By: Tashbih Sayyed
Muslims have always known that extremism breeds hatred and hatred begets terror. That's why Qura'n has categorically rejected extremism in all its manifestations. For moderation is the soul of Islam's message. But Wahhabism has mutilated the message of peace into a harbinger of terror. And today Islam has become synonymous with hatred, intolerance and exclusivism.
Islamist terror has five basic components:
1) Wahhabism/Islamism
2) Mosques and Islamic centers funded by Saudi Arabia
3) Illiteracy
4) Governments harboring and supporting extremism and,
5) Dictatorships
* Wahhabism/Islamism seeks to establish a theocracy by destroying all other religions and democratic values. Wahhabism is an ideology that is more dangerous than Fascism, more totalitarian than Communism and more hate filled than Nazism. If it succeeds in establishing its Theocracy, the world will forget Holocaust.
* Saudi Arabian funded mosques and Islamic centers are established to indoctrinate unsuspecting and simple Muslims against others. They train, recruit and deploy Islamist terrorists to go forth and attack symbols of civilizations. The growing hatred in the Muslim world against democratic values and freedoms is the direct result of Islamist's efforts to create a fascist mind. Wahhabi/ Islamist mosques and Islamic centers have been successful in creating a very lethal hate filled mind set in the Muslim world that abhors pluralism, liberal and moderate thinking and dissension.
* Wahhabism targets uneducated, poor and desperate minds. In order to deprive Wahhabism of this raw material for manufacturing homicide bombers, we will have to spread education. We will have to establish institutions that will work to eradicate poverty and remove reasons that create desperation, hopelessness and a sense of helplessness.
* To sustain their inhuman rule, Governments like that of Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat and Khomeini, discourage modern education. Their policies keep the masses poor. Their obscurantism assists in setting-in a mist of intellectual, social and cultural suffocation that renders the thinking masses a desperate lot. Such regimes use a form of sham democracy to hoodwink the civilized world into believing that their societies are democratic.
* As long as there are dictatorships in any shape and form, there will always be terrorism. Democracies do not nourish extremism. They empower tolerance and institute compromise as a basis of a stable society.
If war against terrorism has to be won then all the above five components parts of terrorism have to be attacked simultaneously. Attacking one and leaving others intact or half dead will continue to foster a terrorist mind. This war cannot be won in the conventional theaters of war only - by bombs, missiles, battle ships and military troops on the ground. The military solution is only a partial solution. The real and permanent solution to this evil will be found only when, along with a military assault on the physical military targets, a determined and concerted campaign is unleashed by the Muslims themselves from within the Ummah (Muslim nation).
Wahhabism has succeeded all over the Muslim world, only because it has made sure that all the voices representing true Islam are deprived of the opportunities of challenging their Fascist ideology. They invested billions of dollars in founding traditional institution toward which Muslims have always looked for guidance. Wahhabi leadership is so sure of its hold on the Muslim community that it declares with impunity, all moderate voices as fringe elements who do not represent "Islam." They bought clergy, helped Islamist extremists establish themselves in positions of affluence, influence and political authority so that they could intimidate true Muslims, social and political leaders and governments.
Wahhabi hold on Muslim community is total and absolute. Their war plan has been so successful, so far, that true Muslims are scared into silence. There are not many in the Muslim community who can risk their reputation, jobs, and businesses by speaking up against Islamist terrorism, although, in private, I found many of them expressing their frustration about Wahhabi plans to undermine American values. They always acknowledged the threat of extremist education being imparted in Islamist run schools. They told me that they are afraid of Islamist leadership. And that's why they cannot come forward and commit publicly against this terror. I have met many Muslims who denounce Islamist leader's success in becoming the sole arbiters of power around the world.
But after September 11, 2001, I have found some healthy signs. Some people are speaking up. They have found groups to challenge obscurantists. And they have become vocal in condemning extremist Islamists and Wahhabi leaders.
The latest example is that of a mosque in Canada, that issued a Fatwa (edict), declaring the act of greeting a non Muslim on his holy days, an act of infidelity (Kufr). I reproduce the whole message as it appeared on this mosque's website.
