Authorities in the West can plant bombs – but the Muslims are still the Terrorists

Sydney, January 2010 - News reports of Slovakian authorities concealing explosives in an unsuspecting traveller’s luggage may have escaped coverage in many media outlets[1]. Even worse is that many may not take this incident as hard evidence that authorities in the West “can and do” engage in such bomb planting activities. Now, an entire series of bombings sensationalised by the global media must be put under the spotlight – the shoe bomber, the Madrid blasts, the London bombings, the Bali bombings, Mumbai attacks, a whole series of bombings in Pakistan and other similar Muslim countries and indeed the 9/11 event itself! Is it not at all possible, after seeing the Slovakian incident, that these incidents did not have the involvement of authorities in the West?

The follow up question of course is, “will the authorities in the West do it other than for the purposes of a security exercise?” And this is where the issue of “motive” and the ever important yet often dismissed question in political analysis of “who stands to benefit most?” arise. The debate now shifts, and it must, to the wider observation of the world’s geopolitical status quo – shrinking domestic Western markets, ageing Western puppets in Muslims’ lands, resurgence of Islam as an ideology, other emerging competing interests to the West such as China, Russia, Iran, Latin America. The chopper on the blame-block though, falls almost without fail on a Muslim head – a resurgent Islamic State discarding the West’s ageing puppets becomes a plausible ‘motive’ for Western powers! Therefore to survive the resurgence and a diametrically challenging New World Order the West finds itself compelled to express its hegemony ‘by any means possible’- and that’s where the ‘benefit’ factor lies. That is the world’s status-quo with opportunists on both sides of the camp – the so-called terrorists who have their cause and justification for their ruins and the opportunist West who pry on and perhaps even perpetuate these violent escalations to further their political influence and hegemony in lands beyond their own borders. This is a big call to make, but events in history, particularly of USA, reveal compelling evidences about Western opportunism and perpetuation.

For example there’s the issue of the USS Maine which has been under investigations for decades or perhaps a century, raising doubts about the cause of the explosion that sank it. Yet at the time of the incident, the US took that opportunity to blame the Spaniards and launched a full scale attack against them until they were ousted from Latin America[2]. Hegemony? Well it did mark the beginning of USA’s new foreign policy away from isolationism and toward a more active role in international affairs, a trend which has continued through the twentieth century.

The resonance of that questionable February 1898 blast in the shores of Havana was heard many a times throughout Latin America in the century that followed.

There’s the matter of Luis Posada Carilles who was a Cuban working as CIA agent whilst doubling as a Venezuelan intelligence commissioner. In the 1960s Carilles was a second lieutenant in the US army. Today the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua all want him to stand trial for multiple acts of terrorism including the bombing of Cuban flight 455 which was known as the deadliest act of terrorism in the Americas until the 9/11 event[3]. Perpetuation?

Any dismissal of these events as misjudgements of the past would be political naivety at best, particularly in the face of the David Coleman Headley case currently rocking India. In the aftermath of the 2009 Mumbai attacks, Indian officials reportedly raised questions about Mr. Headley’s links with US intelligence agencies and the Times of India reports that Indian officials suspect that the CIA knew about Headley’s link with the banned Pakistani militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, one year before the Mumbai attacks, but did not alert Indian agencies[4]. More perpetuation!

The case of Ari Ben Manache is another compelling “perpetuation” evidence where USA and Israel had been selling weapons to Iran via Australia, whilst imposing a global ban on arms trade with Iran, during the Iran vs Iraq wars of the 1980s. And the list, including the infiltration of the US Military recruited son of Somali warlord Mohammed Aideeb, is perhaps larger than the scope of this article.

As red alert hits many of the world’s airports following allegations that a Nigerian man suspected of ties to militants in Yemen tried to blow up a US passenger jet on Christmas Day, many a Muslim and non-Muslim are being caught up in the hysteria to generate more fear so that the bogus War on Terror is kept alive by the West and their allies. Yet less than a few dare ask “Could the West be involved itself to create the bombings and other acts of terror?” Certainly the facts, evidences, motives and benefit for the West are compelling enough to escalate such lines of questioning.

