The Global Islamic Movement does not have to contend only with the tyrants in the Muslim world. Their real struggle is in fact against the western backers of unrepresentative regimes. If left alone, these regimes would collapse like a pack of cards.
For Muslims while the Qur’an is the revealed Word of God, the Prophet’s Seerah [life story/ prophetic model] is its practical manifestation.
While the secular regimes in the Muslim world have failed miserably in alleviating the problems of the masses, they continue to remain in power. What is the reason for this apparent paradox?
Muslim activists are often engaged in heated debate about the model to follow to bring about change in Muslim societies. The best model is, of course, none other than that of the noble Messenger of God, upon whom be peace and blessings.
Since the late Dr Kalim Siddiqui wrote his book Towards a New Destiny, which was actually a report on the Tripoli conference in July 1973 on Col. Qaddafi’s Third International Theory, much water has flown under the bridge.
Browsing through the index of any Year Book on the Middle East creates the immediate impression that it is either about a region on some other planet, or that the Arab world enjoys more than its share of political, economic and social cohesion as well as cooperation.
Over the last 1400 years, Muslims have developed a number of ‘schools of thought’ and systems of law (fiqh). In the global conditions prevailing today, there are a number of approaches, or systems of ‘political thought’, competing with one another.
When a former senior bureaucrat in Pakistan was waylaid recently (this being the second time that this misfortune was befalling him and his family) his daughter-in-law who was sitting with him in his BMW asked one of the dacoits who had seized them as to why he had taken to this profession.
[Kalim Siddiqui, Nation-States as obstacles to the total transformation of the Ummah, London: The Muslim Institute, 1985. This was the keynote paper presented at the Muslim Institute's World Seminar on ‘The Impact of Nationalism on the Ummah’, London, July 31-August 3, 1985. It was reprinted as the introduction to Kalim Siddiqui (ed), Issues in the Islamic Movement 1984-85, London and Toronto: The Open Press, 1986. It was also reprinted in M. Ghayasuddin (ed), The Impact of Nationalism on the Muslim World, London: The Open Press, 1986, a compilation of papers presented at the Muslim Institute seminar, and Zafar Bangash (ed), In Pursuit of the Power of Islam: Major Writings of Kalim Siddiqui, London and Toronto: The Open Press, 1996.]
