Gharm Allah Al-Ghamdy Quotes

The last Caliph of the Muslims was removed in 1924 as part of the Turkish Reform. The position has had attraction for many Muslim leaders who saw themselves in the role, but since 1924, nationalism and modernism and the lack of an effective international Muslim leader has precluded it. This anti-revolutionary sentiment of the Islamic political state that is so traditional, may in part account for the Islamic tolerance of autocratic regimes. Note that the distinction between religious responsibilities and civil are important. Tyranny must be tolerated but not blasphemy or heresy. Traditional Muslims provide more tolerance and forbearance for a leader’s civil failings than religious. But Muslims were not the only people to do this. A British prime minister had a view with the same conservative logic. See {639130}. The ancient Jewish Macabean revolt against the Jewish king was all based on failure to perform required religious duties of sacrifice as opposed to tyranny and poor government which also existed. Popes excommunicated Kings for religious reasons, not because of their civil failures at governing. Holding rulers accountable for civil performance is a relatively new concept yet is indispensible in a modern democracy.

This principle explains why so many Islamic governments are monarchies and dictatorships. Islamic legitimacy requires the ruler to be sure that the society functions according to Sharia (Islamic Law). It is better if the ruler is selected by the senior and responsible members of society but that is not required. He could be a king or a dictator. And it is irrelevant how he comes to power under this interpretation so long as he rules following Islamic law. Saudi Arabia is an excellent example of a dictatorial monarchy which is considered legitimate since it follows Islamic law. Some modern Muslims do not support this traditional view and believe that a legitimate ruler must be selected by the will of the people.

The last Calif of the Muslims was removed in 1924 as part of the Turkish Reform. The position has had attraction for many Muslim leaders who saw themselves in the role, but since 1924, nationalism and modernism and the lack of an effective international Muslim leader has precluded it.

Khomeini was a politician as well as a cleric. He was not always consistent depending on his audience. This book was the publication of 17 different speeches with different audiences. Here he opposes all monarchy, but there is little doubt that his main target was the monarchy of Saudi Arabia. In {620335} he suggests that monarchy would be acceptable if the monarch followed Islamic law. Here he leaves no room for monarchies of which there were and are a number in the Muslim world. And at the height of Islam there was a Caliph who not only had absolute rule of ALL Muslim countries, but he was the absolute ruler of the religion. The Caliph and later the Islamic Sultan held more absolute power than any king or Pope ever had. Most of the Islamic fundamentalists claim that they want a return to having a Caliph with absolute power. And even in Iraq today, the “Supreme Leader” exercises more autonomous power, than any monarch or dictator does in his own country.

This is a very important quotation as it focused on one critical difference between historical Islam and all the other major religions and fundamentally on the separation between church and state. In Islam there was a Caliph who was both the political ruler and the religious ruler. In comparison at the time, the Christians had a Holy Roman Emperor who was theoretically the overlord of all the Christian Kings but in reality he really could not exercise total or even much authority over all the other kings. At the same time, there was the Pope who was the religious leader of all the Christians. Since the distinction between Church and state was constantly in flux, the Christian Pope and Holy Roman Emperor were often at odds. The third Abrahamic religion, Judaism, had neither a secular leader or a religious one and no hierarchy other than local. Khaldun observed the theoretical advantage of Theocracy as a model, however he did not analyze the disadvantages among which were the assassination of many Caliphs and the laces. Even the Muslim Arabic states abandoned the idea of a Caliph in modern times until Iran adopted a Theocracy with a single Leader all powerful. However, all the other Arab nations wanted no part of a singular leader for all Muslim nations or even a single civil and religious leader within any other country. Al Qaeda however claimed to be fighting for a return to a Caliphate not only for the current Islamic Nations but for all nations which must be subservient to Islam.

This quotation was reported to Congress by Thomas Jefferson. Essentially, this religious justification is no different from that made by contemporary Islamic extremists. Particularly interesting is the last sentence. The Koran states that all Muslims who die defending Islam will go immediately to heaven regardless of their previous sins and transgressions. Under that justification, even criminal extortion and terrorism is justified by some Muslims whenever the victims are non-believers.

The Muslim Brotherhood had won the Presidency in the first Egyptian democratic election shortly after the ouster of Mubarak when they were the only party that was organized. However, after one year of government, their performance was so bad that critics like El Baradei offered strong public criticism—especially of the preoccupation with Islam with little government attention given to freedom, human rights, and the economy which was in terrible shape. This was the focus of the pointed article title. A few days after this article was published there was an insurrection of huge crowds of Egyptians and the Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi was forced to resign.

Some people read this part of the declaration as saying that if Muslims are in the majority and control the nation, there is no problem with violence. But if the Muslims are in the minority, they will likely be violent. Needless to say, this alarms most Western nations.

He covers the Middle East.

The doctor argues that the problem of public health in the Islamic world is in large part due to the fact that health care is not organized any more under the control and governance of an Islamic institution—one which is guided by the Koran and Islamic tradition. Other physicians and public health experts believe one central obstacle to public health in Muslim nations is the strong influence that the Mullahs have over the behavior of the population and the medical and health practices that are acceptable and desirable to them are those of the Arabian Desert of the 7th Century or in some more modern interpretations, the medicine of the Islamic world of the 12th century when Islamic Medicine was the best in the World.

Perhaps this quotation gives the best insight to the major difference between an Islamic perspective of law and the Western. The latter places the rights of the individual on a par with or even superior to that of the society as a whole. The former is more concerned with the effect and result on society as a whole than concern with the individual rights of single individuals.

This quotation helps to explain the religious revelry in military achievements in Islam.

Religious obligation of Islam requires all Muslims to try and convert all others. However that is not different from some of the Christian, fundamentalist religions where attempted conversion of non-believers is a duty. However, where many in the Islamic world see that obligation as a peaceful, nonviolent, effort to persuade others to accept Islam, there are many others who believe that Jihad should impose Islamic law—Sharia—upon the world and the use of force and violence is not only acceptable but is necessary and desirable to achieve their objection.

Ummah is the community of Muslims. There is historical reluctance to engage in civil war even if rulers are terrible. The unwillingness to depose the Taliban in Afghanistan or Sadam Hussein in Iraq is more comprehensible to those of the Islamic tradition than to Westerners who are more accustomed to and comfortable with revolutions, impeachments, and regime changes. Many Muslims feel that it is their religious duty to put up with a poor leader rather than bring instability and produce conflict amongst Muslims. The only exception is the case where the leader does not fulfill his religious obligations and follow the laws of God and the Prophet. This is great part explains the extreme efforts of dictatorial regimes like Saudi Arabia to support its religious establishment. As long as they do not offend the clerics, their regime is safe regardless of how undemocratic or how unfair. An-Nawawi was not just a Muslim scholar stating his own views, but he compiled his 40 Hadiths which are the views of the Prophet and carry great religious and cultural weight.

Theological & Legal Expert. The Sunnah, like the Koran, has statements of the Prophet, Mohammad. A fatwa is a religious legal ruling. This particular Fatwa shows the great difference between the Islamic State and a Republic or Democracy. In the latter forms, any religious practices must be consistent with the Constitution. Even though blasphemy might be prohibited by a religion, the United States Constitution for example protects anyone’s right to be blasphemous. In the Islamic system any constitution or law is subservient to and must be consistent with, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. In that sense, unless the Muslim populated nation is secular like Turkey, then the governments are partial or total theocracies.