Category Archives: Wahhabi

Brother, can you spare a revolution

"Arab Spring", Egypt, Wahhabi


An Egyptian shouts slogans during a protest of Islamist groups at Tahrir Square, the focal point of Egyptian uprising, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, July 29. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Egypt rally not harbinger of Islamic state: analysts

By Jailan Zayan / Agence France-Presse, thedailynewsegypt.com July 31, 2011

CAIRO: A massive show of force by Islamist groups at a rally in the Egyptian capital on Friday may have showcased their organizational skills, but their actual political clout remains limited, analysts say.

Hundreds of thousands of Islamists from across the country packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square to defend what they called “Egypt’s Islamic identity” in the country’s largest protest since a revolt ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.

But while the protest may have been visually dramatic, divisions within the Islamist groups and their lack of nationwide support are bound to restrain their strength, analysts said.

Chants calling for Egypt to “implement the law of God” rang across Tahrir in an impressive display of religious banners and slogans, dotted with Saudi flags.

Hardline Salafis (fundamentalist Muslims) in coordination with the Muslim Brotherhood have been organizing the rally for weeks, sparking fears of clashes with secular protesters who have been camped out in the square since July 8.

The sheer size of the protest appeared to have angered, and in some cases intimidated, secular activists.

But analysts say that while Friday’s rally showcased the Islamist groups’ organizational skills and their ability to mobilize members efficiently, its political impact remains limited. Continue reading Brother, can you spare a revolution →

On Mahometanism, 1833 style

Islam and Christianity, Islamic Sects, Islamophobia, Lithographs, Muhammad, Orientalism, Orientalist Images, Wahhabi


One of the books owned by a great, great aunt of mine in Cleveland was A History of the Church, etc., published in 1833. The bottom of the frontispiece is torn, so I do not know the publisher, although I suspect it was printed in Boston. It is a general history of Christianity with extended comments on other religions, including “Mahometanism.” The author is a certain C. A. Goodrich, who is decidedly Protestant and as unfriendly to Roman Catholicism as he is to Islam and Hinduism. Several parts of the text, which stretches a robust 504 pages, deal with Islam and are interesting for the biased perspective of the time. The history of the Church is according to periods, and Period V is labeled “The Rise of Mahometanism” (at the top of the pages of the chapter); the longer title is “The Period of the Rise of the Mahometan Imposture will extend from the establishment of the supremacy of the Roman Pontiffs, A.D. 606, to the first Crusade, A. D. 1095.” Period VI covers the Crusades, followed by the Reformation and then a very long chapter on the Puritans.

At the start of the section is a small lithograph of Muhammad, mounted on a steed with a sword in hand. Some of the information is descriptive; some even praises Muhammad, but it is clear that the author despises Islam as the excerpts below well show:


A History of the Church, 1833, p. 96

Continue reading On Mahometanism, 1833 style →

Spiritual Malaria?

Ethics, Islamic Law, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Wahhabi


by Nadeem F. Paracha, blog.dawn.com, July 1
 
A recent fatwa from a ‘Saudi Council of Muftis’ has this advice for fellow
Muslims: Do not say [or write] ‘mosque.’ Always say ‘masjid’ because mosque
may mean mosquito. Another myopic case of Saudi malaria perhaps?

Certainly. But that’s not all. The grand fatwa goes on to suggest that
Muslims should not write ‘Mecca’ but Makkah, because Mecca may mean ‘house
of wines.’ I am serious. But then so are the Muftis. They certainly need to
get a life.

But I’m not all that surprised by such fatwas that usually emanate from
Saudi Arabia. While vicious reactionary literature originating in
totalitarian puritanical Muslim states impact and mutate the political
bearings of various religious parties and groups in Pakistan, ‘social
fatwas’ like the one mentioned above also began appearing in the early 1980s
to influence the more apolitical sections of Muslim societies.

Reactionary literature generated by the Saudi propaganda machine started
being distributed in Pakistan from 1979 onwards, mostly in the shape of
pamphlets and books.

