We Two!

Developing Just Leadership

Abu Dharr

Muharram 08, 1436 2014-11-01

Opinion

by Abu Dharr (Opinion, Crescent International Vol. 43, No. 9, Muharram, 1436)

There are two major Islamic currents in the world today: the Ikhwan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Ikhwan must decide whether they want to work with the Islamic Republic or continue to pander to the whims of illegitimate rulers.

Is the sun of Islam rising, or is it setting? Are the Muslims being catapulted or are they crashing? Are the committed Muslims winning or losing? There are some skeptics who could swear that the Muslims are in decline. There are more sophisticated talking heads that will tell you that what is happening in the Muslim world is a type of renaissance that will eventually die of its own natural causes: fanaticism, divisions, lack of centralization, absence of leadership, etc. Thank the Most Gracious (swt) that these specialists and experts (most of whom are functionaries of the larger Zionist-imperial project) are off the mark simply because they don’t have it within them to be objective and undistorted by emotion or that contemporary idol called “the national interest” when they try to analyze or comment on things “Islamic.”

Let us leave them in the dust and get down to the fiber of this matter. To be precise, there are mainly two pioneering forces that are breaking or trying to break new ground when it comes to independence and Islamic self-determination. One of them is Ikhwan al-Muslimeen and its auxiliaries around the world. The other is the Islamic powerhouse in Iran. The latter has proven beyond a shadow of doubt — for anyone willing to open their eyes and use their brains — its independence, its sacrifices in life and treasury, its pan-Islamic credentials as well as its selfless and enduring leadership.

All this [the Ikhwan] did and are still trying to do through a network of relationships with the filthy rich Arabians who at a flip of coin will sell them out to any Zionist or imperialist predator…

The former, though, has been subjected to trials and tribulations — some of them measure up to being acts of war and others are of their own making. Whatever the case, just a couple of years ago the Ikhwan were riding high on the tide of the “Arab Spring.” They became the rulers in Tunisia and Egypt for all practical purposes. They were positioning themselves to assume the highest offices in Libya and Yemen. And they were and still are trying to unseat the rulers in Damascus and steer Syria in an Islamic direction. All this they did and are still trying to do through a network of relationships with the filthy rich Arabians who at a flip of coin will sell them out to any Zionist or imperialist predator able to finish them off.

In these four years — enough to spin anyone’s head — that the Ikhwan went through a shooting-star rise to power and from there to a meteoric crash in a jungle of opportunists, sellouts, cutthroats and tinpot dictators. From high spirits to depression, the Ikhwan are still incapable of identifying who their real friend is and who their real enemy is! In Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and even in Tunisia the Ikhwan have taken a beating. And we say this with anguished hearts. Their loss is a loss to all committed Muslims; their reversals are detrimental to the common struggle. Yet, with all these fast-paced events of the past few years the Ikhwan have not mustered the intellectual independence and the cooperative courage to identify their mistakes, or to identify those mistakes in the Islamic public mind.

Transparency is one of the most demanding challenges; without it decision makers cannot carry public opinion and public support. Absent a bold reckoning with past mistakes, the Ikhwan are holding on to Turkey and Qatar as their last resort and refuge. And even that is becoming problematic as the Qatari officials began to feel the heat and fallout from their political excursion with the Ikhwan. So, some Ikhwani leaders left Qatar to relieve the pressure off of Doha. Turkey now is shuffling its diplomatic cards trying its best to shelter some Ikhwanis within Turkey and then trying to un-shelter them in Syria. The Ikhwani assessment is that they are doing well from Gibraltar to Jeddah to Jalalabad to Jakarta. How romantic can you get?

