The Aftermath of Colonialism:  Sectarianism

In Part One of a series focusing on the contributions of Muslim thinkers to civilization, Shaykh Ramadan Ahmed looks at some of the groups which emerged in the face of dealing with the challenges presented by colonialism and globalization

With a cursory glance at the scale of change taking place in the world today, it seems that Muslims in many parts of the world are facing challenges in all walks of life. Perceptions of life, universal human values, and the criterion for good and evil are no more the same as those known to previous generations. The magnitude of change is so huge and swift that some Muslim scholars are bewildered and unable to comprehend what’s going on. Some are drowned by the strong wave of modernism, while others are groping for a land of equilibrium where Islam can benefit from globalization without being caught up in its flames.

The reason behind this state of affairs is that Islam had ceased to exist as a way of life a few centuries before the collapse of Islamic Caliphate in Turkey in the1924. Two events happened simultaneously: on the one hand the virus of Westernization swept through the Muslim world, carried by colonialism, eliminating the remnants of the ailing Islamic civilization. Extremely bedazzled by Western style of life, the new Muslim generations gluttonously grabbed everything that came from the West, be it culture or way of thinking. It is these Western-minded Muslim elites who introduced nationalism and secular laws in the Muslim world for the first time. The pioneers of this trend were Rifaa  At-Tahtawi, who introduced Western education system in Egypt, and Kamal Ataturk who replaced Islam with nationalism and fought Islam relentlessly in all aspects of life in Turkey, to name but a few.

Having closed the door of ijtihad (depicting rules from their sources and applying them to day-to-day affairs) Muslim scholars, on the other hand, failed to assimilate the new changes into Islamic jurisprudence. Instead, they took a very antagonistic stand towards everything that is Western. For instance, the introduction of telephone in Saudi Arabia took long to be given a go-ahead by the religious institution. The same is true of the introduction of TV, the internet, and other technological advancements.

One of the major results of this ideological debacle in dealing with the new challenges was that the new generation of Western cultured Muslims climbed the helm of power and managed to empty the national education systems from any religious content. Muslim scholars responded by establishing their own religious institutions whose graduates were always marginalized and looked down upon by the state. State education policies chained Islamic institutions to the extent that their affiliates were viewed with scorn and ridicule. Through the course of time and excessive marginalization, Islamic institutions became less and less contributive to the common good. Instead, they plunged themselves into sectarianism and differences over trivial things. We reached a stage where the followers of the four schools of thought would regard one another as belonging to totally different religions, ignorant of the fact that the founders of these schools learned from one another.

This state of affairs gave birth to a number of Islamic reformist movements that gradually developed their own tools of dealing with the challenges, governed by their context. In the Indian subcontinent emerged two movements, viz Tabligh Jama’ah, and Jama’ah Islamiah. Tabligh Jama’ah, established by Maulana Mohammed  Elias (1886-1944) based its strategy on bringing back to the fold of Islam those Muslims who had gone astray. Since Tabligh Jama’ah was not a political movement, and its message was internally directed, it was in no way regarded as a threat by colonial powers. Jama’ah Islamiah, established by Imam Abul Aala Al Maudoodi (1850-1903), based its strategy on changing the system of governance as a way of returning Islam to power. Politics was thus, the focus of Jama’ah Islamiah.

In Egypt Ikhwanul Muslimin emerged, led by Imam Hasan Al Banna (1906-1949). Its strategy was similar to that of Jama’ah Islamiah, albeit influenced by local political climate. Ikhwanul Muslimin, as ideology, survived the axe of a brutal pro-Western regime in Egypt during the first half of the 20th century. Many political Islamic movements in the world today owe much to Ikhwanul Muslimin, in spite the fact that these movements defected from the mainstream movement and developed their own perceptions and strategies. These defected groups regarded the approach adopted by Ikhwanul Muslimin as being too soft, given the suppression the movement underwent. The most recent among them are Takfir wal Hijrah, Jihad Movement, led today by Ayman Al Zawahiri, and Osama bin Laden’s Al Qa’idah (the latter two movements have now merged under the political leadership of bin Laden with ideological influence by Zawahiri). These groups have adopted violent means for achieving their goals, owing to the circumstances surrounding their split up from the mainstream movement.

Other movements which had emerged before colonialism, include the Salafi movement, initiated by Shaykh Mohamed Ibn Abdul Wahab which was concerned with fighting “Sufist innovations” (Bid’ah). It collaborated with the Saudi dynasty to establish the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and managed to get rid of all the mazaars built in the Arab Peninsular.  

Despite the fact that most of these movements appeared to face almost the same challenges - grappling with the aftermath of colonialism, each of them confined itself to its own scope of thinking, unprepared to accommodate the other. In fact, some of them adopted a very systematic policy of eliminating the other, in the process turning a blind eye to the main challenges facing the ummah.

As time passes new challenges occur while old challenges either diminish or take new dimensions. The ummah today is walking the tight rope robe between the need to assimilate the positive aspects of Western civilization into Islam, on the one hand, and the need to maintain the Muslim identity against the evils of globalization, on the other. It is, thus, incumbent upon Muslim scholars and Islamic institutions to encourage the study of contemporary efforts exerted by reformist individuals or institutions. The blinkers of sectarianism need be taken off and an objective study of our past should be undertaken in a way that enables us to view our challenges from our own perspective.

Shaykh Ramadan Ahmed is a graduate of the International Islamic University in Sudan.  He presently serves as director of the Verulam Islamic Institute.

Article by Shaykh Ramadan Ahmed