimacy as the Caliph of all Muslims. A released statement of IS (titled “This
is the promise of Allah”[21])
urges Muslims to "gather around your caliph, so that you may return as
you once were for ages, kings of the earth".
This is the meticulous secret of ISIL why announced restoring
its Caliphate soon after military success in Levant as a territory reminds the
golden era of Muslims during Umayyad then Abbasid’s Caliphate for six centuries.
Some Sources:
-
Oliver-Dee, Sean (2009). The
Caliphate Question: The British Government and Islamic Governance. Lexington.
-
Ardic, Nurullah (2012) Islam and
the Politics of Secularism: The Caliphate and Middle Eastern Modernization in
the Early 20th Century
-
Madelung, Wilferd (1998). The Succession to Muhammad: A Study
of the Early Caliphate.
-
Kamali, Mohammad Hashim (2008).
Shari'ah Law: An Introduction
-
R. Demant. Peter (2006). Islam vs. Islamism: The Dilemma of the
Muslim World
-
Arjmand Reza, (2008). Islam and
State in Iran and Turkey, Institute of International Education, Department of
Education, Stockholm University.
-
Chaney Eric (2012). Democratic
Change in the Arab World: Past and Present, Department of Economics, Harvard
University.
-
The New Arab Revolt: What
Happened, What It Means, and What Comes Next, Council on Foreign Relations,
2011.
-
Madawi Al-Rasheed, Carool
Kersten, and Marat Shterin, “The Caliphate: Nostalgic Memory and Contemporary
Visions,” in Demystifying the Caliphate,
ed. Al-Rasheed, et al (London: Hurst & Co., 2013), 1–30.
[1]
The Islamic State refers here to the group once known as the Islamic State of
Iraq (ISI, October 2006–April 2013), the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS,
April 2013–June 2014), and the Islamic State (IS, June 2014–present). This
usage conforms to the group’s own shorthand for itself—as “the Islamic State”
(al-Dawla al-Islamiyya), or merely “the State” (al-Dawla)— going back to 2006.
[2]
Countries with Muslim majority
[3] http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A.HRC.27.60_Eng.pdf
[4] Takfir
in Arabic
[5]
Such as Al-Gaeda, Jabhat el-Nusra, Ansar Beit el-Maqdas, etc.
[6] We will see that Shia branch of Islam did not
welcome the establishment of Islamic State.
[7] Islam
vs. Islamism: The Dilemma of the Muslim World by Peter R. Demant
[8]
Interestingly none of Jihadi groups such as Al-Qaeda, al-Nusra Front or.. have
ever verified or endorsed the
self-proclamation of ISIL.
[9] Salafism
as the most orthodox and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam entered the
world consciousness after September 11, as Al-Qaeda leaders claim to follow
this school.
[10] Ummah
can be translated into Commonwealth of the Muslim Believers.
[12]
Wilferd Madelung. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate.
[13]
Mohammad Hashim Kamali. Shari'ah Law: An Introduction
[14] Al
Imam, Ghassan, “ISIS and Arab Unity”, Asharq al-Aqsat, (10/09/2014) http://www.aawsat.net/2014/09/article55336421
[15]
For example the militant organization of Sipah-e-Sahaba in Pakistan
[16]
Oliver-Dee, Sean (2009). The Caliphate Question: The British Government and
Islamic Governance. Lexington. p.9.
[17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate
[18]
Rashidun means “four rightly guided caliphs” who led Muslims from Prophet
Muhammad’s demise. Within the lifetimes of these four caliphs, the realm of
Islam rapidly spread to the farthest corners of Iran and coastal Libya. Salafism
considers the Rashidun period a golden age which deserves to be revived.
[19] Proclamation
of new ISIL’s Caliphate announced on the first day of Ramadan, 1435 (June 29,
2014) which is considered a holy month for Muslims. Choosing this date was not
a coincidence but a smart action to draw attention of Muslims in a holy month
to a holy event.
[20] now
Saudi Arabia
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