Word of advice to the wise: evaluate your gains and losses in the past few years, rethink your dependency relations with Arabian royalty, the Sa‘udi ruling family, the royal houses of the Persian/Arabian Gulf and all the other royal channels that you have been buddy-buddy with throughout the past petro-decades. Do so for your own good as well as for the good of those who have pinned their hopes on you. Once you do that in an honest and impartial way we are confident that you will break free from that strangling octopus. And where would you go from there? You will have to overcome your ego and open up all the pertinent files between you and the Islamic government in Iran. We know, some of you are scared to do that. Others will be discombobulated by such a suggestion. But this is precisely the internal challenge that you have to surmount.

You are known to be, generally speaking, non-sectarians. You believe in one Ummah inclusive of Shi‘is and Iran. Books you published and lectures you gave before 1979 attest to this fact. So, go ahead meet with brothers of yours from the Islamic leadership in Iran and with your more familiar acquaintances in Hizbullah. And open up all the files on all the pertinent subjects: from the issue of al-Quds and Palestine, to the issue of Syria, the Arabians hooked on imperialism and Zionism, Pakistan, sectarianism, etc. After the stings and stabs of the last four years isn’t it time to realize that a strong relationship above regional politics and denominational arguments has to resume between Hamas and Hizbullah? Enough is enough. Hamas — an offshoot of the Ikhwan — is trying to find common ground with secular officials nowadays when it cannot find it within itself to find that common ground with Islamic counterparts?

You, the Ikhwan, know there is a worldwide strategy to pit Muslim against Muslim and to ignite a trans-continental inter-Islamic civil war. The fuse for that war is sectarianism. Is it easier for you to be drawn into a war in which Muslims are killing each other or easier to kill off the ego, and extend a hand of understanding and cooperation to those who share the same doctrine and destiny? Only the Zionist regime will benefit from an estrangement between both sides of Islamic self-determination: Islamic Iran and Islamic Ikhwan. If you ever summon the confidence and the selflessness to coordinate with each other you will set the stage for a larger cooperation of other political orientations that are looking for solutions to their social and economic problems. There are many organizations and parties that are seeking justice. If you could embark on an elaborate and systematic plan of action you will have rendered a service not only to yourselves but to humanity.

The voices of sectarianism are growing louder day by day and in one country after another. Not that they are going to get anywhere; they will, however, cause much bloodshed and mayhem. Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq are prime areas for your interaction and cooperation. You still have the chance to diffuse this ticking time bomb before it claims the lives of — may Allah (swt) forbid — millions of innocent Muslims,Sunnis and Shi‘is alike. This is no time for a war of words or a war of weapons among Muslims.
All of this can begin behind the scenes, quietly and confidentially. Extremism and fanaticism may have gained a foothold here and there; and that was done when you were not speaking to each other. Hurry, act quickly. Begin the process. Meet periodically. Formulate an inclusive Islamic platform. Open the doors for open-minded discussions and shura. Exchange recognition of each other’s merits and worthiness. Be approachable by all others who share a yearning for social justice and equality. Prioritize the liberation of Palestine and every step that will lead to the ultimate liberation of the Holy Land. You need each other, and the world needs both of you.
This separation resulting from an inability to fully acknowledge the “other’s” Islamic activism/sacrifices and each one’s exclusive possession of historical legitimacy are costing us precious lives. Our rush to the spoils of petty wars has rendered us the spoils of conflagrational wars!

People speak about the horrors of a military nuclear bomb and we do not realize that we are — in the millions — a casualty of a social divisive nuclear bomb; our nucleus is being shattered to smithereens by killer sectarians.

The external enemies have imposed the most rigid sanctions in human history on Islamic governance in Iran. The internal enemies are stripping active conscientious Muslims belonging to or affiliated with the Ikhwan of their citizenship or labeling them “terrorists.” It is high time that those Muslims who have spent their history focusing on the internal enemy along with those other Muslims who spent their history focusing on the external enemy to share their experiences and emerge successfully from these trying times,
Whatever calamity may befall you will be an outcome of what your own hands have wrought, although He pardons much; and you cannot elude Him on earth, and you will have none to protect you from Allah, and none to bring you support (42:30–31).

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