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[1] See ABC News online, 7 Jan 2009

[2] See http://www.spanamwar.com/Mainemo1.htm and other related sources

[3] See http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/transcript/id/130799/n/Pursuing-Posada

[4] See http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2009/1216/India-Was-Mumbai-suspect-a-double-agent-for-US and other sources

Hijrah, Nusrah, and the Ansar

The month of Muharram is the first month of the Islamic Calendar. As we enter this blessed month we should remind ourselves about the Hijrah and the actions that RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم took to make the Hijrah. More specifically, RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم sought Nusrah from powerful tribes, so that they would believe in Islam and support him. This support came from the Ansar (ra) who saw the immense opportunity in serving in the cause of Allah سبحانه وتعالى.

During the Khilafah of Umar bin al-Khattab (ra) the Sahabah (ra) agreed to start the Islamic calendar in the year that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم made Hijrah (i.e. migration from Makkah) to Madinah and established the first Islamic State. According to the Seerah of ibn Hisham, he صلى الله عليه وسلم arrived in Madinah on the 12th of Rabi Al-Awwal. As we enter the blessed month of Muharram in the year 1431, we should remind ourselves of the Hijrah and its significance.

The Seerah of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم is dear to the hearts of all believers. It is part of our iman to love the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and therefore we joyfully analyze each detail of his blessed life. However, it is important that we do not stop there. Allah سبحانه وتعالى has made it fard (obligatory) to follow the Sunnah of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم. Therefore, when we look at the Seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم - and the Hijrah in particular - we should focus on what actions he undertook to achieve such a feat. As we know, RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم did not do anything related to the Deen out of his own desires. Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed:

وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَى

إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَى

"Nor does he speak out of desire. It is naught but revelation that is revealed." [An-Najm, 53:3-4]

Consequently, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was guided by the Wahy (revelation) from Allah سبحانه وتعالى to undertake those actions necessary to make the Hijrah from dar-al kufr to dar-al Islam.

Hijrah: Its Relationship to Seeking Nusrah
The Seerah of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم is an integral part of the Sunnah, and is just as much a part of the revelation as is the Qur'an. More importantly, we are obligated to follow the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم - even in his method of Da'wah. As Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed in the following ayat:

قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

"Say (O Muhammad): If you love Allah then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." [Al-Imran, 3:31]

وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانتَهُوا

"And whatever the Messenger gives you, accept it, and whatever he forbids you avoid it." [Al-Hashr, 59:7]

Consequently, when examining the amazing journey of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم, it is important to recognize that the Hijrah did not just happen by accident. Rather, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم undertook the action of seeking ‘Nusrah' (i.e. seeking the support of the people of power in society who would believe in Islam and transfer authority to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم). According to the Seerah, the Hijrah marks the transition from the phase in the Da'wah known as "Seeking the Nusrah" to the phase where Islam is implemented in the form of a state. The Hijrah of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم was a direct result of seeking, and subsequently receiving the Nusrah. As narrated in the following hadith, Allah سبحانه وتعالى ordered the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to seek Nusrah:

It is narrated on the authority of Ibn Abbas (ra) in Ibn Hajar's Fath ul Bari, Tuhaft ul Ahwadhi & al Kalam as well as Hakim, Abu Nua'im and Baihaqi in Dala'il with sound narrations, Ibn Abbas quotes Ali ibn Abi Talib (ra) who says:

"When Allah سبحانه وتعالى ordered the Prophet to approach the Arab tribes, I and Abu Bakr accompanied the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to Mina until the court of the Arab tribes."

Although the Muslims did enjoy safety in Madinah, it was not the main objective of the Hijrah. That is, the Hijrah to Madinah was not made to relieve the Muslims of persecution in Makkah, or to find them a safe haven. We see this clearly in fact that RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم was seeking much more than safety for himself and the Sahabah (ra) when he refused the conditional offer of support from the tribe of Bani Shaiban, who offered to protect the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from the Arabs but not the Persians. He replied to their offer by saying:

"Your reply is in no way bad, for you have spoken eloquently and truthfully. (But) God's religion can only be engaged in by those who encompass all sides." [Abu Nu'aym, Al-Hakim and Al-Bayhaqi]

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم continued to seek Nusrah despite the refusal of several tribes; he did not waver, nor despair or change his course. ‘Zaad al Ma'ad' reports from al-Waqidi said:

"The tribes known to us whom the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم approached and called them are Banu ‘Aamer ibn Sa'sa', Muharib ibn Hafsah, Fazarah, Ghassan, Murrah, Haneefah, Sulaym, ‘Abs, Banu Nadhar, Banu Bika', Kindah, Kalb, Harith ibn Ka'ab, ‘Udrah and the Hadhramis. None of them responded positively."