Ruling on Christmas & New Year
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuhu,
Welcome to the e-mail list of the Khalid Bin Al-Walid website,
Greeting the kuffaar (infidels) on Christmas and other religious holidays of theirs is haraam, (forbidden under Islamic Shariah) by consensus, as Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Ahkaam Ahl al-Dhimmah:
"Congratulating the kuffaar on the rituals that belong only to them is haraam by consensus, as is congratulating them on their festivals and fasts by saying 'A happy festival to you' or 'May you enjoy your festival,' and so on. If the one who says this has been saved from kufr, it is still forbidden.
It is like congratulating someone for prostrating to the cross, or even worse than that. It is as great a sin as congratulating someone for drinking wine, or murdering someone, or having illicit sexual relations, and so on.
Many of those who have no respect for their religion fall into this error; they do not realize the offensiveness of their actions. Whoever congratulates a person for his disobedience or bid'ah or kufr exposes himself to the wrath and anger of Allah."
Congratulating the kuffaar on their religious festivals is haraam to the extent described by Ibn al-Qayyim because it implies that one accepts or approves of their rituals of kufr, even if one would not accept those things for oneself. But the Muslim should not accept the rituals of kufr or congratulate anyone else for them, because Allah does not accept any of that at all, as He says (interpretation of the meaning): "If you disbelieve, then verily, Allah is not in need of you, He likes not disbelief for His slaves. And if you are grateful (by being believers), He is pleased therewith for you. . ." [al-Zumar 39:7] ". . . This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion . . ." [al-Maa'idah 5:3]
So congratulating them is forbidden, whether they are one's colleagues at work or otherwise. If they greet us on the occasion of their festivals, we should not respond, because these are not our festivals, and because they are not festivals which are acceptable to Allah.
These festivals are innovations in their religions, and even those which may have been prescribed formerly have been abrogated by the religion of Islam, with which Allah sent Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to the whole of mankind.
Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): "Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers." [Aal 'Imraan 3:85] It is haraam for a Muslim to accept invitations on such occasions, because this is worse than congratulating them as it implies taking part in their celebrations.
Similarly, Muslims are forbidden to imitate the kuffaar by having parties on such occasions, or exchanging gifts, or giving out sweets or food, or taking time off work, etc., because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever imitates a people is one of them." Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in his book Iqtidaa' al-siraat al-mustaqeem mukhaalifat ashaab al-jaheem: "Imitating them in some of their festivals implies that one is pleased with their false beliefs and practices, and gives them the hope that they may have the opportunity to humiliate and mislead the weak."
Whoever does anything of this sort is a sinner, whether he does it out of politeness or to be friendly, or because he is too shy to refuse, or for whatever other reason, because this is hypocrisy in Islam, and because it makes the kuffaar feel proud of their religion. Allah is the One Whom we ask to make the Muslims feel proud of their religion, to help them adhere steadfastly to it, and to make them victorious over their enemies, for He is the Strong and Omnipotent. (Majmoo'ah Fatawa wa Rasaa'il al-Shaykh Ibn
'Uthaymeen, 3/36
This fatwa (edict) is one of the typical examples of the manners in which Wahhabi funded mosques and Islamic centers are spreading the message hatred. Uneducated Muslims are being converted into terrorists. It is time to reject such evil. It is time to cleanse the Muslim world of such "Preachers of Prey."
These preachers of prey are preying on innocent Muslims. They are destroying Islam and turning the world against a very peaceful faith. The encouraging thing is that true Muslims reacted to this un-Islamic fatwa. They not only rejected the ruling as a product of a sick mind but also launched a campaign of rally support against this evil.
The campaign worked. Hundreds of Muslims from all corners of the world condemned the persons responsible for this attack on Islam. And the mosque had to issue a statement disowning the fatwa.
The whole episode proved my point that the Muslims, more than anyone else need the war against Islamist terror, because they know that Islamism, if allowed to go unchecked, will be the undoing of Islam. In order to eradicated terror in all its forms we will have to attack all of its component parts from within.
I am waiting for the day when true Muslims will come out and reject that Wahhabi Islamist terrorist who have hijacked our mosques and Islamic centers. We will have to accept that Islamist terror is a reality. And its target is Islam.