Duly translated into Urdu, they glorify and propagate violent action (jihad)
not only against non-Muslims (or infidels) but also against those Muslims
who fail to follow the thorny dictates of a certain puritanical strain of
the faith. Continue reading Spiritual Malaria? →

Who is the Enemy?

Islam: Introduction, Terrorism Issue, Wahhabi

Wahhabism, Salafism and Islamism: Who Is The Enemy?

by Ahmad Moussalli, Conflicts Forum, January, 2009

This essay constructs and deconstructs three main discourses created by different and opposing trends in modern Islamic thought that are normally and mistakenly lumped together as Islamism, fundamentalism, salafism, neo-salafism, Wahhabism, jihadism, political Islam, Islamic radicalism and others. I will compare and contrast between them by developing a typology of major ideologies of active Islamic trends that centers specifically on Wahhabism and neo-Wahhabism, salafism and neo-salafism, and Islamism, both moderate and radical. Understanding these trends and their discourses will allow world powers, policymakers, academicians, intellectuals, terrorism experts, journalists, and many others to distinguish between and understand the logic of the radical and the moderate, the active and the inactive, the jihadi and the peaceful, the takfiri and the tolerant, the modern and the traditional, and the rational and irrational. This essay will also clarify the terminology used chaotically by different policy-makers, analysts, journalists, academicians, and intellectuals. Although all Islamic trends use similar literal doctrines and concepts such as jihad, Islamic state, al-shari‘a or prophetic traditions, their connotations and discourses differ importantly from one trend to another. This makes their implications serious in action, massive in repercussions, and fundamental for understanding. Continue reading Who is the Enemy? →

A Call for Heresy

Books You Should Read, Ethics, Islam in America, Islamic History, Wahhabi

[Note: The following excerpt is from Anouar Majid’s “A Call for Heresy: Why Dissent is Vital to Islam and America” (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007), pp. 1-2, 47]

by Anouar Majid, University of New England.

“A Virtuous heretic shall be saved before a wicked Christian.” Benjamin Franklin

“The atheist from his attic window is often nearer to God than the believer caught up in his own false image of God.” Martin Buber

This book is both an attempt to treat Islam over and above the confines of the familiar extremist/moderate dichotomy and an extension of my reflections on ways to divert Muslim and other cultures toward more progressive formulations. In the past I called for a progressive interpretation of Islam and its canons, urged both Muslims and Westerners to question their orthodoxies, and argued for a polycentric world of ‘neoprovincials’ questioning dogmas at home, reaching out to progressive elements in other cultures, and forging global alliances in the building of a genuinely multicultural human civilization, one in which economics are integrated into the broader aspirations of nations, not ruling over them like ruthless, insatiable deities. Here I am taking the discussion to its outer limits, calling on both Muslims (who consider their religion to be God’s final word in history) and Americans (who often think of themselves of having received a special dispensation from the Creator) to embrace heretical thought, or freethinking, as the only life-saving measure left to avoid an apocalyptic future. Continue reading A Call for Heresy →

Apostasy in Islam

Afghanistan, Islam and Christianity, Islamic Law, Islamophobia, Taliban, Wahhabi

In the furor throughout the Islamic world over the publication of negative caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers, and more recently giving the name Muhammad to a teddy bear, the earlier anger about author Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses was rekindled. The critical difference, of course, is that Rushdie was condemned not only for blaspheming the Prophet but for leaving Islam as the faith he was born into. This issue of apostasy — leaving Islam — resurfaced a year ago in the case of an Afghan man named Abdul Rahman, who proudly claimed he had converted to Christianity. Several Islamic nations, including Afghanistan regard apostasy as a crime and impose the death penalty for this.

The issue seems to be simple; it is egregious to any modern notion of human rights and Islamophobes are quick to dredge up a long history of Islamic legal rulings that legitimize such a death penalty. In point of fact no contemporary Islamic nation state follows all the ascribed shari’a penalties to the letter of the law. Even when constitutions state that the laws are based on the shari’a, it is the state itself which takes over many of the functions once given to Islamic judges. What might have worked (and we know that laws were always unevenly applied) at some point in the caliphate is not working today. Continue reading Apostasy in Islam →