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم persisted in seeking Nusrah until Allah سبحانه وتعالى blessed His Deen with Nusrah from the Ansar. His persistence on seeking the Nusrah demonstrates that this action (of seeking Nusrah) is fard (obligatory) when seeking authority for Islam.

Allah سبحانه وتعالى Grants His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم the Support
When Mus'ab ibn Umair (ra) was sent to Madinah to spread the Message of Islam, it took him one year of tireless work in that city before its leaders journeyed to Makkah to transfer their authority over to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم by giving him the Ba'yah. This Ba'yah was called Bayat-ul Harb (Allegiance of War). Although there was no war, it was called Bayat-ul Harb because it indicated the willingness of the Muslims to fight, when necessary, to protect the Da'wah and the newly established Islamic State. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had invested four years of Da'wah, towards most of the tribes in Najd (the large area between Makkah and Madinah) before he received the Nusrah.

The Quraysh understood the political importance of Nusrah. They understood that once RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم was able to achieve the leadership in Madinah that he would challenge their dominance over the Arabs. Consequently, they became desperate and resorted to means that went completely against the laws of their tribal society: killing their own. As Allah سبحانه وتعالى has revealed:

وَإِذْ يَمْكُرُ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ أَوْ يُخْرِجُوكَ

"And when those who disbelieved devised plans against you that they might confine you or slay you or drive you away." [Al-Anfaal, 8:30]

It is critical for us, the Muslims, to realize that this event not only marks the beginning of our calendar, but more importantly it commemorates the establishment of the nucleus of the first Islamic State. For hundreds of years to come this nucleus would spread Islam to the neighboring lands, liberating one oppressed people after another and bringing them the Justice of the Islamic system.

Madinah: First Place in Islam ruled by Allah's سبحانه وتعالى Law
Prior to the establishment of the first Islamic State, RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم and the Sahabah (ra) formed a political party that advocated change from a society that ruled by other than what Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed to a society that only ruled by what Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed. After the Hijrah, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was the one who implemented this divine law. By attaining this leadership, RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم established a societal structure where all matters would be referred back to Allah سبحانه وتعالى and His Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم. No longer would humanity be held to the despotic rule of men. Rather, they would now enjoy the tranquility that can only be achieved from submitting the government and the courts to the Wahy (revelation) from Allah سبحانه وتعالى. In other words, Madinah was the first patch on earth to experience the Justice of Islam. It was here that the solutions by Allah سبحانه وتعالى to humanity's problems were first implemented, including those that relate to governing structures, social arrangements, and economic transactions.

Al-Ansar: Those Who gave Nusrah to RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم
When recalling this journey of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم, it is also important to remember the Ansar (ra). It was these Sahabah (ra) who saw the immense opportunity to support the Deen of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and His Messenger Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. In the Glorious Quran, Allah سبحانه وتعالى has described the Ansar with qualities that every true believer aspires to attain. Allah سبحانه وتعالى was pleased with them and they were pleased with Him. Allah سبحانه وتعالى has revealed:

وَالسَّابِقُونَ الأَوَّلُونَ مِنَ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالأَنصَارِ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُم بِإِحْسَانٍ رَّضِيَ اللّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُواْ عَنْهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي تَحْتَهَا الأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا ذَلِكَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ

"And the foremost to embrace Islam of the Muhajirun (those who migrated from Makkah to Al-Madinah) and the Ansar (the people of Madinah who gave Nusrah to Islam) and also those who followed them exactly (in Faith). Allah is well-pleased with them as they are well-pleased with Him. He has prepared for them Gardens under which rivers flow (Paradise), to dwell therein forever. That is the supreme success." [At-Tawba, 9:100]

In the saheeh hadith, it is narrated that we are obligated to love the Ansar:

"Love for the Ansar is a sign of faith and hatred for the Ansar is a sign of hypocrisy." [Bukhari & Muslim]

"None but the believer loves them, none but the hypocrite hates them. He who loved them loved Allah and he who hated them hated Allah." [Tirmidhi]

Furthermore, the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم loved the Ansar:

"The Prophet saw the women and children (of the Ansar) coming forward. (The sub-narrator said, "I think that Anas said, 'They were returning from a wedding party.'") The Prophet stood up and said three times, "By Allah! You are from the most beloved people to me." [Bukhari]

Where are the Ansar of Today?
A year ago, we watched the streets of Gaza flowing with the blood of this noble Ummah. Today, the oppression still continues even though the cameras have been turned off. We are once again in need of leadership of the likes of the Ansar who were willing to follow the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم even if he led them into the ocean. The condition of the Muslims today is similar to the condition of the Muslims prior to the Hijrah - the Muslims have no security and the enemies of Islam have the upper hand. Just as Sumayiah (ra) and other Muslims were brutally killed in Makkah, we are slaughtered in Gaza, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Chechnya, and many other places. However, once RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم got the Nusrah from the Ansar, he was able to provide sanctuary for the believers. Similarly, once the Ansar (i.e. the people of power and influence) of today rise up and see Islam as more important than their wealth, family, and lives - they, by the Will of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, will provide protection to the Muslims from the war machines of the colonial powers.

The Muslims must work to convince these influential people to give Nusrah to Islam. We must convince the people of power and influence that attaining Jannah is more important than their military ranks and medals. We must make them aware that such things have no weight on the Day of Judgment - unless they were used for Allah's سبحانه وتعالى cause.

May Allah سبحانه وتعالى help us to work as the Sahabah (ra) did and invite the people of power and influence to Islam. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى guide the influential people amongst the Muslims. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى change our state of fear to one of security.

وَاذْكُرُواْ إِذْ أَنتُمْ قَلِيلٌ مُّسْتَضْعَفُونَ فِي الأَرْضِ تَخَافُونَ أَن يَتَخَطَّفَكُمُ النَّاسُ فَآوَاكُمْ وَأَيَّدَكُم بِنَصْرِهِ وَرَزَقَكُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ

"Call to mind how He gave you shelter when you were a few in number and were oppressed in the land, ever fearing lest the enemy would kidnap you. He made you strong with His help and provided you a safe asylum and gave you pure things for sustenance so that you may give thanks". [Al-Anfaal, 8:26]

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Frustrated With West, Turks Revel in Empire Lost

• gBy DAN BILEFSKY

ISTANBUL — More than eight decades ago, Ertugrul Osman, an heir to the Ottoman throne, was unceremoniously thrown out of Turkey with his family. He lived to be 97, spending most of his years in a modest Manhattan apartment above a bakery.

The traditional costumes of a band in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul invoked Janissaries, elite Ottoman-era soldiers.

Enlarge This Image

Cenan Sarc, 97, the descendant of an Ottoman pasha, was 10 years old at the time of the Empire’s collapse in 1922.

Mustafa Ozer/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Thousands mourned Ertugrul Osman, an heir to the Ottoman throne, in Istanbul.

But in September, at his funeral in the garden of the majestic Sultanahmet Mosque here, thousands of mourners paid their respects, including government officials and celebrities. Some even kissed the hands of surviving dynasty members, who appeared shocked at the adulation.

The show of reverence for the man who might have been sultan, historians said, was a seminal moment in the rehabilitation of the Ottoman Empire, long demonized by some in the modern, secular Turkish Republic created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. During Ataturk’s rule, the empire was remembered mainly for its decadence and its humiliating defeat and partition by the Allies in World War I.

Mr. Osman’s send-off was just the latest manifestation of what sociologists call “Ottomania,” a harking back to an era marked by conquest and cultural splendor during which sultans ruled an empire stretching from the Balkans to the Indian Ocean and claimed the spiritual leadership of the Muslim world.

The longing for those glory years — by religious Muslims and secularists alike — partly reflects Turks’ frustration with a European Union that seems ill disposed to accept them as members. And in a country where the tension between religion and secularism is never far from the surface, members of the new governing class of religious Muslims have seized upon nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire as a way to challenge the pro-Western elite that emerged during Ataturk’s rule, and to help forge a national identity of Turkey as an aspiring regional leader.

“Turks are attracted to the heroism and the glory of the Ottoman period because it belongs to them,” said the director of Topkapi Palace, Ilber Ortayli, who, as the keeper of the sumptuous residence where Ottoman sultans lived for 400 years, is also a zealous unofficial gatekeeper of the Ottoman legacy. “The sultans hold a place in the popular consciousness like Douglas MacArthur or General Patton have for Americans.”

The current vogue of all things Ottoman, from the proliferation of historical docudramas to the popularity of porcelain ashtrays adorned with harem women, is sometimes manifesting itself in ways that would surely have made a real sultan blanch.

During Ramadan, Burger King offered a special sultan menu featuring dishes popular in the Ottoman years. In the television commercial promoting the meal, a turbaned Janissary — a member of an elite group of Ottoman soldiers — exhorts viewers not to “leave any burgers standing.”

Ottomania has also infected the nation’s youth; 20-somethings at hip dance clubs here wear T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “The Empire Strikes Back” or “Terrible Turks” — the latter turning the taunt Europeans once used against their Ottoman invaders into a defiant symbol of self-affirmation.

Kerim Sarc, 42, the owner of Ottoman Empire T-Shirts and the scion of an illustrious Ottoman family, believes that the newfound fondness for a mighty empire that lasted more than 600 years and once reached the gates of Vienna is linked to the long struggle for membership in the European Union. The bloc has imposed tough conditions on Turkey, including asking it to compromise in its longstanding dispute over Cyprus.

“We Turks are tired of being treated in Europe like poor, backward peasants,” he said.

The Ottoman renaissance is equally prevalent in the nation’s highest political circles, where the Muslim-inspired Justice and Development Party government has been aggressively courting former Ottoman colonies, including Iraq and Syria, in at least a partial reorientation of foreign policy toward the east that Turkish analysts have labeled as “Neo-Ottoman.”

That shift has alarmed officials in Europe and Washington, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to reassure President Obama when he meets him at the White House on Monday that Turkey has not abandoned its Western course.

It is a sign of the Ottoman Empire’s new hold on the popular imagination that in January when Mr. Erdogan publicly rebuked the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, over the war in Gaza, at a debate at Davos, Switzerland, he was greeted enthusiastically by his supporters back in Turkey with the chant, “Our fatih is back!” The allusion was to Fatih — or conqueror — Sultan Mehmet II, the towering sultan who at age 21 conquered Constantinople, now Istanbul, in 1453.

Colleagues said Mr. Erdogan proudly displays an original decree in his office by Sultan Mehmet II granting autonomy to religious minorities within the empire.

“The Ottoman Empire conquered two-thirds of the world but did not force anyone to change their language or religion at a time when minorities elsewhere were being oppressed,” said Egeman Bagis, the minister for European Union affairs. “Turks can be proud of that legacy.”

Pelin Batu, co-host of a popular television history program, argued that the glorification of the Ottoman era by a government with roots in political Islam reflected a revolt against the secular cultural revolution undertaken by Ataturk, who outlawed the wearing of Islamic head scarves in state institutions and abolished the Ottoman-era caliphate.

“Ottomania is a form of Islamic empowerment for a new Muslim religious bourgeoisie who are reacting against Ataturk’s attempt to relegate religion and Islam to the sidelines,” she said.

In a society struggling with its identity, not everyone welcomes the phenomenon.

Some critics accuse its proponents of glossing over the empire’s decline and of glorifying an anachronistic system that, at the very least, was mired in corruption and infighting in its later years. The massacre of Ottoman Armenians between 1915 and 1918 stands as a particular dark spot in the history of the empire.

“The religious Muslims now in power are trying to feed the Turkish people an Ottoman poison,” said Sada Kural, 45, a housewife and staunch supporter of Ataturk’s vision. “The Ottoman era wasn’t a good period; we were the sick man of Europe, rights were suppressed and women only got the vote after Ataturk came to power.”

While some bemoan what they consider the crude commercialization of a nation’s history, others, like Cenan Sarc, 97, who was 10 years old at the time of the empire’s collapse in 1922 and is the descendant of an Ottoman pasha, cautioned against idealizing an era of dictatorship.

Mrs. Sarc recalled her idyllic childhood in a mansion on the Bosporus, a poetic time, she said, when fathers ruled, mothers stayed at home and Islam held sway. But, she insisted, “we can never go back to that time.” Ertugrul Osman, the Ottoman heir, had himself accepted obscurity. When he visited Turkey in 1992, for the first time in 53 years, and went to see the 285-room Dolmabahce Palace, which had been his grandfather’s home, he insisted on joining a public tour group.

Asked frequently if he dreamed about restoring the empire, he always emphatically answered no. “Democracy,” he said, “works well in Turkey.”

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